Cecile McLorin Salvant plays Siesta Valley Bowl on Sept. 22

Cecile McLorin Salvant performs Tuesday, Sept. 22 at Siesta Valley Bowl, the amphitheater at 100 Gateway Blvd. east of the Caldecott, off the Wilder exit. The venue sets showtime at 8 p.m. The parking lot opens at 6, and doors and concessions open at 6:30.

The venue's own listing describes Salvant as a composer, singer and visual artist whose work moves between vaudeville, blues, folk traditions, theater, jazz and baroque music, and who digs up rarely recorded songs with strong narratives and twists. It notes that she won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010, took Grammy Awards for three consecutive albums, and received a MacArthur fellowship and a Doris Duke Artist Award in 2020.

Tickets are sold through Ticketmaster, linked from the venue's shows calendar. The venue's listing does not post a price.

Getting there is the part worth planning. On-site paid parking is limited and sold as an add-on through Ticketmaster; when it is not offered for a show, parking is free. A free shuttle runs from Orinda BART about every 10 minutes, starting when doors open and continuing after the performance until everyone has been carried. Oversized vehicles are asked to park at Orinda BART instead.

The venue is cashless and takes cards and phone payments. Outside food, drink, alcohol and coolers are not allowed. Neither are chairs, umbrellas, drones, laser pointers or pets other than service animals. Seating is reserved or general admission depending on the show, and blankets are sold on site rather than brought in. The venue asks people to bring a jacket or extra layers for cold evening temperatures.

This is the amphitheater Cal Shakes used. The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which owns the 9-acre site, approved a 15-year lease with a 10-year option in November 2025 to the nonprofit Siesta Valley Foundation, after the California Shakespeare Theater dissolved in 2024. The foundation reopened the site as Siesta Valley Bowl this year, under a plan for 40 to 50 events a year in a house that holds 540 seated or 750 standing. EBMUD collects rent and a share of ticket revenue, and the foundation's stated purpose covers cultural programming, community engagement and watershed education. The Bruns Memorial Amphitheater was built there in 1991 by the organization that started as the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival in 1974.

The rest of the season at the bowl: the Pete Escovedo Orchestra on Sept. 25, Al Di Meola on Sept. 26, the Eli Young Band on Oct. 2, the Samples and Freddy Jones Band on Oct. 3, Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite on Oct. 9, Melvin Seals and JGB on Oct. 10, Steep Canyon Rangers on Oct. 16, the Sam Grisman Project on Oct. 17, Super Diamond on Oct. 24, Surprise Chef with Tommy Guerrero on Oct. 30, and La Santa Cecilia on Nov. 1.