Cal Performances, the Bay Area’s top presenter of world-class music, dance and theater, is offering the chance to enjoy the performing arts at steeply discounted ticket prices for a range of events taking place through the rest of the 2025-26 season.
The Winter Sale runs Jan. 7-Feb. 3. Many events are available at a discount when purchasing two or more select performances throughout the spring. (UC Berkeley students can access exclusive discounts including half-price tickets, for every performance in the season.)
One of the standout highlights among the performances available on the Winter Sale is the West Coast premiere of “MOON,” the latest work by acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris, running Jan. 23–25. In this production, the dancers of the Mark Morris Dance Group explore our enduring fascination with the lunar landscape, performing against striking projections of the celestial body. The piece draws inspiration from NASA’s 1977 Golden Record — the time capsule sent into space on the 1977 Voyager spacecrafts to represent Earth to potential extraterrestrials — and weaves together a diverse soundscape that includes moon-themed recordings from the 1930s and ’40s alongside live music by Dupré, Debussy and Ligeti.
Cal Performances presents the West Coast premiere of Mark Morris Dance Group: MOON, Jan. 23–25, at Zellerbach Hall. Credit: XMB Photography
On Feb. 5, concertgoers will experience one of the most profound voices of our time when vocalist and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant returns to Zellerbach Hall to lead her quartet in a fresh take on jazz that incorporates her background in Caribbean music, Baroque repertoire, and musical theater. Expect a masterful performance filled with dramatic storytelling, vivid historical context, and uncompromisingly original compositions.
Cal Performances presents vocalist and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant with her quartet, Feb. 5 at Zellerbach Hall.
Credit: Ebru Yildiz
On Feb. 10, Cal Performances welcomes a rising star of the classical piano world, making his first appearance in Berkeley. Since winning first prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021, Bruce Liu has rapidly gained international prominence, performing on the world’s most prestigious concert stages. For his Zellerbach Hall recital, Liu will perform a selection of Chopin, Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, and a trio of works inspired by Spanish themes.
Cal Performances presents pianist Bruce Liu in recital, Feb. 10, at Zellerbach Hall. Credit: Bartek Barczyk
Later in February, the Bay Area will have the chance to participate in a unique blend of dance and theater. “Gathering,” a work by the Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, is an immersive experience exploring themes of love, loss, trauma and dislocation through movement, text, song and puppetry. The international cohort of collaborating artists in the work portrays a fictional story of a village under siege, inviting audience members to join as both participants and witnesses in the collective action. Multiple performances take place in the intimate Zellerbach Playhouse Feb. 27-March 1.
Cal Performances presents the West Coast Premiere of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre: “Gathering,” part staged work, part interactive experience, Feb. 27-March 1, at Zellerbach Playhouse. Credit: Heather Cromartie
The spring offerings continue with the return of one of the most revered figures in early and global music when Catalan viol virtuoso and musical polymath Jordi Savall returns to Berkeley. The follow-up to his “Routes of Slavery” program honors the more than 25 million people enslaved by Western nations over close to four centuries. For the April 21 concert, Savall is joined by nearly three dozen musicians, including his celebrated ensembles Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, the Mexican group Tembembe Ensamble Continuo, and special guest performers from Canada, Guinea, Guadeloupe, Mali, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela who place their rich musical traditions in dialogue with Spanish and other European forms.
Cal Performances presents Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and Tembembe Ensamble Continuo: “Un Mar de Músicas” (“A Sea of Music”), April 21, at Zellerbach Hall. Credit: H. Pouyforcat
Closing Cal Performances’ season on May 9 is an ambitious collaborative production plumbing the complexity of the American experience in honor of the country’s 250th birthday. In a wide-ranging musical event inspired by George Gershwin’s vision of a “musical kaleidoscope of America,” classical pianist and NPR host Lara Downes is joined by an all-star cast of collaborators including folk singer Judy Collins, Tarriona “Tank” Ball of New Orleans’ Tank and the Bangas, the Invoke Quartet, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.
Other notable events on Cal Performances’ Winter Sale
On Jan. 31, Tony Award-winning Broadway star, opera diva and television actor Kelli O’Hara — known for roles in “The King and I,” “The Hours” and the Emmy-nominated “The Gilded Age”— performs a selection of show tunes and classics from the Great American Songbook.
Feb. 21-22, contemporary dance takes the spotlight with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham’s works that express themes of Black and queer culture, love and isolation, all set to live music by artists including Max Roach, Nina Simone and Shelley Washington.
Later that same week, four-time Grammy winner Chris Thile performs an eclectic program on mandolin, including selections from his new recording of Bach sonatas and partitas, Feb. 27.
Early March marks the annual return to Cal Performances of one of the world’s leading Baroque orchestras, The English Concert. Under the artistic leadership of Harry Bicket, the ensemble performs a concert of Handel’s “Hercules” starring mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg alongside the voices of the Clarion Choir on March 8.
For a complete list of performances, dates and ticket information, visit calperformances.org.
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