On the longest day of each year that arrives June 21 as the summer solstice, rapturous sounds will fill every inch of North Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes on Piedmont Avenue, a designated historic landmark.
Related Articles
Opening eyes to Chapel of the Chimes Oakland’s unexpected beauty
Eclectic annual ‘Garden of Memory’ concert returns to Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes
In brief: Tolling Trio to play last Oakland ‘Jazz at Chimes’ show
The chapel’s four-hour “Garden of Memory” solstice concert (gardenofmemory.com) started in 1996 by Bay Area-based pianist Sarah Cahill and co-hosted by New Music Bay Area and the columbarium celebrates the genre of contemporary classical and electronic compositions known as “New Music.”
Each year, visitors climb the property’s labyrinth-like staircases, sit on chairs or on the floor in cloisters, alcoves and hallways, gather elbow-to-elbow on pews in the chapel, or walk leisurely under vaulted ceilings past the cremate remains of loved ones forever residing in urns nestled in niche-filled walls.
All the while, with guests speaking at low volumes or greeting each other in warm tones and occasional bursts of laughter or exclamations from children as the underscore, there is mixed media music from up to 50 local and visiting artists (bit.ly/3KDalyL). Spinning a magical, sonic web with human voices, traditional and invented instruments, computers and other electronics, every individual moving through the venue and choosing to stop or continue exploring designs his or her own personal concert.
This year’s program and curation organized by Cahill with New Music Bay Area board member Lucy Mattingly marks the third year of a return to in-person attendance after COVID-19 pandemic measures shut it down in 2020 and 2021. To avoid overcrowding, ticket sales to the now-sold-out concert were limited to 2,750, and a waiting list exists.
“We contact anyone with tickets who hasn’t shown up and go to the waiting list immediately when there’s an opening,” said Cahill. “Signing up to volunteer is another way to attend.”
Musicians appearing this year include a mix of repeat performers and newcomers, which Cahill said is thrilling.
“There are the usual favorites and people we haven’t had in a long time like Laetitia Sonami,” Cahill said. “She makes her own instruments that are sculptural. One might look like a bicycle, another a globe, a lady’s glove. It’s visually exciting.”
She said this year’s next-generation musicians whose work exists between the margins of classical and pop music were eagerly sought.
“I was astonished last year to realize that about half our audience is young people. Kaitlin McSweeney is one of those young composer/performers. She plays cello and along with many other artists is carrying New Music forward. Young people need to see their generation composing and performing original music. It’s the future.”
Cahill insisted that the music industry needs sustainable, collaborative models to survive.
“The chapel doesn’t charge rent, and it’s amazing. New Music (Bay Area) is all volunteers, and that means we can keep ticket prices low, give all the money after paying expenses to the musicians and serve the community.
“How do we serve? People who might never go to concert halls to hear a musician will encounter them here, and their joy in discovery is great.”
One musician who can’t stay away from concert venues and the chapel in particular, is composer, vocalist and NPR podcaster Majel Connery. She will present “Elderflora,” a song cycle centered on the life of a fictional tree that spins through birth, staggeringly tall life, death, decomposition and rebirth after nourishing the Earth.
“Chapel of Chimes has changed me as a performer and the way I think about making music,” Connery said. “I’d fly here from Jakarta if I had to. I feel an energetic exchange. I’m a total junkie for that back-and-forth connection with people. It’s like sitting on a porch with friends and jamming.
“Last year, a girl kept dragging her parents to see me. She just wouldn’t quit, she eventually took a nap near me. There was something so dear about my performance that she kept coming back, over and over.”
Connery said performing in the chapel has altered how she thinks about time. She said she now often loops shorter pieces multiple times and sees the expression on people’s faces light up or a hand raise when they recognize a song.
“We enter a zone. Calling it trance-like is too strong, but it’s a deep experience,” Connery said. “When I design performances now, my ideal is to loop it as much as is manageable. I deliver looser performances that cause personal attachments to form in the audience when they hear a song they were waiting for.”
Connery said people across the world would be incredibly grateful to have a festival — let alone one performance — attract thousands of participants.
“Crowds of people will stick with me, improbably, for hours in this magical space. The environment in the Bay Area has the sense of anything goes — it’s unique. Funny, I probably count as somewhat conventional in singing when there are others playing electronic gongs and dipping things in water.
“Audiences here are totally charmed by the avant-garde. Even just arriving here after being away and on tour is like a breath of fresh air.”
Cahill said she prefers to play music that’s new to the audience at the chapel and this year will pay tribute to the late Larry Polanski, the composer who introduced her to 20th century New Music composers she loves and admires.
“I’ll be playing a piece by Larry that he wrote for me,” Cahill said. “He’s the one who gave me my career by inviting me in the mid- to late-1980s to my first gigs. I’ll also perform pieces by Ann Southam, a Canadian composer whose understanding of the piano fascinates me. Her music has a profound sensibility.”
An upcoming show June 27 at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum will have Connery and electronic cellist Tim Stanley presenting “Rivers Are Our Brothers,” a work in which the land tells a tale of ecological responsibility.
“I was so inspired by doing ‘Rivers’ with (cellist) Felix (Fan) at the chapel last year that we recently recorded it,” Connery said. “I’m going to have advance copies of the album that’s not out yet and hand them out for people who want them.”
Based on history, it’s likely the young girl who spent four hours by Connery’s side during her past performance may be first in line for an advance copy.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.