Gustavo Dudamel brings passionate musicians to Berkeley

Rocking the house… and the boat. A conductor of near-rock star status, Gustavo Dudamel brought the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela to UC Berkeley last week for two sold-out performances and a host of workshops and events. Presently a 200-strong professional touring orchestra, two years ago this was the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, but its members are growing up—they currently range from 18 to 28 years old, and...

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Philharmonia Orchestra performs Wozzeck in Berkeley

A tale of social pressures and personal madness at Zellerbach Famed Finish conductor and blossoming composer Esa-Pekka Salonen brought London’s Philharmonia Orchestra to Berkeley last week for a residency that included four different concerts, two interviews and a master class. ...

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Conlon Nancarrow festival at UC Berkeley

  Celebrating a shy purist Conlon Nancarrow, a composer fascinated by complex rhythms and the play of multiple tempos, would have celebrated his centennial last month. Living in some obscurity, he was rediscovered by Columbia records in 1969 and then by Charles Amirkhanian in the 1970s, who popularized his experiments with hand-punched piano rolls for the player piano. ...

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