From a musical “Reflection on America” to the start of one of the Bay Area’s best concert series, there are a lot of great shows and concerts to catch in the Bay Area this weekend for this weekend and beyond.

Here’s a partial roundup.

Classical picks: Lara Downs, Cal Symph, Symphony San Jose

Classical music offers a wide range of old and new this week, with a look back by Lara Downes at UC Berkeley and two symphony orchestras covering programs with impressive stylistic spans.

“This Land: Reflections on America”: Pianist Lara Downes and Friends — a group that includes vocalists Judy Collins, Tarriona ‘Tank’ Ball and the Invoke Quartet backed by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir — comes to Berkeley to present a rousing program that, as organizers put it, “explores the richness and complexity of the American experience.”

Details: 8 p.m. May 9; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; tickets $38-up; CalPerformances.org.

Russian classic and a new work: The California Symphony closes its 2025-26 season with two performances this weekend featuring Music Director Donato Cabrera conducting Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with award-winning pianist Sofya Gulyak as soloist. Also of note: Saad Haddad, the Symphony’s composer-in-residence, introduces his third and final new work written for the orchestra; Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 completes the program.

Details: 7:30 p.m. May 9 and 4 p.m. May 10; Lesher Center, Walnut Creek; $25-$115; californiasymphony.org.

Celebrating Spring: Beethoven’s “Pastorale” is just one of three featured works on Symphony San Jose’s spring concert, a program that also includes Dvorak’s “Carnival Overture” and Mason Bates’ “Philharmonia Fantastique.” Vinay Parameswaran conducts the program, which opens with a pre-show hour of talks with featured guests.

Details: 7:30 p.m. May 9 and 2:30 p.m. May 10; California Theatre, San Jose; $24-$121.50; SymphonySanJose.org.

— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent

Pleasanton band has a big birthday

Batch22 is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The members of this pop-rock cover band hail from different areas of the “day job” work world — a surgeon, financial planner, therapist, etc. — but their shared passion for music brought them together back in 2006.

The band handles a wide range of material, with setlists that can include such tunes as “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure, “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan, “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC, “Kiss This” by The Struts,” “Heart of Glass” by Blondie, “Save Me, San Francisco” by Train, and, best of all, “Bohemian Like You” by The Dandy Warhols.

The band members are Kris Bergmann on vocals, John Murphy on vocals and keyboards, Andrew Sage on vocals and guitar, Michael Schomaker on guitar, Dave Bell on bass and Mike Racer on drums.

Details: Music fans can catch Batch22 on May 9 at McKay’s Taphouse & Beer Garden in Pleasanton; showtime is 7 p.m.; no cover charge; mckaysbeergarden.com.

— Jim Harrington, Staff

Here’s your freebie of the week

One of San Francisco’s best concert/performance series kicks off this week with what is sure to be a high-energy and rousing performance that will have folks of all types and ages busting moves in a glorious setting on Mission Street. We’re talking about the annual Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which each year presents more than 100 performances on the Yerba Buena Gardens Great Lawn, on Mission Street, between 3rd and 4th streets in San Francisco.

The new season officially launches on May 9 with a concert featuring the great New York City salsa singer Herman Olivera and his Orquesta Taino. Make no mistake, this is salsa royalty we are talking about. Olivera, a leading figure in Afro-Caribbean music since the 1970s, has been dubbed “El Senoro Mayor” and, as International Salsa Magazine refers to him, “the Sonero of the 21st Century.”

It’s not just his superior voice that makes fans swoon; Olivera is also revered for his passionate delivery and his unparalleled improvisational talents. The performance runs from 2 to 4:30 p.m. May 9 at the Yerba Buena Gardens, and you make sure to get there early enough to catch the opening set from Batey Tambo, an all-female Bay Area Latin ensemble led by Denise Solis and Julia Caridad Cepeda. The festival runs through mid-October with a wide variety of music, dance and theater performances, most of which are family-friendly. More information and a complete schedule is available at ybgfestival.org.

— Bay City News Foundation

Craters, technology and more at ICA

It was some 66 million years ago that an asteroid slammed into what is now known as the Yucatán Peninsula, creating a massive crater and, according to some, killing all the dinosaurs, who were probably thinking at the time that Earth was a pretty sweet gig.

The Chicxulub meteorite and its momentous aftermath are part of the inspiration for “Inframudo,” a new exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose featuring the explorative works and ideas of South Bay artist Miguel Novelo. But there’s a lot more going on here than post-dinosaur musing; The exhibit sets the famed crater — or cenote, in Mayan terminology, referring to when a collapse of bedrock exposes groundwater — as a starting point for the artist’s exploration into such concepts as Indigenous knowledge, ecology, technology, humans vs. machines, media and impermanence.

The exhibit — which marks the first solo show by Novelo, a lecturer at Stanford University and part of the CADRE art/technology program at San José State University — employs technology, immersive aspects, AI, gaming engines, augmented reality, interactive sculpture and generative imagery. In other words, Novelo’s work needs to be seen to be understood and appreciated.

Details: “Inframundo” is on display through Aug. 23 at ICA, 560 S. 1st St., San Jose; hours are noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday; admission is free; www.icasanjose.org.

— Randy McMullen, staff

CAAMFest is back with much to offer

CAAMFest remains a premier showplace for creative and inspiring Asian American storytelling and it’s one that often spotlights Bay Area talent among the filmmakers, the actors, and the people profiled. The fest celebrates its 44th year with an array of events from May 7-10.

HBO’s incisive documentary “The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas” makes for an ideal opening night feature (6:45 p.m. May 7 at the AMC Kabuki in San Francisco). Director Eugene Yi zooms in on the stories, experiences and perspectives of a swath of people from the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community. Subjects include Sandra Oh, Bowen Yang, Connie Chung, Kumail Ali Nanjiani and more. Walnut Creek resident and photojournalist Manny Crisostomo earns the spotlight too. It’s a relevant and inspiring film.

Another documentary that’s a gold mine of Bay Area talent is Oakland director Nisha Balaram’s “Meals that Made Us” (5:30 p.m. May 8, the Kabuki). The 60-minute presentation combines three parts of a new series on food and the critical role it plays in Bay Area Asian American communities. This collection alone features Soleil Ho (Berkeley’s Coyote Media Collective), Jenn Lui, Alan Chen and Eman Garcia (co-founders of Oakland’s 13 Orphans Restaurant), chef Yuji Ishikata (J-Sei in Emeryville) and Japjot Sethi (from San Jose’s Free Meals on Wheels).

Details: For more information, a complete rundown of the packed schedule and to order tickets, caamfest.com/2026.

– Randy Myers, Correspondent

A Scottish musical journey

Stravaig is a Scottish term that refers to the kind of experience that most of our journeys amount to — a blend of traveling, self-discovery and new insights into life. It’s also the term by which the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers refer to their annual Spring concert mini-tour, which takes place this weekend. The group was founded in 1986 by the now-legendary Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and his wife Sally Ashcraft, and now features more than 200 members. Its touring concert group consists of 65 members — fiddlers, cellists, pianists, percussionists and guitarists  — who tackle a wide range of Scottish and Celtic music, from stirring ballads to toe-tapping reels and representing traditional tunes from Brittany to Galicia to Scandinavia and Cape Breton. With musician Caroline McCaskey now serving as music director, the Fiddlers perform three concerts this weekend.

Details: Performances are 7 p.m. May 8 at the Veterans Memorial Theatre in Davis, 7 p.m. May 9 at The Freight (formerly Freight & Salvage) in Berkeley and 2 p.m. May 10 at the Crocker Theatre in Aptos. Tickets are $32-$35; free to kids 12 and younger. You can snag tickets and learn more information about the band and its music at sffiddles.org/home.

— Bay City News Foundation

From A to Zainab

Those who have seen Zainab Johnson’s comedy routine often remark how, like many of the best comedians, she is able to address her audience as if she were conversing one-on-one in a coffee shop. Her matter-of-fact tone, applied to everything from politics to romance to tragedy, is one of the things that make her a compelling performer who has developed a definite following in the standup world. And it’s not like she doesn’t have topics to cover besides the usual mix of current events and other topical matters. She was brought up in a fairly strict Muslim family, and wore a hijab as a child, often drawing taunts from other students. When she was 17, she and a friend were struck by a delivery truck and she spent the next 15 months recovering and re-learning how to walk.

Johnson began a career as a teacher but the death of her father in 2005 convinced her she should pursue her true passion — acting and entertaining. She has since developed a wide-ranging resume that includes everything from standup to starring in the Amazon Prime sci-fi/comedy series “Upload.” It’s the comedy side of things that Johnson is focusing on these days, as she brings her standup tour to Tommy T’s in Pleasanton for a weekend stint.

Details: Performances are 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. May 8, 7 and 9:45 p.m. May 9 and 7 p.m. May 10; tickets are $30-$40; tommyts.com.

— Bay City News Foundation

Homage to a pioneer

Revered American composer Terry Riley entered his 10th decade last year (he was born in 1935), and this giant of the minimalist movement is being celebrated by one of his most passionate advocates. Berkeley-based pianist Sarah Cahill, who has commissioned multiple works from Riley and also hosts the weekly “Revolutions Per Minute” radio show on KALW 91.7 FM, will devote two concerts of music by him and works written for him, beginning with her 7:30 performance May 9 at the Dresher Ensemble Studio at 2201 Poplar St. in Oakland.

Her second concert, which was rescheduled from one that got scuttled last December by the power outage in San Francisco, will take place at 2 p.m. May 24 in the Latino room on the lower level of the San Francisco Main Library at 100 Larkin St. Works on the program will include some from “Eighty Trips Around the Sun,” a four-CD set Cahill and two other pianists recorded nearly a decade ago in observance of Riley’s 80th birthday.

Details: Find tickets to the May 9 concert, $25, at dresherensemble.org. The May 24 program at the Main Library is free and open to the public.

— Bay City News Foundation