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The Birthday Party ~ Taraf de Akácfa ~ Paul Dresher Electro-Acoustic Band ~ Mostly British Film

This week on Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine of the performing arts in the Bay Area, host David Latulippe talks with actor Scott Wentworth, who stars as Goldberg in ACT’s production of The Birthday Party, a so-called ‘comedy of menace’ by Harold Pinter. The Birthday Party runs through February 4 at ACT’s Geary Theater in downtown San Francisco.

Composers Paul Dresher and Ned Rothenberg stop by to discuss the upcoming premiere of Rothenberg’s improvised concerto Beyond C, commissioned by The Paul Dresher Electro-Acoustic Band, and inspired by Terry Riley’s composition In C. Also performing is Bay Area’s virtuoso guitar and percussion duo The Living Earth Show, which premiers selections from Dennis Aman’s 24 Preludes & Fugues for invented instruments. Concerts are on January 26 and 27 (8pm) at Z Space in San Francisco. 

We talk with American-French violinist Lulu de la Rue, from Budapest-based folk music ensemble Taraf de Akácfa, which is currently on its second US tour. Taraf de Akácfa is an international ensemble, created by traveling street musicians who met in a house on Akácfa street in Budapest, Hungary. They decided to stay there for their common passion and appreciation for traditional Eastern European and Balkan folk music. The current tour takes Taraf de Akácfa through February 11 to Los Altos, Half Moon Bay, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other places in California.

Peter Robinson, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic-at-large, reviews The Birthday Party at ACT (see above) and the movie Paddington 2. He also previews the upcoming Mostly British Film Festival, which features the best in cinema from the UK, Ireland, Australia, India, Canada and New Zealand, from February 15-22 at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco.

Open Air with host David Latulippe; heard live on Thursday, January 25 at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…