Features

The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra was confident it had hit the jackpot when it appointed rising-star conductor Joana Carneiro as its third musical director, after Kent Nagano’s masterful work during 30 years at the helm. Now it appears it’s doubled its winnings with the announcement that native Berkeleyan Gabriela Lena Frank has been appointed Creative Advisor to the orchestra.

Putting kids in tune with music can be a tricky adjustment. When my piano-teacher mother was raising us, there were fewer distractions vying with the sounds of her practicing Schumann and Chopin and the classical programming of WQXR radio.

Last year on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra blog, Eddie Silva sagely observed, “Anything that’s been pronounced dead as often as classical music needs to move on to another subject. Classical music is not like a dying race track, or an old sports arena, or a typewriter. It is real estate open to reinvention.”