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Anyone struggling to get into a holiday mood can find delightful solace in the array of notable musical and theatrical performances taking place this weekend in the greater Berkeley area. 

• The Voci women’s vocal ensemble will perform six centuries of music celebrating the promise of peace at 3 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way at Dana Street. 

• The San Francisco Early Music Society is offering a selection of ancient English carols, plainsong and Renaissance polyphony at 8 p.m. Saturday, at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 

• Slavyanka, the San Francisco Men’s Russian Chorus, will present Berkeley with songs of Russia starting at 8 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way at Dana Street. 

• The Kensington Symphony Orchestra will give a traditional holiday concert will be presented by at 8 p.m. Saturday at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave. El Cerrito. 

• For a touch of the lighter side, the Oakland East Bay Men’s Chorus performs “I Got Yule Babe” at 8 p.m. Saturday at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, 3534 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. 

• Berkeley Youth Orchestra’s Winter Concert begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. in Oakland, featuring Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” narrated by John Grappone, and Holst’s “Jupiter.” 

• Berkeley High School students perform “You Can’t Take it With You” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Florence Schwimley Little Theater. 

• Children and families will enjoy the holiday classic, “The Nutcracker,” performed by Berkeley Ballet Theater in the Julia Morgan Theater on College Ave., at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. 

• The Christmas Revels are at the Scottish Rite Theater at 1 and 5 p.m. on Saturday. 

• Berkeley’s own Bolshevik Café, a cabaret show and dinner kicks off at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, at Finn Hall on 1819 Tenth St., and a Sing Out Against War and Empire with Robert Temple and Soulfolk Ensemble begins at 8 that same evening at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph. 

Details of these events can be found in our Arts Calendar beginning on Page Sixteen. 

—Anne Wagley