Music
Musically Minded, Oakland’s non-profit music school, is holding a series of camps and workshops over the winter break for kids of all ages. The Rockridge academy, which opened early this year, triples as an education facility, community center, and concert venue. Music classes that will be offered this December include a hip-hop workshop and vocal ensemble sessions, and for the lovable but tone-deaf tots out there, there are workshops in topics like jewelry making and science.
The Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) Chamber Choir will tour in New Orleans in April 2012.
Oakland North caught up with The California Honeydrops to talk about their unique soulful gospel, second line New Orleans-style second line jazz, blues, swing and R&B sound, how they got their start playing at BART stations, and to confess that they love Oakland.
With a wag of her tail feather, Oakland East Bay Symphony violinist and stand-up comedian Dawn Harms wooed the crowd of elementary school students at Oakland Technical High School on October 20th as part of The Musical Time Machine performance by the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s annual Young People’s Concerts series, which is designed to engage children and teach them about music. The symphony offered six free shows at Oakland Tech and Allen Temple Baptist Church from October 20th – October 22nd.
During a day of national remembrance for the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, on Sunday the Oakland Symphony Chorus and the Oakland Civic Orchestra will perform Mozart’s Requiem at the Cathedral of Christ the Light near Lake Merritt.
Thousands flooded the streets of downtown Oakland this weekend for the 11th annual Art and Soul festival. Musical acts spanning the genres performed on three stages with R&B group Tower of Power headlining Sunday afternoon.
Made up of five Bay Area broadcast journalists and one musician, the Eyewitness Blues Band has been telling their own stories through music for five years. Check out the video of their performance on Wednesday at the Oakland City Center.
Mama Buzz Café and Gallery is located on Telegraph Avenue in the heart of Oakland’s young art scene. In addition to showcasing new artists’ work each month, Mama Buzz invites musicians several times a week to play free concerts in the intimate setting of the café.
Sitting in front of the stage at Yoshi’s, musician Roger Glenn looked up at the portraits of famous players that lined the walls of the legendary downtown Oakland jazz club and was overcome with disappointment. A tear rolled down his cheek as he spoke. “I felt like my whole life, what I was doing, the history of all the people I’ve known, is meaningless,” said Glenn, as he looked out at 50 musicians, reporters and jazz aficionados assembled before him….