Barefoot Chamber Concerts presents great music in the right setting.  We are committed to musical excellence, but without the formality of the conventional concert setting.  Our regular Friday  concerts usually start at 6.30 (depending on location) because that’s when people tell us they’d like to listen to the music.  The concerts are usually quite short,  lasting about  60-75 minutes without intermission, or with just brief breaks, again in response to popular demand.  You don’t need to come barefoot, but you won’t see many people in tails, either.  People 18 and under are admitted free and welcome as long as they don’t make too much noise.  Tickets are modestly priced, no-one is turned away for lack of funds, and that will stay that way.  It’s chamber music, and we love it.

Occasionally we present more extravagant full-length affairs, but not often.

This year all our concerts are in the  refurbished parish hall of St. Mary Magdalen on Berryman in Berkeley.  The reason is very simple, the acoustics are good, and we like the right room for the concerts we present.  We present mostly 16th, 17th and 18th century chamber music (with occasional forays backwards and forwards in time), and this space suits the the music fabulously.  For our regular concerts we used to have wine and bread and olives available before, during and after the concerts, and we find the snacks improve the shining hour.  However snacks have been suspended while Covid is still with us.

As the name might suggest, we are a simple operation, all our staff time is donated, and we’re not subsidized by grants from corporations or government entities.  This  has one main advantage: we don’t have to program stuff that corporate donors or granting agencies want to hear (or more accurately, wish their names to be associated with), and we don’t have to present it the way they would like, either.  The downside is the musicians only get the gate minus the cost of the room.  We try to break even on the snacks, and we have a lot of wonderful volunteers to help out when we need.  There is no advertising budget, our email list does it all (so sign up now already!).  Somehow, it works.

If you want to reserve a seat in advance, just email us at info@BarefootChamberConcerts and we’ll keep seats for you at the front of the hall.  If a lot of people reserve, that may mean most of the hall is reserved, but in all our venues, the sound is fantastic wherever you sit.

We are extremely lucky that the Bay Area is home to many wonderful musicians and audience members who have been very supportive of Barefoot from the start.  This is the one place in the country where there is no need to import chamber music, because there is so much already here.  We hope you’ll enjoy the music as much as we do.

Barefoot Chamber Concerts.
Throwing the fun back into Chamber Music Since 2008.