Cal Performances 2026-27

Cal Performances presents the West Coast premiere of William Kentridge’s The Head & the Load, an epic theater work that explores the stories of African soldiers in World War I, at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts Arena in Oakland Nov 12–15, 2026.

Photo: Stella Oliver, courtesy of Cal Performances

Cal Performances just announced its 2026-27 season, and as usual it's full of great performers and likely great performances. Here are some of the goodies:

• Attacca Quartet is Ensemble in Residence for the season. They'll appear in one concert with composer Caroline Shaw, and play Adams and Beethoven in another.
• The West Coast premier of a new work by William Kentridge, the Head and the Load. I missed The Great Yes, The Great No, and I won't miss this one. Cal Performances also announced a five-year initiative presenting Kentridge's works.
• Tribute to those pioneering minimalist composers who have round-number birthdays this year or next: Steve Reich, 90, Philip Glass, 90, John Adams, 80. Alas, no Meredith Monk, who turns 84 this year.
• Yannick Nézet-Séguin brings the Vienna Phil for three concerts centered around Mahler. I heard YNS lead the Philadelphia Orchestra in Mahler 6 last year and it was good, so I'm there. Also, there will be a rare chance to hear mezzo Elina Garança, who has never appeared with SF Opera and probably never will. Also Yuja Wang plays a Prokofiev piano concerto, and sure, I will hear her in practically anything and regret missing the Mahler Chamber Orchestra the other day.
• Mark Morris world premiere
• Il Pomo d'Oro and Joyce DiDonato in Dido and Aeneas and Carrisimi's Jephtha.
• Takács Quartet and Jeremy Denk in works of Mendelssohn, Gabriela Lena Frank, and César Franck.
• Judy Collins
• Tenor Ben Bliss
• Countertenor Iestyn Davies
• Mezzo Ema Nikolovska with guitarist Sean Shibe in Orlando Variations, which takes off from Virginia Wollf's novel.
• Harpsichordist Jean Rondeau in French Baroque music
• Soprano Lise Davidsen
• Luna Lab@10, a celebration of Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid's Luna Composition Lab, which mentors a wide range of female, nonbinary, and/or gender-nonconforming composers ages 13 to 18. The performers include the Friction Quartet, Dutt & Campbell Duo, and The Living Earth Show. They'll play music by various young composers, Mazzoli, and Reid.
• Audra McDonald.
• The English Concert, Handel's Alessandro
• More string quartets, more pianists, more dance companies.
• Not enough music by women, pretty sure the performers are a substantial majority male.

Canto Ostinato at Cal Performances

Canto Ostinato

Sandbox Percussion and AMOC* members Matthew Aucoin and Conor Hanick

Lincoln Center, NYC

June 25, 2025

Photo: Lawrence Sumulong, courtesy of Cal Performances

A great work and a glorious performance: Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato at Cal Performances. Billed as a production of Sandbox Percussion and AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), it was the four Sandbox percussionists, Matthew Aucoin, and Conor Hanick. They were magnificent.

If you want to hear this work, there are performances on YouTube with various instrumental combos. On April 3, there will be an LP release of the work that includes Sandbox Percussion. This might persuade me to finally set up my turntable.

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV and SF Chronicle
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle. He's got more analysis of what's going on technically in Canto Ostinato. I meant to say something about how very Spanish the work sounded at various points, but, well, intentions.

Sandbox Percussion

Photo: Tom Emerson, courtesy of Cal Performances

(This photo is from a performance of Andy Akiho's Seven Pillars, which Sandbox performed last year at PIVOT.)

The Shape of Things to Come: Cal Performances Cancels

Hertz Hall Organ

UC Berkeley Campus

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

I haven't gotten a press release or patron announcement yet, but Joshua Kosman did and he reports on the announcement in the Chron. They're cancelling all in-person performances through the end of the year.

Interim Leadership at Cal Performances

Matias Tarnopolsky is departing soon for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and today Cal Performances announced interim leadership. There's nothing in the press release about a search committee (but there has to be one) or the timeline for finding a successor to Tarnopolsky. The 2018-19 season has already been announced, and it's a safe bet that much of the planning for 2019-20 is already done.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ today announced the appointment of S. Shariq Yosufzai, a vice chair of Cal Performances’ Board of Trustees, as interim executive director of Cal Performances, effective June 15. Reporting to the Chancellor, Mr. Yosufzai assumes the leadership of Cal Performances from Matías Tarnopolsky, who departs this summer after a distinguished nine-year tenure, to serve as president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Rob Bailis, Cal Performances associate director, will serve as interim artistic director, and will be a senior member of Mr. Yosufzai’s team. The Chancellor will lead the search for the next permanent director of Cal Performances in collaboration with Cal Performances Board of Trustees co-chairs Susan L. Graham and Helen Meyer. 

The balance of the press release is after the cut.

Repertory Madness

The three big presenting organizations in the Bay Area -- Cal Performances, SF Performances, and Stanford Lively Arts -- have announced their 2018-19 seasons. I will try to get some thoughts posted this week, but no promises as I've got a couple of reviews to write.

However, something jumped out at me, because it's unmissable: there are three cellists performing the complete Bach suites this season. Here they are:

• Yo-Yo Ma - September 30, 2018, Greek Theater (the perfect venue, right?) (Cal Performances)
• Jean-Guihen Queyras - October 30, 2018, Herbst (SF Performances)
• Alicia Weilerstein - May 1, 2019, First Congo (Cal Performances)

Yeah, I had to check to see whether Stanford Live had the same program with a fourth cellist. Nope. Maybe it's not too late for them to engage Clemens Hagen, or, for a little novelty, a Baroque cellist such as Pieter Wispelwey.

Does anybody think about the ticket sales implications of this? Especially when Ma is one of the cellists?

Tarnopolsky to Philadelphia Orchestra?

Email from a friend this morning alerted me to a report by N***** L******* saying that Matias Tarnopolsky would be the next president of the Philadelphia Orchestra. (I'm not going to link to NL or even mention the name of his blog. Do a web search if you want to see the report.) Now there's an article by Peter Dobrin in The Inquirer, and that I'm happy to link to. Dobrin says there's no contract yet and the Philly board hasn't voted on it, but there is a verbal agreement. It could theoretically still fall through, but who knows who the leaker is? Somebody close to the orchestra.

Joshua Kosman has picked up Dobrin's report. I have email out to Cal Performances but have heard nothing yet.

UPDATE: It's true. He'll have his work cut out for him at Philly. His predecessor might be characterized as union-busting, given her administration at Philly and at Atlanta. She took the orchestra into and out of bankruptcy.

The orchestra has had a problem board that let the organization drift for way too long. Note the five-year tenure of Christoph Eschenbach, followed by four years of acting MD Charles Dutoit (they might be regretting this now) before Yannick Nezet-Seguin was tapped.

This year's season is also notably dull, despite having an energetic young MD, and it's an all-male season. Let's hope Matias Tarnopolsky can turn the ship around.

Other coverage:

• Michael Cooper, Times
• Peter Dobrin, updated
• Joshua Kosman, updated

Here's the Cal Performances press release about his departure, after the cut.

Further Changes of Venue: First Congregational Church Fire Edition

As anyone who attends or performs in classical music concerts in the East Bay must know by now, First Congregational Church of Berkeley, a much-loved performance venue with a thriving worship community, suffered a serious fire last week. One of the buildings on the campus has been condemned. The sanctuary and its musical instruments, including a most impressive organ, survived, but the extent of the damage to the building is not yet known.

Many performing organizations and presenters are affected by this, because they had concerts planned for this season.

• New Century Chamber Orchestra
• Volti / Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
• Philharmonia Baroque
• California Bach Society
• Chora Nova
• American Bach Soloists
• Cal Performances
• Chanticleer
• San Francisco Chamber Orchestra

The San Francisco Early Music Society uses First Congo during the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition [of Early Music], which is held in alternate years. They will not be affected until 2018, but we do not yet know how long it will be until the church will be available for concerts and the Festival's ancillary events, some of which are also put on there.

UPDATED: Wednesday, January 4, 2017

American Bach Soloists is moving all of their winter and spring 2017 programs to First Presbyterian, which is diagonally across the street from First Congregational, at the corner of Channing and Dana in Berkeley. Here's their very gracious announcement:

As you may know, our Berkeley home, First Congregational Church, suffered extensive fire damage last fall and the groups who use the facility to perform concerts have been looking for temporary homes for the 2017 season. Many people, including the staff of First Congregational, had hoped to be back in the facilities by now, but that is not the case. So, for the 2017 winter and spring season, American Bach Soloists have moved their performances across the street to First Presbyterian Church (2407 Dana Street, Berkeley, CA). We have every hope that we will return to First Congregational in 2018!

We are grateful to First Presbyterian Church for opening their doors to us, we are especially supportive of the congregation and staff of First Congregational Church during this difficult period, and we are grateful to you for your understanding in this endeavor.

UPDATED: Monday, October 17, 2016

More changes of venue:

• Chora Nova will perform their Sunday, November 20 program, including Haydn's Mass in Time of War, at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, Channing & Dana, diagonally across the street from FCCB. The concert is at 4 p.m. and also includes music by Mozart.
• Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will perform on Saturday, Nov. 5, at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley. Other Saturday concerts during the season will take place at First Presbyterian Church (see above). Sunday concerts originally scheduled for FCCB will take place at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church in Lafayette.

I have the first two venue changes in hand.

• Volti / Left Coast will perform their Winges, Janáček, Lang, Türkmen program at 7:30, October 15, at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. This is diagonally across the street from First Congo.
• Cal Bach will perform Bach's St. Matthew Passion at UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall at 3:30 pm on October 9.

UPDATED: Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016, twice. Thanks to Joshua Kosman for an addition and correction; thanks to Tod Brody for an addition.

Tattling: Usher Special Edition

So, what do you think the responsibilities of music-venue ushers might be? I would say the following:

• Hand out programs.
• Help patrons find their seats.
• Help with special seating situations (a conflict over whose seat it is - I was involved with one of these years ago - or a seat that just doesn't work for some reason).
• Deal with anti-social audience behavior.

A few years ago, I was at a concert where a woman and a small child - perhaps 8 or 9 years old - were seated a row or two behind me. The child was fidgety and chatty during the first half of the program. I spoke with an usher and the child was silent for the second half.

In the last week, I've been to two programs where somehow the ushers didn't manage to fulfill their responsibilities to the audience in dealing with anti-social behavior from other audience members.

At SFS last week, Marek Janowski conducted a couple of Beethoven symphonies. My partner and I didn't sit together; she was in an accessible seat on a side aisle near the rear of the hall, I was closer to the stage.

During the second half of the program, a couple near her chatted to each other throughout the performance. An usher was seated near my partner, who gestured to the usher about the noise, making what I would have thought was a universally-understood gesture (cue flapping thumb and fingers - I'm sure you know what I mean). After the concert, my partner spoke with the usher, who said, first of all, "but they were in the box." (Implication: people in boxes are too important to be asked to keep quiet during a performance.) The usher also thought, somehow, that it was the movements of the couple that were disturbing my partner.

Now, SFS goes to some lengths to encourage audiences to stay quiet during performances. They've got charming pre-recorded announcements by various members of the orchestra (for instance, Robert Ward doesn't sound nearly as gruff as he looks; he has a sweet light tenor speaking voice). I have never heard an exception, such as "except for you folks in the boxes; you can talk all you want." And of course, most of us have paid good money to sit in the hall, and deserve exactly the same consideration from our fellow audience members. 

If SFS wanted to allow random talking during the performances, they could build out a few glass-enclosed boxes and sell the seats for a premium price -- but they haven't, because of the general expectation that audience members will behave respectfully toward each other and the musicians.

Today, something similar happened at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's magnificent performance of Messiaen's Des canyons aux etoiles....One or more audience members chattered through the concert and an usher seated nearby did nothing.

What. The Fuck.

Ushers, it is really up to  you to keep the anti-social members of the audience from interfering with patrons' enjoyment of a concert. Please do your jobs.