Gallery Concert | Music of Elliott Carter
Oct 11 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
A NANCY LEE KATZ: A PRIVATE PANTHEON PROGRAM
Join us during Cal’s Alumni and Parent Weekend at Homecoming in the gallery of Nancy Lee Katz: A Private Pantheon for a special concert with UC Berkeley faculty and student musicians playing compositions by, and instruments of, sitters on view.
Sunday, October 11, 2026 | 2:00 pm
In person at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Leighton Fong playing music by Elliott Carter (1908- 2012)
Figment No.2 for Solo Cello (Remembering Mr. Ives) (2001)
UC Berkeley students Michael Arumainayagam and Rohith Karur performing on violin and cello
Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922) Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Allegro
Très vif
Lent
Vif, avec entrain
Please join us for a special Gallery Tour prior to the Gallery Concert from 1:30-1:50pm. Please RSVP for the gallery tour here.
The Magnes’s programs and exhibitions are supported by our community. Click here to make a suggested donation of $10 per session..
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at dalter@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 643-2526 with as much advance notice as possible.
Program is subject to change.
About the Composer
Composer Elliott Carter (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) is internationally recognized as one of the most influential American voices in classical music, and a leading figure of modernism in the 20th and 21st centuries. He was hailed as “America’s great musical poet” by Andrew Porter and noted as “one of America’s most distinguished creative artists in any field” by his friend Aaron Copland. Carter’s prolific career spanned over 75 years, with more than 150 pieces, ranging from chamber music to orchestral works to opera, often marked with a sense of wit and humor. He received numerous honors and accolades, including the Pulitzer Prize on two occasions: in 1960 for his String Quartet No. 2 and in 1973 for his String Quartet No. 3. Other awards include Germany’s Ernst Von Siemens Music Prize and the Prince Pierre Foundation Music Award. Carter was the first composer to receive the United States National Medal of Arts, and is one of a handful of composers inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. He was recognized twice by the Government of France: being named Commander of the “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” and receiving the insignia of Commander of the Legion of Honor in September 2012.
Photo by Nancy Lee Katz, 1999. Gift of Michael S. Sachs, 2024.1.25.
About the Performers
Leighton Fong, a longtime member of San Francisco’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, is Principal Cellist of the California Symphony, and has taught at UC Berkeley for over thirty years. He plays regularly with Eco Ensemble and Empyrean Ensemble, and was a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Players. In addition to specializing in contemporary music, he has performed the complete string quartets of Beethoven with the Los Angeles based Southwest Chamber Music Society and the complete string quartets of Schubert on original instruments with the Berkeley Schubert Quartet. Leighton studied at the San Francisco Conservatory, the New England Conservatory, the Bern Conservatory in Switzerland, and the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark. Born in Sacramento, California, he has lived in Berkeley since 1991.
Photo credit: Vivian Sachs
About the exhibition
Nancy Lee Katz: A Private Pantheon explores the artist’s decades-long effort to photograph artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers she admired. Created in the intimate environments of personal studios and workplaces, these portraits look behind public accolades to reveal a quiet, private presence. Unfolding in two parts (fall and spring), the exhibition presents, for the first time, the entirety of Katz’s Pantheon.
