Maybeck Recital Hall, also known as Maybeck Studio for Performing Arts, is located inside the Kennedy-Nixon House located at 1537 Euclid Avenue in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, United States. It was built in 1914 by
Bernard Maybeck
Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in ...
. The hall seats up to 50 people and was designed upon commission for the Nixon family, local arts patrons who wanted a live-in studio for their daughter Milda's piano teacher, Mrs. Alma Kennedy. The room is paneled in unfinished clear-heart redwood, which contributes to an unusually rich and warm, yet bright and clear acoustic quality. There are two grand pianos in the space: a Yamaha S-400, and a Yamaha C7. Maybeck originally designed the space to accommodate an 1898 7-foot Bechstein.
History
In 1923, the hall was destroyed in a hillside fire. It was rebuilt quickly by Maybeck.
Milda Nixon lived at the residence until her death in 1981 at the age of 92. Her adopted son, Charles R. Fulweiler, then held the house for several years. In 1987, the house was purchased by jazz pianist Dick Whittington, who opened the hall for public recitals.
Between 1989 and 1995,
Concord Records
Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists have ...
produced 42 solo piano recitals in Maybeck Recital Hall. Each recital featured a different
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
pianist; the series eventually consisted of 42 CD. Concord also recorded 10 jazz duets at Maybeck during the same time period, which the label also released as a series of CDs.
In 1996, the house was purchased by Gregory Moore. The recital hall was no longer open for public concerts, although it was used for private concerts which were attended by invitation only. Since 2013, the newly named Maybeck Studio for the Performing Arts has continued the tradition of public concerts on Sundays at 3pm during their September–June season. The intimate hall seats 40 audience members.
Albums
Live at Maybeck series
Concord Duo series
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Kenny Werner (born November 19, 1951) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and author.
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