New Music

Kronos Quartet

Beyond the Golden Gate

Sat, Oct 11, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall

Featuring Wu Man, pipa in conversation with David Lei
Windy Chien, visuals

Since its founding 50 years ago, the peerless Kronos Quartet has revolutionized what a string quartet can be. Through collaborations with musicians and composers across the globe, robust commissioning initiatives, pace-setting educational programs, and just plain stellar musicianship, Kronos has made concert music relevant and responsive to the people and issues of our time.

Joined by the next generation of Kronos musicians in the quartet’s current lineup, founder David Harrington has doubled down on the ensemble’s mission. Its two-part Berkeley program features new and recent works by an international cohort of strikingly original women composers, including world premieres by Dai Wei and Victoria Shen; plus a special presentation of Beyond the Golden Gate, a hybrid performance-discussion-screening with Bay Area community activist David Lei that explores the impact of Chinese Americans on American culture.

Music by Dai Wei, Wu Man, Lu Yun, Tan Dun, Nicole Lizée, Victoria Shen, and Angélica Negrón

SEE FULL PROGRAM

An Illuminations: "Exile & Sanctuary" event.

Third Coast Percussion & Salar Nader, *tabla**

Murmurs in Time

Sat, Nov 1, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall

In a poignant tribute to the late tabla master and longtime Cal Performances friend Zakir Hussain, Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion continues a collaboration initiated with the music legend before his passing. The Grammy-winning ensemble, praised for performances that “push percussion in new directions, blurring musical boundaries and beguiling new listeners” (NPR), had commissioned Hussain to compose Murmurs in Time—a major work that combines the beauty and complexity of Hindustani classical music with the group’s new-music ethos. In this new work, Salar Nader, a tabla virtuoso and disciple of Hussain since age seven, performs his teacher’s part in the ensemble. The program also includes newly commissioned works from in-demand composer/performers Jessie Montgomery, Tigran Hamasyan, and Jlin, and a solo performance by Nader.

HUSSAIN	Murmurs in Time
JESSIE MONTGOMERY	Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song
JLIN	Please Be Still
TIGRAN HAMASYAN	Sonata for Percussion

*Cal Performances debut

Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

Time for Three*

Emily – No Prisoner Be

Sat, Feb 7, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall

A Cal Performances Co-commission

Nicolas Kendall, violin and vocals

Charles Yang, violin and vocals

Ranaan Meyer, bass and vocals

Superstar mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato’s latest immersive program is an all-star collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts and Grammy-winning chamber ensemble Time for Three. In a series of 24 intimate songs, DiDonato traverses the bold, mysterious, provocative, and deeply touching poetry of Emily Dickinson, accompanied by the eclectic singing instrumentalists of Time for Three. "Leave it to DiDonato to open the deepest wells of human feeling and experience, of shimmering aspiration and shattering despair… grippingly and magnificently performed music" (San Francisco Classical Voice).

*Cal Performances debut

Eco Ensemble

David Milnes, director

Sat, Feb 7, 8pm, Hertz Hall

UC Berkeley’s acclaimed new-music ensemble in residence does not need to look far to access some of the world’s most compelling and innovative chamber music. The university’s much-admired music department boasts some of contemporary music’s leading lights, as both celebrated faculty and alumni with international careers. This season’s concert is a deep dive into the music of two exciting recent additions to the composition faculty. Matthew Evan Taylor centers the human breath as a primary organizational structure of his music, and Mu-Xuan Lin’s work is influenced by her experience in the visual arts, creative writing, cinema, and theater.

The New German School, the Second Viennese School, the New York School…I imagined a future musicologist writing of the Berkeley School. The central feature? A focus on timbre and time”

– San Francisco Classical Voice

Canto Ostinato

**An AMOC* & Sandbox Percussion⁺ Co-Production**

A work by Simeon ten Holt

Sun, Feb 22, 3pm, Zellerbach Playhouse

Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, percussion

Conor Hanick, piano

Matthew Aucoin, piano⁺

A dream collaboration for new-music enthusiasts! The "blindingly impressive…preternaturally talented" (The New York Times) American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*) and the "virtuosic and utterly mesmerizing" (The Guardian) Sandbox Percussion join forces to present an epic, rarely performed opus by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt.

Canto Ostinato is a layered, shimmering minimalist work from the 1970s that has earned a dedicated following in ten Holt’s native Netherlands, and is realized here by the four mallet percussionists of Sandbox, joined by AMOC* members Conor Hanick and Matthew Aucoin on piano. As envisioned by these sterling interpreters, ten Holt’s hypnotic instrumental score unfurls in an emotional dramatic arc during a afternoon-length sonic journey.

AMOC*’s previous production of Messiaen’s Harawi was a 2024–25 season highlight, so don’t miss out!

⁺Cal Performances debut

CAL PERFORMANCES ENSEMBLE DEBUT

JACK Quartet

Sun, Mar 15, 3pm, Hertz Hall

Among the most nimble ensembles in contemporary music today, the adventurous JACK Quartet visits with a kaleidoscopic program of new and recent works by living composers. The group is known for the fierce commitment and virtuosity it brings to a range of innovative and idiosyncratic repertoire—in a landscape where each piece and each composer challenges the players with novel techniques, sounds, and approaches to their music making. Here, JACK performs commissioned works by American composers Juri Seo and Anthony Cheung, and landmark contemporary music by European luminaries Hans Abrahamsen and Helmut Lachenmann. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear these influential works played by true modern masters!

JURI SEO	Three Imaginary Chansons (California Premiere)
HANS ABRAHAMSEN	String Quartet No. 4
ANTHONY CHEUNG	Twice Removed (California Premiere)
HELMUT LACHENMANN	String Quartet No. 3, Grido

One of the most eye-opening and exhilarating concerts I’ve heard all season”

— The New York Times

Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens

Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual

Thu, Mar 19, 7:30pm
Fri, Mar 20, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall

In its latest program, the pace-setting Silkroad Ensemble explores music as a powerful medium for healing and connection across cultures. Visionary musician Rhiannon Giddens leads a marvelously eclectic collection of performers steeped in American, South Asian, West African, and southern European musical traditions, in an interactive presentation that welcomes audience participation and reflection. Italian tarantella, Congolese string music, Indian tabla, American roots music, and Syrian taarab converse across ethnic and national boundaries, with the signature organicism and collaborative ethos that has defined Silkroad’s performances since its founding 25 years ago.

Lead Sponsor: Nadine Tang

Surprising and beautiful…you can hear divisions of genre and style wash away in real time like the ramparts of a crumbling sandcastle"

– San Francisco Chronicle

An Illuminations: "Exile & Sanctuary" event.

Theatre of Voices

Sun, Apr 26, 3pm, Zellerbach Hall

Among the world’s most distinctive and respected vocal ensembles, Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices—praised for "fearlessness, verve, and beauty" (The Times, London)— makes a rare US visit with the West Coast premieres of two substantial recent works by luminaries of American contemporary music. Julia Wolfe’s Italian Lesson, a Cal Performances co-commission composed specially for these remarkable singers, is a charming bilingual romp. The music is a setting of Cynthia Zarin’s poem of the same name, the English and Italian text suggesting rhythms, tempos, and colors in the score. Michael Gordon’s A Western is inspired by the 1950s Hollywood western High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly.

JULIA WOLFE	Italian Lesson (West Coast Premiere, Cal Performances Co-commission)
MICHAEL GORDON	A Western (West Coast Premiere)

Do you think you'll have any questions for Beyond the Golden Gate’s hybrid performance-discussion-screening with Kronos Quartet?

Yes, I always have questions!
I don't know, but a hybrid performance? - Count me in!
Not yet, but I will think of something
Probably not, but I'll be excited to listen!

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