Features

Berkeley Opera has always been known for its adventurous spirit. While it has never enjoyed the large subscriber base — or extravagant budgets — of its high-profile counterparts, the company has given audiences a wide range of productions in the last three decades, offering forgotten masterpieces, English adaptations, and world premieres alongside standards of the repertoire.

Violinist Yin Bin Qian wanted to study abroad after graduating from the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the oldest Western-oriented music school in China. He applied to graduate school at Yale, the Eastman School of Music, USC, and other American colleges.

In our childhoods we all internalize the decimal system and its powers of 10. This is probably why we fetishize the ends of centuries and decades as important stock-taking moments. Not to be left out, SFCV will bring you a few end-of-decade musings over the next few months.

Film composer James Horner has been in the news a good deal lately. Horner is a versatile and experienced musician, with soundtracks as diverse as Star Trek II and Field of Dreams to his credit.