Alexander String Quartet teams up with Robert Greenberg

School may have been in session last Saturday morning at Berkeley’s St. John’s Presbyterian Church, but the students clapped long and hard, something rarely heard just a few blocks north at UC Berkeley. The lecturer, musicologist and composer Robert Greenberg, was assisted by the formidable Alexander String Quartet, which sat onstage to give musical illustrations throughout the lecture before playing their concert. And the “returning students” were an...

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Oakland East Bay Symphony opens stylish new season

Flash-bangs at the Paramount  A program of brilliance and bling fired up a full house Friday night at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland’s refurbished Art Deco masterpiece, and that was a perfect setting for the on-stage sizzle.  Michael Morgan led the Oakland East Bay Symphony in their Opening Night concert, “New world A-Comin’,” titled after Duke Ellington’s hopeful work for orchestra and improvised piano. After a...

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Contemporary Music Players open their season

  Pushing boundaries at Herbst A program of coloristic extremes lit up San Francisco’s Herbst Theater on Monday, October 3, as the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players inaugurated their new season with three eccentric and occasionally brilliant works. This concert also marked the inauguration of new Artistic Director Steven Schick, whose careful conducting and immersion in the music was a pleasure to watch. After a two-year search, the...

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Cypress Quartet at Piedmont Center for the Arts

Piedmont Center for the Arts—fledgling gem takes flight The acclaimed Cypress Quartet tested the waters at Piedmont’s brand new Center of the Arts on Friday, September 17. Their sound overflowed the lively central hall, submerging us in sonorous waves. Like multiple-use art spaces, while enjoying the concert one could also see the current show, a photographic essay of the people and mountains of Peru. Pre-Colombian villages and Incan faces, aged...

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