On Tap: Beatles rock orchestra to perform Walnut Creek benefit concert

WALNUT CREEK

Northern California’s only touring Beatles rock orchestra, The Beatles Guitar Project, has announced its Get Back Abbey Road Tour with performances this month scheduled for Sept. 20 in Walnut Creek, Sept. 23 in Vacaville and Sept. 29 in Sacramento.

The tour will directly support local music scholarships and music education classes. This 40-piece rock orchestra raises money for music education for Northern California. The Walnut Creek show will start at 7:30 p.m. in the Lesher Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive. Go online to lesherartscenter.org for tickets.

— The Beatles Guitar Project 

Lesher Center to present improv ‘Zombie’ horror comedy

“Z is for … ZOMBIE: An Improvised Zombie Apocalypse!” is the next show on tap for Synergy Theater at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts. In this completely improvised full-length play running Oct. 19-29, no one in town knows who is still human and who has become a zombie — not even the cast!

Which of those sweet, little townsfolk are really horrific, bloodthirsty zombies? Who can be trusted? Who will be converted? And who will be the last human-improviser standing? The answer is different at each performance in this laugh-till-you-drop improvised horror show. For more information, visit synergytheater.com online.

— Synergy Theater

DANVILLE

Tao House presenting O’Neill’s ‘Anna Christie’ for first time

Tao House is hosting its first production of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna Christie.” The four-act play made its Broadway debut Nov. 2, 1921, at New York City’s Vanderbilt Theatre. The following year O’Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play.

The play centers on Anna Christie, a former prostitute who falls in love but has a hard life trying to turn things around. Though six of the eight performances are sold-out, seating was still available Sept. 8 for the for the Sept. 22 and Sept. 23 shows. For more information, go online to eugeneoneill.org.

— Eugene O’Neill Foundation

CONCORD

Lamorinda Arts Alliance presenting ‘Feast of Color’ exhibit

Some have said that art is food for the soul. As the fall colors emerge around us, the Lamorinda Arts Alliance invites you to come and see artists’ food-inspired and colorful works of art.

The exhibit “A Feast of Color,” running now through Oct. 27, is a deliciously vivid and unforgettable exhibit nourishing everyone’s soul.

Art lovers are invited to view the exhibit in the aRt Cottage, at 2238 Mound Diablo St. in downtown Concord. Regular hours for aRt Cottage are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

The Lamorinda Arts Alliance is an organization of local artists and friends who reside or work in in or near Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda. The group’s purpose is to provide coordination, education, and service to promote and increase knowledge, appreciation, and practice of the arts, and to enhance the area’s cultural development.

The group seeks to foster a better understanding of art within the community and encourage the exchange of ideas for the mutual benefit of all members through its programs, exhibits and other activities within the community. For more information, visit the Lamorinda Arts Alliance online at laa4art.org.

— LAA

WALNUT CREEK

Piano concerto to kick off Diablo orchestra’s 61st season

The Diablo Symphony Orchestra will begin its 2023–2024 season on Sept. 17 with Beethoven’s lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 4,” featuring returning pianist Randall Benway.

The program also includes the orchestral tone poem “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius, written in 1899 as a covert protest against the Russian empire’s increasing censorship, and his “Symphony No. 1,” which premiered in Helsinki in 1899 but was revised in 1900 for its European debut.

The piano solo that opens the concerto, the solidary clarinet and timpani passage that opens the symphony and the hymn-like melody of “Finlandia” (later adopted for the hymn “Be Still My Soul”) characterize a program that brings innovation, compelling rhythms and strikingly beautiful melodies to the stage.

The orchestra’s 61st season will feature local favorites Mads Tolling (violin), Greg Brown (saxophone) and Lafayette-based WomenSing in concerts offering joy-filled music — including three imaginative new works by women — ranging from Beethoven to jazz.

The orchestra will also tackle new heights itself, bringing Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” to Walnut Creek. Visit their website at diablosymphony.org for details of the season’s five regular concerts. Season and individual tickets (along with pricing information) are also available at the website, at the Lesher Center for the Arts box office over the phone at 925-943-7469 or in person at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek.

— Diablo Symphony Orchestra

Valley Art Gallery exhibiting juried selection of paintings

A juried selection of paintings is on display now at the Valley Art Gallery, covering a wide spectrum of media, motifs, formats, sizes and price points. The display also continues the gallery’s history of presenting the best of the best East Bay artists for 74 years, making it one of the country’s oldest continuously operating art galleries.

All two-dimensional work, as always, is available for sale or rent through the gallery’s exclusive “No Regrets” rental program. The Walnut Creek gallery, which also has its usual display of unusual fine crafts and artist-designed gifts and cards, is at 1661 Botelho Drive, Suite 110. For more information, visit valleyartgallery.org online or call 925-935-4311.

— Valley Art Gallery

ORINDA

Italy’s award-winning ‘Eight Mountains’ starting Friday

The next screening from the International Film Showcase will be an award-winner from Italy, “The Eight Mountains.” This film won 14 international awards and was nominated for 18 more. The film will open Friday at the Orinda Theatre, running for at least a week, and Sept. 23 at Napa’s Jarvis Conservatory.

As the story goes, in a secluded village in the Italian Alps, an unlikely brotherhood forms between two young boys: Pietro, a boy from the city, and Bruno, who has only ever known life in the mountains. Over the years Bruno remains faithful to his home while Pietro aspires to greater heights, but as decades pass and lives unfold, their paths ultimately lead them back to where they first met — and back to each other.

Set against a magnificent Italian landscape, “The Eight Mountains” is a profoundly moving portrait of a lifelong friendship. See the trailer online at youtu.be/gpEtgBA86pg, and visit internationalshowcase.org for more information.

— International Film Showcase

LAFAYETTE AND LIVERMORE

Bach’s ‘Brandenburg Concertos’ to be performed Sept. 16-17

The Pacific Chamber Orchestra will perform all six of Bach’s “Brandenburg Concertos” with Lawrence Kohl conducting. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Sept 16 in the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church at 49 Knox Drive in Lafayette, and at 3 p.m. Sept 17 in the Bankhead Theater at 2400 First St. in Livermore.

The program will display Bach’s “imperishable genius” with an incredible variety of virtuoso concerto formats. The orchestra’s soloists include violinists Igor Veligan (who is also the orchestra’s concert master) and Iris Stone, along with harpsichordist Yuko Tanaka.

Visit pacificchamberorchestra.org online to buy tickets. Livermore performance tickets are also available through the Bankhead box office in person or at 925-373-6800.

— Pacific Chamber Orchestra

Submit area arts-and-entertainment On Tap items to Judith Prieve at jprieve@bayareanewsgroup.com.