Due to the Bay Area Book Festival this weekend, there will be substantial street closures in downtown Berkeley from 10pm on Friday until 10pm on Sunday. The parking garages on Addison Street and Center Street will both be accessible. Please see the street closure map here.

Noam Pikelny and Stuart Duncan are two of the finest instrumentalists making music today, and they’re putting their banjo and fiddle together to play bluegrass, classic country, and a few surprises from the American songbook. "We're going to showcase a side of these instruments people don't always get to hear,” Noam said in a recent interview in The Bluegrass Situation. "You get a real intimate look at the sounds and the tonalities of these instruments, so the subtleties all of the sudden emerge." Stuart will even sing a few songs. “People might not realize what a great singer he is," Noam says. "When you're the world's greatest fiddler, people may forget you can do other things. So that's going to be part of the evening as well."
 
Noam, who won the first Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass in 2010, is a founding member of Punch Brothers and has collaborated with Fiona Apple, Norah Jones, Wilco, and Marcus Mumford, with songs in films like The Hunger Games and Inside Llewyn Davis. His latest release, Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe, is “an instant classic,” says the Lonesome Road Review, and PopMatters calls it “a lovely, delightful album.” Stuart has won four Grammy awards, as well as six “Fiddle Player of the Year” awards from the Academy of Country Music and seven more from the International Bluegrass Music Association. He sets the standard for the fiddle in Nashville, appearing on countless albums and collaborating with everyone from Yo-Yo Ma to Dolly Parton. For 30 years now, he’s played fiddle in the legendary Nashville Bluegrass Band. Noam calls him “the gold standard for fiddle players.” If you like virtuoso musicianship that makes tradition new, this dazzling duo should do the trick!

visit Noam Pikelny's website

visit Stuart Duncan's website