22/23 Season
Find Your Frequency
Music Director, Joseph Young
It’s my great pleasure to welcome you to Berkeley Symphony’s 51st season! Our milestone 50th year marked a return to joy — now, as we embark on our next chapter, we invite you to be an important part of how we reinterpret classics and rejoice in new works.
Innovative concerts, sweeping scores, and vital voices: our 51st season promises a thrilling ride, one that forwards our mission of reimagining classics while also presenting them alongside fresh orchestral pieces that are as moving as they are relevant. By this work, Berkeley Symphony highlights an important throughline, revealing how the beloved canon influences and engages our gifted contemporary artists.
Bridging unique styles, I call this season “Find Your Frequency.” Each of the season’s three concerts offer music as a form of self-expression, a means for creating connections, and a vehicle for sharing our stories with one another.
Experience Tchaikovsky’s mental agitation and turmoil as captured in the notes of the Fifth Symphony, or Elgar’s intense dedication and commitment to his friends, immortalized in each of the Enigma Variations. I’m also particularly excited to share world premieres from Brian Raphael Nabors and Xi Wang, whose groundbreaking works introduce us to the orchestral world’s next generation of paramount talent.
Music is an invitation: it offers us the distinct opportunity to answer its call, come together, and delight in its virtue. At Berkeley Symphony, we endeavor to share this invitation — and its gift — far and wide. Thank you for your support, and we hope you’ll join us for another standout season.
SYMPHONIC SERIES
SYMPHONIC I: IDENTITIES
Nabors World Premiere | Price | Tchaikovsky
Special Guest Artist: Violinst Rachel Barton Pine
BRIAN RAPHAEL NABORS Upon Daybreak World Premiere
World Premiere made possible through New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices program and the generous support of the Sphinx Ventures Fund, ASCAP, and the Sorel Organization
FLORENCE PRICE Violin Concerto No. 2
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5
Photo: Brian Raphael Nabors
SUNDAY 10.16.2022 4:00 PM ZELLERBACH HALL
SYMPHONIC II: CONNECTIONS
Contreras | Ellington | Strayhorn/Walden | Elgar
Special Guest Artist: Pianist Lara Downes
JUAN PABLO CONTRERAS Mariachitlán
DUKE ELLINGTON New World A-Comin
STRAYHORN ARR. WALDEN: “A Lovesome Thing: Billy Strayhorn Suite” co-commission
EDWARD ELGAR Enigma Variations
Photo: Duke Ellington
SUNDAY 04.02.2023 4:00 PM ZELLERBACH HALL
Call the box office at (510) 841-2800 or email [email protected] to subscribe!
SYMPHONIC III: ENDURING STORIES
Wang World Premiere | Simon | Rimsky-Korsakov
XI WANG Lotus Prayer World Premiere
Lotus Prayer was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation
CARLOS SIMON Portrait of a Queen
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
Photo: Xi Wang
SUNDAY 06.04.2023 4:00 PM ZELLERBACH HALL
Call the box office at (510) 841-2800 or email [email protected] to subscribe!
Programs are subject to change.
CHAMBER SERIES
Fall Colors
October 2, 2022
Nabors | Price | Tchaikovsky
BRIAN RAPHAEL NABORS 7 Dances for Flute, Clarinet, Cello
FLORENCE PRICE Five Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY String Quartet No. 1
Explore the Symphonic I concert for more works by these composers.
Photo: Brian Raphael Nabors
performance begins at 4:00pm Piedmont Center for the Arts
Call the box office at (510) 841-2800 or email [email protected] to subscribe!
Holiday Blast
December 4, 2022
HOLIDAY BRASS QUINTET Featuring Festive Holiday Favorites
performance beginS at 4:00pm Piedmont Community Hall
Call the box office at (510) 841-2800 or email [email protected] to subscribe!
Winter of Love
February 5, 2023
Beach | Costello | Brahms
AMY BEACH Romance for Violin and Piano
ELVIS COSTELLO Selections from The Juliet Letters for Baritone and String Quartet
JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25
Photo: Elvis Costello by Shore Fire Media
performance beginS at 4:00pm Piedmont Center for the Arts
Call the box office at (510) 841-2800 or email [email protected] to subscribe!
Spring Fever
March 19, 2023
Boulanger | Piazzolla | Dvořák
LILI BOULANGER D’un matin de printemps (Of a spring morning)
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
ANTON DVORAK Piano Trio in A Minor “Dumky”
Photo: Lili Boulanger
performance beginS at 4:00pm Piedmont Center for the Arts
Call the box office at (510) 841-2800 or email [email protected] to subscribe!
Between Worlds
May 21, 2023
Simon | Beach | Borodin
CARLOS SIMON move it for solo flute
AMY BEACH Theme and Variation for flute and string quartet, Op. 80
CARLOS SIMON Between Worlds for solo violin
ALEXANDER BORODIN String Quartet No.2
Explore the Symphonic IV concert for a piece titled Portrait of a Queen by composer Carlos Simon.
Photo: Carlos Simon by Terrance Ragland
performances begin at 4:00pm Piedmont Center for the Arts
Call the box office at (510) 841-2800 or email [email protected] to subscribe!
Programs are subject to change.