Berkeley Symphony Orchestra

For ticket purchases, please contact us by phone at 510 841-2800 during regular business hours.

On the day of a concert, tickets are only available one hour before the performance at the performance site.

For questions about our Education Program, please contact Kevin A. Madden.

For further questions, please contact Heli Roiha, Operations Manager.

Executive Director Catherine Barker-Henwood
Email: cbarkerhenwood@berkeleysymphony.org
2322 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley CA 94704
Office: 510 841-2800
Fax: 510 841-5422

Kevin A. Madden
Email: kmadden@berkeleysymphony.org
232

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra

Description

The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra is dedicated to performing contemporary, traditional and rarely-heard symphonic literature; premiering the works of emerging and established contemporary composers; showcasing Bay Area artists and soloists; working in collaboration with other artists and arts institutions; and promoting among young people and the general public an understanding and appreciation of significant contemporary works.

The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra?’s primary activity is the four-concert subscription season at Zellerbach Hall. Since the Fall, 1995 beginning of our 25th Anniversary Season, these concerts have been broadcast on KDFC-FM, the Bay Area?’s premier classical radio station. The Berkeley Symphony began recording in 1993 and has produced three CDs of composers Peter Lewis, Jeff Beal and Frank Martin.

The Symphony also offers Under Construction, an annual presentation of new works by Bay Area composers that is free and open to the public. For many composers, this presentation marks the first reading of their work by a full symphony orchestra.

The Orchestra continues to collaborate with UC Berkeley?’s Cal Performances, providing orchestral services for visiting dance groups. Finally, the Orchestra maintains close ties to the University?’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies. Many successful collaborations involving symphonic music and electro-acoustic enhancement have been developed and presented jointly.

History of the BSO

Thomas Rarick, a young prot?©g?© of Sir Adrian Boult, founded the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in 1969 as the Berkeley Promenade Orchestra. Kent Nagano took over the musical leadership of the orchestra in 1979, and began offering innovative programming that featured deserving new compositions and unjustly neglected older works. The name was changed to the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in 1981. Among the twentieth-century composers Maestro Nagano began to program was Olivier Messiaen, who in 1981 came to Berkeley to personally assist in the preparation of his imposing oratorio The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1984, the Berkeley Symphony presented an ambitious program of works by Frank Zappa with augmented orchestra, life-sized puppets and moving stage sets. In 1990, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra moved from the 700-seat First Congregational Church to UC Berkeley?’s 2,015-seat Zellerbach Hall for our four-concert subscription season. The move helped the Orchestra achieve a new level of quality, and our audience base grew substantially in response, with season subscriptions now accounting for 80% of capacity. The Berkeley Symphony has continued its tradition of programming world premieres at a pace that few orchestras of its size could approach. In addition to our reputation for exciting and precisely executed performances of 20th-century repertoire, the Berkeley Symphony garners critical acclaim for innovative interpretations of traditional symphonic works.

Music Education Program

Soon after the a teacher workshop, the B.S.O. makes a concert presentation at four Berkeley public schools, giving an ''instrument introduction'' and a performance including classical pieces, works by female and culturally diverse composers, and a piece by a local composer who attends and speaks to the children about his/her work as a composer and musician. Prior to the concert each classroom teacher receives a listening CD of selected repertoire and both historical and ?‘what to listen for?’ notes on each selection. Some classrooms will have already received a visit by a symphony musician and the Education Director to their classroom. These visits before the first concert are reserved for the K through 2 classrooms so that the youngest students can identify with a ?“friend?” in the orchestra at that first concert.

A second orchestra concert, the final concert presentation, is scheduled a month to six weeks after the first concert. All students in the participating school will perform with the Berkeley Symphony at this concert. The selections for the second concert are determined by student ability and exposure, grade level, and teacher commitment. If a classroom teacher has a low level of commitment student participation might be limited to singing a simple song. Even this however has proven to be very powerful for young students as they participate in both rehearsal and performance.