Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/21/2015
5:00 PM
Location
Chapel of the Chimes
Category(ies)
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At this popular solstice concert, the program features simultaneous performances in different parts of the building by Bay Area composers, musicians, and other performers presenting a variety of acoustic and electronic music, installations, and interactive events; the audience is free to move throughout the building during the performances.
The artists, many of whom are well-known to Bay Area audiences, to be featured at this event include Kitka, Robin Petrie, Henry Kaiser, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Paul Dresher and Joel Davel, Amy X Neuburg, Maggi Payne, Gyan Riley, the Lightbulb Ensemble, William Winant Percussion Group, Del Sol Quartet, Orchestra Nostalgico, pianist Sarah Cahill, Dan Plonsey, Beth Custer, Stephen Kent, Dylan Mattingly, the Cardew Choir, and many others. A sunset bell-ringing ceremony is led by Brenda Hutchinson.
Garden of Memory offers a unique and personal musical experience to every listener as he or she wanders freely through this multilevel maze of interior gardens, alcoves, pools, and many antechambers ingeniously designed by Julia Morgan. Drawing crowds of over two thousand people each year (including a large number of children), Garden of Memory has become a favorite summer solstice celebration for Bay Area audiences.
Guests are invited to walk through the multilevel maze of internal gardens, cloisters, alcoves, stairwells, fountains and other architectural elements, which rise into vaulted ceilings. The facility’s numerous chapels, columbaria, and mausoleum areas are adorned with antiquities that date back to the 16th century. All architectural and garden areas have excellent acoustics and are illuminated by gentle natural light, often through beautiful arrangements of stained glass.
Chapel of the Chimes, the largest above-ground cemetery west of the Mississippi, started out as a street car station and became the California Memorial Crematorium and Columbarium in 1909. The property was expanded and transformed by Julia Morgan and later, Aaron Green, a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright. The lobby and hallways feature artwork and a page from the Gutenberg Bible.
Parking is available in the adjacent cemetery, but the gates will only be open for entry up to 6:30pm and will be locked after that to additional cars. The automatic gate allows cars to leave, however, at any time.
The Chapel of the Chimes is only partially handicap accessible. There is access to the bottom, and to the top floor (where there will be performers), but not in between, and there is no elevator from the top to the bottom – one must exit and go up the street.