Arts & Events
Wolff Stories on Stage at Julia Morgan
Word For Word, the San Francisco theater company that stages verbatim versions of classic and contemporary fiction, is producing More Stories By Tobias Wolff at the Julia Morgan Center through Sunday afternoon. Directed by Joel Mullennix and featuring three tales from Our Story Begins (2008), Wolff’s most recent collection, More Stories has just completed an extended San Francisco run and regional tour. It follows Word For Word’s successful 2002 production, Stories By Tobias Wolff. -more-
Young Composers Program at Crowden
The John Adams Young Composers Program will present its second annual Faculty Concert, Music of Youth, with premieres of New Music About Youth and Being Young, by Alexis Alrich, Molly Axtmann, Dean Curtis, Clark Suprynowicz and Katrina Wreede, played by ChamberMix (flute, clarinet, cello and piano quartet), this Saturday night at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley. -more-
Berkeley Art Museum’s Thought-Provoking ‘Galaxy’
Considering that the Berkeley Art Museum is only about 40 years old, it has a remarkable collection spanning the centuries and continents. For too long a time it was largely invisible, but now much has come to light in an exhibition aptly entitled “Galaxy.” As the museum’s founding director I was delighted to re-visit old friends and greet new arrivals. -more-
Balinese Paintings and Chinese Papercuts at the Giorgi Gallery
Joe Fischer took his bachelor’s in American Colonial History in the early 1950s, and was leaning toward Middle Eastern Studies for his master’s. Then a combination of circumstances nudged him toward Indonesian studies. Once he had seen Bali, he was hooked. From 1956 until 2004, he made frequent visits to Bali, studying Balinese history and mythology and collecting Balinese textiles, embroideries, and paintings. He has written six books, including Folk Art of Java and Folk Art of Bali (both from Oxford University Press) and, most recently, Story Cloths of Bali (Ten Speed Press, 2006). -more-
A ‘Passionate Celebration’ at Oakland’s Paramount Theater
Oakland East Bay Symphony, conducted by musical director Michael Morgan, will perform a Passionate Celebration in concert Friday night, March 20, at Oakland’s Paramount Theater, featuring Act 1 of Verdi’s opera, Otello, with tenor Richard Crawley and soprano Talise Trevigne as The Moor and Desdemona, and the Oakland Symphony Chorus, directed by Lynne Morrow. -more-
‘Wind and Waves’ by Philharmonia Baroque
The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, will present Winds and Waves, featuring the “lavish wind scorings of Baroque masters” (including Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi and Rameau) that “evoke the complexities and contradictions of the natural world,” this weekend at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. -more-
East Bay Then and Now: French Couple Left Two Monuments on Dwight Way
It’s hard to believe now, but there used to be a time when Berkeley’s Southside was a fashionable place to live, dotted with the residences of professors and society people. -more-
About the House: Taking a Look at California’s New Building Codes
I’m not a fan of the building codes but I have to admit that they do a lot for us. That may come as a surprise to those of you who know me as a building inspector. “Aren’t the codes what that’s all about?” you may ask. Well, not really. Not for me. -more-