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First Church Berkeley UCC

Since 2014, Resonance @ First Church Berkeley has brought world-class performances to the East Bay! From classical music to jazz and everything in between, savor our historic Sanctuary's inimitable acoustics.

firstchurchberkeley.org/resonance

Join us at First Church Berkeley for a meditative Holy Saturday event, featuring Derek Tam playing Franz Joseph Haydn&#39;s&nbsp;The Seven Last Words of Christ. Commissioned in 1786 to write a musical meditation on the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross, Haydn struggled to write music that fit the austere requirements of the Good Friday service at the Cathedral of C&aacute;diz. These constraints, however, resulted in one of Haydn&#39;s most reflective and deeply imaginative works. Each of the seven sayings is given its own movement, with the entire work bookended by an introduction and a final &quot;earthquake&quot; symbolizing Jesus&#39; death. Originally written for orchestra, Haydn later reworked the piece for string quartet as well as into an oratorio. Tonight&#39;s version for keyboard is an arrangement approved by Haydn, performed on a replica of a historical piano from the 1780s.

Haydn: Seven Last Words of Christ (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

Spend an Beethoven-filled afternoon with historical clarinetist Dominic Giardino, cellist Erik Andersen, and fortepianist Derek Tam! You&#39;ll hear two iconic trios from the master of Bonn: his tuneful Op. 11, nicknamed the &quot;Gassenhauer&quot; (street tune) for its variations on a famous melody of the day; and his Op. 38, a self-rearrangement of his iconic septet for winds, brass, and strings. The sounds of period instruments and techniques will bring fresh life to this already vivacious music. And there will be other Beethoven bonbons as well!

A Bounty of Beethoven (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

Please note that the time/date above may vary depending on the time zone in which you view the event&mdash;the local time of the event is this:EVENT TIME: February 12, 2026 &bull; 7:00pm Pacific Time Masters of the art of unusual encounters, world-renowned Canadian ensemble Constantinople returns to the Bay Area in an epic program: &quot;Bach and Khayyam,&quot; featuring the exceptional soprano Hana Blaž&iacute;kov&aacute;. In this genre-bending program, we invite you to imagine the unlikely meeting of two extraordinary people: the Persian poet and scholar Omar Khayyam (1048&ndash;1131) and the composerJohann Sebastian Bach (1685&ndash;1750). A mathematician and astronomer, Omar Khayyam had a lasting influence on the West in the Middle Ages before being rediscovered in the 19th century for his quatrains, which eloquently remind one of the beauty and importance of living in the present moment. Johann Sebastian Bach remains an undisputed musical genius whom everyone still refers to today. The iconic German composer lived a colorful existence; one can point to the trials and tribulations of his love life, his many children, and his pronounced taste for certain beverages&mdash;in particular, beer and a drink that could hardly have been more luxurious at the time: coffee.&nbsp; If both Khayyam and Bach are characterized by their free and original approach to life and to artistic creation, this musical program brings them together first and foremost because of their deep spirituality. Although more than 600 years separate them, their geniuses were destined to meet in this compelling program by Ensemble Constantinople.

Bach and Khayyam with Ensemble Constantinople, Kiya Tabassian & Hana Blažíková (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

Please note that the time/date above may vary depending on the time zone in which you view the event&mdash;the local time of the event is this:EVENT TIME: October 22, 2025 &bull; 7:00pm Pacific Time Don&#39;t miss this special performance from the Yale Whiffenpoofs&mdash;the oldest and most renowned collegiate a cappella group in the United States. Founded in 1909, the &quot;Whiffs&quot; are a select group of 14 Yale seniors who perform more than 200 concerts annually. Their characteristic white tie and tails, paired with their enthusiasm and humor, have made them iconic for audiences all around the United States and across the world. Recent Whiffenpoofs performance venues include Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the White House, the Rose Bowl, and Lincoln Center. The Whiffenpoofs have reached a television audience of more than 175 million via appearances in NBC&#39;s The Sing Off, The West Wing, The Today Show, 60 Minutes, Gilmore Girls, Jeopardy!, Saturday Night Live, the Season 4 finale of Glee, and most recently, Hell&rsquo;s Kitchen. The Whiffenpoofs have sung for multiple sitting Presidents of the United States and have toured over twenty countries on six continents almost every year for the last several years.

The Yale Whiffenpoofs in Berkeley (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

Join us for our season opener with some of the most iconic pieces written for organ! First Church&#39;s beloved organist Elizabeth Forsyth will open the program with Johann Sebastian Bach&#39;s indelible Toccata and Fugue in D minor and close it with Charles-Marie Widor&#39;s majestic Toccata from his Fifth Symphony. In between, you&#39;ll hear more famous works from Bach and Widor, as well pieces by &nbsp;Felix Mendelssohn, the boy genius who was responsible for bringing Bach back into the spotlight after eight decades of obscurity. You won&#39;t want to miss this one-night-only concert on First Church&#39;s majestic 4,873-pipe organ&mdash;one of the largest in the East Bay.

Organ Favorites with Elizabeth Forsyth (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

&Uacute;nete a nosotros para encontrar paz a trav&eacute;s del esp&iacute;ritu calmante de la m&uacute;sica meditativa mientras nos conectamos con nuestro yo interior, nos alineamos con el universo y despertamos el poder interior que gu&iacute;a nuestra curaci&oacute;n. Juntos, a trav&eacute;s de este evento, estamos recaudando fondos para apoyar a un miembro de la comunidad de FCCB, hermano y solicitante de asilo al que acompa&ntilde;amos en su viaje. Todas las donaciones ir&aacute;n directamente a su apoyo y bienestar. &iexcl;Se aceptan donaciones de cualquier cantidad, sugerimos $20 para empezar!

Sound Bath—¡Un evento de recaudación de fondos para un miembro de la comunidad de FCCB!.

Join us in finding peace through the calming spirit of meditative music as we connect with our inner selves, align with the universe, and awaken the inner power that guides our healing. Together through this event, we are raising funds to support an FCCB community member, sibling, and asylum seeker whom we accompany on her journey. All donations will go directly to her support and well-being. Donations of all amounts are welcome&mdash;we suggest $20 to start!

Sound Bath—A Fundraiser for an FCCB Community Member!

Join us for our season opener featuring First Church organist Elizabeth Forsyth, joined by friends and family for a concert that promises fun and beauty in equal measure! Come and hear classical favorites, including the &quot;Flower Duet&quot; from Lakm&eacute; and the Faur&eacute; &Eacute;legie for cello. First Church Director of Music Derek Tam will join Elizabeth at the chamber organ, the piano, and First Church&#39;s iconic 4,873-pipe Petty-Madden organ for music from the movie Interstellar, a concerto for two organs by Giovanni Bernardo Zucchinetti, and a rousing rendition of Sousa&#39;s &quot;The Stars and Stripes Forever&quot; in honor of our nation&#39;s 250th anniversary. You&#39;ll leave humming the tunes from the cheekily entertaining &quot;Instant Concert&quot; by Porter Heaps!

Elizabeth Forsyth and Friends, Part 2! (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

CWICO (Creative Women Improvising Composers Orchestra)Rika Iwasaki Ellis, Frances Feldon, Rebecca Hass, Lee Heuermann,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Joyce McBride Formed in 2025, CWICO (Creative Women Improvising Composers Orchestra)&nbsp;came together to workshop, play and perform each other&rsquo;s work, creating a space for women composers to collaborate. We will feature compositions by each of our members, as well as improvised pieces. All of us come from diverse backgrounds with wide experience in many musical genres. Collectively, we bring vocal experimentation, African-American music, Brazilian music, medieval/renaissance/baroque European music, classical chamber music, singer song-writer, jazz, alternative chamber pop, new choral music, electro-acoustic, sound design, contemporary dance collaboration, new and experimental music, theatre, and East-Asian-inspired music to our group. We value the power of music to create community, and often include audience input in generating improvisations, through written prompts, picture dice, and other tools. We value being a part of the long-time Bay area tradition of radical experimentation and especially find it essential in this current time.

CWICO—Creative Women Improvising Composers Orchestra (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

Commemorate the 200th anniversary year of Ludwig van Beethoven&#39;s death with a fortepiano recital featuring Derek Tam&mdash;&quot;the fortepianist of the beguiling fingers&quot; (Bloomington Herald-Times)&mdash;with three of Beethoven&#39;s beloved sonatas, including the ever-beloved &quot;Moonlight!&quot; Experience the revolutionary sonorities of Beethoven&#39;s piano writing on the instrument for which it was meant.

First Church Berkeley UCC

First Church Berkeley UCC

Events

Events

Elizabeth Forsyth and Friends, Part 2! (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

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CWICO—Creative Women Improvising Composers Orchestra (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

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Beethoven's 200th with Derek Tam (Resonance @ First Church Berkeley)

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