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Cal Performances’ Fall Free for All, Sept. 26

This semester’s rich range of cultural offerings includes a daylong cornucopia of free arts performances, as well as appearances by violin virtuoso Christian Tetzlaff, the much-loved Mark Morris Dance Group, director and outside-the-box thinker Peter Greenaway, and bestselling writer David Sheff. Visiting speakers will present ideas to address solutions to the world’s pressing problems — energy and the health of the planet, nuclear arms, the global financial crisis, and the plight of bees.

This short list only scratches the surface; events may change, and new events will be added daily. Visit the Critic’s Choice website for a full listing and to learn the latest.

An embarrassment of artistic riches

Cal Performances sets the stage for its upcoming season with 14 free 45-minute programs at four campus venues. This Fall Free for All features the Kronos Quartet, three San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows, Diamano Couras West African Dance Company, the John Santos Sextet, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and UC Jazz Ensembles. Mark Morris Dance Group will teach audience members choreography from Looky , which MMDG will perform the following week. Singer/songwriter Melanie DeMore will lead a group sing-along. Theater company Word for Word will perform Gary Soto’s Frankie the Rooster (Sunday, Sept. 26, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, Wheeler Auditorium, Hertz Hall, and Lower Sproul Plaza).

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Of musical note

Master composer and pianist Terry Riley , best known for his minimalist composition In C , inaugurates this fall’s L@TE series at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive with a concert to celebrate his 75th birthday (Friday, Sept. 3, 8 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum).

The Del Sol String Quartet has commissioned works by internationally renowned composers including Tania Leon, Chinary Ung, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Joan Jeanrenaud. The two-time winners of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP First Place Award for Adventurous Programming will perform Osvaldo Golijov’s Tenebrae and Elena Kats-Chernin’s Urban Village 2 as part of BAM/PFA’s L@TE series (Friday, Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum).

Christian Tetzlaff

Christian Tetzlaff, (photo Alexandra Vosding), Dec. 4

The Department of Music will host a bicentennial celebration of Robert Schumann featuring its 1854 Erard piano (Friday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m., Hertz Hall). The evening will include readings, solo piano music, songs, and chamber works performed by students and faculty.

Renowned for its performances of music from Haydn to Lutoslawski, Ensemble Zellig makes its U.S. debut with Cal Performances. The program includes premieres of new works by American composers Don Freund and Gerald Shapiro and a newly commissioned piece by Berkeley Professor of Music Edmund Campion, in addition to compositions by Philippe Leroux and Pécou (Sunday, Nov. 7, 3 p.m., Hertz Hall).

Alex Filippenko, award-winning professor of astronomy, will give a pre-concert talk at the University Wind Ensemble’s Space: The Final Frontier , a performance of the music of Holst, Erb, Giroux, and Williams (Sunday, Nov. 14, pre-concert talk, 2 p.m., concert, 3 p.m., Hertz Hall).

The New York Times called German violin virtuoso Christian Tetzlaff “one of the most brilliant and inquisitive artists of the new generation.” In his Cal Performances recital, Tetzlaff will perform one of the great works written for his instrument, Bach’s Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin (Saturday, Dec. 4, 6 p.m., Zellerbach Hall).

Movers, shakers

dancers