Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, has announced its 2025–26 concert season, including Zellerbach Hall performances by Kronos Quartet, Jeremy Denk, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Chris Thile, and Rhiannon Giddens and Silkroad Ensemble.
Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, has announced its 2025–26 concert season, and among the performers taking to its Zellerbach Hall stage are Nonesuch artists Kronos Quartet, Jeremy Denk, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Chris Thile, and Rhiannon Giddens.
Kronos Quartet kicks things off with a concert on Saturday, October 11. The two-part program features new and recent works by women composers written for Kronos, including two world premieres and a work by Angélica Negrón written for the Kronos Fifty for the Future commissioning project, as well as a presentation of Beyond the Golden Gate, a performance-discussion-screening with Bay Area community activist David Lei exploring the impact of Chinese Americans on American culture.
Pianist Jeremy Denk gives a solo performance of Bach's six keyboard partitas at Zellerbach Hall on Friday, November 14. Denk recorded Bach's Goldberg Variations for his second Nonesuch album in 2013 and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903, for his 2019 album c. 1300–c. 2000.
Cécile McLorin Salvant returns to Zellerbach Hall in the new year, performing on Thursday, February 5, 2026. Salvant is currently up for the Deutscher Jazzpreis for Live Act of the Year International. Last year, she was named Female Vocalist of the Year in the DownBeat Critics Poll, and her latest album, Mélusine, made the Jazz Albums of the Year list.
Later that month, Chris Thile gives a solo performance on Friday, February 27. The program is set to include songs from his 2021 solo album, Laysongs, and his 2013 recording of Bach sonatas and partitas.
Rhiannon Giddens reunites with the Silkroad Ensemble, of which she is artistic director, for two nights, Thursday and Friday, March 19 and 20. The program explores music as a medium for healing and connection across cultures, with Italian tarantella, Congolese string music, Indian tabla, American roots music, and Syrian taarab conversing across ethnic and national boundaries. Giddens and the ensemble released the album American Railroad, which uncovers and uplifts stories of those who built the transcontinental railroad and connecting railways across North America, last November.
Cal Performances subscriptions go on sale next Tuesday, April 22, at 12pm PDT. Single tickets go on sale to the general public on August 5 at 12pm PDT. For details and tickets, visit calperformances.org.
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