Jane Hirshfield
In this solo virtuoso reading, Jane Hirshfield’s meditative poems open spiritual perspectives in daily moments. Her book of essays
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry is a classic, at the intersections of Zen Buddhist practice, thoughtful immediacy, and verse. Ranging from the political, eco- logical, and scientific to the metaphysical, personal, and passionate, Hirshfield praises the radiance of particularity and reckons the consequence of the daily. Her poems and essays traverse the crises of the biosphere, questions of social justice, and the myriad interior quandaries of heart, mind, and spirit. She studied at the San Francisco Zen Center for eight years. Jane Hirshfield is the recipient of many accolades, including being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, winning the California Book Award and The Poetry Center Book Award. She co-founded the Poets for Science traveling installation, which premiered on the Washington Mall at the first March for Science. She was elected to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets. Her ten poetry books include the newly published The Asking: New & Selected Poems (2023) and Ledger (2020). This Mill Valley author contributes to many readings and conferences throughout the state and nation.
Dreams, Fantasies and Stupors
Chelsea Hollow, Soprano
Taylor Chan, Piano
Dreams, Fantasies and Stupors is an evening of art music, whimsy, sensuality, and philosophical introspection. Featuring works by Debussy, Schoenberg, Weill, and Piaf as well as living composers Nicolas Lell Benavides and Brennen Stokes, this program saunters its way through states of fantasy, curiosity, and hilarity.
Purpose Discussion Series
In December and January we gathered at The 222 for three discussions sessions about Authenticity. Each evening focused on a different angle: Art, Performance, and Community. We followed this process with an additional three sessions focusing on Purpose in March and April. As before, the discussion questions stimulated wide-ranging conversation. Notes from the sessions informed the creation of a word cloud. The quantitative data shows in size—the larger the word, the more frequently it occurred. Another more intuitive way to look at a word cloud is to see which words stand out or to notice if there are words missing.
Susan M Gaines: Accidentals
With all the thrills of a rare bird sighting, Gaines’s novel Accidentals limns a compelling love story within a thicket of history, endangered species biology, and Latin American political repression. At a time when US democracy is threat- ened by fascism and unchecked greed, Gaines’s new novel reminds us of how the past shadows the present—and of how often planetary crises of environmental degradation, species loss, and climate change have been eclipsed by seemingly more urgent human political and economic crises.
"Gorgeous, smart, and surprising, Gaines’s family saga takes us into the large world of nations and politics, but also the microscopic world of mud and microbes. Tender and powerful. Also with birds!"– Karen Joy Fowler
The Half Life of Marie Curie
Does anyone really care if an award- winning physicist has an adulterous affair?
Absolutely...if it’s 1912 and the physicist is a woman!
Julie Eccles & Leontyne Mbele Mbong
Directed by Amy Kossow
In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. By 1912, she was the object of ruthless gossip over an alleged affair with the married Frenchman Paul Langevin, all but erasing her achievements from public memory. Weakened and demoralized by the press lambasting her as a “foreign” Jewish temptress and a homewrecking trai- tor, Marie agrees to join her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, to recover from the scandal at Hertha’s seaside retreat on the British coast.
The Half-life of Marie Curie revels in the power of female friendship as it explores the relationship between these two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry.
Tamir Handleman & Tiereny Sutton
Singer Tierney Sutton and pianist Tamir Hendelman join forces for a joyous celebration of Spring, with songs by Richard Rodgers, Clifford Brown, Tom Jobim, Dori Caymmi, Paul Simon, and more. Intimate and swinging, this program will touch and inspire you. Over the twenty years of Sutton’s and Hendelman’s musical relationship, , Sutton has racked up nine Grammy nominations for her fourteen albums as leader, and Hendelman has been arranging, recording and performing with a host of luminaries including Barbra Streisand and Natalie Cole, leading his own trio, and being the featured pianist of the Jeff Hamilton Trio as well as the Grammy-Winning Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. The duo has toured in Italy, Japan, China and throughout the US.
The Shape of Things
Ann Yumi Kobori
Nick Mandracchia
William Webb
Directed by Jeffrey Bracco
In life, like in art, appearances can be deceiving. Evelyn is a graduate art student and Adam is an undergraduate student who also works at a nearby museum as a security guard. Once Adam falls in love with Evelyn, how far is he willing to go to win her approval? How far will Evelyn demand he go? The Shape of Things is a fascinating study into the nature of love and art, and what happens when the two collide.
Neil LaBute’s ‘The Shape of Things’ is a masterful blend of wit, tension, and psychological insight. This provocative play delves deep into the complexities of human relationships and the ethical boundaries of art, leaving audiences both captivated and unsettled. LaBute’s sharp dialogue and intricate character dynamics make ‘The Shape of Things’ an unforgettable theatrical experience that challenges perceptions and sparks intense conversation long after the final curtain.— Theatre Today Magazine
Authenticity Series
In December and January we gathered at The 222 for three discussions sessions about Authenticity. Each evening focused on a different angle: Art, Performance, and Community. Each person’s contribution took the conversation further into the nuances of these ideas.
This word cloud contains words from the notes from all three sessions. The quantitative data shows in size—the larger the word, the more frequently it occurred. Another more intuitive way to look at a word cloud is to see which words stand out or to notice if there are words missing.
Tommy Mesa & JP Jofre: Art of the Tango
Cellist Tommy Mesa and Ban- doneon player and composer JP Jofre combine their considerable talents in a special program of tango music by Astor Piazzola and transcriptions by Jofre himself, one of Argentina’s foremost composers and bandoneon players.
“Mr. Mesa’s playing had a musical intensity that was commanding in every detail. . . " New York Concert Review
“JP Jofre’s compositions are masterly...” Paquito D'Rivera
Songs of Life, Songs of Love
Morgan Harrington - Soprano
Leandra Ramm - Mezzo-Soprano
Frank Johnson - Piano
Revel in selections from Delibes’ Lakme, Offen- bach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Beizet’s Carmen. Savor the music of Clara Schumann, Gustav, Mahler, Charles T. Griffes, and more! Allow opera jewels, cabaret gems, and art song treasures to transport you on passionate, amusing, poignant journeys of life and love.
Film: The Golden Coach
Anna Magnani, the commedia dell’arte, and the music of Vivaldi are the highlights of this magnificent color film, called by Eric Rohmer “the Open Sesame of all Renoir’s work.” A movie about stage comedy, in which all activity and all space becomes theater. The story of Le Carrosse d’Or takes place in the 18th Century and centers round the coach which the Viceroy of Peru has had sent from Europe. His official mistress hopes that this will be among her prerequisites, but the Viceroy has fallen for the star of a travelling commedia dell’arte company.
“My principal collaborator on this film was the late Antonio Vivaldi. I wrote the film while listening to records of his music, and his wit and sense of drama led me on to developments in the best tradition of the Italian theater.” – Jean Renoir
Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus
Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus presents Norden: A Scandinavian Holiday, a program of beautiful sacred and secular music perfect for the season from the five Scandinavian countries – Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Our varied program will feature reimagined traditional classics and contemporary gems in several languages and musical styles. They look forward to returning to the 222 for this warm and festive offering!
FILM: Sansho The Bailiff
A stunning introduction to the work of the great Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi.
"In The Bailif, Mizoguchi's sytle with its perfect balancing and harmonizing of sympathetic involvement and contem-plation, reaches its fullest maturity. Few Artists in any medium have achieved such mastery of technique, mastery of experience, mastery of self (three aspects of the same process). It is the greatest movie I have ever seen.” - Robin Wood
When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders.
“The humanism in Mizoguchi and the Shakespearean sweep of time and society are akin to Renoir’s vision of life’s theater. Their language was the same: the way camera movements expanded consequence; spatial connections that spoke to likeness; and the suffering. Mizoguchi’s work of the fifties is the great tragic moment of cinema... This is a perfect film, one in which we never notice execution or exactness.”– David Thomson
(1954, 124 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles)
Santa Rosa Young People's Chamber Orchestra
Young People’s Chamber Orchestra is a string orchestra without a conductor, designed to mold accomplished young string players into high-functioning musicians with complete attentiveness to detail, and to each other, within the context of the music. The Director trains the musicians to interact and collaborate on high-level music making and nuanced performance. This is the first youth ensemble of its kind in northern California. The director is Aaron Westman.
AYA Piano Trio
The AYA Piano Trio was formed in 2013 at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where they studied with some of the greatest chamber music musicians and soloists in the world. They have since performed across the U.S. on both recital and competitions stages. In 2020 the group was awarded First Prize in the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. Appearances on prestigious concert series such as those at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, Merkin Hall in New York City, the Myra Hess series in Chicago, and the Washington Performing Arts series in the nation’s capitol have assured the upward trajectory of this phenomenal young ensemble.
FILM: The Gleaners And I
Agnès Varda’s extraordinary late-career renaissance began with this wonderfully idiosyncratic, self-reflexive documentary in which the ever-curious French cinema icon explores the little-known world of modern-day gleaners: those living on the margins who survive by foraging for that which society throws away. Embracing the intimacy and freedom of digital filmmaking, Varda posits herself as a kind of gleaner of images and ideas, one whose generous, expansive vision makes room for ruminations on everything from aging to the birth of cinema to the beauty of heart-shaped potatoes. By turns playful, philosophical, and subtly political, The Gleaners and I is a warmly human reflection on the contradictions of our consumerist world from an artist who, like her subjects, finds unexpected richness where few think to look.
Dan Hoyle: Takes All Kinds
Rooted in deep listening, Dan Hoyle combines hours of in- terviews and observations and with respect, humility, transparency, and joyous collaboration he creates a compelling evening of Journalistic Theatre.
He shares with us those riveting stories and the fascinating people who tell them. “Takes All Kinds” is a production which captures the voices around the country focused on a pivotal election.
Claudia Viellela
Experience the magic of Claudia Villela’s voice, piano, and compositions. With Vitor Gonçalves on accordion and piano and special guest Paul
McCandless on several reed instruments, Villela will be performing songs from her latest recording Cartas ao Vento, which was included in the prestigious list of Best 100 Albums of the 2023 Year in DownBeat Magazine Their collaboration will demonstrate the transformative power of music, from haunting ballads to spirited sambas and Brazilian classics, as each note resonates with the passion and synergy between these remarkable musicians. Join them for an unforgettable evening of dynamic harmonies, soul-stirring melodies, filled with moments of pure magic.
Roomful of Teeth
Roomful of Teeth is a two-time Grammy-winning vocal band dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential of the human voice. By engaging collaboratively with artists, thinkers, and community leaders from around the world, the group seeks to uplift and amplify voices old and new while creating and performing meaningful and adventurous music.
Founded in 2009 by Brad Wells, the band was incubated at the Massachusetts Museum of Contem- porary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts, where members studied with some of the world’s most extraordinary singers and teachers. Through experimentation, exploration, and plenty of failures, the group learned that the boundaries of the human voice are never what they seem, that rules can be bent, even broken, and perhaps they should be.
“The music of Roomful of Teeth is not easily categorized or confined by genre...Their singing is both sophisticated and primal, and their blend of voices produces a sound that is at once an- cient and contemporary.” - The New Yorker.
Paul Galbraith
Paul Galbraith is internationally renowned as one of the foremost guitarists of our time. The search- ing depth of his interpretations, along with his revolutionary playing style and instrument, have made him an instantly recognizable figure in the world of classical music.
Selected for Guitar Foundation of America’s 2024 Hall of Fame Artistic Achievement Award, honoring “Monumental Contributions to the Development of the Art and Life of The Classical Guitar” joining such luminaries as Andres Segovia, Julian Bream, John Williams, etc.
“An amazing clarity and a huge dynamic range I have never before heard from any guitarist”
- The Sunday Times (London)“Exceptional artistry”
-THE NEW YORKER
Roni Ben Hur Quartet
Emigrating to the US in 1985, Roni Ben-Hur was one of the first Israeli jazz musicians to make his mark in New York City, blending bebop, Brazilian rhythms, and Middle Eastern influences into a cohesive and captivating sound. His latest record, Jazz Love Letters, the latest master- piece in his forty-plus year career of performing, composing, recording and teaching jazz, is said to be yet another testament to support the fact that the guitarist is widely regarded as one of the jazz-elite.
“Ben-Hur remains a touchstone of classic style and swing...clean-toned, mellifluously melodic, but most importantly swinging, swinging, swinging.” - Andy Robson, Jazz Wise
Vijay Iyer & Graham Haynes
THE 222 is proud to present the World Premiere of the seventy-five-minute multimedia composition Misterioso, created and performed by acclaimed composer-pianist Vijay Iyer and celebrated composer-cornetist flugelhornist Graham Haynes. Funded in part by the National Endowment of the Arts, Misterioso is a dynamic contemporary conception informed by the two artists’ lifelong indebtedness to the artistry of Thelonious Monk.
Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” Vijay Iyer has carved out a unique path as an influential, prolific, shape-shifting presence in twenty-first-century music. A composer and pianist active and revered across multiple musical communities, Iyer has created a consistently innovative, emotionally resonant body of work over the last twenty-five years, earning him a place as one of the leading music-makers of his generation. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, three Grammy nominations, the Alpert Award in the Arts, the Greenfield Prize, and two German “Echo” awards, and was voted DownBeat Magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year four times.
Regarded as an innovator on cornet and flugelhorn, an extraordinary composer, and an emerging force in contemporary electronic music and world music, Graham Haynes has redefined and deconstructed that genre we call jazz. Haynes’s music combines technology to create imaginative, subtle sonic environments within a wide range of influences including African, Arabic, and South Asian musical systems.
ALEXANDER MALOFEEV
“unabashed virtuosity” – The Straights Times
“Malofeev’s artistry is truly remarkable for a young pianist who is at the beginning of what hopefully will be a long and fruitful career." - Boston Classical Review
THE 222 is excited to present an exceptional opportunity! Experience an up-close performance by pianist Alexander Malofeev in the intimate setting of THE 222, before his debut at Davies Symphony Hall later in the month. At 21, Malofeev has quickly established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation.
Alexander plays with profound sensitivity, youthful passion, and stunning virtuosity. He is drawn to the reportedly most difficult pieces in the repertoire. But what may strike listeners more are his cantabiles. Here he shows a deep tenderness that can move his audience to tears. He himself says "I give myself completely. I simply give myself."
Malofeev came to international prominence when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 2014 at age thirteen. Reviewing the performance, Amadeus noted, “Contrary to what could be expected of a youngster … he demonstrated not only high technical accuracy but also an incredible maturity. Crystal clear sounds and perfect balance revealed his exceptional ability.” In 2017, he became the first Young Yamaha Artist.
Alexander Malofeev’s star continues to rise. 2022 appearances include a debut at the Tanglewood Music Festival under Michael Tilson Thomas, where he performed the devilishly difficult Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, and a debut at the Aspen Music Festival with Vasily Petrenko. He has substituted for such luminaries as Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin, and recently completed a tour of Asia, the UK, and Italy.
Julia B. Levine - Ordinary Psalms
Levine will read from her fifth collection of poetry, Ordinary Psalms. In it she “asks everyday life to help her learn how to see beyond appearances into fundamental truths.” As she contemplates the loss of one friend to cancer and another to suicide, along with her own impending visual impairment, Levine holds the world “close as I needed / to see.” Imagistic, lyrical, and at times imploring divine intervention from a god she does not know or trust, these poems curse and praise the extraordi- nary place we live in and are in danger of losing. Lamenting that “this world is a mortal affliction / with wounds in the beautiful,” Ordinary Psalms provides a seductive and lyric rumination on radiance, loss, and grief.
Boudu Saved from Drowning
“In this film, the deeply revered French director Jean Renoir takes advantage of a host of Parisian locations, and the anarchic charms of his lead actor (Michel Simon) to create an effervescent satire of the bourgeoisie.” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
Despite the problems of sound recording in 1932, Jean Renoir (the son of the great Impressionist painter) went out of the studio and shot this film on the streets of Paris and along the banks of the Seine. It is not only a lovely fable about a bourgeois attempt to reform a rebellious bum (Michel Simon is the shaggy, bearded tramp who spills wine on the table and wipes his shoes on the bedspread), but a photographic record of an earlier France. “A beautifully rhythmed film that makes one nostalgic for when it was made.” — Penelope Gilliatt (1932, 87 min, in French w/English subtitles)
A Pair of Silent Film Classics with Live Music
Relive the silent film era, complete with live music and an original score!
Renowned pianist/composer Stephen Prutsman and the San Francisco Chamber Music Society String Quartet will accompany two contrasting classics: cult favorite The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, followed by Buster Keaton’s hilarious Sherlock Jr.
Kim Stanley Robinson
Robinson is “generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers.” – The New Yorker
“the gold-standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing.” – The Atlantic
Join us for a conversation and book reading with NY Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson. Robinson has penned more than twenty books, including the internationally bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, and The Ministry for the Future, which Jonathan Lethem calls “the best science fiction non-fiction novel I’ve ever read.”
Many of Robinson’s novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes, and feature scientists as heroes. He’ll be reading from his latest work, The High Sierra: A Love Story. In it, a departure from science fiction for which he is best known for, he lavishly celebrates this exceptional place, and explores what makes this span of mountains one of the most compelling places on earth. It is a gorgeous, absorbing immersion in a place, born out of a desire to understand and share one of the greatest rapture-inducing experiences our planet offers.
Jindabyne
“Though the actors are speaking English, this film feels very, very foreign – lots of extended shots of landscapes and water that feel ominous, while the film deals with emotional dissonance. Edgy and beautifully rendered.” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
“Set in a mountainous corner of Australia, Ray Lawrence’s film starts with an ominous threat of violence before switching abruptly to what seems to be an everyday tale of marital difficulties. Stewart and Claire (Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, both in top form) have never quite bounced back from a breakdown Claire suffered when their child was born. When Stewart and three buddies having various women troubles of their own escape on a fishing trip, a macabre discovery forces them to confront their individual demons with a terrifying and inescapable immediacy. Starting from Beatrix Christian’s adaptation of Raymond Carver’s story “So Little Water Close to Home,” Lawrence uses genre elements, much as he did in Lantana, to investigate the secrets and lies that corrode sexual relationships. And he discovers both horror and redemption in the powerful natural landscape.” — Telluride Film Festival (2006, 123min)
Nate Klug - Hosts and Guests
“Klug is writing some of the strongest poetry you can find in American letters these days. Stoically fierce and vividly alert.” – McSweeneys
Join us for an evening with poet and essayist Nate Klug, hailed by the Threepenny Review as a poet who is "an original in Eliot's sense of the word." He’ll read from Hosts and Guests, his latest book of poetry, and join THE 222’s literary programmer Laurie Glover in conversation.
Klug’s theme is “the existential life found within embodied experience,” the “baffling unpredictable welcome he finds hidden in ordinary life.” His chiseled, musical lines blend close observation of the natural world, social commentary, and spiritual questioning. Hosts and Guests was published by Princeton University Press in 2020 and is Klug’s second book of poetry.
Klug has been supported by prestigious fellowships from James Merrill House, the MacDowell Colony, and the poetry foundation’s Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship.
Beo String Quartet
The eclectic and highly polished Beo String Quartet has created a niche for itself as a daring, genre-defying ensemble. Rigorously trained in the classical tradition, violinists Jason Neukom and Andrew Giordano, violist Sean Neukom, and cellist Ryan Ash also know their way around contemporary expression.
Expect an exciting concert as this ensemble brings their expressive and technical talents to THE 222 stage as part of an extensive California tour. They have thrilled audiences on three continents with their passionately committed performances. The name “Beo” derives from Latin, meaning “to make happy.”
A Matter of Life and Death
“Produced and directed by Powell and Pressburger, this 1946 classic is in fact jaw-droppingly imaginative existential fantasy – it’s totally original - doesn’t look or feel like any other film!” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s visually ravishing film, in which an elaborate stairway connects a Technicolor earth with a monochrome Heaven, David Niven plays a downed bomber pilot in WWII who senses that his having eluded a fiery death was arbitrary at best. On the operating table he finds himself suspended between Heaven (where he is summoned to argue his case in the celestial courts) and earth (where he has fallen in love with a heavenly WAC in the person of Kim Hunter). This is existential fantasy at its finest. “The doctor who befriends him diagnoses ‘a highly organized hallucination’ and much the same could be said of the film with its bewildering alternations of microcosm and macrocosm, poetry and pathos, monochrome and color. A stunning, subversive masterpiece.” — British Film Institute. The supporting cast includes Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, and a very young Richard Attenborough. (1946, 104 min)
Marc Cary
In a jazz world brimming with brilliant and adventurous pianists, Marc Cary stands apart by way of pedigree and design as one of New York’s best jazz pianists. None of his prestigious peer group ever set the groove behind the drums in Washington DC go-go bands, nor are they graduates of both Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln’s daunting bandstand academies.
“There isn’t much in the modern-jazz-musician tool kit that Marc Cary hasn’t mastered, but he has a particular subspecialty in the area of groove...with a range of rhythmic strategies, from a deep-house pulse to a swinging churn.” — New York Times
Pianist, Marc Cary
Photo credit: Rebecca Meek
-- 23cary
Sacred & Profane - A Chamber Chorus
Sacred & Profane, an a cappella chamber choir, performs traditional and emerging choral works with superior execution. Their challenging repertoire spans the musical canon, including contemporary and highly demanding works.
Into its 45th season, Sacred & Profane invites you to discover the power of music to bring solace as well as inspire us to create positive change. Their new season begins by exploring dreams and visions of a more just world.
THE 222 Bi-Annual Poetry Night
Poetry gets to the heart of human experience in a way that few other written forms do. During this “open-mic” poetry reading, we invite you to share poems that speak both to and from your heart. Bring a poem you love, or an original work authored by yourself, and share in a brief exchange with the audience how the poem speaks to you. This event is free to the public, and all are welcome to attend. Please indicate if you plan to share a poem in your RSVP.
The Shop Around the Corner
“It’s easy to love this classic film populated by flesh and blood characters with a huge helping of nuance and tenderness, as well as dazzling verbal and visual wit!” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
“Close to perfection – one of the most beautifully acted and paced romantic comedies ever made in this country. It is set in the enclosed world of the people who work together in a small department store. Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart are the employees who bicker with each other, and in no other movie has this kind of love-hate been made so convincing. Their performances are full of grace notes; when you watch later James Stewart films, you may wonder what became of this other deft, sensitive pre-drawling Stewart. As for Sullivan, this is a peerless performance: she makes the shopgirl’s pretenses believable, lyrical and funny. The script by Samson Raphaelson is a free adaptation of a play by Nicolaus Lazlo, and though it’s all set in a Hollywood Budapest, the director, Ernst Lubitsch, sustains a faintly European tone.” – Pauline Kael. The dazzling supporting cast includes Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, and Felix Bressart. (1940, 99 min)
Calisto Quartet
Praised for their “lush intensity and bravado,” and “cohesion and intonation one might ex- pect from an ensemble twice their age,” this American-Cana- dian ensemble brings together four musicians who share a passion for offering chamber music to audiences around the world. The Callisto Quartet has garnered top prizes in nearly every major international chamber music competition and has been hailed by audiences across the globe. They are currently the Fellowship Quartet in Residence at Yale University.
“Callisto quartet found warmth and severity...both searching and genial, with a tremendous variety of color...” The Strad
Django Festival Allstars
“Sensational... Standout performance... Hardest swinging band at the Newport Jazz Festival” – Downbeat Magazine
“The highpoint of the entire weekend of the Playboy Festival at The Hollywood Bowl was The Django Festival Allstars” – LA Scene Magazine
Direct from France, Django Festival Allstars bring the music of the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt fully into the twenty-first century. This brilliantly cohesive group of musicians with their unique, high-energy performances pay tribute to Reinhardt, who is considered one of the greatest guitar players of all time and known for playing with an unmistakable cool and jumping joie de vivre.
The music speaks of Paris in the 20s and 30s when “gitane” music filled the air, in the cafés, the streets, in the countryside, a romantic Paris with lovers, campfires, a time of Montmartre, la belle époque, le Boudon café, café au lait, luscious pastry, and a great glass of wine. Django was "king". He teamed with Jazz Violinist Stephane Grappelli and made musical history.
Reinhardt’s driving, swinging style became known as hot jazz. With its roots in American popular music and reverence for Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and other American jazz greats, hot jazz enjoys world-wide popularity. The Allstars honor the traditions while adding their own interpretations, arrangements, and original compositions with stunning virtuosity. They swing like crazy and will break your heart with a ballad!
Viano String Quartet
“Huge range of dynamics, massive sound and spontaneity” — American Record Guide
Viano String Quartet is the First Prize Winner of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the current Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. Formed in 2015 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, the quartet has performed all over the world.
Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir
“The OIGC and the singers in it are uplifting, spiritually and musically nourishing, soul sparkling, and absolutely joyous!!!” – “Cindy” from OIGC’s Facebook page
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir weaves together a family of singers from a wide range of faiths, races, and cultures-- joined in the mission to inspire joy and unity in all people through Negro spirituals and black gospel music. The choir and its dynamic director, Terrance Kelly, have captivated audiences across the world, from Israel to Norway to Australia to the Deep South. Before each show, choir members call out their wishes to send joy, love, and hope to everyone in attendance. And when the choir starts singing, audiences can’t help but jump to their feet, lift their hands, and allow the glory of the music to uplift them.
The award-winning Choir’s exquisite harmonies and stirring gospel repertoire have led to performances with a wide variety of esteemed groups, such as Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel; the Five Blind Boys of Alabama; and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The Choir also appears on Grammy-winning albums by Linda Ronstadt, MC Hammer, Tramaine Hawkins, and others.
The Edge of Heaven
“To my mind, Fatih Akin is one of the most interesting and skilled filmmakers working today. He’s been making films for 20 years and is in his late ‘40s. Born in Germany to Turkish parents, many of his films look at double origins, with crossing borders a recurring theme.” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
Fatih Akin, the critically acclaimed director, was born in Germany to Turkish parents in 1973, and his best work explores these double origins. The Edge of Heaven weaves overlapping tales of friendship and sexuality into a powerful narrative of universal love. Six characters are drawn together by circumstances – an old man and a prostitute, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together. Akin’s piercing sense of the human condition and contemporary world events charge these hyperlinked stories into a multicultural powder keg. A.O. Scott of The New York Times says, the film “has a cumulative power, both intellectual and emotional...by the end, you know the characters in it so well that you can’t believe you’ve seen the movie only once, yet on a second viewing it seems completely new.” (2007, 116 min, in German and Turkish w/ English subtitles
Reverso - Chamber Jazz
“Accessible and thoughtful, lyrical and cerebral... Keberle and his bandmates weave their voices together with supple ease and understated grace to conjure a collective sound that embraces the listener while rewarding closer attention.”— Shaun Brady, Downbeat
Reverso, a trans-oceanic chamber jazz ensemble co-led by trombonist Ryan Keberle and pianist Frank West, presents their original chamber jazz in concert. Reverso looks to bridge the divide between jazz and chamber music realized by an outstanding trio which also includes the acclaimed French cellist Vincent Courtois.
Keberle and West show us that jazz and "classical" music have become even more intertwined in today's music world, since they began to intersect among Ravel and his contemporaries such as Satie, Stravinsky and Milhaud over 100 years earlier.
Reverso's repertoire features original compositions by Keberle and West. They’ll be celebrating music from their upcoming new album inspired by Fauré, Harmonic Alchemy (OutNote Music) due out in November.
Honeydripper
“An extremely independent filmmaker, John Sayles has been making films for more than 40 years. The writer/director has spent his life examining various subcultures. Set in an Alabama juke joint, I’m betting the audience will be up and dancing during this joyful film!” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
Iconoclastic filmmaker John Sayles (The Return of the Secaucus Seven, Matewan, Lone Star) continues his extraordinary examination of the complexities and shifting identities of American sub-cultures. Here, with his usual understated intelligence, he tells the story of a juke joint owner in 1950’s Alabama who recruits a guitar-playing drifter to help him save the club. In this music-driven drama, Sayles captures the moment when the blues became rock and roll. “I’ve always been fascinated by musicians – some follow the music wherever it takes them, or wherever the popular taste goes, others make a stand within a certain genre and let that define them,” Sayles says. With Danny Glover, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Vondie Curtis Hall, Dr. Mabel Johns, Keb Mo, Stacy Keach, and Mary Steenburgen. (2007, 122 min)
Mesa-Yakushev Duo
“One of the Top 10 Classical Music Events of the Year” - San Francisco Chronicle
“…little short of heroic” - New York Times
THE 222 brings together two exceptional talents for an evening of mesmerizing musicianship and amazing synergy. The recipients of multiple honors and awards, Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa and Russian pianist Ilya Yakushev are known not only for their extraordinary musical talents but also for their charismatic stage presence and audience rapport. Mesa has appeared in concert from Carnegie Hall to the Supreme Court and Yakushev has performed internationally, including with the SF Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.
Gerald Clayton
“Gerald Clayton is one of the most accomplished, distinctive and innovative pianists performing today,” — Blue Note President Don Was
Gerald Clayton searches for honest expression in every note he plays. With harmonic curiosity and critical awareness, he develops musical narratives that unfold as a result of both deliberate searching and chance uncovering. Expansion has become part of Clayton’s artistic identity. His music is a celebration of the inherent differences in musical perspectives that promote true artistic synergy. The six-time GRAMMY®-nominated jazz pianist/composer brings his magic to THE 222.
The son of beloved bass player and composer John Clayton, Gerald has performed and recorded with such distinctive artists as Diana Krall, Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, John Scofield and the Clayton Brothers Quintet, and tours and records with saxophone legend Charles Lloyd.
222 Anniversary Celebration with Romero Lubambo, Chico Pinheiro, Claudia Villela & Pamela Driggs
The evening begins with a champagne and hors d’oeuvres reception, followed by Brazilian jazz guitar and vocal virtuosity, as Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro return for a second night’s performance – this time with the unique Brazilian singer, pianist and composer Claudia Villela and vocal favorite Pamela Driggs. The New York Timesdescribes Claudia Villela’s voice as ”remarkable, beautiful, towering.” Driggs’ voice has been called “impeccably gorgeous.”
Romero Lubambo & Chico Pinheiro
THE 222 brings together two of today’s leading Brazilian jazz guitarists, Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro. Lubambo is a prolific recording artist who, Jazziz wrote, “may be the best practitioner of his craft in the world today...[his] facility, creativity and energy are in a class all their own.” Hailing from São Paulo, Pinheiro is the most widely acclaimed Brazilian guitarist to emerge in the past two decades. An esteemed composer and bandleader, he’s collaborated with artists such as Placido Domingo, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Brad Mehldau, Esperanza Spalding, Joyce and Chris Potter. Together they will feature intricate interplay, breathtaking improvisational flights and a sublime repertoire.
BOBBY WATSON QUARTET
Saxophonist and jazz great Bobby Watson will return to Healdsburg after many years. For this special concert, he'll reunite with pianist Edward Simon and bassist Essiet Essiet, former members of Bobby’s highly acclaimed band "Horizon." Jazz drummer Akira Tana will complete the quartet of stellar musicians.
JOHN HEARD TRIBUTE
THE 222 will host a very special evening of music and art honoring John Heard, the world-renowned bassist and artist who passed away last December. Join us for a beautiful, heartfelt tribute and a wonderful meeting of the arts!
The evening will feature music by The John Heard Tribute Trio, with pianist Danny Grissett, drummer Lorca Hart and Essiet Essiet on bass. They’ll be joined by a special guest, to be announced.
A slide show and an exhibition of John Heard’s art will be on display. Attendees will have a chance to share stories, thoughts, and feelings about John, to be captured on video for John’s grandchildren, who’ll attend with other family members.
Produced by THE 222’s jazz programmer, Jessica Felix was a very close friend of John and his family. Heard’s Trio played at the Hotel Healdsburg Lobby from 2003-2008 while Felix was artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.
BENNY GREEN
On Saturday, May 21, THE 222 will be swinging when Benny Green performs a solo jazz piano concert on the amazing, new Yamaha concert grand piano. Benny has been hailed as perhaps the most exciting, hard-swinging, hard-bop pianist to ever emerge from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. An expert in piano technique with decades of real-world experience, he’s played with no less than the most celebrated artists of the last half century, counting Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson among his influencers.
Benny Green is the bearer of the torch and guardian of a legacy handed down to him by his musical mentors. Since emerging under the tutelage of Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard and Ray Brown in the early 1980s, Green has become a highly regarded pianist and bandleader. His efforts to expand upon the language of the classical jazz canon have placed him not only among the best interpreters but also among the vanguard of musicians keeping jazz’s evolution going.
JOHN MARKOFF - WHOLE EARTH
Author and former New York Times reporter John Markoff writes about the intersection of technology and culture. On Saturday, April 23 he will read from his latest book, a new biography of Stewart Brand, of Whole Earth Catalog fame.
Markoff’s book profiles the iconic serial visionary, unfolding the rich, twisting story of Brand’s life. He traces the relationship between the 1960’s agent of the Bay Area counterculture, and over decades the evolution of the “eco pragmatist” (Brand’s own words.) Steward Brand’s journey blended environmental consciousness, hacker capitalism and, while challenging purists in the fight against climate change, an embrace of technologies like nuclear power and genetically modified organisms.
Markoff was a member of the New York Times staff group that won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Apple and other technology companies’ business practices. Among his other books are What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (2005) and Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots (2015) and is featured in the 2001 documentary, The Secret History of Hacking.
JACKIE RYAN TRIO
Vocalist Jackie Ryan brings her trio to THE 222 for one show only on April 16. The uncommon configuration of vocal, trumpet and piano, will sound beautiful with the acoustics of this new venue. Her band includes Erik Jekabson on trumpet and John. R. Burr on piano. Jackie’s show will include the classics from the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Benny Goodman, to the Brazilian standards of Antonio Carlos Jobim and will also include surprises of seldom heard gems.
Jackie “is one of the outstanding jazz vocalists of her generation and, quite possibly, of all time. She is the thoroughbred vocal equivalent of the Triple Crown, rivaling the dexterous sass of Sarah Vaughan, the instinctive smarts of Carmen McRae and the scintillating verve of Diana Krall.” --- Christopher Loudon, Jazz Times
LIFE & LIFE - Film & Concert with Reggie Austin
LIFE & LIFE follows Reggie Austin's personal journey from drug addicted reformed convict serving 35 years inside California prisons, to free man facing his tattered connections to society and family. While Reggie’s story exposes the impact on men of color of harsh sentencing and parole practices, the film also provides emotional uplift in his perseverance in in putting his life back together. Combining breathtaking musical performances, and scenes of raw emotion adjusting to life outside, the film opens up a range of pertinent issues for our time with grace and soul, through the immersive vehicle of music. Directed by N. C. Heikin. (2021, 81 min.)
HOLLYWOOD PIANO TRIO
The trio was formed in 2018 and is comprised of three of LA’s most outstanding musicians. Each of the three have distinguished careers as concerto soloists in LA’s musical landscape. Cani is Concertmaster with the LA Opera, Byers is founding member of the Calder Quartet, and Faliks is Head of the Piano and Professor of Piano at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Each brings their unique, multifaceted international experience and their vibrant personalities to the medium.
HAROLY LOPEZ NUSSA TRIO
Walk the streets of Havana on any day and you’ll hear the soul of Cuba: music pouring from private homes and bustling restaurants, windows rattling with the parties thrown inside, nightclubs pulsing with throngs of people dancing. On his vibrant and spirited third recording for Mack Avenue Records, Havana-based pianist and composer Harold Ló pez- Nussa sets out to capture that stirring sensation with an exhilarating marriage of jazz and Cuban pop music.
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS
For his feature debut, 24-year-old Louis Malle brought together a mesmerizing performance by Jeanne Moreau, evocative cinematography by Henri Decaë, and a now legendary jazz score by Miles Davis. Taking place over the course of one restless Paris night, Malle’s richly atmospheric crime thriller stars Moreau and Maurice Ronet as lovers whose plan to murder her husband (his boss) goes awry. A career touchstone for its director and female star, Elevator to the Gallows was an auspicious beginning to Malle’s eclectic body of work and established Moreau as one of the most captivating actors ever to grace the screen. (1958, 91 min., in French w/English subtitles).
STEPHEN PRUTSMAN - SOLO PIANO
Stephen Prutsman has been described as one of the most innovative musicians of his time. Moving easily from classical, to jazz, to world music styles as a pianist, composer and conductor.
He will present a program called “BACH & FORTH” , using J.S. Bach as a reference point and juxtaposing compositions of his with works by other major classical composers as well as with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker and perhaps an Uzbek folk song in one of his own artful arrangements.
FOREVER
Dutch documentary maker Heddy Honigmann takes us on a mesmerizing tour of artists’ graves in Paris’ famous
Père-Lachaise cemetery, but what could have been a morbid exploration of dead icons becomes instead a moving
celebration of the living. Honigmann follows the men and women who make pilgrimages to the cemetery, unearthing their sometimes sad, sometimes uplifting stories. There are those who come to tend the graves of their loved ones – lost husbands, wives and parents – and those who leave offerings for their favourite writers and musicians – Chopin, Proust, Ingres and Jim Morrison. Occasionally, we follow these pilgrims home, or to work.
SOL FLAMENCO
The passion and fire of Spain hits the stage in Healdsburg. An evening of lightning-fast footwork, haunting guitar rhythms, and soulful singing.
The show features a cast of artists who have lived and trained in Spain, the birthplace of flamenco: dancers Damien Alvarez and Joelle Gonçalves, flamenco guitarist Mark Taylor with special guest singer, Yuli Norish “La Yuli”. The group has been working together for many years and it shows in the dancers' precision footwork, emotionally haunting vocals, the guitarist’s bold accompaniment
“Sol Flamenco is an electrifying evening of phenomenal music and dance that will carry you into a world of passion that is unique to flamenco” says Alexa Chipman in her 5-star review of the group, Imagination Lane Review San Francisco North Bay Theatre & Dance.
EDWARD SIMON
Venezuelan-born Edward Simon, will play a solo piano concert at THE 222 in Healdsburg on Saturday, December 4, celebrating the recent release of his newest recording “Solo Live” on Ridgeway Records. Recorded at Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company on his 50th birthday in 2019, Solo Live is Simon’s first unaccompanied recording. Unedited, it’s a ravishing portrait of one of jazz’s most eloquent improvisers investigating a setting that’s become one of his primary outlets during the pandemic. Long leery of performing alone, a situation that leaves a pianist “really exposed,” he described the Piedmont Piano date as “a leap of faith.” This is his 15th album as a leader and his first unaccompanied recording.
Carlos Henrique Pereira Performing with his son Gabriel Alexander Pereira
The father and son duo will present a diverse repertoire of jazz standards, Brazilian classics, and original compositions by both. Carlos will be playing acoustic nylon string guitar and Gabriel, the cello. Both are also pianists. For this performance, they will be joined by Leif Dering on acoustic bass and Joe Campbell on drums.
Carlos is Brazilian and has released 5 albums of original music. Gabriel is 11 years old, was born in Sonoma, and loves to compose and play improvised music. He is a member of the Healdsburg Jazz Future All-Stars Band, the Santa Rosa Symphony Jazz Ensemble, and has been performing regularly around the Healdsburg area with his dad.
THE BEACHES OF AGNUS
“I’m playing the role of a little old lady, pleasantly plump and talkative and telling her life story. And yet it’s others I’m interested in, others I like to film. Others who intrigue me, motivate me, make me ask questions, disconcert me, fascinate me. This time, to talk about myself, I thought, ‘If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes.’ If we opened me up, we’d find beaches.” Agnes Varda, The Beaches of Agnes
At the age of 80, director Agnes Varda embarked on a freewheeling journey documenting her life. In clever, free associative set pieces, she joyfully explores her past, her friendships, and her home turf on the Rue Daguerre in Paris. “Uninhibited about sex, generous in her affections, worldly-wise, blending tender recollections with self- deprecating antics, Varda, free from fear and shame, turns her tale of a life lived in art into a work of art in its own right, and one of her best—a rapturous tribute to life itself.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker (2008, 110 min., in French with English subtitles)
KITKA
Wintersongs is Kitka's critically-acclaimed and wildly popular December concert offering. For centuries, communities around the world have utilized the power of collective singing to summon warmth, cheer, and spiritual connection to sustain themselves through the challenges and uncertainties of the coldest and darkest season. Returning to the stage after nearly two years of pandemic separation, Kitka’s reunited voices will joyfully bestow musical blessings for health, hope, peace, good fortune, and the return of the light as the Winter Solstice and New Year draw near.
PAUL MCCANDLESS & ART LANDE DUO
ERNIE WATTS QUARTET
Billy Hart Quartet
NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart brings his exciting quartet to THE 222, with Ethan Iverson on piano, Dayna Stephens on saxophones and Peter Barshay on bass. It has been many years since Hart has brought his quartet to California. Hart, Iversen, and Stephens are flying in from the East coast for this special occasion.
There will be one show on Saturday, September 11, at 7PM and one on Sunday, September 12, at 7PM in the very intimate concert performance space with club-style seating located within the Paul Mahder Gallery.
“Billy Hart is one of the greatest living jazz drummers. Hell, he’s one of the greatest drummers of ALL TIME.” - Joshua Redman
VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES WITH ROBYN MUSCARDINI
The basic tenet of Visual Thinking Strategies is that finding meaning in imagery calls upon many aspects of cognition—personal association, questioning, speculating, analyzing, fact-finding, and categorizing—and that looking at art, going through a process of aesthetic development, brings us forward in our cognitive development as a whole. After a brief introduction to the origins and ongoing theoretical underpinnings behind the development of Visual Thinking Strategies, we will spend time looking together at one of the works of art in the gallery, with an eye to the range of skills we draw on, from simple identification (naming what one sees) to complex interpretation on contextual, metaphoric and philosophical levels.
GEORGE CABLES TRIO
Cables is traveling to California from New York for the first time with his trio since 2018 to be part of the grand opening of THE 222, Healdsburg’s newest performing arts venue. Mr. Cables and THE 222 jazz programmer Jessica Felix have known each other since the early 1980’s when they first met while Jessica was working at the Keystone Korner Jazz Club in San Francisco. Since then, they have become good friends and she has presented him numerous times over the years. “George is always there when I start with a new venture, happy to do what it takes to make the concert a success”.
Indigenous Voices Series: Kurt Schweigman
Kurt Schweigman will dazzle listeners with his poignant narratives, often humorous, based on his urban American Indian upbringing and present life as a Lakota person in Sonoma County. This versa- tile poet has won poetry slams from California to Germany and guest edited for Poetry magazine. He will be sharing prose and poetry from his new book Confluences of Solitude (Mitote Press, 2023). Themes include nature, activism, family, the real and hyperreal, dreams, and solitude. His vision sometimes takes surreal forms, transforms bison into demonstrators:
“Representatives from various buffalo herds across the Great Plains converged on Capitol Hill for a rally in support of their freedom rights as American Bison. ‘We have gotten bad press from rare isolated attacks on Yellowstone tourists and Sturgis bikers, but we were provoked.’”
“Boisterous as rapids after rainfall, subversive and tactful, here’s a poetry raised on fire and ice,” Jimmy Santiago Baca
Storms etc.: Daniel Cilli-Baritone and Tamirzhan Yerzhanov- piano
Internationally acclaimed pianist Temirzhan Yerzhanov and distin- guished baritone Daniel Cilli join their formidable skills and experi- ence to present a taut seventy- minute program of elegant piano solos and stormy songs for voice and piano. Featuring sophisticated and lyrical works from romantic and modern eras written by a diverse array of male and female, European and American composers and po- ets. The program is bookended by songs with a storm theme and cul- minates in the song cycle: Mortal Storm by composer Robert Owens to poetry of Langston Hughes.
Whether interpreting the complex works of Verdi, Puccini, or contemporary composers, Daniel Cilli’s artistry remains unparalleled, leaving a lasting impact on all who have the privilege of witnessing his extraordinary talent. — Opera Review Journal
El Olvido
Heddy Honigmann returns to Lima for this typically quirky, deeply humanist exploration of everyday resilience and resignation. For Honigmann, Lima is “the forgotten city,” though its citizens live in the shadow of the presidential palace. If presidents and dictators in endless parade have forgotten about the citizens
of Lima, the citizens have not forgotten about them. In fact, if you want a concise history of the “scandals, dirty wars and towering inflation” of the last few decades, just ask a bartender, a waiter, a leather craftsman. All recall to the ever approach- able Honigmann how they have created their own reality to survive in an economy in ruins. From the youngsters doing back- flips in the street for coins to the waiter who sagely admits, “I am a clown,” survival is a performance. For all the good it does these average Peruvians, having their eyes wide open is a point of pride. But if realism is good, magical realism is better– the sort that allows you to juggle glass balls in the air in the middle of a crowded intersection and calls it progress. – Judy Bloch, SFIFF (2008)
Indigenous Voices Series: Kim Shuck
Join the recent San Francisco Poet Laureate in this family friendly event and enjoy her celebratory po- etry about deer, especially inhabitants of San Francisco. Shuck explores how these resilient herbivores embody the heartbreaking and exhilarating blend of natural and urban settings. Deer meander under highways and along park streams in the poet’s lyric range. Of the poet’s book Deer Trails (from City Lights), Dawn Pettigrew writes, “She is blending tradition with modernity, history with humor and her own Indigenous perspective with everything else. She is kind enough to invite us all into her mind, her life and her tribe.” A recent chapbook, A-wi / Deer, is co-authored with Denise Low.
Kim Shuck is a poet, author, weaver, and bead work artist who draws from Southeastern Native American culture and tradition as well as contemporary urban Indian life. She was born in San Fran- cisco, CA, and belongs to the northern California Cherokee diaspora. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and also has Sac and Fox and Polish ancestry.
Ghost Quartet
Dave Malloy’s quirky and wondrous ghost-story-musical, Ghost Quartet is as life affirming
in its effect, as it is astounding in its form. The piece is author-described as “a song cycle about love, death, and whiskey” in an interwoven tale spanning seven centuries, with a murderous sister, a tree house astronomer, a bear, a subway and the ghost of Thelonius Monk.
Echoes of Souls: Dia de los Muertos in Song
Celeste Camarena Mezzo-soprano
Galen Green Saxophone
Paul Dab Piano
A tribute to the departed, Echoes of Souls, critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano Celeste Camarena invites you to immerse yourself in a hauntingly beautiful Dia de los Muertos recital. Join us on a journey that captures the essence of this sacred celebration with a touch of magic and mystery,- featuring works from Daniel Crozier, María Grever, Silvestre Revueltas, Blas Galindo,Carlos Chávez, and Rodrígo Neftalí.
Ryan Keberle + Catharsis
Ryan Keberle is an acclaimed jazz trombonist, composer, and educator known for his innovative approach to blending diverse musical genres. His versatile style and commitment to pushing the boundaries of jazz are evident in his work with his band, Catharsis, which brings together elements of chamber music, South American folk and indie rock within a traditional jazz framework. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times for its “potent blend of cinematic sweep and lush, ear-grabbing melodies,” Catharsis has thrilled audiences across the globe for close to a decade.
Indigenous Voices Series: Feast Days and Traditions with Lucille Lang Day and Denise Low
Lucille Lang Day, Wampanoag, is a descendant of the tribal nation associated with the first Thanksgiving. Denise Low has heritage from New Jersey area people who celebrated a unique doll dance of gratitude for nature’s gifts. Both will explain, in comments and in poetry, what traditions continue in present time and possible connections to Thanksgiving.
Audience members are invited to bring a thanksgiving poem to share in an open mic session after the reading.
The Romantic Era in Song
Deborah Martinez Rosengaus - Mezzo Soprano
James Jaffe - Cello
Ian Scarfe - Piano
A European tour de force, featuring Italian songs by composers Braga and Tosti, a set of French impressions by Camille Saint-Saens, including the famous Danse Macabre and some of his delightful lesser known songs, and American composer Amy Beach with “Chanson d’Amour.” The trio will also present their own arrangements of Dvorak and De Falla folk songs.
David Weiss Sextet
David Weiss- Trumpet
Myron Walden- Alto Sax
Teodross Avery- Tenor Sax
Victor Gould- Piano
Essiet Essiet- Bass
E.J. Strickland- Drums
Trumpeter and composer David Weiss has distinguished himself by finding flexibility and innovation in music that has its roots in the mainstream. He’s worked with legends like Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson and Slide Hampton, leads the bands The Cookers, the New Jazz Composers Octet and the David Weiss Sextet, and is featured on over eighty critically-acclaimed recordings.
Harmonies shift in unsettled patterns; the pieces, beautiful as they are, work through their troubles in long, ruminative phrases, and the soloists likewise pitch their virtuosity in search of an elusive place they can call home....The tunes are lovely.
-Jon Garelick, DownBeat
Megumi Inouye
Megumi Inouye is a gift wrapping and packaging artist. Known for her sustainable wrapping de- signs and creative innovations, she encourages repurposing, utilizing everyday things around us and using organic and recyclable items. She attributes her passion for gift wrapping to her Japanese heritage and the cultural values that underlie the meaning behind the art of giving. She will intersperse short essays that illuminate these relationships with intervals of audience participation. Her work has been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and in Yahoo! Lifestyle, American Craft Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Vieness Piano Duo
This attractive duo has enthralled audiences in their captivating performances throughout the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. Husband and wife Vijay Venkatesh and Eva Schaumkell’s adeptness for conversation coupled with a commanding stage presence has made them in demand world-wide. Their program will include music by Bach, Barber, Kurtag, Schubert, Ravel and Brahms.
"Vienness’s performance left no doubt that they combine staggering technical prowess, a sense of command, and depth of expression." -The Daily Independent
FILM: Playtime
Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the lovably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a baffling modern world, this time in Paris. A group of tourists, whose paths are only occasionally crossed by M. Hulot, wander through the interchangeable glass-and-steel skyscrapers which comprise modern-day Paris. Visual gags occur with such simultaneous abundance that the film demands countless viewings for each joke to be fully savored. The film’s second hour, the opening night activities at an expensive restaurant that is not quite ready to open, comprises one of the cinema’s most masterfully orchestrated comic set-pieces. With every inch of its super-wide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting record of a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.
(1967, 124 min, in English, German and French w/subtitles)
Love in Many Forms: Morgan Balfour
Morgan Balfour Soprano
Dominic Favia - Trumpet
Cynthia Black - Violin
Pauline Kempf - Violin
Octavio Mujica - Cello
Derek Tam - Harpsichord
With a small baroque ensemble, fea- turing soprano voice and trumpet,
this event explores the themes of love through early music composers, both fa- mous and lesser known. A set of Purcell songs chronicle romantic love and loss, a Pepusch English cantata explores love of country, and a riotous Handel cantata joyfully exclaims a love of life. Showcas- ing music that moves from mournful to bombastic, this concert features early music specialist performers.
... “crystal-clear tone” and broad emotional palette.
-San Francisco Classical Voice
The Shape of Things
Ann Yumi Kobori
Nick Mandracchia
William Webb
Directed by Jeffrey Bracco
In life, like in art, appearances can be deceiving. Evelyn is a graduate art student and Adam is an undergraduate student who also works at a nearby museum as a security guard. Once Adam falls in love with Evelyn, how far is he willing to go to win her approval? How far will Evelyn demand he go? The Shape of Things is a fascinating study into the nature of love and art, and what happens when the two collide.
Neil LaBute’s ‘The Shape of Things’ is a masterful blend of wit, tension, and psychological insight. This provocative play delves deep into the complexities of human relationships and the ethical boundaries of art, leaving audiences both captivated and unsettled. LaBute’s sharp dialogue and intricate character dynamics make ‘The Shape of Things’ an unforgettable theatrical experience that challenges perceptions and sparks intense conversation long after the final curtain.— Theatre Today Magazine
ALEXANDER MALOFEEV
“unabashed virtuosity” – The Straights Times
“Malofeev’s artistry is truly remarkable for a young pianist who is at the beginning of what hopefully will be a long and fruitful career." - Boston Classical Review
THE 222 is excited to present an exceptional opportunity! Experience an up-close performance by pianist Alexander Malofeev in the intimate setting of THE 222, before his debut at Davies Symphony Hall later in the month. At 21, Malofeev has quickly established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation.
Alexander plays with profound sensitivity, youthful passion, and stunning virtuosity. He is drawn to the reportedly most difficult pieces in the repertoire. But what may strike listeners more are his cantabiles. Here he shows a deep tenderness that can move his audience to tears. He himself says "I give myself completely. I simply give myself."
Malofeev came to international prominence when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 2014 at age thirteen. Reviewing the performance, Amadeus noted, “Contrary to what could be expected of a youngster … he demonstrated not only high technical accuracy but also an incredible maturity. Crystal clear sounds and perfect balance revealed his exceptional ability.” In 2017, he became the first Young Yamaha Artist.
Alexander Malofeev’s star continues to rise. 2022 appearances include a debut at the Tanglewood Music Festival under Michael Tilson Thomas, where he performed the devilishly difficult Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, and a debut at the Aspen Music Festival with Vasily Petrenko. He has substituted for such luminaries as Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin, and recently completed a tour of Asia, the UK, and Italy.
Julia B. Levine - Ordinary Psalms
Levine will read from her fifth collection of poetry, Ordinary Psalms. In it she “asks everyday life to help her learn how to see beyond appearances into fundamental truths.” As she contemplates the loss of one friend to cancer and another to suicide, along with her own impending visual impairment, Levine holds the world “close as I needed / to see.” Imagistic, lyrical, and at times imploring divine intervention from a god she does not know or trust, these poems curse and praise the extraordi- nary place we live in and are in danger of losing. Lamenting that “this world is a mortal affliction / with wounds in the beautiful,” Ordinary Psalms provides a seductive and lyric rumination on radiance, loss, and grief.
Boudu Saved from Drowning
“In this film, the deeply revered French director Jean Renoir takes advantage of a host of Parisian locations, and the anarchic charms of his lead actor (Michel Simon) to create an effervescent satire of the bourgeoisie.” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
Despite the problems of sound recording in 1932, Jean Renoir (the son of the great Impressionist painter) went out of the studio and shot this film on the streets of Paris and along the banks of the Seine. It is not only a lovely fable about a bourgeois attempt to reform a rebellious bum (Michel Simon is the shaggy, bearded tramp who spills wine on the table and wipes his shoes on the bedspread), but a photographic record of an earlier France. “A beautifully rhythmed film that makes one nostalgic for when it was made.” — Penelope Gilliatt (1932, 87 min, in French w/English subtitles)
A Pair of Silent Film Classics with Live Music
Relive the silent film era, complete with live music and an original score!
Renowned pianist/composer Stephen Prutsman and the San Francisco Chamber Music Society String Quartet will accompany two contrasting classics: cult favorite The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, followed by Buster Keaton’s hilarious Sherlock Jr.
Kim Stanley Robinson
Robinson is “generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers.” – The New Yorker
“the gold-standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing.” – The Atlantic
Join us for a conversation and book reading with NY Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson. Robinson has penned more than twenty books, including the internationally bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, and The Ministry for the Future, which Jonathan Lethem calls “the best science fiction non-fiction novel I’ve ever read.”
Many of Robinson’s novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes, and feature scientists as heroes. He’ll be reading from his latest work, The High Sierra: A Love Story. In it, a departure from science fiction for which he is best known for, he lavishly celebrates this exceptional place, and explores what makes this span of mountains one of the most compelling places on earth. It is a gorgeous, absorbing immersion in a place, born out of a desire to understand and share one of the greatest rapture-inducing experiences our planet offers.
Jindabyne
“Though the actors are speaking English, this film feels very, very foreign – lots of extended shots of landscapes and water that feel ominous, while the film deals with emotional dissonance. Edgy and beautifully rendered.” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
“Set in a mountainous corner of Australia, Ray Lawrence’s film starts with an ominous threat of violence before switching abruptly to what seems to be an everyday tale of marital difficulties. Stewart and Claire (Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, both in top form) have never quite bounced back from a breakdown Claire suffered when their child was born. When Stewart and three buddies having various women troubles of their own escape on a fishing trip, a macabre discovery forces them to confront their individual demons with a terrifying and inescapable immediacy. Starting from Beatrix Christian’s adaptation of Raymond Carver’s story “So Little Water Close to Home,” Lawrence uses genre elements, much as he did in Lantana, to investigate the secrets and lies that corrode sexual relationships. And he discovers both horror and redemption in the powerful natural landscape.” — Telluride Film Festival (2006, 123min)
Nate Klug - Hosts and Guests
“Klug is writing some of the strongest poetry you can find in American letters these days. Stoically fierce and vividly alert.” – McSweeneys
Join us for an evening with poet and essayist Nate Klug, hailed by the Threepenny Review as a poet who is "an original in Eliot's sense of the word." He’ll read from Hosts and Guests, his latest book of poetry, and join THE 222’s literary programmer Laurie Glover in conversation.
Klug’s theme is “the existential life found within embodied experience,” the “baffling unpredictable welcome he finds hidden in ordinary life.” His chiseled, musical lines blend close observation of the natural world, social commentary, and spiritual questioning. Hosts and Guests was published by Princeton University Press in 2020 and is Klug’s second book of poetry.
Klug has been supported by prestigious fellowships from James Merrill House, the MacDowell Colony, and the poetry foundation’s Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship.
Beo String Quartet
The eclectic and highly polished Beo String Quartet has created a niche for itself as a daring, genre-defying ensemble. Rigorously trained in the classical tradition, violinists Jason Neukom and Andrew Giordano, violist Sean Neukom, and cellist Ryan Ash also know their way around contemporary expression.
Expect an exciting concert as this ensemble brings their expressive and technical talents to THE 222 stage as part of an extensive California tour. They have thrilled audiences on three continents with their passionately committed performances. The name “Beo” derives from Latin, meaning “to make happy.”
A Matter of Life and Death
“Produced and directed by Powell and Pressburger, this 1946 classic is in fact jaw-droppingly imaginative existential fantasy – it’s totally original - doesn’t look or feel like any other film!” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s visually ravishing film, in which an elaborate stairway connects a Technicolor earth with a monochrome Heaven, David Niven plays a downed bomber pilot in WWII who senses that his having eluded a fiery death was arbitrary at best. On the operating table he finds himself suspended between Heaven (where he is summoned to argue his case in the celestial courts) and earth (where he has fallen in love with a heavenly WAC in the person of Kim Hunter). This is existential fantasy at its finest. “The doctor who befriends him diagnoses ‘a highly organized hallucination’ and much the same could be said of the film with its bewildering alternations of microcosm and macrocosm, poetry and pathos, monochrome and color. A stunning, subversive masterpiece.” — British Film Institute. The supporting cast includes Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, and a very young Richard Attenborough. (1946, 104 min)
Marc Cary
In a jazz world brimming with brilliant and adventurous pianists, Marc Cary stands apart by way of pedigree and design as one of New York’s best jazz pianists. None of his prestigious peer group ever set the groove behind the drums in Washington DC go-go bands, nor are they graduates of both Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln’s daunting bandstand academies.
“There isn’t much in the modern-jazz-musician tool kit that Marc Cary hasn’t mastered, but he has a particular subspecialty in the area of groove...with a range of rhythmic strategies, from a deep-house pulse to a swinging churn.” — New York Times
Pianist, Marc Cary
Photo credit: Rebecca Meek
-- 23cary
Sacred & Profane - A Chamber Chorus
Sacred & Profane, an a cappella chamber choir, performs traditional and emerging choral works with superior execution. Their challenging repertoire spans the musical canon, including contemporary and highly demanding works.
Into its 45th season, Sacred & Profane invites you to discover the power of music to bring solace as well as inspire us to create positive change. Their new season begins by exploring dreams and visions of a more just world.
THE 222 Bi-Annual Poetry Night
Poetry gets to the heart of human experience in a way that few other written forms do. During this “open-mic” poetry reading, we invite you to share poems that speak both to and from your heart. Bring a poem you love, or an original work authored by yourself, and share in a brief exchange with the audience how the poem speaks to you. This event is free to the public, and all are welcome to attend. Please indicate if you plan to share a poem in your RSVP.
The Shop Around the Corner
“It’s easy to love this classic film populated by flesh and blood characters with a huge helping of nuance and tenderness, as well as dazzling verbal and visual wit!” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
“Close to perfection – one of the most beautifully acted and paced romantic comedies ever made in this country. It is set in the enclosed world of the people who work together in a small department store. Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart are the employees who bicker with each other, and in no other movie has this kind of love-hate been made so convincing. Their performances are full of grace notes; when you watch later James Stewart films, you may wonder what became of this other deft, sensitive pre-drawling Stewart. As for Sullivan, this is a peerless performance: she makes the shopgirl’s pretenses believable, lyrical and funny. The script by Samson Raphaelson is a free adaptation of a play by Nicolaus Lazlo, and though it’s all set in a Hollywood Budapest, the director, Ernst Lubitsch, sustains a faintly European tone.” – Pauline Kael. The dazzling supporting cast includes Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, and Felix Bressart. (1940, 99 min)
Django Festival Allstars
“Sensational... Standout performance... Hardest swinging band at the Newport Jazz Festival” – Downbeat Magazine
“The highpoint of the entire weekend of the Playboy Festival at The Hollywood Bowl was The Django Festival Allstars” – LA Scene Magazine
Direct from France, Django Festival Allstars bring the music of the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt fully into the twenty-first century. This brilliantly cohesive group of musicians with their unique, high-energy performances pay tribute to Reinhardt, who is considered one of the greatest guitar players of all time and known for playing with an unmistakable cool and jumping joie de vivre.
The music speaks of Paris in the 20s and 30s when “gitane” music filled the air, in the cafés, the streets, in the countryside, a romantic Paris with lovers, campfires, a time of Montmartre, la belle époque, le Boudon café, café au lait, luscious pastry, and a great glass of wine. Django was "king". He teamed with Jazz Violinist Stephane Grappelli and made musical history.
Reinhardt’s driving, swinging style became known as hot jazz. With its roots in American popular music and reverence for Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and other American jazz greats, hot jazz enjoys world-wide popularity. The Allstars honor the traditions while adding their own interpretations, arrangements, and original compositions with stunning virtuosity. They swing like crazy and will break your heart with a ballad!
Viano String Quartet
“Huge range of dynamics, massive sound and spontaneity” — American Record Guide
Viano String Quartet is the First Prize Winner of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the current Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. Formed in 2015 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, the quartet has performed all over the world.
Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir
“The OIGC and the singers in it are uplifting, spiritually and musically nourishing, soul sparkling, and absolutely joyous!!!” – “Cindy” from OIGC’s Facebook page
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir weaves together a family of singers from a wide range of faiths, races, and cultures-- joined in the mission to inspire joy and unity in all people through Negro spirituals and black gospel music. The choir and its dynamic director, Terrance Kelly, have captivated audiences across the world, from Israel to Norway to Australia to the Deep South. Before each show, choir members call out their wishes to send joy, love, and hope to everyone in attendance. And when the choir starts singing, audiences can’t help but jump to their feet, lift their hands, and allow the glory of the music to uplift them.
The award-winning Choir’s exquisite harmonies and stirring gospel repertoire have led to performances with a wide variety of esteemed groups, such as Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel; the Five Blind Boys of Alabama; and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The Choir also appears on Grammy-winning albums by Linda Ronstadt, MC Hammer, Tramaine Hawkins, and others.
The Edge of Heaven
“To my mind, Fatih Akin is one of the most interesting and skilled filmmakers working today. He’s been making films for 20 years and is in his late ‘40s. Born in Germany to Turkish parents, many of his films look at double origins, with crossing borders a recurring theme.” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
Fatih Akin, the critically acclaimed director, was born in Germany to Turkish parents in 1973, and his best work explores these double origins. The Edge of Heaven weaves overlapping tales of friendship and sexuality into a powerful narrative of universal love. Six characters are drawn together by circumstances – an old man and a prostitute, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together. Akin’s piercing sense of the human condition and contemporary world events charge these hyperlinked stories into a multicultural powder keg. A.O. Scott of The New York Times says, the film “has a cumulative power, both intellectual and emotional...by the end, you know the characters in it so well that you can’t believe you’ve seen the movie only once, yet on a second viewing it seems completely new.” (2007, 116 min, in German and Turkish w/ English subtitles
Reverso - Chamber Jazz
“Accessible and thoughtful, lyrical and cerebral... Keberle and his bandmates weave their voices together with supple ease and understated grace to conjure a collective sound that embraces the listener while rewarding closer attention.”— Shaun Brady, Downbeat
Reverso, a trans-oceanic chamber jazz ensemble co-led by trombonist Ryan Keberle and pianist Frank West, presents their original chamber jazz in concert. Reverso looks to bridge the divide between jazz and chamber music realized by an outstanding trio which also includes the acclaimed French cellist Vincent Courtois.
Keberle and West show us that jazz and "classical" music have become even more intertwined in today's music world, since they began to intersect among Ravel and his contemporaries such as Satie, Stravinsky and Milhaud over 100 years earlier.
Reverso's repertoire features original compositions by Keberle and West. They’ll be celebrating music from their upcoming new album inspired by Fauré, Harmonic Alchemy (OutNote Music) due out in November.
Honeydripper
“An extremely independent filmmaker, John Sayles has been making films for more than 40 years. The writer/director has spent his life examining various subcultures. Set in an Alabama juke joint, I’m betting the audience will be up and dancing during this joyful film!” – Eleanor Nichols, Film Programmer
Iconoclastic filmmaker John Sayles (The Return of the Secaucus Seven, Matewan, Lone Star) continues his extraordinary examination of the complexities and shifting identities of American sub-cultures. Here, with his usual understated intelligence, he tells the story of a juke joint owner in 1950’s Alabama who recruits a guitar-playing drifter to help him save the club. In this music-driven drama, Sayles captures the moment when the blues became rock and roll. “I’ve always been fascinated by musicians – some follow the music wherever it takes them, or wherever the popular taste goes, others make a stand within a certain genre and let that define them,” Sayles says. With Danny Glover, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Vondie Curtis Hall, Dr. Mabel Johns, Keb Mo, Stacy Keach, and Mary Steenburgen. (2007, 122 min)
Mesa-Yakushev Duo
“One of the Top 10 Classical Music Events of the Year” - San Francisco Chronicle
“…little short of heroic” - New York Times
THE 222 brings together two exceptional talents for an evening of mesmerizing musicianship and amazing synergy. The recipients of multiple honors and awards, Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa and Russian pianist Ilya Yakushev are known not only for their extraordinary musical talents but also for their charismatic stage presence and audience rapport. Mesa has appeared in concert from Carnegie Hall to the Supreme Court and Yakushev has performed internationally, including with the SF Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.
Gerald Clayton
“Gerald Clayton is one of the most accomplished, distinctive and innovative pianists performing today,” — Blue Note President Don Was
Gerald Clayton searches for honest expression in every note he plays. With harmonic curiosity and critical awareness, he develops musical narratives that unfold as a result of both deliberate searching and chance uncovering. Expansion has become part of Clayton’s artistic identity. His music is a celebration of the inherent differences in musical perspectives that promote true artistic synergy. The six-time GRAMMY®-nominated jazz pianist/composer brings his magic to THE 222.
The son of beloved bass player and composer John Clayton, Gerald has performed and recorded with such distinctive artists as Diana Krall, Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, John Scofield and the Clayton Brothers Quintet, and tours and records with saxophone legend Charles Lloyd.
222 Anniversary Celebration with Romero Lubambo, Chico Pinheiro, Claudia Villela & Pamela Driggs
The evening begins with a champagne and hors d’oeuvres reception, followed by Brazilian jazz guitar and vocal virtuosity, as Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro return for a second night’s performance – this time with the unique Brazilian singer, pianist and composer Claudia Villela and vocal favorite Pamela Driggs. The New York Timesdescribes Claudia Villela’s voice as ”remarkable, beautiful, towering.” Driggs’ voice has been called “impeccably gorgeous.”
Romero Lubambo & Chico Pinheiro
THE 222 brings together two of today’s leading Brazilian jazz guitarists, Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro. Lubambo is a prolific recording artist who, Jazziz wrote, “may be the best practitioner of his craft in the world today...[his] facility, creativity and energy are in a class all their own.” Hailing from São Paulo, Pinheiro is the most widely acclaimed Brazilian guitarist to emerge in the past two decades. An esteemed composer and bandleader, he’s collaborated with artists such as Placido Domingo, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Brad Mehldau, Esperanza Spalding, Joyce and Chris Potter. Together they will feature intricate interplay, breathtaking improvisational flights and a sublime repertoire.
BOBBY WATSON QUARTET
Saxophonist and jazz great Bobby Watson will return to Healdsburg after many years. For this special concert, he'll reunite with pianist Edward Simon and bassist Essiet Essiet, former members of Bobby’s highly acclaimed band "Horizon." Jazz drummer Akira Tana will complete the quartet of stellar musicians.
JOHN HEARD TRIBUTE
THE 222 will host a very special evening of music and art honoring John Heard, the world-renowned bassist and artist who passed away last December. Join us for a beautiful, heartfelt tribute and a wonderful meeting of the arts!
The evening will feature music by The John Heard Tribute Trio, with pianist Danny Grissett, drummer Lorca Hart and Essiet Essiet on bass. They’ll be joined by a special guest, to be announced.
A slide show and an exhibition of John Heard’s art will be on display. Attendees will have a chance to share stories, thoughts, and feelings about John, to be captured on video for John’s grandchildren, who’ll attend with other family members.
Produced by THE 222’s jazz programmer, Jessica Felix was a very close friend of John and his family. Heard’s Trio played at the Hotel Healdsburg Lobby from 2003-2008 while Felix was artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.
BENNY GREEN
On Saturday, May 21, THE 222 will be swinging when Benny Green performs a solo jazz piano concert on the amazing, new Yamaha concert grand piano. Benny has been hailed as perhaps the most exciting, hard-swinging, hard-bop pianist to ever emerge from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. An expert in piano technique with decades of real-world experience, he’s played with no less than the most celebrated artists of the last half century, counting Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson among his influencers.
Benny Green is the bearer of the torch and guardian of a legacy handed down to him by his musical mentors. Since emerging under the tutelage of Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard and Ray Brown in the early 1980s, Green has become a highly regarded pianist and bandleader. His efforts to expand upon the language of the classical jazz canon have placed him not only among the best interpreters but also among the vanguard of musicians keeping jazz’s evolution going.
JOHN MARKOFF - WHOLE EARTH
Author and former New York Times reporter John Markoff writes about the intersection of technology and culture. On Saturday, April 23 he will read from his latest book, a new biography of Stewart Brand, of Whole Earth Catalog fame.
Markoff’s book profiles the iconic serial visionary, unfolding the rich, twisting story of Brand’s life. He traces the relationship between the 1960’s agent of the Bay Area counterculture, and over decades the evolution of the “eco pragmatist” (Brand’s own words.) Steward Brand’s journey blended environmental consciousness, hacker capitalism and, while challenging purists in the fight against climate change, an embrace of technologies like nuclear power and genetically modified organisms.
Markoff was a member of the New York Times staff group that won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Apple and other technology companies’ business practices. Among his other books are What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (2005) and Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots (2015) and is featured in the 2001 documentary, The Secret History of Hacking.
JACKIE RYAN TRIO
Vocalist Jackie Ryan brings her trio to THE 222 for one show only on April 16. The uncommon configuration of vocal, trumpet and piano, will sound beautiful with the acoustics of this new venue. Her band includes Erik Jekabson on trumpet and John. R. Burr on piano. Jackie’s show will include the classics from the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Benny Goodman, to the Brazilian standards of Antonio Carlos Jobim and will also include surprises of seldom heard gems.
Jackie “is one of the outstanding jazz vocalists of her generation and, quite possibly, of all time. She is the thoroughbred vocal equivalent of the Triple Crown, rivaling the dexterous sass of Sarah Vaughan, the instinctive smarts of Carmen McRae and the scintillating verve of Diana Krall.” --- Christopher Loudon, Jazz Times
LIFE & LIFE - Film & Concert with Reggie Austin
LIFE & LIFE follows Reggie Austin's personal journey from drug addicted reformed convict serving 35 years inside California prisons, to free man facing his tattered connections to society and family. While Reggie’s story exposes the impact on men of color of harsh sentencing and parole practices, the film also provides emotional uplift in his perseverance in in putting his life back together. Combining breathtaking musical performances, and scenes of raw emotion adjusting to life outside, the film opens up a range of pertinent issues for our time with grace and soul, through the immersive vehicle of music. Directed by N. C. Heikin. (2021, 81 min.)
HOLLYWOOD PIANO TRIO
The trio was formed in 2018 and is comprised of three of LA’s most outstanding musicians. Each of the three have distinguished careers as concerto soloists in LA’s musical landscape. Cani is Concertmaster with the LA Opera, Byers is founding member of the Calder Quartet, and Faliks is Head of the Piano and Professor of Piano at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Each brings their unique, multifaceted international experience and their vibrant personalities to the medium.
HAROLY LOPEZ NUSSA TRIO
Walk the streets of Havana on any day and you’ll hear the soul of Cuba: music pouring from private homes and bustling restaurants, windows rattling with the parties thrown inside, nightclubs pulsing with throngs of people dancing. On his vibrant and spirited third recording for Mack Avenue Records, Havana-based pianist and composer Harold Ló pez- Nussa sets out to capture that stirring sensation with an exhilarating marriage of jazz and Cuban pop music.
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS
For his feature debut, 24-year-old Louis Malle brought together a mesmerizing performance by Jeanne Moreau, evocative cinematography by Henri Decaë, and a now legendary jazz score by Miles Davis. Taking place over the course of one restless Paris night, Malle’s richly atmospheric crime thriller stars Moreau and Maurice Ronet as lovers whose plan to murder her husband (his boss) goes awry. A career touchstone for its director and female star, Elevator to the Gallows was an auspicious beginning to Malle’s eclectic body of work and established Moreau as one of the most captivating actors ever to grace the screen. (1958, 91 min., in French w/English subtitles).
STEPHEN PRUTSMAN - SOLO PIANO
Stephen Prutsman has been described as one of the most innovative musicians of his time. Moving easily from classical, to jazz, to world music styles as a pianist, composer and conductor.
He will present a program called “BACH & FORTH” , using J.S. Bach as a reference point and juxtaposing compositions of his with works by other major classical composers as well as with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker and perhaps an Uzbek folk song in one of his own artful arrangements.
FOREVER
Dutch documentary maker Heddy Honigmann takes us on a mesmerizing tour of artists’ graves in Paris’ famous
Père-Lachaise cemetery, but what could have been a morbid exploration of dead icons becomes instead a moving
celebration of the living. Honigmann follows the men and women who make pilgrimages to the cemetery, unearthing their sometimes sad, sometimes uplifting stories. There are those who come to tend the graves of their loved ones – lost husbands, wives and parents – and those who leave offerings for their favourite writers and musicians – Chopin, Proust, Ingres and Jim Morrison. Occasionally, we follow these pilgrims home, or to work.
SOL FLAMENCO
The passion and fire of Spain hits the stage in Healdsburg. An evening of lightning-fast footwork, haunting guitar rhythms, and soulful singing.
The show features a cast of artists who have lived and trained in Spain, the birthplace of flamenco: dancers Damien Alvarez and Joelle Gonçalves, flamenco guitarist Mark Taylor with special guest singer, Yuli Norish “La Yuli”. The group has been working together for many years and it shows in the dancers' precision footwork, emotionally haunting vocals, the guitarist’s bold accompaniment
“Sol Flamenco is an electrifying evening of phenomenal music and dance that will carry you into a world of passion that is unique to flamenco” says Alexa Chipman in her 5-star review of the group, Imagination Lane Review San Francisco North Bay Theatre & Dance.
EDWARD SIMON
Venezuelan-born Edward Simon, will play a solo piano concert at THE 222 in Healdsburg on Saturday, December 4, celebrating the recent release of his newest recording “Solo Live” on Ridgeway Records. Recorded at Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company on his 50th birthday in 2019, Solo Live is Simon’s first unaccompanied recording. Unedited, it’s a ravishing portrait of one of jazz’s most eloquent improvisers investigating a setting that’s become one of his primary outlets during the pandemic. Long leery of performing alone, a situation that leaves a pianist “really exposed,” he described the Piedmont Piano date as “a leap of faith.” This is his 15th album as a leader and his first unaccompanied recording.
THE BEACHES OF AGNUS
“I’m playing the role of a little old lady, pleasantly plump and talkative and telling her life story. And yet it’s others I’m interested in, others I like to film. Others who intrigue me, motivate me, make me ask questions, disconcert me, fascinate me. This time, to talk about myself, I thought, ‘If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes.’ If we opened me up, we’d find beaches.” Agnes Varda, The Beaches of Agnes
At the age of 80, director Agnes Varda embarked on a freewheeling journey documenting her life. In clever, free associative set pieces, she joyfully explores her past, her friendships, and her home turf on the Rue Daguerre in Paris. “Uninhibited about sex, generous in her affections, worldly-wise, blending tender recollections with self- deprecating antics, Varda, free from fear and shame, turns her tale of a life lived in art into a work of art in its own right, and one of her best—a rapturous tribute to life itself.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker (2008, 110 min., in French with English subtitles)
KITKA
Wintersongs is Kitka's critically-acclaimed and wildly popular December concert offering. For centuries, communities around the world have utilized the power of collective singing to summon warmth, cheer, and spiritual connection to sustain themselves through the challenges and uncertainties of the coldest and darkest season. Returning to the stage after nearly two years of pandemic separation, Kitka’s reunited voices will joyfully bestow musical blessings for health, hope, peace, good fortune, and the return of the light as the Winter Solstice and New Year draw near.
PAUL MCCANDLESS & ART LANDE DUO
ERNIE WATTS QUARTET
Billy Hart Quartet
NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart brings his exciting quartet to THE 222, with Ethan Iverson on piano, Dayna Stephens on saxophones and Peter Barshay on bass. It has been many years since Hart has brought his quartet to California. Hart, Iversen, and Stephens are flying in from the East coast for this special occasion.
There will be one show on Saturday, September 11, at 7PM and one on Sunday, September 12, at 7PM in the very intimate concert performance space with club-style seating located within the Paul Mahder Gallery.
“Billy Hart is one of the greatest living jazz drummers. Hell, he’s one of the greatest drummers of ALL TIME.” - Joshua Redman
VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES WITH ROBYN MUSCARDINI
The basic tenet of Visual Thinking Strategies is that finding meaning in imagery calls upon many aspects of cognition—personal association, questioning, speculating, analyzing, fact-finding, and categorizing—and that looking at art, going through a process of aesthetic development, brings us forward in our cognitive development as a whole. After a brief introduction to the origins and ongoing theoretical underpinnings behind the development of Visual Thinking Strategies, we will spend time looking together at one of the works of art in the gallery, with an eye to the range of skills we draw on, from simple identification (naming what one sees) to complex interpretation on contextual, metaphoric and philosophical levels.
GEORGE CABLES TRIO
Cables is traveling to California from New York for the first time with his trio since 2018 to be part of the grand opening of THE 222, Healdsburg’s newest performing arts venue. Mr. Cables and THE 222 jazz programmer Jessica Felix have known each other since the early 1980’s when they first met while Jessica was working at the Keystone Korner Jazz Club in San Francisco. Since then, they have become good friends and she has presented him numerous times over the years. “George is always there when I start with a new venture, happy to do what it takes to make the concert a success”.