Bring your boots and mittens to play in the snow that is predicted to gently fall on Shattuck Avenue between Rose and Vine
Visit with the Snow Queen who will listen to all of your holiday wishes, ride the decorated live ponies, make holiday crafts, and warm up with hot cider and chewy treats courtesy of Kind Snacks and Andronico’s. Find one-of-a-kind holiday gifts from local craft vendors. Find the ‘ice’ in a snowball - one has a real diamond ring inside sponsored by M. Lowe & Co. as a benefit for the Berkeley Schools. There are singers, trumpets and a balloon twister to make the day fun!
Bring a large container 3-5PM to take home some snow of your own. Use it to water your garden!
This is a free event for children of all ages sponsored by the North Shattuck Association in conjunction with Kind Snacks, Andronico’s, M. Lowe & Co., Buy Local Berkeley, the East Bay Express, BETV and East Bay Loop.
10am to 3pm, Shattuck Avenue
Free and open to the public. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com
11am to 5pm, Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, 1317 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley, CA 94702, United States
North Carolina based author Nina Hart and NYC based composer Miguel Frasconi continue their ongoing collaboration of text/sound/music work. Nina will be reading from her award winning book "Somewhere In a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere," and Miguel will perform on his unique instrumentarium of glass and electronic instruments. They will also be joined by special guests.
Nina Hart is a writer, performer, and creativity coach trained in the Kaizen-Muse method. She recently released her first collection of surreal short fictions called "Somewhere in a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere". The book has been selected as a Short Stories (Adult Fiction) category finalist in Foreword Reviews' prestigious 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. Foreword Reviews cited the book as "A brave experiment with fiction and form..." and The Santa Fe New Mexican wrote that: "Hart extends her creative license to its utmost limits." Nina was also an original member of the San Francisco experimental dance troupe Contraband, and, playing electric bass, has recorded and performed with numerous bands. She teaches writing workshops in Asheville, North Carolina, and beyond.
Miguel Frasconi is a composer and improvisor specializing in the relationship between acoustic objects and musical form. His instrumentarium includes glass objects, electronics, laptop, and constructions of his own design. His glass instruments are struck, blown, stroked, smashed and otherwise coaxed into vibration. Miguel's array of activities have included collaborations with the Balinese composer Dewa Berata on music for a large-scale shadowplay, with operatic tenor John Duykers on unique music/theater events, and with the Tibetan songwriter Techung, with whom he has toured throughout India. In September 2012 Miguel's CAGE100 Festival was called "one of the best observances of John Cage's 100th birthday" by the New York Times and included performances by his ensembles The Noisy Toy Piano Orchestra and the John Cage Variety Show Big Band. Earlier this year the opera "Hand To Mouth," a collaboration between Miguel, John Duykers, and Melissa Weaver, was premiered in Sebastopol, CA. Miguel's music has been released on New Albion Records, Porter Records, and a recording of his string quartets will soon be released on the Tzadik label.
2pm to 5pm, 2133 University Avenue
Works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Granados. $36-$86. 642-9988. [email protected]
3pm, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus
NEW YORK TIMES FEATURED ARTISTIC DUO
MIKE MCGINNIS & DAVALOIS FEARON
TO PERFORM AS PART OF THE BERKELEY ARTS FESTIVAL
The artistic duo of composer and multi-instrumentalist Mike McGinnis, and his wife, the dancer and choreographer Davalois Fearon, proudly present an evening of music and dance as part of the Berkeley Arts Festival . Fearon will perform excerpts from her work "Consider Water", a social commentary on the water crisis effecting places like New York, California, Jamaica, and the globe in general, while McGinnis will perform music from his album Road*Trip, which was named a Top 10 Jazz Album by the Village Voice. The duo will also perform some collaborative pieces together as part of the festival.
Fresh off their honeymoon, and performances in Jamaica and New York City, this NYC based newlywed duo will be bringing their "Love Tour" to the West Coast this winter. Fearon, a featured artist with Stephen Petronio Company, will open the performance with her work "Consider Water" a piece inspired by her experience of having limited access to clean, drinkable water as a child in Jamaica. The piece combines three types of artistic expression: dynamic and fluid dance, original music, and visual arts. McGinnis, who has been a soloist for the Tony-winning Broadway hit Fela, will collaborate with top Bay Area instrumentalist to perform his original music. They will also perform West Coast clarinet & composer Bill Smith's 1956 Concerto for Clarinet & Combo.
Davalois Fearon was born in Jamaica and raised in The Bronx, New York. She received a BFA from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, and has been a feature performer around the world with Stephen Petronio Company. She is a member of The Joyce Theater's Prestigious Young Leaders Circle Artists' Committee, a Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO fellowship recipient, and her choreography has been presented throughout New York City and the continental United States.
Mike McGinnis is a musical explorer who will not be limited by stylistic barriers. As a clarinetist and saxophonist, he can swing in the straight ahead tradition, improvise on the furthest edge of the avant-garde, or navigate the rigorous turns of a contemporary classical composition. His open-minded and determinedly individual approach has led to work with jazz innovators like Anthony Braxton, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, Steve Coleman, and Lonnie Plaxico; Parliament/Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell; indie rock mainstays Yo La Tengo; the Afro-Baroque band Stew & The Negro Problem, authors of the Tony-winning musical Passing Strange; and as co-leader of the inventive ensemble The Four Bags.
8pm to 10pm, 2133 University Ave.