More good news for concert goers comes with the Mondavi CenterAnnouncement of a full list of live concerts for the 2021-2022 season. A statement by the executive director of the Mondavi Center, Don Roth, reflects the current optimism. “Each season announcement from the Mondavi Center is eagerly awaited and exciting, a highlight of our cultural calendar,” he said. “But now, to launch a season on the heels of a pandemic year, which has kept our theaters in the dark for over a year and a half, makes this a truly extraordinary moment.”
Things start on October 14, when Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra present Fandango on the wall with special guests the Villalobos brothers and the Conga Patria Son Jarocho collective. Other shows focused on jazz and roots on the calendar include Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra on October 23, Veronica Swift on November 21, Damien Sneed on December 4, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on February 2, 2022, and Becca Stevens on February 10.
The Alexander Quartet returns this season with Robert Greenberg in a series featuring chamber music by Dvořák on December 5, January 30, 2022 and May 15. Other highlights of classical music include pianist Christopher Taylor performing Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies. November 6-7 and April 22 and 24, 2022; the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center on December 10; the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on January 15, 2022; Heartbeat Opera’s Fidelio February 19 and 20; the piano duo of Garrick Ohlsson and Kirill Gerstein on March 6; the invented instrument duo Dresher-Davel on March 11 and 12; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Joshua Bell on March 12; pianist Lara Downes with Clarice Assad and Britton-René Collins in concert World of change May 6; and to close the season, flautist Grace Leslie on May 19.
Theater lovers can check out the Red Door Project To evolve November 5; Eliza Jane Schneider’s Freedom of expression November 11 and 12; Will always be heard, Liz Queler and Seth Farber, a multi-genre musical staging of poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay from November 17th to 19th.
For dance enthusiasts, the calendar offers Pamyua on November 21; Circa performer Humans 2.0 January 28, 2022; Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, a February 26 dance company; Kinetech Performing Arts Passage March 9 and 10; and the Ballet Folklórico de México by Amalia Hernandez on March 18th.
Grumpy people everywhere can revel in the sardonic spirit of Fran Lebowitz on February 24, 2022. Other speakers on the series include Heather McGhee on April 3 and David Sedaris on May 1.
Ross sums up the Centre’s philosophy on performing arts:
I am delighted that we can present to you a season of artists and thinkers, many of whom have profound things to say about where we are as a culture and where we are going as a society. Equally important, each of them will remind us of the magic that only happens with live performances. We are delighted to return, as the lights begin to turn on again in theaters, galleries and museums in our region, our country and the world.. “
