Center for New Music: June, 2018

The Calendar Web page for the Center for New Music (C4NM) is beginning to accumulate events for next month. Given how many items have already accumulated in my iCal view of the month of June, I have a feeling that getting the word out about those events would benefit from sooner-rather-than-later. Hopefully, by now readers know that, once this article has been published, its site can be easily updated; and I use my Facebook shadow site to 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:

Saturday, June 2, 8 p.m.: By my count this will be the final installment in curator Julia Ogrydziak’s five-part HUSH Series. The series presented the works of artists interested in ways to suspend the listener’s time-consciousness, providing the audience with a space and a moment to breath in a hectic world. Ogrydziak is using this final slot to offer her own program, called Northern Lights. In her effort to depart from the usual concert experience, she is calling this event a Campout Music Party, which will involve wine (the first drink will be free), floor pillows, and soothing time-lapse videos.

All of the music will be taken from Ólafur Arnalds’ collection of short chamber music compositions entitled Skissur. Each piece will be accompanied by the recitation of a tiny poem. Ogrydziak will lead the chamber ensemble on violin. She will be joined by Cynthia Mei (violin), Julie Michael (viola), Gianna Abondolo (cello), Riley Nicholson (piano), and Adam Fong (glockenspiel). The music itself will start around 8:30 p.m., allowing half an hour for the audience to absorb the ambience. Ten short pieces will be performed with an overall duration of about an hour. General admission will be $20 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Saturday, June 9, 8 p.m.: Flautist Anita Chandavarkar and guitarist Craig Perry will present a program entitled East-West Modalities and Modernities. The program will include Perry’s own The Emperor’s Suite, a six-movement reflection on mankind that takes in past (through mythological history), present, and future. There will also be a performance of “L’Aube Enchantée” (the enchanted dawn), a composition by Ravi Shankar based on the Miyan ki Todi raga and written for flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. A similar East-West connection will be explored in “Toward the Sea,” a reflection on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick by Toru Takemitsu, originally composed for alto flute and guitar. The program will begin with Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Canzona de Ringraziamento.” General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Sunday, June 10, 7 p.m.: The four members of the Rova Saxophone Quartet will present AIR: A Tribute to Cecil Taylor, honoring the member of the extraordinarily adventurous jazz pianist, who died this past April 5. Each of the members of the quartet will take a set with one or more invited guests. Steve Adams will play with Lisa Mezzacappa on bass accompanying recitations by Clark Coolidge. Bruce Ackley will be joined by Andy Strain on trombone and Karl Evangelista on guitar. Larry Ochs will present drummer Donald Robinson in his set. Jon Raskin will then play with a rhythm section consisting of Vijay Anderson on drums, Safa Shokrai on bass, and Darren Johnston on peace cannon. The four saxophonists will then reunite as a quartet, playing an excerpt from “Certain Space,” which Ochs composed and dedicated to Taylor. This concert will be free, and no advance reservations will be taken.

Wednesday, June 20, 7:30 p.m.: Pianist Nadia Shpachenko will present a concert based on her new CD Quotations and Homages, released by Reference Recordings this past April 6. The recording consists of newly-written homages by composers Adam Borecki, Daniel Felsenfeld, Tom Flaherty, Missy Mazzoli, Nick Norton, and Peter Yates. Shpachenko will also play recent compositions by Vera Ivanova and Isaac Schankler, as well as earlier selections reaching back to the eighteenth century and advancing up to the present. Shpachenko’s performance will involve not only piano but also voice, electronics, and multimedia. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Sunday, June 24, 8 p.m.: This will be a rare San Francisco performance of duo jazz improvisations bringing Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser together with French guitarist Marc Ducret. Those who follow avant-garde jazz may recognize Ducret as a member of Tim Berne’s group Bloodcount. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

Thursday, June 28, 7:30 p.m.: Visual Piano is the name of a series of concerts based on the collaboration of pianist and composer Francesco Di Fiore and video artist Valeria Di Matteo. The idea is to incorporate the real-time synthesis of imagery as an added dimension to Di Fiore’s piano performance of his own music and the works of others. Two of Di Fiore’s compositions will be premiered on this program. The ZOFO four-hands-on-one-keyboard duo of Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi will perform “The West Coast Point of View;” and saxophonist Michael Hernandez will join Di Fiore to play a new duo for soprano saxophone and piano. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.