Appearances by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony; the Joffrey Ballet; France’s Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; and the return of Gustavo Dudamel and the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela are among the highlights of Cal Performances’ 2017-18 season, announced earlier this week by executive and artistic director Matías Tarnopolsky.
Dozens of events pack the season schedule, which runs from August 5, 2017, to May 6, 2018, in six venues on and around the UC Berkeley campus; the season features 30 West Coast, California or Bay Area premieres; two US premieres; and one world premiere.
As part of Cal Performances’ Berkeley RADICAL initiative, the events are grouped in three categories: Blurring Boundaries, Joining Generation and Vaulting Walls.
The Blurring Boundaries events include Dudamel and his Venezuelan orchestra performing music of the Americas. Programs featuring the Minneapolis-based, India-inspired Ragamala Dance Company, the Australian performance troupe Circa and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with pianist Jonathan Biss are also on the schedule.
Joining Generations will feature four generations of African-American composers in events by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, Camille A. Brown and Donald Byrd with Spectrum Dance Theater.
Artists featured in the Vaulting Walls category include Théâtre de la Ville, Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony in the California premiere of John Luther Adams’ “Become Desert” and the Bay Area’s own Kronos Quartet in Jonathan Berger’s “My Lai.”
The season begins August 5 at Zellerbach Hall with the Asian Youth Orchestra and violinist Sarah Chang. On September 21, Dudamel and the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela perform a special concert at the Greek Theater.
Other fall highlights include Reggie Wilson’s “Moses(es),” inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s retelling of the Biblical Moses story (Sept. 23-24), and “State of Siege,” Théâtre de la Ville’s production based on Albert Camus’ allegory about resistance in the face of authoritarianism (Oct. 21-22). Conductor Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will be joined by pianist Denis Matsuev (Nov. 4-5), and the French early music ensemble Les Arts Florissants performs Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” (Nov. 9). The Joffrey Ballet launches a five-year collaboration with Cal Performances (Nov. 17-18).
In December, flutist Claire Chase plays a six-hour musical marathon at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Dec. 2), Ragamala Dance performs “Written in Water” (Dec. 2-3), Camille A. Brown presents “BLACK GIRL: Linguistic play” (Dec. 8-10), and the Mark Morris Dance Group returns with “The Hard Nut,” Morris’ gloriously original take on Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” (Dec. 15-24).
2018 brings Circa’s “Il Ritorna,” a contemporary theater piece drawn from Monteverdi’s 17th-century opera, “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” (Feb. 3-4). In its Cal Performances debut, Company Wang Ramirez presents “Borderline” (Feb. 24-25), while “A Rap on Race” finds choreographer Donald Byrd and playwright Anna Deavere Smith reconstructing a conversation between James Baldwin and Margaret Mead (Feb. 9-10). The season closes with “887,” created by director Robert Lepage with Ex Machina (May 4-5).
Additional artists appearing this season include vocalists Julia Bullock, Lila Downs, Dorothea Röschmann, Ian Bostridge and Simon O’Neill; pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Nicolas Hodges and Emanuel Ax; cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Anssi Kurttunen and ODC and Dorrance Dance. Cal Performances’ popular Berkeley Talks series will present “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening and cartoonist Lynda Barry (Oct. 7), Garrison Keillor (Oct. 23), and playwright Tony Kushner and humorist and author Sarah Vowell (Feb. 21).
As Berkeley RADICAL starts its third year, Tarnopolsky said he remains committed to the initiative’s goals of bringing people together and fostering new ways of thinking through the arts.
“Music, dance, and theater cannot provide the answers to all things, but the arts do offer a vital catalyst for launching thoughtful conversation and consideration, and even for creating solutions,” he said. “Cal Performances 2017/18 season, especially our third year of Berkeley RADICAL programming, is about transcending boundaries.”
Details: Cal Performances subscription packages go on sale May 2. Single ticket sales begin June 13. 510-642-9988; www.calperformances.org.
Contact Georgia Rowe at growe@pacbell.net.