New seasons dawn in Berkeley, San Jose
Two of the Bay Area’s top regional orchestras open their seasons this weekend with excellent programs and exciting guest artists. The Berkeley Symphony and San Jose’s Symphony Silicon Valley are showcasing women, the former with composers Jennifer Higdon and Anna Clyne, the latter with conductor JoAnn Falletta.
HIGDON IN BERKELEY >> Tonight at Zellerbach Hall, Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto is the featured work on the Berkeley Symphony’s first concert of the 2018-19 season. Higdon was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for the concerto, which the Pulitzer committee called “a deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity.”
The American composer’s wide-ranging catalog includes symphonies, chamber music and operas — her opera “Cold Mountain,” based on Charles Frazier’s 1997 novel, has been produced at Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia and North Carolina Opera. The Violin Concerto is one of her most frequently performed concert works; Berkeley Symphony’s performance will feature violinist Benjamin Bellman as soloist. Ming Luke, the principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Ballet, conducts the program, which also includes Clyne’s “Night Ferry,” Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and Ravel’s “La Valse.”
DETAILS >> 7 tonight, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $15-$96; 510-841-2800, berkeleysymphony.org
FALLETTA RETURNS >> When Symphony Silicon Valley opens its season this weekend, it will be with a very special guest. JoAnn Falletta, making a rare Bay Area appearance, conducts the orchestra in performances Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.
In recent years, there’s been a long overdue push to program music by women composers, but Falletta was way ahead of the curve. As music director of the Women’s Philharmonic from 1986 to 1997, she regularly led programs consisting entirely of works by women; the San Francisco-based orchestra’s concerts featured some of the only Bay Area performances of music by Chen Yi, Lili Boulanger, Clara Schumann, Tania Leon,
Florence Price and Ethel Smyth. The Women’s Philharmonic eventually disbanded in 2004, but Falletta has gone on to several significant posts: she’s currently music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and has served as guest conductor for more than 100 North American orchestras. In her appearance with Symphony Silicon Valley, she’ll conduct Barber’s Overture to “The School for Scandal,” Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” Suite and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5.
DETAILS >> 8 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday; California Theatre, San Jose; $45-$90; 408-286-2600, www.symphonysiliconvalley.org.
THE VOCAL GAMUT >> Soprano Nikki Einfeld returns to the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble this week to sing several works as part of the group’s first concert of the season. Titled “Singing the Gamut,” the program features Einfeld and guitarist Michael Goldberg in Benjamin Britten’s beautiful “Songs from the Chinese” for Guitar and Voice. Einfeld also serves as soloist for “On Loving” by Sheila Silver as well as arias by Vincenzo Bellini and Alfred Bachelet. Charles Peck’s “Sunburst,” Jon Deak’s “BB Wolf” and Olly Wilson’s “There’s a Need” are also on the program, along with works by Mario Davidovsky and Jonathan Favero for guitar, viola, cello and double bass.
DETAILS >> “Singing the Gamut,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Hillside Club, Berkeley; 7:30 p.m. Monday, San Francisco Conservatory of Music; $30-$35 general, $15-18 under 35; 415-617-5223, www.leftcoastensemble.org.
NEW VOICES >> New works by three composers are featured in the inaugural “Canto: New Voices” concert this weekend in San Jose. A showcase for the 2017 Canto Online Vocal Competition, the event, presented by Opera Cultura as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month, offers classical repertoire sung in Spanish by emerging artists Virginia Hesse and Michael Orlinsky. The featured composers are Orlinsky, Nicolas Lell Benavides and Carlos Guadarrama.
DETAILS >> 3 p.m. Saturday, Trianon Theatre; $15; 1-800-838-3006, www. operacultura.org.
KAPILOW ON JANÁCEK >> Do you know everything there is to know about Czech composer Leoš Janácek? Probably not, but Rob Kapilow just might. Musician, scholar, explainer and audience favorite, Kapilow returns to Stanford Live on Wednesday in the first of three talks he’ll give on great men of music. “Intimate Letters” focuses on Janácek; still to come in the series are “Love, Life and Loss: The Music of Stephen Sondheim” (Oct. 11) and “Late Compositions,” featuring Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony (April 11, 2019.)
DETAILS >> 7 p.m. Wednesday; Bing Concert Hall Studio Theater; $50; 650-724-2464, live.stanford.edu.