Music full of youthful brilliance and optimism opens our season: we celebrate the music of the new generation through our Pathways Program, alongside Mendelssohn’s beautiful E-flat major quartet and music from Paul Novak, the winner of Left Coast’s 2025 composition contest.
Music full of youthful brilliance and optimism opens our season: we celebrate the music of the new generation through our Pathways Program, alongside Mendelssohn’s beautiful E-flat major quartet and music from Paul Novak, the winner of Left Coast’s 2025 composition contest.
A paean to all the many different personalities of the clarinet, this program sets Mozart’s quintet, written for his dear friend Anton Stadler, alongside a new quintet written specially for Left Coast clarinetist Jerome Simas by his friend and fellow clarinetist, Jonathan Russell.
A paean to all the many different personalities of the clarinet, this program sets Mozart’s quintet, written for his dear friend Anton Stadler, alongside a new quintet written specially for Left Coast clarinetist Jerome Simas by his friend and fellow clarinetist, Jonathan Russell.
WINTER WANDERING FESTIVAL
Left Coast connects with community members to perform Brittany J. Green’s Maps and a special performance with Iranian composer and improviser, Hesam Abedini for a sonic exploration of physical space and our place within it.
WINTER WANDERING FESTIVAL
Guest speaker and historian Sheer Ganor discusses ideas of home through the lens of those who have lost it, alongside music by Iranian composer and improviser, Hesam Abedini. Join us after the presentation for a festive reception with complimentary refreshments!
WINTER WANDERING FESTIVAL
Six newly-composed miniatures for ensemble on the theme of What Is Home? are placed alongside Janáček’s wistful and moody vignettes of place and memory.
WINTER WANDERING FESTIVAL
Songs by Joni Mitchell and Hildegard von Bingen are remixed in new versions by Kurt Rohde. They meet Ty Bloomfield’s poignant exploration of love and beauty and Gustav Mahler’s songs about wandering and heartbreak, weaving together common themes over the centuries.
Six new miniatures exploring the nature of Home are set alongside Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer.
On the threshold of impressionism, romanticism, and modernism, Rebecca Clarke’s imaginative compositions are now at the heart of chamber music and the viola repertoire. This concert puts her music in the perspective of other British and American composers who followed in her footsteps.
On the threshold of impressionism, romanticism, and modernism, Rebecca Clarke’s imaginative compositions are now at the heart of chamber music and the viola repertoire. This concert puts her music in the perspective of other British and American composers who followed in her footsteps.
Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, written and performed during the 1918 flu epidemic, is a satirical examination of the pursuit of happiness. We pair this iconic tale with a new work for the same jazz-inspired forces, in which Arna Bontemps’ novel Black Thunder clashes with contemporary social crises. Omari Tau brings his theatrical brilliance to both works.
Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, written and performed during the 1918 flu epidemic, is a satirical examination of the pursuit of happiness. We pair this iconic tale with a new work for the same jazz-inspired forces, in which Arna Bontemps’ novel Black Thunder clashes with contemporary social crises. Omari Tau brings his theatrical brilliance to both works.
Join us on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 3:00pm for our 33rd Season Gala! Hosted at the Women’s Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley campus, the centerpiece will be a performance of Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio by Anna Presler, Tanya Tomkins, and Eric Zivian.
Volti and Left Coast meet in a new work by Chris Castro for storyteller and musicians, which explores the connection between sound and the spoken word in tales from the west coast. The human relationship to our environment forms a through-line from romantic to experimental musical sensibilities.
Volti and Left Coast meet in a new work by Chris Castro for storyteller and musicians, which explores the connection between sound and the spoken word in tales from the west coast. The human relationship to our environment forms a through-line from romantic to experimental musical sensibilities.
Join us for an interdisciplinary, FREE program at the Doug Adams Gallery!
Strauss’s eulogy to the world he knew and loved is an outpouring of emotion, and one of his most intimate works. Metamorphosen is paired with other works that extract maximum power from small forces: Berio’s virtuosic Sequenza and the world premiere of Bahar Royaee’s viola concerto.
Strauss’s eulogy to the world he knew and loved is an outpouring of emotion, and one of his most intimate works. Metamorphosen is paired with other works that extract maximum power from small forces: Berio’s virtuosic Sequenza and the world premiere of Bahar Royaee’s viola concerto.
Fanny Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler brush shoulders with composers of our time, past and present connecting through musical memories.
Fanny Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler brush shoulders with composers of our time, past and present connecting through musical memories.
The contrasting timbres of the violin, clarinet, and piano bring to life a vibrant variety of musical imaginations in this program of rhythmic vitality and melodic invention.
The contrasting timbres of the violin, clarinet, and piano bring to life a vibrant variety of musical imaginations in this program of rhythmic vitality and melodic invention.
Please join us on Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 3:00pm for our 32nd Season Gala! Hosted at the Women’s Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley campus, the centerpiece will be a performance Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor by Liana Bérubé, Tanya Tomkins, and Eric Zivian.
The last works of Luigi Nono and Franz Schubert, performed back to back, reveal a sense of deep beauty, profound unease, and a sensitivity to the close connection between happiness and sorrow on the threshold of life and death.
A lost highway, witches, folk songs… Volti joins Left Coast for an eclectic, beautiful, and sometimes unsettling sonic journey. New works from LJ White and Todd Kitchen, exploring instability and dreams, contrast with the humor of Laurie San Martin’s Witches and Benjamin Britten’s tender folk song arrangements.
Space travel meets Art in a program which is interpreted in live painting by artist Adrian Arias.
In Schubert’s last song cycle, the wanderer and his landscape become one in this journey into the depths of the human soul. Emotions from tenderness to despair come together in a cathartic winter journey.
In Schubert’s last song cycle, the wanderer and his landscape become one in this journey into the depths of the human soul. Emotions from tenderness to despair come together in a cathartic winter journey.
Space travel meets Art in a program which is interpreted in live painting by artist Adrian Arias.
A lost highway, witches, folk songs… Volti joins Left Coast for an eclectic, beautiful, and sometimes unsettling sonic journey. New works from LJ White and Todd Kitchen, exploring instability and dreams, contrast with the humor of Laurie San Martin’s Witches and Benjamin Britten’s tender folk song arrangements.
Left Coast musicians join with amateur players to create two improvisatory works which explore the spatial dimension of music within Maybeck’s innovative architecture.
The last works of Luigi Nono and Franz Schubert, performed back to back, reveal a sense of deep beauty, profound unease, and a sensitivity to the close connection between happiness and sorrow on the threshold of life and death.
Genre-breaking works from the 20th and 21st centuries immerse the listener in interactions between poetry, music, and the human voice. The composers explore the extremes of drama and poetry within the intimate setting of chamber music.
Genre-breaking works from the 20th and 21st centuries immerse the listener in interactions between poetry, music, and the human voice. The composers explore the extremes of drama and poetry within the intimate setting of chamber music.
Left Coast will perform the fifth and final concert in Jonathan Khuner’s Celebrating Schoenberg series. Experience Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with an accompanying lecture given by Matilda Hofman and Jonathan Khuner. The session will be followed by time to enjoy free refreshments and engage in open discussion.
In collaboration with the SF Public Library, Left Coast explores the music of primarily Californian composers whose music is connected to the earth and to the climate, music which asks us to listen deeply to the natural world. Works include Pauline Oliveros' Tree/Peace, Monica Chew's Ice Calf, Kaija Saariaho's Nocturne for Solo Violin and Peteris Vasks' Landscape with Birds.
In celebration of Black Music Month with the Ruth Williams Opera House, Left Coast presents Florence Price’s romantic Piano Quintet alongside works by David Sanford and Chris Castro. With our new project Pathways, Left Coast champions the music of emerging Californian composers.
In celebration of Black Music Month with the Ruth Williams Opera House, Left Coast presents Florence Price’s romantic Piano Quintet alongside works by David Sanford and Chris Castro. With our new project Pathways, Left Coast champions the music of emerging Californian composers.
Saariaho’s rapt attention to every sound is remembered and explored in this concert for flute, cello and piano. In this program, her music invites the listener to hear the music which surrounds it from different angles — Prokofiev’s flute sonata and miniatures by two Californian composers.
Saariaho’s rapt attention to every sound is remembered and explored in this concert for flute, cello and piano. In this program, her music invites the listener to hear the music which surrounds it from different angles — Prokofiev’s flute sonata and miniatures by two Californian composers.
