PIEDMONT
Festival Opera’s 33rd season will continue into autumn with a trio of Sunday afternoon artist recitals at the intimate Piedmont Center for the Arts.
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The series will launch at 4 p.m. Sept. 22 with “Lucky in Love,” presenting mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich and pianist Jeffrey LaDeur. It will continue at 4 p.m. Oct. 27 with “Nothing to Fear,” featuring contralto Sara Couden and pianist Derek Tam.
The series will conclude at 4 p.m. Nov. 17 with “Muses and Musings of an Impresario” — a birthday celebration with special guest artists to be announced — showcasing baritone Zachary Gordin, who is also Festival Opera’s general director, and pianist Daniel Lockert.
Earlier in the company’s season, Festival Opera presented two annual “Opera in the Park” concerts at Orinda Community Park and Walnut Creek Civic Park, featuring beloved community park programs of grand opera and Broadway musical highlights.
For the mainstage production at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, Gordin and guest stage director Céline Ricci presented a double bill of two one-act operas regarding love and betrayal: Francis Poulenc’s riveting mid-1950s monodrama “La Voix Humaine” based on iconoclast Jean Cocteau’s play and baroque masterpiece “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell based on Virgil’s epic work “The Aeneid.”
For series tickets and more online information, visit festivalopera.org. The arts center is at 801 Magnolia Ave. in Piedmont.
— Festival Opera
Registration open for adult school session starting Sept. 9
Back-to-school isn’t just for kids! Registration is now open for Piedmont Adult School fall 2024 session. The session will run from Sept. 9 through Dec. 21.
New classes for the session will include:
art — Drawing Beetles & Butterflies with Colored Pencil, Understanding Modern Art;
business — Business Plan Basics, Tax Efficient Investing;
computers/tech — Apple and AI, Staying Safe with Apple Products, What’s New with Apple Watch;
cooking — Lunch at the French Bistro;
general — Building Skills for Successful Family Research, Explore Your Writer’s Voice, Fiction Fundamentals — How to Write a Good Story, Parenting with Positive Discipline, Friendship Lab.
Come learn something new, expand your horizons and meet great people in a friendly, low-stress environment. Check out all the classes and register online at piedmontadultschool.org, or by calling 510-594-2655. Classes fill up quickly, so register right away for best availability.
— Piedmont Adult School
OAKLAND
School district’s union leader addresses lead testing results
Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, the president of the Oakland Education Association’s (OEA), the union representing Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) employees, issued the following statement after the OUSD announcement of results from lead testing at 40 district schools:
“OEA is deeply troubled and concerned by reports of lead in drinking water at schools across OUSD. It’s shocking that OUSD knew there were unsafe lead levels at some schools as early as April of last school year and did not take steps to address the necessary maintenance to ensure our community’s health and safety. OUSD needs to do better in ensuring safe facilities for our students and staff.
“We are still finding out the scope and seriousness of the situation but expect OUSD to take swift and transparent steps to ensure the health and safety of district staff and students; we will work with educators, families, and partner unions in OUSD to ensure these problems are addressed. We are eager to hear from the OUSD superintendent and school board what steps will be taken to prevent systemic failures such as this in the future.”
— OEA
Kidd, Brown announce launch of racial wealth gap initiative
Oakland native and professional basketball Hall of Famer Jason Kidd and NBA All Star and Finals MVP Jaylen Brown have announced the launch of the Oakland XChange, a national initiative to bridge the racial wealth gap by generating $5 billion in net wealth for historically marginalized communities.
Coming off the heels of the Boston XChange announcement last week, Kidd and Brown are bringing generational wealth-building solutions to Oakland in partnership with Oakstop, a prominent community anchor organization.
Designed to provide opportunities at the intersection of business and culture, the XChange will use a place-based strategy to drive solutions for better cities, integrating real estate development, business education, technology and cultural competence to foster economic growth. Oakland and Boston chapters of the XChange will serve as organizing hubs, using commercial real estate to empower underserved communities.
The XChange will create and showcase scalable and repeatable models for shared real estate ownership and impact investments to facilitate asset building for underserved community members that can be adopted across the country.
“The racial wealth gap is not limited to Boston — it’s a national issue, affecting Oakland and cities throughout the country, revealing how some groups are better positioned to make critical investments in their futures that benefit their families and communities,” said Kidd, who was raised in Oakland, attended Alameda’s St. Joseph Notre Dame High School and has made significant philanthropic contributions to Oakland such as funding the Willie Keyes Recreation Center on the city’s west side.
— Alford & Co. Public Relations
PIEDMONT
Pool work to continue affecting traffic on Magnolia Avenue
With the new school year underway, construction safety measures at the new community pool site will continue to impact traffic along Magnolia Avenue. The construction fence on Magnolia Avenue will remain in place, creating a separate travel lane for trucks inside the fence. One lane will remain open to cars for through-travel.
The school pick-up and drop-off area will remain in place. As additional safety measures, project deliveries and trucking at the site will be restricted to hours outside of school drop-off and pick-up periods (8 to 9 a.m. and 2 3:30 p.m.). The city will continue to provide morning and afternoon crossing guards at Magnolia and Bonita avenues.
Construction activity from the pool project, combined with Piedmont Unified School District construction projects in recent years, has heavily degraded Magnolia Avenue. In June, the City Council augmented the pool’s budget to include a full repaving of Magnolia between Hillside and Bonita. Paving is scheduled to be completed Saturday.
The pool’s construction remains on track for completion in early 2025. This will be followed by a “commissioning” period, which includes system testing and other on-site work to prepare the facility for operations. The new pool is expected to open to the public in spring 2025.
For general questions or concerns about pool construction, community members can contact Construction Manager George Sanen at gsanen@griffinstructures.com or 415-858-8582. For questions about the traffic safety measures on Magnolia, contact Public Works Director Daniel Gonzales at dgonzales@piedmont.ca.gov.
— city of Piedmont
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