The Culture Circuit, Oct. 8-11

From Tang dynasty music to Yiddish klezmer, New Mexican folk and a literary take on the Black Dahlia, here are six East Bay picks this week.

Please help keep this weekly list lively and well informed by sending details about upcoming concerts, readings, performances and workshops to events@albanyscanner.com.

Enter the Tang (36 papers on ancient Chinese music)

Fed by the extensive trading routes of the Silk Road, the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) is widely considered the most culturally fecund era in Chinese history with a brilliant flowering of poetry, pottery and music. And in contemporary China, it’s a period that’s become a focus of interpretive performances, with court music widely performed in concert halls (and shared on social media feeds). This has not gone unnoticed at UC Berkeley, where the Tang Center for Silk Road Studies, Music Department, and Townsend Center for the Humanities present "Tang Music in Contemporary China: Sensing Artistry Through Time."

The three-day conference brings together scholars and performers from across the world, including leading and emerging experts from China, to present, evaluate, and advance global scholarly and artistic discourse on Tang music in the contemporary world. Amidst presentations of papers exploring the material culture of the Silk Road, early notations and musical instruments, and the place of historical music and dance in contemporary Chinese society, three leading ensembles from China and the United States give live performances of Tang music and dance, followed by a roundtable discussion bringing scholarship and performance into dialogue. Thursday, Oct. 8-Saturday, Oct. 10. Morrison Hall & Hertz Hall (Berkeley). Free

Yiddish culture thrives in Berkeley

For more than half a century, Berkeley has boasted one of the nation’s most lively and creative klezmer music scenes. The Klezmorim, the band credited with spearheading the revival of the secular, celebratory music of Eastern European Jewry, was founded in Berkeley in 1975, and quite a few musicians who cycled through the combo over the years are still active. The latest manifestation of Yiddish cultural vitality in the city comes courtesy of KlezCalYidFest, a three-day festival of concerts, workshops, dancing and talks at Berkeley’s Finnish Hall. This is the second annual edition of an event since it was relaunched by Dmitri Gaskin, widely traveled klezmer accordionist who is part of an influx of younger musicians deeply engaged with Yiddish culture.

The headliner this year, Levyosn, is part of this younger wave, and they make their California debut Sunday focusing on music from the recent album "Levyosn's Dream." Co-presented by KlezCalifornia, the festival includes Berkeley’s Veretski Pass, an internationally acclaimed trio featuring violinist Cookie Siegelstein, button accordionist Josh Horowitz and Stuart Brotman, an early member of the Klezmorim, on cello and baraban drum. Rounding out the bill are the virtuosic New York-based Strauss/Warschauer Duo, a Yiddish puppet show, "Der Goylem," and Montreal-based dance teacher Avia Moore, who turned last year’s closing set into an ecstatic Veretski-powered rave.  Friday-Sunday, Oct. 9-11. The Finnish Hall (Berkeley). Prices vary

New Mexico’s Lone Piñon brings the strings to Ashkenaz

An old-school string band, or "orquesta típica," Lone Piñon is a quartet dedicated to the vast and varied folkloric music that has circulated in rural New Mexico for several centuries, including rancheras, polkas, valses and cumbias. The group makes a rare Bay Area appearance at Ashkenez, an ideal venue for a combo that plays celebratory music designed for festivals, parties and communions. Featuring Jordan Wax on violin, piano, accordion, mandolin, guitar, vocals, Tanya Nuñez on upright bass, guitar, and vocals, Karina Wilson on violin, viola, and vocals, and Santiago Romero on guitar, vihuela, and vocals, Lone Piñon have made a point of seeking out elder musicians to make sure the region’s songs and sounds don’t fade away. I’ve been enthralled by the group’s recordings since I was tipped off they were heading to the East Bay by body music maestro Keith Terry. "I met them at a festival we were both playing in Hawaii years ago, and I've been a fan since," he writes. "I got to see them in New Mexico just a couple months ago. Great band with an unusual repertoire - traditional New Mexican string band music, with the strong Spanish, Mexican and Native influences. They're also great people." Friday, Oct. 9, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz (Berkeley). $30-35

The long shadow of the Black Dahlia reaches Gilman

As a native Angeleno, curiosity about the Black Dahlia murder is hardwired into my brain. The brutal unsolved 1947 killing of Elizabeth Short has inspired countless articles, books, podcasts and theories (including a recent assertion that Short’s death and the Bay Area’s Zodiac spree were perpetrated by the same person). The bestselling author of 2025’s Girl Dinner, Olivie Blake (aka Alexene Farol Follmuth) celebrates the publication of her latest novel Dreamland, a book loosely inspired by the Black Dahlia murder. Presented by Pegasus Books as part of Litquake, she has crafted a bleak Hollywood tale about the outsize price some are willing to pay for fame and attention. Blake discusses the book with Kristina Ten, whose work Blake selected for the latest Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology. Friday, Oct. 9, 7 p.m. Gilman Brewing (Berkeley). Donation requested for guaranteed seat

Well, that was awkward!

I am mortified to admit that I have yet to attend one of the "Mortified" storytelling sessions produced by the Bay Area comedy company devoted to everything cringeworthy, embarrassing, and awkward. These cathartic programs have found a monthly home at Ashkenaz, and October’s seasonally appropriate wallow is organized around self-conscious adolescence. As the event’s tagline queries, "What’s scarier than adults reading their teen diaries live?" The horror, the horror. More than teenage angst, the programs might also include adults publicly sharing totemic childhood artifacts, from unsent letters and poetry to home movies and artwork. Maybe I’ll dig up my account of how I got caught trying to steal the class lizard in second grade. Saturday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. Ashkenaz (Berkeley). $25-35

Flowers for the dead with Cascada de Flores

As the days grow short and Nov. 1 approaches, many events are taking place to mark the traditional Mexican celebration honoring and welcoming lost loved ones. The Berkeley Public Library holds a participatory bilingual Day of the Dead performance with song, dance, personal stories and a large variety of musical instruments courtesy of Cascada de Flores, the Latin American-songbook group led by Mexican-born guitarist Jorge Liceaga and vocalist Arwen Lawrence. The event explores Días de Muertos traditions from Mexico and Central America and includes sending messages to the departed via barriletes (kites), building an ofrenda (altar) and learning about calaveras (sugar skulls) and calaveras literarias (playful verse mocking the living) with music, dance and memories. Saturday, Oct. 10, 3 p.m. Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch (Berkeley). Free

Have questions for Albany Scanner, or want to share story tips? Here's how to reach us.