Mixed Media
The Return of Cal Performances
COURTESY OF ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO
Don’t you miss it: Angélique Kidjo will perform Talking Heads’ Remain in Light at Zellerbach in October.
(physical) doors. And the 2021–2022 performance lineup is filled with incredible talent. “When the pandemic forced Cal Performances to close its doors in March 2020, no one could have imagined what kind of year lay ahead,” said Jeremy Geffen, executive and artistic director of Cal Performances, in a June announcement video. “[But] we have dedicated our work to the idea that the arts can and must play an important role in how we face today’s challenges.” After a year of online shows with Cal Performances at Home, the in-person return kicked off on August 21, with a special event by the musicians of the original Goat Rodeo Sessions—Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. The next performances will begin in early October, including Ballet Hispánico, jazz prodigy Matthew Whitaker, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with magisterial pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Audiences can enjoy concerts ranging from dance or music recitals to theater and programming for this season’s Illuminations series, “Place and Displacement,” which combines performing arts and community conversations on the subject of large movements of people and inequity around the world. “Displacement has been part of our common history as human beings on this planet,” said Beninese singer and Cal Performances’ 2021–22 artist-in-residence, Angélique Kidjo. “Art becomes a form of resistance.” “Nothing—absolutely nothing—can stop the performing arts,” Geffen said in June. “And we can’t wait to share it all with you throughout the coming year—as we go from ‘Cal Performances at home,’ to ‘Cal Performances is home.’” Ticket sales and scheduling for the 2021–22 season can be found on the Cal Performances website at: https://calperformances.org/2021-22-season. —W.G.P.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE MARCH OF LAST YEAR, CAL PERFORMANCES has opened its
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