Pictured: Soprano Sara Gartland from the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowships performs as part of Cal Performances' Fall Free for All September 26, 2010. PHOTO: San Francisco Opera
Pictured: Soprano Sara Gartland from the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowships performs as part of Cal Performances' Fall Free for All September 26, 2010. PHOTO: San Francisco Opera

Cal Performances kicks off its 2010/11 season on Sunday, September 26, with its first Fall Free for All, a full day of free performances on the University of California, Berkeley, campus. More than a dozen performances will be given by a diverse lineup of artists, including the Kronos Quartet, members of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Mark Morris Dance Group, Melody of China, John Santos Sextet, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Word for Word, Teslim with Kaila Flexer and Gari Hegedus, Diamano Couras West African Dance Company, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Ensemble, classical guitarist Marc Teicholz, singer/musician Melanie DeMore, and UC Jazz Ensembles.

Cal Performances’ inaugural Fall Free for All will feature 14 45-minute performances from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Zellerbach, Wheeler, and Hertz halls and on a tented stage on Lower Sproul Plaza. The day offers a preview of the broad range of performing artists, residencies, and collaborations audiences can expect to experience throughout the 2010/11 season.

“We are throwing open our doors to all who live in the Bay Area. It’s our gesture to the community, a way of welcoming everybody and introducing our new season” explains Director Matías Tarnopolsky. “To those who have never been to Cal Performances, we say, ‘Come and sample our rich and diverse lineup of artists.’ To longtime Cal Performances patrons, we say, ‘Bring your friends and neighbors.’ To performing arts lovers of all ages: ‘Enjoy this day of music, dance, and theater.’”

Some of the planned events are interactive. Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) will give audience members the opportunity to experience movement with company members, as they discuss and learn a section of Mark Morris’s work, Looky. (Looky will be featured on the MMDG program at Cal Performances, September 30–October 3) Singer/musician/conductor Melanie DeMore’s “Pounding for Peace” is a community sing which will include teaching Gullah stick pounding combined with singing civil rights songs, spirituals, and songs of change.

Additional Fall Free for All festivities will be centered on Lower Sproul Plaza with opportunities to talk with many of the artists, an instrument petting zoo, and outdoor performances by UC Berkeley’s Student Musical Activities vocal and instrumental ensembles; food and soft drinks will be available for purchase.

ZELLERBACH HALL
Fall Free for All will commence with an 11:00 a.m. concert at Zellerbach Hall by a renowned musical ensemble with a longtime association with Cal Performances, the pioneering Kronos Quartet. Celebrating 30 years of commitment to expanding the range of the string quartet, the ensemble’s program will include 12/12 by Café Tacuba (arr. Osvaldo Golijov); Aleksandra Vrebalov’s Sketch from a Balkan Notebook; Raz Mesinai’s Crossfader; Maria Schneider’s String Quartet No. 1: Third Movement; and Bryce Dessner’s Aheym (Homeward). At 1:00 p.m., Diamano Couras (“those who bring the message” in the Senegalese Wolof language) West African Dance Company will perform Kumba, the Orphaned Child, a Cinderella story told through song, dance, and percussion. The company was founded by Zak Diouf and Naomi Washington Diouf in 1975 for the preservation, education, and appreciation of traditional West African music, dance, theater, and culture. (Naomi Washington Diouf has taught African Dance at Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp at Cal Performances since 2003 and for many years at Berkeley High School). Company members of Mark Morris Dance Group, another celebrated troupe with a deep association with Cal Performances, will take the stage at 3:00 p.m. to lead a special interactive experience focusing on the choreography of Looky, which will receive its West Coast premiere at Zellerbach Hall, September 30–October 3. Audience members will join the dancers on stage to learn excerpts from Looky and dance along with the Disklavier music that accompanies the work. Oakland’s Grammy-nominated Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir will perform at 5:00 p.m. Established in 1992, the mission of the percussion-driven vocal ensemble is to preserve and share the rich musical traditions of African-American roots music. Members of the ensemble have been teaching artists for Classroom for Cal Performances for more than eight years.

HERTZ HALL
Four concerts will take place at Hertz Hall, beginning with a solo performance at 11:00 a.m. by classical guitarist Marc Teicholz, winner of the 1989 International Guitar Foundation of America competition and New York’s 1991 “East-West Artists” competition. The program includes German Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola Song, Op. 19, No. 6; Franz Schubert’s classic Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 3; J. S. Bach’s Chaconne; Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s All in Twilight; and Joaquin Rodrigo’s Sonata Giocosa. At 1:00 p.m., members of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows will perform. Founded in 1977 as the San Francisco Affiliate Artists-Opera Program and dedicated to the continual musical training of gifted young singers and talents on the rise, the Adler program will feature sopranos Leah Crocetto and Sara Gartland, tenor Brian Jagde and coach and accompanist Tamara Sanikdze. Pacific Mozart Ensemble, founded in 1980, delivers passionate, expert, and engaging choral performances of music from Brahms to the Beach Boys. The group’s 3:00 p.m. concert is titled 21st Century Music for a 21st Century Vocal Ensemble and features music by Dave Brubeck, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Paul Simon, Arvo Pärt, and others. An ensemble of the illustrious Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will perform Haydn’s Quartet for Oboe and Strings in C major and String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 64, No. 6, and Mozart’s Quintet for Oboe and Strings in C minor at 5:00 p.m. This “ensemble for early music as fine as any in the world today” (Los Angeles Times) has performed on many occasions at Cal Performances.

WHEELER AUDITORIUM
Teslim (“commit” and “surrender” in Turkish) returns to Cal Performances when Kaila Flexer (violin) and Gari Hegedus (oud, Turkish saz and Greek laouto) give a 12:00 p.m. noon concert at Wheeler Auditorium. The program will feature Greek, Turkish, and Sephardic music, much of it original compositions. At 2:00 p.m., Word for Word, a San Francisco professional theater company that stages short stories, performing every word the author has written, will perform a Gary Soto’s Frankie the Rooster. The company’s mission of telling good stories with simple and elegant theatricality has earned them an enthusiastic following. At 4:00 p.m., Melody of China  will perform Chinese classical, folk, and contemporary music using traditional instruments such as the sheng (mouth organ), pipa (Chinese lute), ruan (moon guitar), and liuqin (Chinese mandolin), among others. The troupe was founded in 1993 by professional musicians from prestigious music conservatories in China. On the program will be music from a variety of Chinese cultures and regions including Canton, Xinjiang, and Yunnan. Members of the group have served as teaching artists for Cal Performances in the Classroom.

LOWER SPROUL PLAZA
A stage within a tent on Lower Sproul Plaza will welcome conductor/singer/musician Melanie DeMore, who will lead a community sing, along with teaching the basics of Gullah stick pounding at 12:00 p.m. noon. Various rhythms will be combined with singing civil rights songs, spirituals, and songs of change. The Gullah are African Americans who live in the coastal plain and the Sea Islands regions of South Carolina and Georgia where slaves brought remnants of West and Central African cultures to the area, including stick pounding as a way of communicating. A founding member of the Cultural Heritage Choir and California Artist in Residence with the Oakland Youth Chorus for 10 years, DeMore teaches music at St. Paul’s School in Oakland and is a teaching artist for Cal Performances in the Classroom. Sticks will be provided. Students of the UC Jazz Ensembles (ucjazz.berkeley.edu) will perform a concert of mixed jazz styles at 2:00 p.m. in the tent. UC Jazz is one of three groups, including the Cal Band and UC Choral Ensembles, that comprise Student Musical Activities (SMA), the department of extramural campus musical groups. Oakland-based percussionist John Santos is an educator, composer, and producer who uses traditional Latin American forms and instruments in combination with contemporary music. Born in San Francisco, Santos was raised in the Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean musical traditions of his family and is a member of the Latin Jazz Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian Institution. His sextet’s 4:00 p.m. program will be announced from the stage.

Throughout the day, SMA’s Men’s Octet, the California Golden Overtones, the Cal Band and other vocal and instrumental ensembles will serenade festival-goers.

Sunday, September 26 at 11:00 a.m.

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at College Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Marc Teicholz, classical guitar

Program:
Mendelssohn/Venetian Gondola Song, Op. 19, No. 6
Schubert/Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 3
Bach/Chaconne
Takemitsu/All in Twilight
Rodrigo/Sonata Giocosa

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 12:00 p.m.

Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Teslim

Program: The duo ensemble Teslim, Kaila Flexer (violin) and Gari Hegedus (oud), perform a program featuring Greek, Turkish and Sephardic music, including original compositions inspired by these traditions.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 12:00 p.m.

Lower Sproul Tent, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Melanie DeMore, conductor/vocals

Program: Melanie DeMore will conduct a community sing and teach basic Gullah stick-pounding rhythms in a program titled “Pounding for Peace.”

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 1:00 p.m.

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Diamano Couras West African Dance Company

Program: Specializing in traditional West African music, dance, theater and culture, Diamano Couras performs the Cinderella-like legend of Kumba, the Orphaned Child.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 1:00 p.m.

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at College Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows
Leah Crocetto, soprano
Sara Gartland, soprano
Brian Jagde, tenor
Tamara Sanikdze, coach and accompanist

Program: On the threshold of their operatic careers, three Adler Fellows will perform along with coach and accompanist Tamara Sanikdze .

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 2:00 p.m.

Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Word for Word

Program: San Francisco-based theater company Word for Word performs a story titled Frankie the Rooster by Gary Soto.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 2:00 p.m.

Lower Sproul Tent, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
UC Jazz Ensembles

Program: UC Jazz Ensembles, one of three groups including the Cal Band and UC Choral Ensembles that comprise Student Musical Activities, will perform a concert of mixed jazz styles.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 3:00 p.m.

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Dance with Mark Morris Dance Group

Program: In advance of Looky’s West Coast premiere (Sept 30 – Oct 3), Mark Morris Dance Group company members will discuss and teach audience participants a section of choreography from this Mark Morris work.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 3:00 p.m.

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Pacific Mozart Ensemble

Program: Delivering passionate, expert and engaging choral performances of music from Brahms to Brubeck to the Beach Boys, the Pacific Mozart Ensemble is lead by musical director Lynne Morrow.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 4:00 p.m.

Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Melody of China

Program: Members of Melody of China perform traditional and folk music from various regions of China on traditional instruments, including works from Canton, Xinjiang and Yunnan.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 4:00 p.m.

Lower Sproul Tent, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
John Santos Sextet

Program: Composer, educator and percussionist John Santos performs with his Latin jazz sextet.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 5:00 p.m.

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir

Program: Singing together since 1992, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir present their music rich in African American roots and traditions.

# # #

Sunday, September 26 at 5:00 p.m.

Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Fall Free for All: Open House at Cal Performances
Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players

Program:
Haydn/Quartet for Oboe and Strings in C major; String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 64, No. 6 Mozart/Quintet for Oboe and Strings in C minor

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