Monday, September 4, 2017

The Bleeding Edge: 9/4/2017

Having just written about jazzman Mike Greensill unofficially presiding over the launch of the new season in yesterday afternoon’s Old First Concerts (O1C) offering, I am happy to report that, as far as “bleeding edge” activities are concerned, the season is off to a roaring start. Fortunately, my new approach to accounting for these events has already taken care of all but three of this week’s gigs. Here is a review of what has already been announced on this site:
The remaining three events are likely to appeal to a variety of different tastes. Specifics are as follows:

Thursday, September 7, 6:45 p.m., Contemporary Jewish Museum: One of the current exhibitions at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is The 613. This is a major painting project by Archie Rand which is being given its museum debut and its first appearance outside New York City. The title comes from the number of rules that establish ethical and religious behavior for all Jews. Each rule is given is own acrylic painting on a canvas sixteen inches wide and twenty inches high. These are all arranged in a grid comprising 1700 square feet.

In conjunction with this exhibition, which will continue through October 22, CJM has been arranging concerts presenting works by twentieth-century Jewish minimalist composers to be performed in the setting of Rand’s project. The composer to be featured this week will be Steve Reich. His music will be performed by the William Winant Percussion Group. The selections will include “Music for Pieces of Wood,” the version of “Piano Phase” played by two marimbas, and an excerpt from the four-part “Drumming.”

The CJM is located in SoMa at 736 Mission Street, just north of Yerba Buena Gardens. The performance is expected to last about one hour. General admission will be $10, with a $5 rate for CJM members. Advance tickets will be required for seating. These may be purchased online through an Eventbrite event page.

Saturday, September 9, noon, Noisebridge: This will be the monthly GODWAFFLE NOISE PANCAKES event run by the Noisebridge hackerspace. As usual, gourmet vegan pancakes are served in a context of experimental acts, electronic sounds, and noise. The event runs for two hours, over the course of which there will be performances by R K Faulhber, Mod Life Crisis, Ape Parts, Kevin Lo, and Wooly Mari's Guillotine.

Noisebridge is located at 2169 Mission Street, two blocks south of the BART station at 16th Street. There is no charge for this event, but Noisebridge operates entirely through monetary donations. Operating expenses are over $5000 per month. The Noisebridge home page has information about both membership and ways to donate.

Sunday, September 10, 4 p.m., Old First Presbyterian Church: This is the latest O1C event to venture into “bleeding edge territory.” The performers will be Ensemble Ari, a group of Korean-American musicians with a repertoire conceived with the purpose of bridging Western and Korean culture:

Ensemble Ari, courtesy of Old First Concerts

The Director of the group is composer Jean Ahn, and the program will include one of her pieces that embodies this purpose. “Archimedes’ Principle” was created to explore the blending of the sound of the haegeum, an ancient Korean fiddle, with a traditional Western piano quartet consisting of piano (Sharon Lee Kim), violin (Jiwon Evelyn Kwark), viola (Caroline Lee), and cello (Sarah Hong). The haegeum will be performed by guest artist Sooyeon Lyuh. The remainder of the program will be devoted to twentieth-century Eastern European composers: Béla Bartók, Ernő Dohnányi, Josef Suk, and Bohuslav Martinů.

The Old First Presbyterian Church is located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. If purchased in advance online from an O1C event page, general admission will be $23 with a discounted rate of $18 for seniors aged 65 or older. Tickets for full-time students showing valid identification will be $5; and children aged twelve and under will still be admitted for free. There is also a discount available for those parking at the Old First Parking Garage at 1725 Sacramento Street, just up the street from the church.

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