Cal Performances celebrates its vibrant and ongoing partnership with Southern California's renowned Ojai Music Festival with the latest installment of Ojai at Berkeley. This year, Vijay Iyer, the trailblazing pianist, improviser, and composer, returns to Berkeley (where he earned his PhD nearly 20 years ago) as music director—bringing with him a thrilling mix of musical partners and approaches. Over four concerts, he invites Berkeley audiences to experience how the distinct musical communities he is part of come together to make music. The seventh edition of Ojai at Berkeley unites members and protégés of Chicago's influential AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) with Ojai regulars International Contemporary Ensemble and special guests for a series of adventurous premieres and collaborations.
Thursday, June 15
8 pm, Zellerbach Hall
A Vijay Iyer Sampling
Vijay Iyer, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, and electronics
Jennifer Koh, violin
Stephan Crump, bass
Tyshawn Sorey, drums
George Lewis, electronics and trombone
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble
Steven Schick, conductor
VIJAY IYER
Emergence (Bay Area Premiere)
Trouble for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (2017, Bay Area Premiere)
(Commissioned by Ojai Music Festival, Cal Performances, and Boston Symphony Orchestra)
For David Wessel (2017, World Premiere, co-composed with George Lewis)
Friday, June 16
7 pm, Zellerbach Playhouse
Pre-performance Talk
With Ojai at Berkeley music director Vijay Iyer, composer George Lewis, and Cal Performances executive and artistic director Matías Tarnopolsky. Free to all ticketholders of the concert that evening.
8 pm, Zellerbach Playhouse
George Lewis' Afterword, an opera
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Joelle Lamarre, soprano
Gwendolyn Brown, contralto
Julian Otis, tenor
Sean Griffin, director
Narda Alcorn, production stage manager
Steven Schick, conductor
Sven Furberg, projections
GEORGE LEWIS
Afterword, an opera (Bay Area Premiere)
A rare performance of George Lewis' experimental Afterword, an opera, based on a chapter in his multiple-award-winning history of the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Saturday, June 17
2 pm, Zellerbach Hall
Vijay Iyer and Friends:
Zakir Hussain, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and Aruna Sairam
Aruna Sairam, vocalist
Zakir Hussain, tabla
Rudresh Mahanthappa, saxophone
Vijay Iyer, piano
A program focusing on Vijay Iyer's relationships with artists representing various Indian traditions: the gifted vocalist Aruna Sairam, who sings in the intricately ornamented Carnatic style from the South of India; Zakir Hussain, the world-famous tabla master and frequent guest at Cal Performances; and jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, whose improvisatory music-making draws on Western and Carnatic models.
7 pm, Zellerbach Hall
Pre-performance Talk
Vijay Iyer and Matías Tarnopolsky provide insights into this evening's "Stravinsky and Iyer" concert. Free to all ticketholders of the concert that evening.
8 pm, Zellerbach Hall
STRAVINSKY
(ARR. CLIFF COLNOT)
Le Sacre du printemps
VIJAY IYER
RADHE RADHE: Rites of Holi
Film by Prashant Bhargava
A bold pairing of Cliff Colnot's arrangement of The Rite of Spring with RADHE, RADHE: Rites of Holi, Iyer's collaboration with the late filmmaker Prashant Bhargava. This thrilling film is modeled on the structure of Rite, but tells a very different story, exploring the colorful Holi festivities in Mathura, in which celebrants throw colored powders at each other in a spectacular free-for-all.