Center for New Music: May, 2018

Once again, plans for a fair number of concerts to be presented at the Center for New Music (C4NM) next month are already in place. As usual, the “ultimate authority” for programming is C4NM itself, which maintains an up-to-date Calendar Web page. If necessary, this site will be updated to reflect changes on that page; and my Facebook shadow site will get out the word about those updates.

C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. There will be some variation in admission charges for the events. All tickets may be purchased in advance through a Vendini event page. Hyperlinks to the appropriate Web pages will be attached to each of the dates in the following summary:

Wednesday, May 2, 8 p.m.: Soprano Jane Spencer Mill will present a program of modern songs with a fanciful bent. The title of her program will be Of Cats, the Moon and Rain. There will be fairies, griffins and scarecrows; John Glenn and Houdini make a magical appearance. Cats pad back and forth, and rain washes over the whole. Accompaniment will be provided by Ian Scarfe at the piano and Jessie Nucho on flute. General admission will be $20 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m.: Graduate students at the University of California at Berkeley currently participating in Myra Melford’s composition seminar will present an evening of new solo works. Those participants will be Curtis Rumrill (guitar), Andrew Harlan (bass and electronics), Clara Olivares (piano), Soo Yeon Lyuh (haegeum), and James Stone (piano). After all the solo works have been performed, the program will conclude with a collective improvisation. General admission will be $10 with a $5 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, May 5, 7:30 p.m.: I first encountered reed player Steven Lugerner at C4NM in August of 2014, when he gave a solo performance. Next month he will lead a sextet, which he calls the SLUGish Ensemble, embedding his own name into that of the group. They will introduce music from an album soon to be released on the Sow & Steady label. The rest of the group consists of two guitarists, Justin Rock and Russ Gelman-Sheehan, with rhythm support for Christina Galisatus on piano, Matthew Wohl on bass, and Michael Mitchell on drums. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Sunday, May 6, 8 p.m.: Biggi Vinkeloe (alto saxophone and flute), Scott R. Looney (piano and prepared piano), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), and Donald Robinson (drums) have played with each other in a variety of different groupings. This will be the first time they play as a quartet. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Saturday, May 12, 3 p.m.: Soprano Charlotte Munday and pianist Miori Sugiyama are both members of the Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS). They will prepare a program to highlight music from the New Voices series that BASS has compiled. The program will include premiere performances of works by graduate students at the University of California at Davis. They will also perform selected works by Olivier Messiaen and Kaija Saariaho. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

[added 4/18, 1:30 p.m.:

Thursday, May 17, 7:30 p.m.: The next installment of the permutations series will present the West Coast debut of New York's Ghost Ensemble. This group is dedicated to new musical perspectives that explore the experience of listening, creating sonic spaces that shift our attention, perception, or experience of time. They will present a program offering music by Pauline Oliveros, Ben Richter, Sky Macklay, Andrew C. Smith, and Liisa Hirsch. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.]

Friday, May 18, 7 p.m.: Violist Kurt Rohde is planning a ten-year project that will involve commissioning new works by the most gifted composers that he feels are underrepresented and deserve a wider audience. At the end of the project, he plans to retire from playing in performance; so he calls the entire effort Kurt Rohde’s Farewell Tour. The new works will be presented over the course of six recitals, of which this will be the first. The composers to be showcased on this program will be Martha Horst, Jared Redmond, Carl Schimmel, Ramteen Sazagari, Laura Elise Schwendinger, and Mark Winges. Redmond will also perform at the piano as Rohde’s accompanist. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Saturday, May 19, 6 p.m.: Michael Bang will be leading several different keyboard ensembles through various pieces, including “In T,” which has a totally original title that doesn’t reference any pre-existing works. The piece was recorded by twelve keyboards at Tiny Telephone recording studio in Oakland. The live performance will feature four or five keyboards, depending on who will be available at the time of the concert. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Wednesday, May 23, 7:30 p.m.: Curator Julia Ogrydziak will continue her five-part HUSH Series with its fourth installment, “im Fluß der Zeit” (in the river of time). This will feature singer, violist, and composer Anka Draugelates, visiting from Bavaria in Germany. She will be joined by instrument builder Cheryl E. Leonard and dancer Kilta Rainprechter. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Thursday, May 24, 8:30 p.m.: SpermChurch calls itself “an international poly-electro, pan-genre duo.” Members are Trevor Dunn on electric bass and Sannety on electronics. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Friday, May 25, 7:30 p.m.: Friction Quartet will premiere new works by Pascal Le Boeuf and Danny Clay. The Le Boeuf composition is entitled “Ritual Being” and will be performed with a jazz ensemble. The other piece, “CounterPaint: The Art of the Fugue” is a multimedia collaboration involving Clay, La Boeuf, and Friction. The evening will also include the world premiere screening of the CounterPaint music video. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Thursday, May 31, 8 p.m.: Adam Marks will curate a visit from Los Angeles by violist Diana Wade. She has prepared a program entitled you made it weird, San Francisco. She will perform works by Eve Beglarian, Adam Borecki, Ted Hearne, Garth Knox, Andrew Norman, Salvatore Sciarrino, and one of her own new pieces, which requires two performers and one 25-foot drainage tube. The other violist will be Friction’s Taija Warbelow. Mezzo Jennifer Beattie will also perform. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.