February has two special musical events, in addition to the music of Sunday morning services. FIrst up is chocolate! LOVE SONGS & CHOCOLATE. Chocolate and Love Songs together again: Mmmmm. Beguiling love songs from opera to jazz, Broadway to pop, in a cabaret-like setting, interspersed with a rich variety of tasty treats. Fun, romantic, sweet, uplifting. Saturday night, Feb. 3 at 7:30 and Sun. afternoon, Feb. 4 at 1 pm, in the Social Hall.

This second event highlights collaborations: Social Justice and Music and Arts create a film; UU Berkeley/Kensington and UU San Francisco join together to sing with the Kensington Symphony Orchestra. The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is a powerful work, an hour long, written after the Kosovo war and honoring the hope for a peaceful new century. Karl Jenkins composed beautiful and exciting music, with the ancient “l‘homme armé” tune as a unifying musical element. A blockbuster on the East Coast and in England, its strong musical and human message of grief and hope resonates strongly with audiences. People from Social Justice and Music are working together to create a film to go with this work, and I think the visual and musical combination will prove profoundly moving. Every time there is another event like the attacks in Las Vegas or Manchester or Orlando, or terrifying rhetoric between the US and North Korea, or when I read of the situation in Yemen or see video of what remains of many cities in Syria, I feel a sense of helplessness, of what can I possibly do? And then I feel especially grateful for the chance to do an event such as this where we can, at least, sing our hopes for peace.

You can experience this event on Saturday, February 24th at 8 pm in the sanctuary. The Kensington Symphony Orchestra, choirs from Berkeley and San Francisco, soloists Marcelle Dronkers, Megan Dibble, Rod Lowe, and Richard Fey; Bryan Baker conducting. Tickets at the door: $20 general, $15 for students; no one turned away for lack of funds. This is a fundraiser for the UUCB general fund.

Yours in harmony,

Bryan