The Oakland Weekend

There’s an embarrassment of riches for music lovers in Oakland this weekend. Folks will be making some hard choices.

Oakland Youth Orchestra

The always-excellent Oakland Youth Orchestra will perform pieces by Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Geminiani, and Boyce at a free concert at the Allen Temple Baptist Church Sunday afternoon. For 46 years the OYO has been representing Oakland’s young musicians all over the world – picking up all kinds of awards and accolades. Families are welcome and the concert is free.

Sunday, November 8 3 pm
Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd.
Free

Lullabies to Wake You Up

The New York Times has called Hasmik Harutyunyan’s CD “the best Armenian recording worldwide.” It’s praise that may not sound like much unless you are familiar with the beautiful music of the Trans-Caucasia. Harutyunyan, the songstress famous for popularizing the lovely tradition of the Armenian lullaby performs at St. Vartan Armenian Church Saturday evening. She will be accompanied by Kitka, “a grassroots group of singers from diverse ethnic and musical backgrounds, who share a passion for the stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, lush harmonies, and resonant strength of Balkan, Slavic, and Caucasian women’s vocal traditions.”

Saturday, November 7 8 pm – 10 pm
St. Vartan Armenian Church
650 Spruce Street, Oakland
$15-$20

By the Waters of Babylon

Chalice Consort is devoted to resurrecting forgotten or rarely heard music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. On Saturday night they will present work by the English composer William Byrd, a crypto-Catholic who nonetheless composed for the Anglican Church as a member of Queen Elizabeth I’s court. Titled “By the Waters of Babylon” the performance presents a sampling of Byrd’s choral pieces. Chalice Consort’s Davitt Moroney writes: “His beautiful and highly passionate music illustrates many of the historical issues that were being played out at that time, including religious fanaticism, oppression of minority communities, and political issues church and state, many of which are being replayed in different ways around the world today.” There could hardly be a better venue than St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Saturday November 7, 8 pm – 9:30 pm
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
114 Montecito Ave, Oakland
$10-$20

Latin American Mash-Up

The Bolivian Women’s Association, Friends of Bolivia, and the Bolivian Center of Northern California present Uniendo a las Americas, a farewell reception for Bolivian artists Mamani Mamani and Jacqueline Conley. This is a must-attend for all local art lovers.

Sunday November 8, 7pm – 9pm
VERO, 6052 College Avenue

Art@TheOakBook: RE:Design

In recent decades, the line where fine art, craft and design meet has been drawn and redrawn. This constantly shifting intersection is debated by critics, and maintains a symbiotic relationship with cultural realms as disparate as sports, music, and business. In RE:Design, Art@theOakBook presents two artists whose work blurs the aesthetic dictates of what is and isn’t art. Marcos LaFarga and Joel Scilley provide departure points for taking the debate into fresh territory.

Saturday, November 7, 6 pm – 9pm

423 Water Street in Jack London Square