“The Berkeley Festival & Exhibition has become a remarkable
institution on the American musical scene.”
— The New York Times

A Musical Mosaic

The course of western music has been profoundly shaped by encounters of interspersing peoples—artists, migrants, traders and adventurers—that have sparked astonishing creativity over the centuries.

The 2012 Berkeley Festival (June 3 – 10, 2012) celebrates the finest musical fruits of these great cultural cross-fertilizations.

The Berkeley Festival & Exhibition was conceived of and founded by Robert Cole, then Director of Cal Performances, and the late Joseph Spencer, proprietor of the Musical Offering and then SFEMS president. Over the years, the Festival has presented unique and amazing events: Mark Morris Dance Group’s interpretation of Rameau’s Platée; Le Carousel du Roi, featuring dressage horses and riders executing elaborate ballets from seventeenth-century France accompanied by shawms and sackbuts in their natural setting (outdoors); and the North American premiere of a longlost Mass by Alessandro Striggio for 40 and 60 voices.

BFX’s 2010 (20th anniversary programs) were broadcast on the first season of America’s Music Festivals, a two-hour radio series featuring live performances from the leading music festivals in North America. Hosted by Marin Alsop broadcast on more than 150 stations nationwide. http://www.americasmusicfestivals.org/berkeley/

THE MAIN-STAGE
The 2012 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition features 10 main-stage performances, including two different programs by legendary Catalan gambist Jordi Savall and the Festival debut of Boston’s impassioned Renaissance vocal ensemble Blue Heron. Some of the most renowned Bay Area early music groups representing this region’s deep pool of talent and scholarship are featured co-presenters, including American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, Chanticleer, Musica Pacifica, Voices of Music, Agave Baroque and the New Esterházy Quartet.

THE EXHIBITION & MARKETPLACE
Concurrently, you are invited to attend the Early Music America (EMA)-hosted Exhibition showcasing instruments, music, accessories, recordings, and publications.

THE EMA YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL
Early Music America (EMA) will present its second Young Performers Festival, Wednesday–Friday, June 6–8 at the Festival. Because EMA recognizes that the future of early music rests in the hands of today’s young artists and the institutions that shape them, it offers this series of six one-hour daytime concerts by major university and conservatory early music ensembles, including Case Western Reserve University, University of North Texas, University of Southern California, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley, giving the Festival’s international audience a glimpse at the next generation of musicians.

THE FRINGE
In addition to the richness of the main stage performances and the EMA Exhibition, the Berkeley Festival experience is further enriched by the full schedule of fringe concerts. Soloists and ensembles from the Bay Area and around the world are presenting more than fifty additional exciting early-music performances.

The 2010 FRINGE festival featured a wide variety of musical activities and included something for every taste, from chamber to choral concerts; from a recorder relay to a Marais-a-thon; from medieval songs to Classical quartets. There were solo concerts featuring lutes, harpsichords, and singers, and ensemble concerts featuring recorders, viols, and various mixed groups.

_{THE 2012 BERKELEY FESTIVAL & EXHIBITION, PRESENTED BY
THE SAN FRANCISCO EARLY MUSIC SOCIETY, CAL PERFORMANCES, AND EARLY MUSIC AMERICA IN ASSOCIATION WITH, AMERICAN BACH SOLOISTS, AGAVE BAROQUE, CHANTICLEER, MUSICA PACIFICA, NEW ESTERHÁZY QUARTET,
PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA AND VOICES OF MUSIC}