Arts & Events

—The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival announced at the end of February a unique series of performances for Saturday June 14 at 7 p. m. at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to mark the occasion of a rare and well-deserved celebration of artistic purpose—and endurance—in both performance and education: all eight Indian classical dance styles (Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri, Mohiniyattam, Kathakali, Sattiriya) performed for the first time together on an American stage, celebrating the award of the Malonga Casquelourd Award to K. P. and Katherine Kunhiraman, who since 1975 have performed and taught Bharatanatyam and Kathakali, as well as other dances, through their Kalanjali, Dances of India troupe and school in Berkeley. -more-

The second half of Berkeley’s Early Music Festival got off to a glorious start with the West Coast debut of internationally renowned keyboard artist Kristian Bezuidenhout. In the first of his two scheduled appearances here, the 35 year-old Bezuidenhout, a native of South Africa, played a recital at 5:00 pm on Thursday, June 5, at St. Mark’s Church. For this performance, Bezuidenhout played on a pianoforte built by Thomas and Barbara Wolf in 1990 on designs from around 1800 by Johann Schantz of Vienna. Opening the program was a Rondo in C minor by Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach. featuring dynamic contrasts. -more-