Discover a year-long celebration of creativity and artistry at The 222 in Healdsburg, CA, where a diverse lineup of events promises to engage and inspire. From the tranquil Writers’ Space to the vibrant Dance @ 222, this series invites you to explore the world of poetry, film, music, and more. With events running from September 2024 to June 2025, artists and audiences come together to share their passion, creativity, and unique perspectives in a welcoming and vibrant setting.

A Year of Artistic Celebration: Healdsburg's Creative Series at The 222

Healdsburg’s The 222 is set to become a vibrant hub for creative expression from September 2024 through June 2025. The venue will host an eclectic mix of events that cater to writers, dancers, musicians, and art enthusiasts alike. From the serene Writers’ Space to the expressive Dance @ 222, and from poetic workshops to the mesmerizing performances of Vox Humana SF, The 222 invites participants to explore their creative sides in a welcoming community. Dive into unique cultural experiences with The 222 as your backdrop.

Embrace Creativity: A Year of Art, Dance, and Expression at The 222

Anna Magnani, the commedia dell’arte, and the music of Vivaldi are the highlights of this magnificent color film, called by Eric Rohmer “the Open Sesame of all Renoir’s work.” A movie about stage comedy, in which all activity and all space becomes theater. The story of Le Carrosse d’Or takes place in the 18th Century and centers around the coach which the Viceroy of Peru has had sent from Europe. His official mistress hopes that this will be among her prerequisites, but the Viceroy has fallen for the star of a traveling commedia dell’arte company. 

The Golden Coach

The 222

A good storyteller can show us a whole world: a new version of our own or an otherworld offering a mirror for reflection. For this “open-mic” reading, we invite you to bring an original short story that can be read in ten minutes (or a ten-minute portion of a longer story that can stand alone). Eight readers will be able to sign up as they arrive; the moderator will hold each to the ten-minute limit. All are welcome to attend. Please indicate in your RSVP if you plan to share a story, and of what length.

Open Mic Narrative Night 1

Megumi Inouye is a gift-wrapping and packaging artist. Known for her sustainable wrapping designs and creative innovations, she encourages repurposing, utilizing everyday things around us and using organic and recyclable items. She attributes her passion for gift wrapping to her Japanese heritage and the cultural values that underlie the meaning behind the art of giving. She will intersperse short readings that illuminate these relationships with intervals of audience participation. Her work has been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and in Yahoo! Lifestyle, American Craft Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Megumi Inouye

Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus presents Norden: A Scandinavian Holiday, a program of beautiful sacred and secular music, perfect for the season, from the five Scandinavian countries – Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The choir’s varied program will feature reimagined traditional classics and contemporary gems in several languages and musical styles. They look forward to returning to THE 222 for this warm and festive offering!

Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus

Trumpet master, composer and inventive arranger David Weiss brings his outstanding New York sextet to the West coast to promote his newly released recording, Auteur. The recording spotlights original music, never-before-recorded compositions from Freddie Hubbard and Slide Hampton.  Praised by The New York Times and the Village Voice for his bold inventions over the years, Weiss’ music evokes emotional complexity — abundance and loss, the collateral beauty of pain — and transmits a deeply personal sound informed by his strong connection to hard bop, swing, and free improvisation traditions.

David Weiss Sextet

“Few artists in any medium have achieved such mastery of technique, mastery of experience, mastery of self (three aspects of the same process). It is the greatest movie I have ever seen.” 

Sansho – The Bailiff

Poetry gets to the heart of human experience in a way that few other written forms do. During this “open-mic” poetry reading, we invite you to share poems that speak both to and from your heart. Bring a poem you love, or an original work authored by yourself, and share in a brief exchange with the audience how the poem speaks to you. All are welcome to attend. Please indicate in your RSVP if you plan to share a poem.

Open Mic Poetry Night 1

The Young People’s Chamber Orchestra is a youth orchestra sponsored by the Santa Rosa Symphony. It  performs without a conductor but is under the musical direction of Aaron Westman, a Grammy-nominated violinist and violist. The orchestra is designed to mold accomplished young string players into high-functioning musicians with complete attention to detail, and to each other, within the context of the music they perform. This is the first youth ensemble of its kind in northern California. 

Santa Rosa Young People’s Chamber Orchestra

A European tour de force, featuring Italian songs by composers Braga and Tosti, a set of French impressions by Camille Saint-Saens, including the famous Danse Macabre and some of his delightful lesser-known songs,  and American composer Amy Beach’s “Chanson d’Amour.” The trio will also present their own arrangements of Dvorak and De Falla folk songs.

DEBORAH MARTINEZ ROSENGAUS – Mezzo-soprano

Lucille Lang Day, Wampanoag, is a descendant of the tribal nation associated with the first Thanksgiving. Denise Low has heritage from New Jersey area people who celebrated a unique doll dance of gratitude for nature’s gifts. Both will explain, in comments and in poetry, what traditions continue in present time and their possible connections to Thanksgiving. 

Indigenous Thanksgiving Traditions

The AYA Piano Trio was formed in 2013 at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where they studied with some of the greatest chamber music musicians and soloists in the world. They have since performed across the U.S. on both recital and competition stages. In 2020 the group was awarded First Prize in the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. Appearances on prestigious concert series such as those at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, Merkin Hall in New York City, the Myra Hess series in Chicago, and the Washington Performing Arts series in the nation’s capitol have assured the upward trajectory of this phenomenal young ensemble. 

AYA Piano Trio

Led by Grammy Award-winning trombonist Ryan Keberle, Catharsis has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times for its “potent blend of cinematic sweep and lush, ear-grabbing melodies.” The highly acclaimed group brings together elements of chamber music, South American folk and indie rock within a traditional jazz framework. In Catharsis, the frontline rapport of Keberle, trumpet virtuoso Mike Rodriguez, and guitarist/vocalist Camila Meza, alongside the unshakable rhythm of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Eric Doob combine to form an unmistakable sound full of drama and intrigue.

Ryan Keberle & Catharsis

Agnès Varda’s extraordinary late-career renaissance began with this wonderfully idiosyncratic, self-reflexive documentary in which the ever-curious French cinema icon explores the little-known world of modern-day gleaners: those living on the margins who survive by foraging for that which society throws away. Embracing the intimacy and freedom of digital filmmaking, Varda posits herself as a kind of gleaner of images and ideas, one whose generous, expansive vision makes room for ruminations on everything from aging to the birth of cinema to the beauty of heart-shaped potatoes. By turns playful, philosophical, and subtly political, The Gleaners and I is a warmly human reflection on the contradictions of our consumerist world from an artist who, like her subjects, finds unexpected richness where few think to look. (2000, 82 min, in French w/English subtitles)

The Gleaners And I

Why do we dance?  To express emotion; to share tacit understanding with each other; to permit soul a fresh embodiment of meaning.  Dance affirms and celebrates being alive, creative, and connected.  It is a long-hoped-for dream to invoke the spirit of dance at THE 222 by hosting an event intended for all ages, dance backgrounds, and experience levels. 

Dance @ 222

Echoes of Souls is a tribute to the departed. Critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano Celeste Camarena invites you to immerse yourself in a hauntingly beautiful Dia de los Muertos recital. Join us on a journey that captures the essence of this sacred celebration with a touch of magic and mystery. The program features works from Daniel Crozier, María Grever, Silvestre Revueltas, Blas Galindo, Carlos Chávez, and Rodrígo Neftalí.

CELESTE CAMARENA – Mezzo-soprano

Rooted in deep listening, Dan Hoyle’s theatrical tour de force combines hours of interviews and observations. With respect, humility, transparency, and joyous collaboration, he creates a riveting performance using Journalistic Theatre. 

Dan Hoyle – It Takes All Kinds

Ghost Quartet, Dave Malloy’s quirky and wondrous ghost-story-musical, is as life-affirming in its effect as it is astounding in its form. The piece is author-described as “a song cycle about love, death, and whiskey” in an interwoven tale spanning seven centuries, with a murderous sister, a tree house astronomer, a bear, a subway and the ghost of Thelonious Monk.

The Ghost Quartet

Experience the magic of Claudia Villela’s voice, piano, and compositions. With Vitor Gonçalves on accordion and piano and special guest Paul McCandless on several reed instruments, Villela will be performing songs from her latest recording Cartas ao Vento, which was included in the prestigious list of Best 100 Albums of the 2023 Year in DownBeat Magazine.  Their collaboration will demonstrate the transformative power of music, from haunting ballads to spirited sambas and Brazilian classics, as each note resonates with the passion and synergy between these remarkable musicians.  This promises to be an unforgettable evening of dynamic harmonies and soul-stirring melodies, filled with moments of pure magic. 

Claudia Villela & Vitor Gonçalves w/guest Paul McCandless

Join former San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck in this family-friendly event and enjoy her celebratory poetry about deer, especially inhabitants of San Francisco. Shuck explores how these resilient herbivores embody the heartbreaking and exhilarating blend of natural and urban settings. Deer meander under highways and along park streams in the poet’s lyric range. Of the poet’s book Deer Trails (from City Lights), Dawn Pettigrew writes, “She is blending tradition with modernity, history with humor and her own Indigenous perspective with everything else. She is kind enough to invite us all into her mind, her life and her tribe.” A recent chapbook, A-wi / Deer, is co-authored with Denise Low. 

Kim Shuck

Roomful of Teeth is a two-time Grammy-winning vocal band dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential of the human voice. By engaging collaboratively with artists, thinkers, and community leaders from around the world, the group seeks to uplift and amplify voices old and new while creating and performing meaningful and adventurous music.

Roomful Of Teeth

Praised for their “lush intensity and bravado,” and “cohesion and intonation one might expect from an ensemble twice their age,” this American-Canadian ensemble brings together four musicians who share a passion for offering chamber music to audiences around the world. The Callisto Quartet has garnered top prizes in nearly every major international chamber music competition and has been hailed by audiences across the globe. They are currently the Fellowship Quartet in Residence at Yale University.

Callisto Quartet

Finding a calm environment and consistent motivation from which to write can be tricky, so let’s share our presence and creativity with each other.  Every writer needs to get quiet with their work, and we can do that, together, in a beautiful place.  Join us in holding THE 222 as a space for writers; 4-6 PM on second Thursdays every month. September, 2024 – June, 2025.

Writers’ Space

Join us the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 5:30 p.m. as leaders from different faith traditions within Sonoma County guide us based on the practice of Lectio Divina, or “Divine Reading.” We will hear a sacred text from the leader’s tradition in a contemplative manner, three times through. After each time, we will share responses and insights.

What Moves You? – October

Polonaise-fantaisie: The Story of a Pianist is the hybrid of a piano recital and an autobiographical monologue by world-renowned pianist Inna Faliks.

EPSG:4326

Inna Faliks

Paul Mahder Gallery

Critically acclaimed and award-winning baritone Eugene Brancoveanu presents an enchanting evening of song and story- telling as he unfolds Schumann’s classic song cycle, Dichterliebe, and a collection of other pieces. Composed by Robert Schumann in 1840, Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) is the sublime setting of the Lyriches Intermezzo of poet Heinrich Heine (written in 1822-23), coming together in a 16-piece song cycle. Other program highlights include Finzi’s Let us Garlands Bring and Ravel’s Don Quichote a Dulcinee.

Eugene Brancoveanu

The Jeff Denson/Mimi Fox duo is a powerful coupling of two virtuoso musicians who are at the height of their creative talent. The marriage of guitar and bass in these two artists’ hands sounds more like an entire ensemble rather than two musicians. Denson’s expressive and powerful tenor vocals adds another dimension to the duo’s range and repertoire. With their passion, musicianship, and wealth of original compositions, as well as their unique treatment of standard and not-so-standard fare, this is a special duo not to be missed.

Jeff Denson & Mimi Fox

Life is an unpredictable rollercoaster that defies preparation. Yet, through trial and intuition, we forge connections and pursue love. The intimate space of an art song recital allows us to reflect on our romantic experiences, from successes to failures, heartbreaks to breakthroughs. This program focuses on female composers and poets, showcasing their work in English. Come join us in celebrating the essence of being human.

Courtney Miller & Kevin Korth

Join the Opera Scouts in Concert at THE 222!  These talented young artists, ages 12-18, study opera, musical theater and art songs, and perform regularly at SF Opera and other community events throughout the year.  Coming from different schools and backgrounds, these artists form an ensemble that collaborates in all its artistic feats. Discover new and exciting vocal talent with this program of solos and ensemble pieces. Don’t miss these young artists—the voices and stars of the future!

Opera Scouts in Concert

Returning to THE 222 is Ilya Yakushev, known for his passionate performances and impeccable technique. Originally from Russia, Yakushev, winner of the 2005 World Piano Competition, has performed at Carnegie Hall, Glinka Philharmonic Hall (St. Petersburg), Victoria Hall (Singapore) and around the world to great critical acclaim. His performances are characterized by their emotional depth and technical brilliance, as he brings to life the works of some of the greatest composers in history. Ilya Yakushev will be celebrating Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday, the 150th anniversary of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Ilya Yakushev

Experience the captivating music of Brazilian singer/songwriter/guitarist Vinicius Cantuária direct from Brazil and his exceptional ensemble in a rare US performance. With over four decades of experience, Cantuária draws from the rich history of Brazilian music and seamlessly blends it with jazz, avant-garde, and pop to create a unique and mesmerizing sound. Don’t miss the chance to hear classics like Lua e Estrela and So Voce and be swept away by the entrancing bossa nova, influenced by music legends Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Vinicius Cantuária

The Fog City Singers are a Tenor-Bass chorus in San Francisco founded in Fall 2015. They like barbershop—finishing 9th at the 2022 International Barbershop Chorus Contest in Charlotte—but they also love choral and contemporary a cappella music too. In 2019, they were the featured ensemble at the California Choral Directors Association state conference in San Jose, CA. Today, Fog City Singers continue to push themselves and their audiences to look at barbershop and other a cappella music in new ways.

Fog City Singers

The Mountaintop by award-winning playwright Katori Hall is a two-person drama about the last day of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The entire play is set in the Lorraine hotel room, the evening before his assassination. King is alone, trying to create yet another powerful speech. When he orders a cup of coffee from room service, a mysterious woman arrives, bringing much more than a late-night beverage. What follows is a reflective, often funny, often touching conversation in which Dr. King examines his achievements, his failures, and his unfinished dreams.

The Mountaintop

“In our third Trio Tapestry recording, we explore The Power Of Three and take this Opportunity to create within All Twelve Grace Notes. Inspired by Charlie Haden and the spirituality in improvisation, we look deep into a Crystal Ball of reflections. Our Daily Bread is fueled by the Rhythm Spirit of expression that projects the mysterious world of music that lies ahead.”   - Joe Lovano

Joe Lovano and Trio Tapestry

The Hoffman/Lemish Quartet offers an inspired blend of jazz and Jewish folk melodies.  Amos Hoffman is a renowned oud virtuoso, jazz guitarist and innovator; Noam Lemish is a multi-faceted pianist-composer and professor at York University in Toronto. For years, Amos and Noam have been collecting Jewish melodies from different parts of the world, including Kurdish, Yemenite, Moroccan, Ladino, Russian and Israeli songs. The quartet’s lyrical and vibrant reimaginings of beloved Jewish melodies have been captivating audiences all across North America.

The Hoffman/Lemish Quartet with Paul McCandless

This remarkable quartet – hailed as “a triumph of ensemble playing” by the New York Times – is a multi-faceted ensemble taking chamber music in new directions. Touring music of the masters as well as exciting original works from visionary composers of our time, the Fry Street Quartet has perfected a “blend of technical precision and scorching spontaneity” (The Strad). Since securing the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the quartet has reached audiences from Carnegie Hall to London, and Sarajevo to Jerusalem, exploring the medium of the string quartet and its life-affirming potential with “profound understanding...depth of expression, and stunning technical astuteness”.

Fry Street Quartet

Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project is a multimedia performance that explores the intersection of humanity, nature, and the climate crisis. Created by the Fry Street Quartet in collaboration with physicist and educator Dr. Robert Davies, the performance features a combination of original music, visuals, and scientific information to engage audiences in a unique and thought-provoking experience. The music draws from a variety of genres, including classical, jazz, and traditional music, and is woven together with spoken word and stunning visuals to create a powerful and emotional narrative. The goal of the performance is to inspire audiences to take action towards a more sustainable future and to foster a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things.

Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project

Join Alex Taite–singer, composer, pianist, and Bay Area native–in a lecture/recital exploring the depths and beauty of the Negro Spiritual. He presents his own arrangements of some of his favorite spirituals, jazz standards, and other exclusively American selections, and interweaves a vivid historical narrative of American culture. This presentation explores how American music owes much of its existence to the trauma of those first enslaved people who were just trying to pass the time in the fields or lend some comfort in a dark room. An art form blending the rhythmic and emotional core from Africa with the religious and harmonic structure of the European colonizers. Born from burdens. Tempered by tragedy. From the muck of kidnapping, oppression, indoctrination, and torture sprang forth this bloom of rich, uplifting, hopeful music. Music that evolved as time trampled generations of humans. This lecture recital will deepen your connection to history, and to your fellow humans. Concludes with a Q & A with the artist.

Alex Taite: Deep River

The Italian Saxophone Quartet (ISQ), with its 40-year history, is one of the longest-lived groups currently active on the world stage. Shortly after its founding in 1982, the ISQ won a number of important chamber music competitions, including the unanimous First Prize at the prestigious Premio Ancona. Since then, the group has been giving exciting and eclectic performances to adoring crowds from New York to Moscow, Athens to Tokyo.

Italian Saxophone Quartet

An innovator in vertical performance, BANDALOOP seamlessly weaves dynamic physicality, intricate choreography and climbing technology to turn the dance floor on its side. Founded by Amelia Rudolph and under the artistic direction of Melecio Estrella, BANDALOOP re-imagines dance, activates public spaces, and inspires wonder and imagination in audiences around the world. The company trains dancers and youth at home and on tour, and has performed for millions of people in over 300 cities in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia, and on screens in films and digital media.

Bandaloop In Collaboration With Roomful Of Teeth

Sonoma County ensemble Cantabile will be performing an eclectic program, ranging from Baroque and Brahms to musical theater and opera duets, promising to be a very entertaining and satisfying evening of music.

Cantabile

Drummer Akira Tana has a gilt-edged jazz pedigree: Harvard, the New England Conservatory and stints with Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Hubert Laws, and James Moody. Otonowa, which means “sound circle” in Japanese, was formed originally to showcase traditional Japanese songs and pop through jazz arrangements. But 2011’s terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan were to become a crucible for Otonowa, which launched this brotherhood of Japanese-American jazz luminaries into a program of touring and recording to raise both funds for and the spirits of the survivors. You’ll hear unique melodies you’ve never heard, in highly original settings you’re unlikely soon to forget. The evening also includes a twenty min. video about the Otonowa project and a Q & A after the concert.

Akira Tana and Otonowa

Recipient of the 2011 Chorus America /ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco (IOCSF), led by Artistic Director Zane Fiala, wasfounded in 2003. Named after the color of the Golden Gate Bridge, the IOCSF is an auditioned, all-volunteer chamber choir devoted to performing established repertoire of all periods, with particular attention to contemporary music, including newly commissioned works by promising composers. Having premiered over thirty works, IOCSF has gained recognition as one of the top choral ensembles in the region, delivering powerful and moving performances that touch audiences both locally and internationally. Driven by a passion for sharing the joy of music, the IOCSF is a true gem of the San Francisco music community.

International Orange Chorale SF

SoloRio is a new Americana’n rock stone soup collaboration band based in the North Bay. Drums (Jay Young), Percussion (Brooks Anderson) and bass (Andy Tester) conspire in a dynamic heartbeat while Andy ‘Dru’ Rodgers and Gary Kaye add voice to the harmonies the band is known for.

SoloRio

Violin recital with 222 classical programmer Gary McLaughlin. Program to include works by Bach, Telemann, Hindemith, Kreisler and Bacewicz.

Gary Mclaughlin

Acclaimed clarinetist Anat Cohen and 7-string guitarist Marcello Gonçalves team together in a series of intimate, lyrical duets. Breathtaking melodies, Brazilian grooves, and elements of jazz highlight the intricate talents of both Cohen and Gonçalves. In their second duo album, Reconvexo, Brazilian 7-string guitar player Gonçalves and New York-based clarinetist Cohen turn their attention to music from the Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) songbook. Against the backdrop of a country and world turning inward, the duo set out to record an album inspired by the beauty of Brazil and the spirit of its people. The result is at once intimate and virtuosic, mournful and hopeful, soaked with the feeling expressed uniquely in the Portuguese language as saudade – bittersweet, at once deeply happy and sad, and full of emotion.

Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves

Dalí Quartet, comprised of Ari Isaacman-Beck, Carlos Rubio, Adriana Linares and Jesus Morales, is acclaimed for bringing Latin American quartet repertoire to an equal standing alongside the Classical and Romantic canon. With its classical roots and Latin Soul programming, the group has toured the U.S., Canada and South America. Because of its fresh approach, the quartet has been called upon for return engagements at the National Gallery of Art, Friends of Chamber Music in Portland, Chamber Music at Beall, and the SA’OAXACA International Music Festival in México, among others. The Dalí Quartet is the 2021 recipient of Chamber Music America’s Guarneri String Quartet Residency, funded by the Sewell Family Foundation, and the 2021 Silver Medal at the inaugural Piazzolla Music Competition. The quartet is also the 2019 recipient of the Atlanta Symphony’s esteemed Aspire Award for accomplished African American and Latino Musicians.

Dalí Quartet

Volti San Francisco is a chamber choir known for its innovative programming and performances of contemporary music. Founded in 1979, the group is dedicated to exploring new music and expanding the choral repertoire. The ensemble works within a wide range of genres and styles, from classical to avant-garde, and incorporates elements of world music, jazz, and folk traditions.

Volti San Francisco

Even after 450+ years, Shakespeare’s words from sonnets and plays remain favorite inspirations for composers and poets. Combined with snippets from his poetry and plays (by local professional actors,) SF Choral Artists offer settings of the poetry of Shakespeare and friends: Dickinson, Goethe, Coleridge, Whitman, Millay, Rilke, and others.

SF Choral Artists

NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd, celebrating his 85th year, has never sounded better. The depth of his sound reflects a lifetime of experience. A Memphis Music Hall of Fame inductee, and recipient of the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French Minister of Culture, Lloyd has a legendary history in the music world.
His concerts and recordings are events of pristine beauty and elegance, full of intensely felt emotion and passion that touches deep inside the heart. This is not entertainment, but the powerful uncorrupted expression of beauty through music. When music vibrates, the soul vibrates and touches the spirit within.
Lloyd is joined by six-time GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Gerald Clayton, a supremely gifted improviser hailed as one of the finest pianists of his generation. Charles Lloyd and Gerald Clayton have performed together since 2013, sharing incredible chemistry.

Charles Lloyd & Gerald Clayton Duo

Two Brazilian musicians with successful international careers join forces to present a new project with original music and new interpretations of pieces by renowned Brazilian composers.
Multi-GRAMMY® nominee Nilson Matta, known for his work with Trio da Paz, Don Pullen African Brazilian Connection, Joe Henderson, Yo Yo Ma, and Nilson Matta’s Brazilian Voyage, teams up with three-time Latin GRAMMY® nominee Jovino Santos Neto: master pianist, flutist, composer, arranger, and conductor from Rio de Janeiro.
Percussionist Ami Molinelli joins them as a special guest, enriching the contagious rhythm of the dynamic duo for this rare collaboration.

Nilson Matta & Jovino Santos Neto Dynamic Brazilian Duo with Guest Ami Molinelli

Over the past decade, the Zodiac Trio has established itself as the leading international trio of its kind, heralded by Radio France as “A breathtaking ensemble of virtuosity and sensitivity.” Taking advantage of its unusual instrumentation of clarinet, violin and piano, the Zodiac Trio has been on the forefront of innovative programming, presenting 20th century masterpieces alongside new works and acclaimed original arrangements, offering the listener an immersive, musical journey.

Zodiac Trio

Nationally known poet and best-selling author Ellen Bass, along with internationally known Ukrainian born pianist Inna Faliks, will weave together an engaging program of Music & Words. The New Yorker described a performance by Inna Faliks as “Adventurous and Passionate,” and Ellen Bass drew this comment from The Rumpus: “Ellen Bass’s deftness as a poet is breathtaking.”

Inna Faliks - Pianist & Ellen Bass - Poet

Alexander Malofeev performs with the world’s best-known orchestras. This young “Russian genius” (— Corriere della Sera) came to international prominence when, in 2014, he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians at age thirteen. “Contrary to what could be expected of a youngster ..., he demonstrated not only high technical accuracy but also an incredible maturity. Crystal clear sounds and perfect balance revealed his exceptional ability.” — Amadeus. Malofeev has quickly established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation.

Alexander Malofeev

JULIA B. LEVINE is the author of four previous poetry collections, including Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight, winner of the Northern California Book Award for Poetry. She is also a recipient of the Discovery/The Nation Award and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry from Nimrod. Her work has been widely published in journals such as Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and the Southern Review. She lives and works in Davis, California, where she was recently named Poet Laureate.
She will be reading from her fifth collection of poetry, Ordinary Psalms, published by Louisiana University Press. In it, LSU says,  the speaker "asks everyday life to help her learn how to see beyond appearances into fundamental truths.” As she contemplates the loss of one friend to cancer and another to suicide, along with her own impending visual impairment, Levine holds the world “close as I needed / to see.” Imagistic, lyrical, and at times imploring divine intervention from a god she does not know or trust, these poems curse and praise the extraordinary place we live in and are in danger of losing. Lamenting that “this world is a mortal affliction / with wounds in the beautiful,” Ordinary Psalms provides a seductive and lyric rumination on radiance, loss, and grief.

Julia B. Levine - Ordinary Psalms

Despite the problems of sound recording in 1932, Jean Renoir (the son of the great Impressionist painter) went out of the studio and shot this film on the streets of Paris and along the banks of the Seine. It is not only a lovely fable about a bourgeois attempt to reform a rebellious bum (Michel Simon is the shaggy, bearded tramp who spills wine on the table and wipes his shoes on the bedspread), but a photographic record of an earlier France. “A beautifully rhythmed film that makes one nostalgic for when it was made.”  — Penelope Gilliatt (1932, 87 min, in French w/English subtitles)

Boudu Saved From Drowning

Buster Keaton’s hilarious Sherlock Jr. will be accompanied by the San Francisco Chamber Music Society String Quartet and renowned pianist/ composer Stephen Prutsman. Opening the program is the cult classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari from 1920, also with live music and an original score.

A Pair of Silent Film Classics With Live Music

Kim Stanley Robinson is the author of about twenty books, including the internationally bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, and The Ministry for the Future, which Jonathan Lethem calls “the best science fiction non-fiction novel I’ve ever read.” Robinson was part of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995 and 2016, and, as a guest of the UK government and the UN, a featured speaker at COP-26 in Glasgow, Scotland. His books, winners of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, have been translated into 25 languages. In 2016 asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.” He will be reading from The High Sierra: A Love Story.

Kim Stanley Robinson

“Set in a mountainous corner of Australia, Ray Lawrence’s film starts with an ominous threat of violence before switching abruptly to what seems to be an everyday tale of marital difficulties. Stewart and Claire (Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, both in top form) have never quite bounced back from a breakdown Claire suffered when their child was born. When Stewart and three buddies having various women troubles of their own escape on a fishing trip, a macabre discovery forces them to confront their individual demons with a terrifying and inescapable immediacy. Starting from Beatrix Christian’s adaptation of Raymond Carver’s story “So Little Water Close to Home,” Lawrence uses genre elements, much as he did in Lantana, to investigate the secrets and lies that corrode sexual relationships. And he discovers both horror and redemption in the powerful natural landscape.” — Telluride Film Festival.

Jindabyne

Beo String Quartet embraces the breadth and depth available to a string quartet in the 21st century. By crafting original music and projects, engaging listeners through entertainment and thoughtful demonstration, collaborating with living composers, performing quartet masterpieces in a wide array of settings, and exploring technology’s capacity as a musical and social tool, Beo is expanding the role of chamber musicians in today’s global culture. Now in its seventh season, Beo has performed over 100 concert works in the US and Europe–including over 45 world premieres.

Beo String Quartet

In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s visually ravishing film, in which an elaborate stairway connects a Technicolor earth with a monochrome Heaven, David Niven plays a downed bomber pilot in WWII who senses that his having eluded a fiery death was arbitrary at best. On the operating table he finds himself suspended between Heaven (where he is summoned to argue his case in the celestial courts) and earth (where he has fallen in love with a heavenly WAC in the person of Kim Hunter). This is existential fantasy at its finest. “The doctor who befriends him diagnoses ‘a highly organized hallucination’ and much the same could be said of the film with its bewildering alternations of microcosm and macrocosm, poetry and pathos, monochrome and color. A stunning, subversive masterpiece.” — British Film Institute.  The stunning supporting cast includes Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, and a very young Richard Attenborough.

A Matter of Life and Death

In a jazz world brimming with brilliant and adventurous pianists, Marc Cary stands apart by way of pedigree and design as one of New York’s best jazz pianists. None of his prestigious peer group ever set the groove behind the drums in Washington DC go-go bands, nor are they graduates of both Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln’s daunting bandstand academies.

Marc Cary

Sacred & Profane will perform “Dreams & Visions” with works by Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Weston, Dunphy, and others, plus the world premiere of a commissioned work for SATB choir, Now, It Is Time, by New York composer Michael Bussewitz-Wuarm. The work is based on “a journey through a deeply personal transition, surrounded by her beautiful family.”

Sacred & Profane A Chamber Chorus

Poetry gets to the heart of human experience in a way that few other written forms do. During this “open-mic” poetry reading, we invite you to share poems that speak both to and from your heart. Bring a poem you love, or an original work authored by yourself, and share in a brief exchange with the audience how the poem speaks to you. This event is free to the public, and all are welcome to attend. Please indicate if you plan to share a poem in your RSVP.

Bi-Annual Community Poetry Night

Direct from France, Django Festival Allstars bring the music of the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt fully into the twenty-first century. This brilliantly cohesive group of musicians with their unique, high-energy performances pay tribute to Reinhardt, who is considered one of the greatest guitar players of all time and known for playing with an unmistakable cool and jumping joie de vivre.
The music speaks of Paris in the 20s and 30s when “gitane” music filled the air, in the cafés, the streets, in the countryside, a romantic Paris with lovers, campfires, a time of Montmartre, la belle époque, le Boudon café, café au lait, luscious pastry, and a great glass of wine. Django was "king". He teamed with Jazz Violinist Stephane Grappelli and made musical history.

Django Festival Allstars

Publisher and Poet Lucille Lang Day (Wampanoag heritage) in Conversation with poet Denise Low.

Indigenous Voices

In addition to the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the quartet received the Grand Prize at the 2019 ENKOR International Music Competition and second prize at the 2019 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. At the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition they received Third Prize, the Haydn Prize for the best performance of a Haydn quartet, and the Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of the compulsory work, Thomas Ades’ “The Four Quarters”. They received the Silver Medal at the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and Third Prize at the 2017 9th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition.
Over the years, the quartet has collaborated with artists such as Emanuel Ax, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Rodolfo Leone, Eliso Virsaladze, and Orion Weiss, and look forward to collaborations with Inon Barnatan, Michelle Cann, and Roberto Diaz in the upcoming season.

Viano String Quartet

The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir weaves together a family of singers from a wide range of faiths, races, and cultures-- joined in the mission to inspire joy and unity in all people through Negro spirituals and black gospel music. The choir and its dynamic director, Terrance Kelly, have captivated audiences across the world, from Israel to Norway to Australia to the Deep South. Before each show, choir members call out their wishes to send joy, love, and hope to everyone in attendance. And when the choir starts singing, audiences can’t help but jump to their feet, lift their hands, and allow the glory of the music to uplift them.
The award-winning Choir’s exquisite harmonies and stirring gospel repertoire have led to performances with a wide variety of esteemed groups, such as Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel; the Five Blind Boys of Alabama; and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The Choir also appears on Grammy-winning albums by Linda Ronstadt, MC Hammer, Tramaine Hawkins, and others.

Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir

Fatih Akin, the critically acclaimed director, was born in Germany to Turkish parents in 1973, and his best work explores these double origins. The Edge of Heaven weaves overlapping tales of friendship and sexuality into a powerful narrative of universal love. Six characters are drawn together by circumstances – an old man and a prostitute, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together. Akin’s piercing sense of the human condition and contemporary world events charge these hyperlinked stories into a multicultural powder keg. A.O. Scott of The New York Times says, the film “has a cumulative power, both intellectual and emotional...by the end, you know the characters in it so well that you can’t believe you’ve seen the movie only once, yet on a second viewing it seems completely new.”

The Edge of Heaven

Reverso, a trans-oceanic chamber jazz ensemble co-led by trombonist Ryan Keberle and pianist Frank West, presents their original chamber jazz in concert. Reverso looks to bridge the divide between jazz and chamber music realized by an outstanding trio which also includes the acclaimed French cellist Vincent Courtois.
Keberle and West show us that jazz and "classical" music have become even more intertwined in today's music world, since they began to intersect among Ravel and his contemporaries such as Satie, Stravinsky and Milhaud over 100 years earlier.
Reverso's repertoire features original compositions by Keberle and West. They’ll be celebrating music from their upcoming new album inspired by Fauré, Harmonic Alchemy (OutNote Music) due out in November.

Reverso

Mary Stallings is a classic example of how it takes time, musical seasoning and living a full life to mature as a vocalist and to address a lyric properly. While youthful instrumentalists may have something to say, Stallings brings a lifetime of emotional intelligence that enables her to truly inhabit a lyric.

Mary Stallings Duo

Revel in selections from Delibes’ Lakme, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Bizet’s Carmen.  Savor the music of Clara Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Charles T. Griffes, and more! Allow opera jewels, cabaret gems, and art song treasures to transport you on passionate, amusing, poignant journeys of life and love.

Songs of Life, Songs of Love

Ever wondered how a poem comes into being? Join Literary Arts Programmer Laurie Glover for an afternoon of building, shaping, and layering sentences to discover your own creative capacity! We will start with looking at images, choosing one that speaks to you, then you’ll be walked through a series of statements about the image. Through a further series of steps, you’ll discover how tiny changes affect the impact of a given sentence, and we’ll then draw on poetic forms to turn each person’s scattered thoughts into a thing of beauty. 

Poetry Workshop 1

Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the lovably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a baffling modern world, this time in Paris. A group of tourists, whose paths are only occasionally crossed by M. Hulot, wander through the interchangeable glass-and-steel skyscrapers which comprise modern-day Paris. Visual gags occur with such simultaneous abundance that the film demands countless viewings for each joke to be fully savored. The film’s second hour, the opening night activities at an expensive restaurant that is not quite ready to open, comprises one of the cinema’s most masterfully orchestrated comic set-pieces. With every inch of its super-wide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting record of a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion. (1967, 124 min, in English, German and French w/subtitles) 

Playtime

Cellist Tommy Mesa returns to THE 222 this season with bandoneon player and composer JP Jofre combining their considerable talents in a special program of tango music by Astor Piazzola and transcriptions by Jofre himself, one of Argentina’s foremost composers and bandoneon players.

Art of the Tango

With a small baroque ensemble, featuring soprano voice and trumpet, this event explores the themes of love through early music composers, both famous and lesser known. A set of Purcell songs chronicle romantic love and loss, a Pepusch English cantata explores love of country, and a riotous Handel cantata joyfully exclaims a love of life.  Showcasing music that moves from mournful to bombastic, this concert features early music specialist performers.

Morgan Balfour – Soprano – Love in Many Forms

San Francisco’s newest professional chamber choir, Vox Humana SF, directed by Don Scott Carpenter, made their triumphant debut this past February. THE 222’s own Choral Music Programmer, Sanford Dole, attended the concert and couldn’t wait to present them at THE 222. The program, Voyages,  looks to be full of musical riches, including works by Giovanni Gabrieli, Johannes Brahms, and Gustav Mahler, as well as newer works by leading contemporary composers Eric Whitacre, Joan Tower, and Jake Heggie. In addition, there will be two world premieres from the group’s New Music Series.

Vox Humana SF

In life, as in art, appearances can be deceiving. Evelyn is a graduate art student and Adam is an undergraduate who also works at a nearby museum as a security guard. Once Adam falls in love with Evelyn, how far is he willing to go to win her approval? How far will Evelyn demand he go? The Shape of Things is a fascinating study into the nature of love and art, and what happens when the two collide.

The Shape Of Things

Made at the height of the Depression, this sophisticated comedy mocked the earnestness of the period, causing some critics to find it “flimsy.” Dwight MacDonald, on the other hand, hailed it as coming “as close to perfection as anything I have ever seen,” and director Ernst Lubitsch echoed this judgment when he said, “For pure style, I have done nothing better or as good as Trouble in Paradise.” The opening shot sets the mood of this exquisite jewel of a comedy: A gondolier is heard addressing the Venetian night in sweet tenor; passing by the camera, he is revealed to be the Grand Canal’s garbage collector. Soon we find two underclass types, Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins, who meet while picking each other’s pockets. The pair are both jewel thieves in their better moments, and together they make for Paris, where they insinuate themselves into the company of a wealthy millionairess. The action and dialogue are delectably refined, elegantly cynical. (1932, 83 min)

Trouble In Paradise

Join Literary Arts Programmer Laurie Glover for an afternoon workshop based on matierals you bring. Anyone who has written any kind of poetry before is welcome, including but not limited to those who attended the first workshop!  We will work together in the afternoon, take a dinner break, and then return to share our work and our process with the community. 

Poetry Workshop 2

Singer Tierney Sutton and pianist Tamir Hendelman join forces for a joyous celebration of spring, with songs by Richard Rodgers, Clifford Brown, Tom Jobim, Dori Caymmi, Paul Simon, and more. Intimate and swinging, this program will touch and inspire you. 

Tierney Sutton & Tamir Hendelman

Maxim Lando has at a young age already performed at many of the most prestigious venues in the world. He has been described as a “dazzling fire-eater” by ARTS San Francisco and by The New York Times as displaying “brilliance and infectious exuberance” combined with “impressive delicacy.” First Prize Winner of the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Maxim held sold-out recital debuts at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. The previous year, Maxim made headlines performing  with Lang Lang, Chick Corea, and the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick-Seguin at Carnegie Hall’s Opening Night Gala.

Maxim Lando

In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. By 1912, she was the object of ruthless gossip over an alleged affair with a married Frenchman, all but erasing her achievements from public memory. Weakened and demoralized by the press lambasting her as a “foreign” Jewish temptress and a homewrecking traitor, Marie agrees to join her friend and colleague Hertha Ayrton, an electromechanical engineer and suffragette, to recover from the scandal at Hertha’s seaside retreat on the British coast. The Half Life of Marie Curie revels in the power of female friendship as it explores the relationship between these two brilliant women, both of whom are mothers, widows, and fearless champions of scientific inquiry.

The Half Life of Marie Curie

Now celebrating its tenth season together, the Telegraph Quartet returns to THE 222 to demonstrate once again why the San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed them “. . . an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape.” They have an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Since winning the Grand Prize in the prestigious Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in 2014, they have performed far and wide, both in North America and beyond.

Telegraph Quartet

With all the thrills of a rare bird sighting, Gaines’s novel Accidentals limns a compelling love story within a thicket of history, endangered species biology, and Latin American political repression. At a time when US democracy is threatened by fascism and unchecked greed, Gaines’s new novel reminds us of how the past shadows the present—and of how often planetary crises of environmental degradation, species loss, and climate change have been eclipsed by seemingly more urgent human political and economic crises.

Susan M. Gaines – Accidentals

Open Mic Poetry Night 2

Bay Nature, now celebrating its 25th year of publication, is as unique and treasured as the San Francisco Bay it covers—think of it as the Bay Area’s own National Geographic. It is the go-to for readers seeking insight into local environmental issues, the nature that lives around us, and ways to get outdoors in the region. How did this publication become such a fixture in Bay Area media? What’s next? Join Literary Arts Programmer Laurie Glover and Bay Nature Editor-in-chief Victoria Schlesinger in conversation about how the magazine and its foundation are expanding the work of bringing science to the citizen.

Victoria Schlesinger – Bay Nature

Active since 2006, this all-star jazz collective with pianist Myra Melford, bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Matt Wilson has toured all around the world and recorded two critically acclaimed releases, The Big Picture (2007) and The Guest House (2012). Myra Melford has distinguished herself through her unique ability to blend jazz with elements of blues, Indian classical music, and avant-garde improvisation. She has pursued a creative vision that is both wholly distinctive and all-embracing, where composition and improvisation interact seamlessly and ingeniously, one side strengthening the other. Divergent idioms and eras coalesce—from jazz, blues and global folk styles to various corners of the classical tradition. Extramusical influences—the poetry of Rumi or the spirituality of the Huichol Indians of Mexico—also figure in the mix. In the end, Melford’s efforts are probably best served by labels like “contemporary music” or “new music,” or other tags that signify artistic freedom and daring more than any boundaries of genre.

Trio M

Dreams, Fantasies and Stupors is an evening of art music, whimsy, sensuality, and philosophical introspection. Featuring works by Debussy, Schoenberg, Weill, and Piaf as well as living composers Nicolas Lell Benavides and Brennen Stokes, this program saunters its way through states of fantasy, curiosity, and hilarity.

Dreams, Fantasies and Stupors

In this solo virtuoso reading, Jane Hirshfield’s meditative poems open spiritual perspectives in daily moments. Her book of essays Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry is a classic, at  the intersections of Zen Buddhist practice, thoughtful immediacy, and verse. Ranging from the political, ecological, and scientific to the metaphysical, personal, and passionate, Hirshfield praises the radiance of particularity and reckons the consequence of the daily. Her poems and essays traverse the crises of the biosphere, questions of social justice, and the myriad interior quandaries of heart, mind, and spirit. She studied at the San Francisco Zen Center for eight years. Jane Hirshfield is the recipient of many accolades, including being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winning both the California Book Award and The Poetry Center Book Award. She co-founded the Poets for Science traveling installation, which premiered on the Washington Mall at the first March for Science. She was elected to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets. Her ten poetry books include the newly published The Asking: New & Selected Poems (2023) and Ledger (2020). This Mill Valley author contributes to many readings and conferences throughout the state and the nation.

Jane Hirshfield

Internationally renowned vocalist Nicolas Bearde is a jazz singer whose remarkable depth, range and vocal technique have won acclaim from critics and jazz audiences worldwide. A seasoned and highly respected showman, Bearde’s lush ‘buttery baritone’ vocals combine passion, wit, and sensuality. His engaging rapport captures and draws the audience into his performance. Forged from Nashville roots and a 1980s initiation into the thriving San Francisco music scene, Nicolas’s velvety smooth delivery of time-tested standards, blues, and his own originals will be soulful, swinging, improvisational and memorable! 

Nicolas Bearde Quintet

Clerestory returns to THE 222 with a program showcasing the breadth of exquisite a cappella polyphony that the group is known for, spanning the centuries from Renaissance polyphony to modern-day compositions. From countertenor to bass, Clerestory’s nine singers have been praised by SF Classical Voice for their “distinctive voices blending in a gorgeous sound.” Founded in 2006, the self-led ensemble features veterans of the country’s most renowned professional vocal groups, including Chanticleer, Conspirare, American Bach Soloists and others. The ensemble’s exceptional talent has been featured on National Public Radio and on San Francisco’s KDFC.

Clerestory

If your cruel and belligerent grandfather is a horrible person who is mentally abusive to your mother and an emotional, financial, and psychological drain on you and your adult sibling…what are your options? For Jane and Mordy, the options are comical and creepy! 

The Burdens

Alka Joshi is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times Bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Pick. It was Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. The book has been translated into 29 languages and is currently in development at Netflix as a TV series. In 2023, Forbes selected Joshi as one of “50 over 50” women empowering other women. Joshi was born in India and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of nine. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts. She lives in California.

Alka Joshi

Open Mic Narrative Night 2

Two accomplished Sonoma County artists perform music in both solo and duo formats with commentary. Their program will include 2 Fantasias for violin alone by Telemann, a Chopin Polonaise and a Prelude by Debussy for solo piano. The Duo’s program will conclude with the Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major by Johannes Brahms. 

222

Jan 26, 2025

Songs of Life, Songs of Love

Feb 2, 2025

Poetry Workshop 1

Nov 4, 2024 - Jun 2, 2025

Dance @ 222

Feb 6, 2025

Playtime

Feb 7, 2025

Art of the Tango

Jan 9, 2025

The Golden Coach

Jan 5, 2025

Open Mic Narrative Night 1

Articles & News

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