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Welcome to The Berkeley Hillside Club Concert Series. Our goal is to provide a superb venue for musicians and listeners to experience the joy of live music performance. Come join us in our historic and acoustically excellent hall and see why artists and audiences are raving about our Concert Series. Our concerts generally begin at 8:00 pm (please check the individual concert listing for the exact time), and our doors open about one half hour before show time. Tickets are available at the door; we do not offer advance ticket sales. To receive timely announcements of up-coming events and other Concert Series news, please join our email list.  The Eric Muhler Quartet The Berkeley Hillside Club is proud to present the Eric Muhler Quartet playing original jazz by Muhler and others. This will be a remarkable evening of music performed in our acoustically wonderful hall! The Ensemble: Pianist Eric Muhler and his San Francisco Bay Area based ensemble have been making new friends, new jazz fans, and lasting impressions everywhere they appear. Eric's original compositions and playing virtuosity manage that most delicate and difficult of all balancing acts. It is serious music; intense, driving, complex, and multi-layered, yet accessible to a wide and varied audience. The ensemble brings together some of the finest, first-call players in the Bay Area, including Sheldon Brown on horns, Michael Wilcox on electric bass, and Brian Andress on drums and percussion. The Concert: Eric and the band will be performing from his book of original compositions entitled Thirty Five Dreams Worth Remembering. Some of the songs are very simple blues and swing based classic jazz and others reflect what one critics called an "exercise in tension building and suspense....that gnaw(s) at your musical soul. Some of Eric's compositions are multi-sectional scores that mutate through musical styles suggesting, Latin, Brazilian, African, gospel, rock, and blues as well as straight ahead jazz and bop. The Artists: Jazz has always been full of colorful individualists, characters whose music is as unique as their lives. Eric Muhler, a pianist inspired by Keith Jarrett and McCoy Tyner but always sounding very much like himself, has had an unusual life, and the result is music that would not be mistaken for anyone else. Born in Oakland, Eric heard pop and jazz standards of the 1940s and ^Ñ50s while growing up. After his older sister and brother had piano lessons but eventually quit, it was his turn. He stuck with it and had classical music lessons for 11 years, starting when he was six. However Eric, who also played clarinet and bass clarinet through eighth grade, had no plans to become a classical pianist. "I was a professional rock and roll pianist by the time I was 12, starting a rock band, so the clarinet went by the wayside. I preferred Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. We played fraternity parties, society parties, sixth grade graduations, high school dances, and any gig we could get. I used to make $75-100 a night, which is the same amount of money they pay these days to play clubs in New York! 1962 and 2008 seem to have the same pay scale." In the early 1980s he co-led the jazz quintet Mobius Band with guitarist Jim Slick. During 1982-85, Eric co-led Quiet Fire with Dave Creamer, a modern jazz group that featured tenor-saxophonist Larry Schneider. Their one recording, Red Daze (which has been recently reissued), features Eric's originals and playing, displaying his interest in the music of Keith Jarrett, Art Lande and the ECM label in general while offering a fresh approach to jazz. He also recorded eight of his songs as unaccompanied piano solos on Other Worlds. In addition, Eric became involved in providing accompaniment for jazz, modern and ballet dance classes which evolved into him working with the Bay area choreographer Martha Jenkins, at Peralta Colleges, UC Berkeley, CSU Hayward and the Contra Costa Ballet, and as the Company Class Accompanist for the Oakland Ballet. In 1984, he began a successful career working with computer animation. "My improvisational and writing skills made it easy for me to make up tunes for background music for animation, children's videos and action feature films." He also composed the score for Of Men And Angels. In 1988 Eric began a 15 year hiatus from performance to become a full-time parent, though he never forsook music. In 2003 with his daughters developing into increasingly self-sufficient teenagers, Eric returned to music. He has since formed the Eric Muhler Trio with bassist Michael Wilcox and drummer Rob Gibson, recording Live At The Jazz School and the solo CD Something New. Eric can be heard playing with his trio and quartet (and occasionally solo) in jazz clubs, restaurants, bars, a country club and parties in Northern California from Calistoga to San Jose. He has composed over 50 original compositions and this summer will be recording a new quartet CD featuring Sheldon Brown on saxophones that is scheduled to be released in the fall. As with his four previous recordings, all are available from his Slow Turn label. While Eric Muhler's style remains recognizable, he has grown in depth and feeling due to his life experiences. "I create original music that is not fusion, bop or retro. I am not into recreating Miles Davis or bringing back bebop. Although I'm still writing complex pieces, I'm also enjoying utilizing simplicity more. These days I only play acoustic piano, performing with a trio or a quartet rather than having a five or six piece band with percussion and guitar. I have a much broader view now of people and I'm much more accepting, which is displayed in my music." Sheldon Brown has been involved in the Bay Area creative music scene for over 20 years. He formed Sheldon Brown Group in 1994 to perform his original compositions, which range from the intense and complex to the sublimely serene. Sheldon Brown Group has performed in many of the Bay Area's premier jazz venues, including several appearances at Yoshi's Nitespot, The Jazzschool and Bruno's, and was featured in S.F. Jazz Festival's series Jazz in the City. His group features some of the Bay Area's finest players: Dave MacNab - guitar, Alan Hall - drums, Michael Wilcox - bass, and Jonathan Alford - piano. Brown has toured internationally with Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and plays with Clubfoot Orchestra (which recently performed his music at the San Francisco Jazz Festival). He also plays with and contributes compositions to Clarinet Thing (led by Beth Custer) and Hemispheres (featuring Paul MacCandless), and performs with Mitch Marcus Quintet + 15, Realistic Orchestra, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Darren Johnston Quintet, and various Graham Connah ensembles. He is currently teaching at The Jazzschool. Michael Wilcox has performed and taught extensively in Arizona and the San Francisco Bay Area. He has performed with the Fifth Dimension, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Oakland Eastbay Symphony, Eddie Duran, Jules Broussard, Richie Cole, Larry Schneider, Kenneth Nash, Glenn Cronkhite among many others. KUAT Radio (Tucson, Arizona) aired "The Michael Wilcox Special" which featured his compositions and arrangements for solo and overdubbed basses, trio and quartet. He has been recorded by KCSM (formerly KJAZ) See's Sunday Night Live at Yoshi's Nightspot with Michael Smolens' progressive Jazz Quintet KRIYA and the Sheldon Brown Group. He is featured on the CD "Shifting Currents" by the Sheldon Brown Group. In addition to private teaching he has presented clinics for Up With People, University of Arizona, Pima Community College, Young Audiences of Arizona, etc. He studied theory with legendary guitarist Dave Creamer and bass with Steve Swallow, Dave Holland and Mike Richmond. He was an Adjunct Faculty member in the Jazz Department at San Jose State University for five years (1989-1994). Michael has done session and jingle work in Arizona, Toronto and the Bay Area including commercials, TV shows and short features. He has also toured with the theatrical companies San Francisco Mime Troupe (appearing on the network TV show Latenight and in the documentary feature Troupers) and the Pickle Family Circus. He is working on a method book and a book of bass duets. An excerpt from the duet book (written in collaboration with bassist Keith Jones) appeared in the March/April 1991 issue of Bass Player magazine. He has also written for Acoustic Guitar magazine. He has done clinics for Tobias Guitars and SWR. Recordings in 2001 include "Lee Waterman and Jazz Caliente", Stephanie Bruce "April In Dogtown", among others. He is in the staff of the Jazzschool in Berkeley and is staff bassist for Community Presbyterian Church in Danville. Brian Andreswas born in Cincinnati, Ohio into a family of professional musicians. His father is a woodwinds specialist and his mother a vocalist and pianist. The house was filled with the sounds of his fathers constant practicing and his mothers piano and voice students. It's no surprise that Brian found himself drawn to the origin of all music: Rhythm. After nearly being put up for adoption due to his constant banging on inanimate objects, his parents decided to embrace their obstreperous sons undeniable talent by purchasing him a drumset and themselves earplugs. There was no turning back for Brian. At the age of nineteen, armed with years of daily practice and countless lessons, Brian began playing professionally. The next ten years found him performing all over the midwest and east coast in musical groups as diverse as Rock, Jazz, Big Band, R & B, German Traditional, Blues and Afro-Caribbean. In early 1999 Brian's growing interest in latin music and culture resulted in his relocation to the San Francisco Bay Area where he continues to focus on latin music while also performing various other styles of music.  Robert Pollock & Sarn Oliver The Berkeley Hillside Club and Ebb & Flow Arts (www.ebbandflowarts.org) are delighted to present violinist Sarn Oliver and pianist Robert Pollock, joined by several special guest artists, in a recital spanning a century of compositions. Don't miss this superb evening of music performed in our acoustically wonderful hall! The Ensemble: Sarn Oliver and Robert Pollock joined forces several years ago in New Jersey and New York through the vehicle of modern music. They performed Roger Sessions "Duo" several times including Alice Tully Hall. they also performed music by Oliver's father, Harold, Pollock, Webern, Debussy, Brahms and others. Joining Pollock and Oliver for this performance will be special guest artists Mariko Smiley and Amy Hiraga on violin, and Victor Romasevitch on viola. The Program: This concert reveals a 'classics to moderns' panorama of compositional approaches during nearly a century, from 1910 to 2003. The program ranges from Webern's 1910, "Four Pieces" to Sarn Oliver's "Sonus." Nearly a century separates the works on our program. This renders the earlier work "classical" or aged in nature. Yet, Debussy's "Sonate" speaks a much different musical tongue than the Webern that preceded it by just a few years. Each generation adds a new contribution to the musical language. Each contribution transcends and includes the previous. Thus, today we have a rich diversity of musical approaches within the "avant garde." Departure (1976) Four Pieces (1910).....Anton Webern Duo (1942)......Roger Sessions Sphinxes: 25 Aphorisms for piano* (1974).....Edward T. Cone Sonus* (2008).....Sarn Oliver String Trio (2006).....Sarn Oliver Sonate (1917).....Claude Debussy * premiere The Artists: Robert Pollock, composer and pianist, now directs an arts presenting organization, Ebb & Flow Arts, Inc., in Hawai'i. He co founded Guild of Composers, New York, 1975, and founded and directed Composers Guild of New Jersey, 1980-1997. He recently performed solo piano and chamber music recitals in Honolulu, Hawai'i, Seoul, Korea (twice), and Tokyo, Japan (twice). He participated as composer-in-residence in the Festival for New American Music, Sacramento State University, and Composer in Residence Day, William Paterson University. Some of his nearly one hundred (100) compositions received recent performances in Israel, Moscow, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Honolulu, Italy, Poland, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Russia, Bulgaria, Denmark, New Jersey and New York City. He has received numerous commissions and awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA Grant Fellowship, Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music Award, Ingraham Merrill Award, several New Jersey State Fellowships and Composers String Quartet Award, first prize. Several of his works are recorded for Furious Artisan, CRI, CGNJ and Union of Composers, Tartarstan, Russia, labels. Several works are published by Mobart, E.C. Schirmer, Veritas Musicae and Rosalime Productions. the critics rave about Pollock's playing: "...splendid performances"....Dika Newlin, Richmond Times-Dispatch. "...a powerful player with no lack of temperament..." Michael Redmond, Newark Star Ledger "...performed with passion and inner concentration..." Bogumila Mika, Musical Movement (Warsaw) "...performed with urbanity and polish...." Raymond Ericson, New York Times and his composition: "...Pollock's luscious "Cygnature Piece" in which the first movement - full of beautiful blendings, empty of expressive cliche, splendid and sonorous - was even better than the ensuing tango..." Paul Griffiths, New York Times "...The piece ("Trio #5" for violin, cello and piano) crackled with excitement..." Liz Janes-Brown, Maui News As a violinist Sarn Oliver has performed as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. As winner of several competitions he has appeared in solo performances with numerous orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony, Sacramento Symphony and the Shreveport Symphony. He was a featured artist on the PBS television program "State of the Arts" and his concerts have been broadcast on radio stations throughout the country. Mr. Oliver's violin playing has been described by San Francisco Classical Voice as "simply phenomenal." His performances can be heard on several recordings including his 1991 recording of the Benda and Stamitz Violin Concertos with the Montpellier Chamber Orchestra, Sete France on the Rarête Classiques label. and on the 2002 Fish Creek Music recording of Eric Ewazen's Quintet for English horn and String Quartet. This season Mr. Oliver performed with his trio; Tilden Trio, The Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Diablo Symphony in 2008 as well as many chamber music engagements throughout california. Recent chamber music performances include appearances Ruby Mountain Festival, Nevada, where he will soon be appearing in August 2008 at the Kohl Mansion with pianist Garrick Ohlsson, and frequent performances on the SF symphony chamber series at Davies hall and Chamber Music Sundays, Berkeley. Mr. Oliver has also been a member of The Archduke Trio and The Ansonia Trio in NY and is currently a member of the Tilden Trio. Other accomplishments include the creation of the jazz group, the Continuum which performed throughout California. Also a composer. In 2005 Mr. Oliver' Trio One for two Violins and Viola was premiered at The Chamber Music Series at Davies Symphony Hall. His Trio One was enthusiastically received by the San Francisco Classical Voice, which hailed him as: "an unusually thoughtful and eclectically-minded composer." In 2008 His piano trio "Tilden Park " was performed on the SF Symphony series at Davies Hall. An advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Oliver performed frequently for the New York and the New Jersey Composer Guilds, and has premiered many new works including Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra written for him by Harold Oliver. Mr. Oliver attended the Juilliard School for precollege and also receiving both Bachelor's and Master's degrees as a student of Sally Thomas. He was a teaching assistant at Juilliard Pre-College and at the Meadowmount School. Other teachers, include Ivan Galamian and Elmar Oliveria. Mr. Oliver has served as violin faculty at the University of the Pacific, Stockton California, and UC Berkeley. Mr. Oliver is currently a first violinist with the San Francisco Symphony and a founding member of the Tilden Trio (tildentrio.com). He is the former Principal Second Violin of the Sacramento Symphony and Concertmaster of the Santa Cruz Symphony. Mr. Oliver plays on a 1703 Joseph filius Andreas Guarnari violin and a modern Grubaugh and Siefert violin. Born in Los Angeles, Mariko Smiley began piano lessons at four, at the encouragement of her parents, who were both musicians. Her father, David Smiley, was a violist with the SFS from 1962 until 1973, and Smiley began taking violin lessons from him when she was six. She studied with two other former SFS violinists, Leonard Austria and Stuart Canin, before leaving home to attend Juilliard, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees under the tutelage of Dorothy DeLay. When she returned to San Francisco, she freelanced before winning a position with the Orchestra in 1982. Smiley never entertained a career outside professional violin playing. Her family connections within the SFS violin section are impressive: her brother, Dan Smiley, and his wife, Suzanne Leon, are both SFS violinists, as is Suzanne's sister, Kelly Leon-Pearce. Smiley's violinist husband, Sarn Oliver, whom she met for the first time at the Music in the Mountains Festival in the early 1990s and married in 1999, is also in the Orchestra. So it is not surprising that one of the things Smiley likes most about being in the Orchestra is the feeling of community she has with her colleagues. She is devoted to chamber music, performing on the SFS Chamber Music series, in Chamber Music Sundaes concerts, and as a member of the Aurora String Quartet. She appreciates the democracy of playing chamber music and the rich repertory, "and the intensity of working with others is deep and fulfilling." For Smiley, sincerity and musical integrity are the most important parts of being a musician, "and you must maintain a passion for playing." She also encourages the audience to remember how important they are to music-making. Her other interests: listening to world music and early music, hiking, Tai Chi, spending time with her cats. Victor Romasevich was born in Minsk, Belarus. His mother, Lena Lubotsky, began teaching him piano at the age of four. When five, he started violin studies with Anna Silberstein. At six, he enrolled in the violin class of Mikhail Garlitsky and Lev Sharinov at The Gnesin Music School in Moscow. As a youth he studied violin with Rostislav Dubinsky of the Borodin Quartet. He continued his training at the Moscow Conservatory with Boris Belenky and Nadia Beshkina. Following his emigration to the United States in 1977, he studied at Juilliard with Ivan Galamian. In 1979 he became a violin and viola pupil of the composer and philosopher Iosif Andriasov. Winner of the Gina Bachauer Prize at the 1985 J.S. Bach International Competition, Mr. Romasevich joined the Orchestra as Associate Principal Violist in 1990, and in 1992 moved to the First Violin section. He appears frequently in recitals and chamber concerts as a violinist, violist, and keyboard player. Violinist Amy Hiraga was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1991 to 1999. She is currently a permanent member of the San Francisco Symphony. She also studied with Dorothy Delay at Juilliard and Emanuel Zeitlin in Seattle. She has performed and appeared as soloist with many symphonies and chamber orchestras in the United States, and has also performed in many music festivals. She and her husband, cellist Peter Wyrick, live in Mill Valley with their two daughters, Mayumi and Mariko. | |||
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