Refracted Light

Sunday, October 5, 2025 at 4:00PM

First Congregational Church of Berkeley 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Guest conductor Edwin Outwater of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music takes the helm for Berkeley Symphony’s second concert of the 25/26 season, Refracted Light. The program opens with Berkeley composer Samuel Adams’s virtuosic Chamber Concerto with violinist Helen Kim, expanding the form of the traditional concerto into a five-movement dialogue between soloist and orchestra. Experimental artist Yaz Lancaster invites audiences to expand definitions of identity with their layered and textural work Gender Envy. Expansion closes with Franz Joseph Haydn’s grand Symphony No. 100, imposing and percussive.

Samuel Adams

Chamber Concerto

Helen Kim

Yaz Lancaster

Gender Envy

Franz Joseph Haydn

Symphony No. 100, "Military"

About the Artists

Edwin Outwater

David J. Kim

Edwin Outwater is redefining the concert experience as a groundbreaking conductor, curator, and producer, known for his dynamic approach and genre-blending collaborations. Working with a wide range of artists from Metallica to Wynton Marsalis, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma, Outwater’s creative vision and ability to seamlessly navigate between musical worlds has made him one of the most sought-after conductors, with the legendary Michael Tilson Thomas aptly describing him as “one of the most innovative conductors on the scene today.”

David J. Kim

Helen Kim

Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “astoundingly gifted”, violinist Helen Kim enjoys a versatile career as performer and teacher. She is the Associate Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and served as the Associate Principal Second Violin of the San Francisco Symphony from 2016 to 2022.

In recent seasons, Kim has made solo appearances with the St. Louis Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and performed concertos under conductors Peter Oundjian, Jun Märkl, and Nicholas McGegan, among others. She is a dedicated interpreter of contemporary music and has performed works such as Salvatorre Sciarrino’s Sei Capricci on San Francisco Symphony’s Soundbox series as well as Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes II and Morton Feldman’s evening-length For John Cage on the Pulitzer Arts Foundation’s contemporary music series. Kim lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and two sons.