While its name evokes tranquil scenes of pastoral quietude, the Siesta Valley Bowl is getting set to make a big noise on the Bay Area music scene.
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Created in the early 1990s as the home of California Shakespeare Theater stage company and originally known as the Bruns Amphitheater, the sylvan outdoor venue nestled in the hills of Orinda had a brief run presenting concerts in the summer of 2021. The new vision for the 10-acre facility builds on that track record while reaching beyond music to include dance, visual arts, theater and environmental restoration in the mix.
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“We really want to let the venue get out of the way of nature, to integrate with it thoughtfully,” said Campbell Foster, who launched Siesta Valley with Michael Carp and Phil Pierce. Describing the amphitheater as “the best kept secret in Northern California,” they figure the location is ideally poised to attract new audiences from San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Contra Costa.
“The reaction we get from everybody is ‘Why doesn’t anyone know about this place?’ Foster said. “It’s right off the highway. You take a little walk up a hill and it feels like you’re in the middle of a forest grove.”
The inaugural season opened last month and builds serious funk momentum July 2 with a double bill featuring the recently formed super trio The Breaks, which brings together Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, Greyboy Allstars organist Robert Walter, and New Mastersounds guitarist Eddie Roberts.
For the group’s first (and only) Bay Area performance it’s paired with the Headhunters, the seminal funk fusion outfit launched by Herbie Hancock in 1973. An independent group for some five decades, the Headhunters still feature the influential and widely sampled tandem of drummer Mike Clark and percussionist Bill Summers, who along with late bassist Paul Jackson Jr. brought East Bay Afro-grease into the band.
They’re joined by veteran New Orleans bassist Chris Severin, New York organ expert Jerry Z, and Oakland-reared New York saxophonist Craig Handy (a jazz master who’s featured on the 2025 Headhunters album “Live From Garcia’s Chicago”).
Rather than handling music programming in-house, Siesta Valley contracted with David Lefkowitz, senior vice president the Blue Note Entertainment Group, which runs the international Blue Note Jazz Club chain but confusingly is not connected to storied Blue Note Records.
Hired relatively late in the cycle, he didn’t start booking the venue until mid-March. New acts continue to be announced, but the season impressively eclectic lineup now features some two-dozen dates.
“Next year will be double,” Lefkowitz said. “Long term, this venue could have concerts by an incredibly diverse range of artists. They seem open to everything. I’m really happy with the way things developed.”
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The nonprofit Siesta Valley Foundation that procured the facility’s lease from EBMUD is responsible for the conservation program. Michael Marchetti, an ecology professor at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, joined the board in February, attracted partly due to his experience as a long-time volunteer at Lafayette’s Town Hall Theatre.
Hearing about the new organization, “I shot them an email saying I have a background in ecology and conservation,” he said. “We’ve been moving forward with a lot of restoration on site, adding native plants.”
The Foundation, which raises money by charging fair-market rent to the parallel music presenting company created by the venue’s three partners, also plans to present dance and plays, “though we’re not a producing theater,” Foster said. “This is not Cal Shakes 2.0. We’re looking at bringing in an outside group.”
The Foundation is also presenting master classes by musicians and artists in the 75-seat Foundation Room. And there’s an artist-in-residence program, which is now filled by Orinda designer and musician Kyle Mueller, who’s developing décor for the theater. Both the amphitheater and Foundation Room are available for rent, with discounts for nonprofit organizations, Foster said.
But the Siesta Valley focus is on building awareness that there’s a new venue offering a singular setting to experience an array of musical styles. The powerhouse Ukrainian avant-folk band DakhaBrakha performs July 23, and bass maestro and film composer Stanley Clarke brings his jazz fusion band 4Ever (inspired by his tenure in Chick Corea’s Return to Forever) July 25t.
The brass-powered August 8 double bill features two world-traveling New Orleans combos, Rebirth Brass Band and The Soul Rebels. The extraordinary jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, recently named vocalist of the year by the Jazz Journalists Association, performs Sept. 22 before headlining several sets at the Monterey Jazz Festival a few days later. And the venue just announced a Nov. 1 Day of the Dead concert by the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles cumbia+ band La Santa Cecilia.
“One of the challenges with artistic programming is that we want to be eclectic, but not unfocused,” Foster said. “We’ve got world-class jazz, R&B, country and bluegrass, jam and jam adjacent. At the end of the day it’s all music that at least one of the three partners loves.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at [email protected].
THE BREAKS & THE HEADHUNTERS
When: 8 p.m. July 2
Where: Siesta Valley Bowl, 100 Gateway, Blvd., Orinda (former home of California Shakespeare Theater)
Tickets: $62.90-$104.15; www.siestavalleybowl.com
Upcoming concerts: Dakhabrakha (July 23), Stanley Clarke (July 25), Jake Shimabukuro (Aug. 7), Rebirth Brass Band and Soul Rebels (Aug. 8),
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