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THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

SUNDAY • OCTOBER 17, 2021

Camarada brings ‘Wonder’ San Diego chamber music group’s new season features a varied lineup of concerts, including tango and a tribute to Carole King Camarada 2021-2022 concert season: ‘A Sense of Wonder’

BY BETH WOOD

amarada paints chamber music with a wide brush, often coloring outside the lines. The nonprofit’s longtime co-artistic directors, flutist Beth Ross Buckley and pianist Dana Burnett, bring different sonic sensibilities that combine to create a varied lineup of concerts. “Dana and I don’t see eye to eye immediately,” Ross Buckley said, speaking from her Alvarado Estates home. “We’re good at listening to each other and negotiating with each other. We have different views that we take the best of, and pull it together for the concerts.” Burnett, however, points out one place where they do see eye to eye. “What Beth and I have in common is we’re always thinking of the next thing,” Burnett said from her home in Carlsbad. “We don’t want to be bored by rehearsals, concerts or each other. We share a high energy level for what’s coming next.” And what’s coming next is Camarada’s 2021-22 season, “A Sense of Wonder.” The season launches next Sunday at the newly reopened Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. The first concert — “Iluminación” — is a musical nod to Día de los Muertos. The program begins with “Danse Macabre” by Saint-Saëns and concludes with Miguel del Aguila’s sizzling “Conga-Line in Hell.” The instrumentation for this Day of the Dead-

When: Oct. 24, 2021, through May 27, 2022 Where: Venues include the Mingei International Museum, the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, Bread & Salt and UC San Diego’s Park & Market Tickets: $35-$123 Phone: (619) 231-3702 Online: camarada.org except for concerts at The Conrad, which are available at ljms.org. Oct. 24: “Iluminación,” Mingei (5:30 p.m.; $45-$65) Nov. 19: “C’est La Vie,” The Conrad (7:30 p.m.; $53-$98) MONIQUE FEIL

Camarada (from left): David Buckley, Dana Burnett, Andrés Martín and Beth Ross Buckley. The organization will launch its 2021-22 season next Sunday. inspired performance includes flute, bassoon, contrabassoon, trumpet, strings, piano and percussion. As artists-in-residence at the Mingei, Camarada will perform there three times this season in the museum’s new 120-capacity theater space. Guests will be asked to wear masks indoors and provide proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test result. Cellist and native San Diegan Sarina Zhang will be featured in the season’s first two concerts. Burnett, a private piano teacher and instructor at California State University San Marcos, accompanied Zhang in concerts years ago, before Zhang attended Juilliard and later moved to Germany. “She’s in her late 20s, and now, after 15 years away,

she’s spending time at home,” Burnett explained. “She’s marvelously talented on cello and piano.” Behind the scenes, Camarada has reworked its leadership structure. Lisa Barnhouse, who has been on staff for two years, was named Camarada’s new executive director this summer. Ross Buckley — who co-founded the nonprofit in 2003 — will share the artistic director mantle with Burnett. “Lisa has a lot of expertise and experience in development,” said Ross Buckley, who had been executive director since Camarada’s inception. “This marks a new era for Camarada. I see a lot of growth having Lisa take that position.” Camarada has nimbly faced the challenges presented by COVID-19 and continues to navigate times of uncertainty.

TH E AT E R NOT BO O K New Village Arts announces new season, temporary relocation New Village Arts has announced its 2021-22 season, which will include two world premiere plays, two musicals and a temporary relocation to an Oceanside venue while its Carlsbad home theater undergoes renovation early next year. Coinciding with its 20th anniversary, New Village’s headquarters at 2787 State St. in Carlsbad Village is undergoing a major revamp. Its art foundry building is being remodeled into a more community-focused arts center, and its auditorium will be modernized in early 2022. The project is being underwritten by The Next Stage, a $2.5 million fundraising campaign supported by the Conrad Prebys Foundation and the Sahm Family Foundation. Over the past six months, the company has been presenting outdoor shows at The Flower Fields in Carlsbad. Next month, the company will return to its home

EDUARDO CONTRERAS U-T

San Diego playwright Dea Hurston’s new play “1222 Oceanfront: A Black Family Christmas” will open New Village Arts’ 2021-22 season in November. theater for one show. Then, beginning in January, New Village will present the final three shows of its four-show season at Oceanside Theatre Company’s Sunshine Brooks Theatre at 217 N. Coast Highway. “This season is about family,” says Kristianne Kurner, New Village Arts’ founder and executive artistic director. “It’s about the family you are born into as well as the family that you make. It’s about those people who you know will show up for you no matter what. The ones that help you get

through the rough times and celebrate the good times.” Season tickets are now on sale at newvillage arts.org. Here’s the lineup: “1222 Oceanfront: A Black Family Christmas”: Playwright Dea Hurston of San Diego was commissioned to write this world premiere holiday musical, which was created and devised by Hurston and Frankie Alicea-Ford, Kevin “Blax” Burroughs and Milena (Sellers) Phillips. It’s the story of family matriarch Dorothy Black hosting a Christmas Eve celebration

“There’s a different energy, in that we’re planning our series to be in person this year,” Ross Buckley said. “ ‘A Sense of Wonder’ pays tribute to what is possible when you’re committed to creativity and delivering it to audiences. “It’s a feeling of awakening or awe, triggered by an expansion of one’s awareness of what’s possible. It’s fun for us and the audiences. It’s not just fun, it’s essential.” Part of that expansion is a new concert series at Park & Market, the University of California San Diego’s new, state-of-the-art downtown venue. Mary Walshok, UC San Diego’s associate vice chancellor for public programs, invited Camarada to present “Music of the Americas” at Park & Market. Walshok’s goal for this series is to showcase little-

with her adult children when some unexpected family drama erupts. Nov. 27–Dec. 26 at New Village Arts Theatre, Carlsbad. “Desert Rock Garden”: Playwright Roy Sekigahama’s world premiere commissioned play, first developed in NVA’s 2019 new play series, is a fictional historical play about an orphaned child and an older immigrant who forge an unlikely friendship at the Topaz Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment camp established in Delta, Utah, during World War II. The play is being presented in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 1066, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed to establish the camps in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. Jan. 21-Feb. 20, 2022, at Sunshine Brooks Theatre, Oceanside. Musical TBA: New Village plans a co-production with Oceanside Theatre Company of an as-yet unannounced musical. March 18-May 1, 2022, at at Sunshine Brooks Theatre, Oceanside. “Singin’ in the Rain”: Adapted from the 1952 film starring Gene Kelly, this 1983 stage adaptation by Betty Comden, Adolph

Feb. 19: “Heart,” UC San Diego @ Park & Market (7:30 p.m.; $40-$50) Feb. 24: “Tango Obsessed,” The Conrad (7:30 p.m.; $53-$98) Feb. 26: “Tango & Tacos,” Bread & Salt (7 p.m.; $35-$45) March 13: “Embracing the Wind,” Mingei (5:30 p.m.; $45-$65) April 10: “Mosaics,” Mingei (5:30 p.m.; $45-$65) May 7: “Flamenco Fantastico,” Bread & Salt (7 p.m.; $35-$45) May 14: “Hope,” UC San Diego @ Park & Market (7:30 p.m.; $40-$50) May 27: “The Earth Moves,” The Conrad (7:30 p.m.; $53-$98) known composers from North America, including Mexico, and South America. Andrés Martín will be co-artistic director of the Park & Market series. He’ll also serve as liaison between Camarada and venues in Tijuana that are hosting “Music of the

Green, Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed tells the story of a Hollywood film star falling in love with a chorus girl during the difficult transition days between silent films and talking pictures in the late 1920s. May 14–June 26, 2022 ,at Sunshine Brooks Theatre.

Broadway S.D. returns with ‘Hairspray’ tour After an 19-month break, Broadway San Diego will kick off its 44th season at the San Diego Civic Theatre next month with the national touring production of “Hairspray.” Playing Nov. 16-21, the new touring production will star Andrew Levitt, whose drag alter-ego is “Nina West,” as Edna Turnblad, Niki Metcalf as Tracy Turnblad, and Toneisha Harris as Motormouth Maybelle. Originally directed by Old Globe artistic director emeritus Jack O’Brien, who returned to direct this tour, the 2002 musical is based on the 1988 John Waters film about a 1960s-era danceloving Baltimore teen who schemes to integrate the city’s all-White dance party TV show. Other Broadway San Diego events this year are:

Americas.” Martín, a native of Argentina, is a longtime member of Tijuana’s Orquesta de Baja California. An internationally known composer/ bassist, he was an integral part of Camarada’s tango concerts last year. He has been commissioned to write a piece for its February “Tango Obsessed” concert. Tango is a passion for both Minnesota-born Ross Buckley and Imperial Beach native Burnett, who joined Camarada in 2009 in part because the ensemble played tango. “I heard a lot of Latin American and Spanish music growing up,” said Burnett, whose maternal side of the family is Spanish. “And I played it in the many ensembles I was in. But not tango; I always joke that I had to meet Minnesotans to play tango. “I’m excited about ‘Music of the Americas’ and our other series. I’ve done tons of research on composers. I never stop looking for pieces that haven’t been played here. Neither Beth nor I look for pieces specifically for our instruments.” While Burnett specializes in discovering Latin, Spanish and unusual classical pieces, Ross Buckley is more of an expert at finding tango and Celtic works. Ross Buckley also collaborates each year with top San Diego jazz guitarist Peter Sprague. The two will close Camarada’s season with “The Earth Moves,” a reimagining of Carole King’s classic pop songs at a time when the world itself is being reimagined in the wake of the pandemic. “We’ve really tried to reinvent how we do things,” Burnett said. “And we still are reinventing.”

Wood is a freelance writer.

“Alton Brown Live: Beyond the Eats” on Nov. 14 at the Balboa Theatre; “My Fair Lady” Nov. 30-Dec. 5 at the Civic; “A Magical Cirque Christmas” on Dec. 27 at the Civic; and a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert Dec. 30 at the Civic. All ticket holders will be required to wear masks and show proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR test to attend performances through Dec. 31. Tickets are now on sale at broadwaysd.com.

Lamplighters presents ‘Dial M for Murder’ Lamplighters Community Theatre presents “Dial M for Murder,” Frederick Knott’s murder-for-hire suspense thriller, in a production that is running through Nov. 17 at its home theater in La Mesa. The production is codirected by Calvin Manson and Tina Machele Brown and produced by Pamela Stompoly with actors Anna Poteet, Pete Zanko, Eddy Ludovic, Nick Asaro and Richard Cajka. Tickets are $20 to $23. Call (619) 3035092 or visit lamplighters lamesa.com.

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com

“CRITIC’S CHOICE!” PAM KRAGEN, SD UNIONTRIBUNE

O P E R A’S

G R E AT E S T M O M E N T S S AT U R D AY | N OV E M B E R 6 | 4 P M Enjoy an afternoon of your favorite arias including “Nessum dorma” from Turandot, “Di provenza il mar” from La Traviata, “O soave fanciulla” from La Boheme, and many more performed by artists from Southern California, and will feature Pacific Lyric Association’s full opera orchestra, the Center Chorale, and the Pacific Coast Chorale. VIP Opera Dinner Enjoy a post-performance dinner with special guest speakers and music. Concert tickets sold separately. Tickets: Artcenter.org | 800.988.4253 FREE PARKING

Thru Nov 14 Cynthia Gerber is a Tour de Force in this fascinating, fun and moving look at America’s most inﬂuential poet.

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