Center for New Music: June, 2019

The Center for New Music (C4NM) seems to have planned ahead for next month a bit more extensively than the Red Poppy Art House (for which I filed my first update this morning). Things will be a bit more elaborate this month, since curator Chris Brown will be presenting his EEP! (Electronic Ensemble Performance) Weekend. This will involve both workshops and performances, but this site will focus only on the performances. As usual, updating this Web page is easy; so I shall, as usual, use my Facebook shadow site to put out the word whenever this page is updated to account for additions and/or changes to the schedule.

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. 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:

Friday, June 7, 8 p.m.: Julie Herndon will curate a performance by the Sl(e)ight Ensemble, the trio of flutist Erika Oba, violinist Mia Bella D’Augelli, and pianist Jacob Lane. They have prepared a program entitle Angles of Time, which will present new works inspired by alternative notations of time in music. The program will include “The Inner Planets and The Apple Tree,” a new piece by Steve Parris inspired by the orbits of the planets. The program will also include new works by all three members of the ensemble. Composer and artist Jesse Austin will contribute real-time projections of visuals. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, June 8, 2:30 p.m.: Bass-baritone Jóhann Schram Reed will make his C4NM debut. He will present the world premiere of the song cycle The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, composed for hims by Patricia Wallinga. The text is the poem of the same name by T. S. Eliot. David Conte’s 2003 song cycle Everyone Sang will also be included on the program, along with other selections from the American vocal repertoire of this and the preceding centuries. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

Sunday, June 9, 4 p.m.: The next concert to be curated by Herndon will be Sonimenology. Described as “a cocktail hour of desirable sounds,” the program will bring together participants from a variety of background. The evening will be structured in three sets. The first will be a duo performance by Christopher Jette and Chris Christensen. This will be followed by a second duo set taken by Barbara Nerness and Stephanie Sherriff. John Davis will then conclude the program with a solo set. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

[added 5/28, 1:20 p.m.:

Thursday, June 13, 7:45 p.m.: The next Latitudes concert to be curated by Blaine Todd will be a two-set program with each set taking its own off-the-wall approach to performance. Recepticles calls its repertoire
“a joyfully shambolic deconstructionist collision of rhythms and riffs.” The names of the performers have not (yet?) been released, but they appear to be a rock trio of electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drum kit. The other group is DEGRADIENT, created and organized by oboist Kyle Bruckmann. He will jam with Jason Hoopes and Jordan Glenn, along with vocals provided by Danistha Rivero and live readings by Shears.]

Friday, June 14, 8 p.m.: The first EEP! concert will open with a duo performance by Amina Kirby and Jess Tambellini performing on handmade electronic instruments. They will be followed by vocalist Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron performing with the Monopiece trio of Nathan Corder (electronics), Matt Robidoux (guitar), and Tim Russell (percussion). Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, June 15, 8 p.m.: The second EEP! concert will open with a “completely different” duo. Brendan Glasson and Sally Decker will explore chaotic events within controlled environments. The will be followed by another duo, Kevin Blechdom and Blevin Blectum, who call themselves Blectum from Blechdom. In their own words, they “will whisk you away to a psychedelic organic-electronic universe of sonic snauses and fractal mallards intertwined in a generative long-from game for the future.” Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

Sunday, June 16, 4 p.m.: The final EEP! concert will begin with an ambient electronic improvisation by three visitors from Los Angeles, Tim Feeney, Clay Chaplin, and David Sumner. The second half of the concert features The HUB, a collaborative, and improvisational performance practice characterized by the sharing of digital information via a network. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

Tuesday, June 18, 7:30 p.m.: Pianist Nadia Shpachenko will present a CD Release Concert for her new album The Poetry of Places. Shpachenko will present the San Francisco premieres of five architecture-inspired works by Amy Beth Kirsten, Hannah Lash, James Matheson, Harold Meltzer, and Jack Van Zandt, all included on her CD. She will also perform two world premieres and two West Coast premieres of works by Paul Chihara, Thea Musgrave, José Serebrier, and Lewis Spratlan, respectively. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, June 22, 7 p.m.: C4NM will host Instrumentarium, a special benefit in celebration of the Bay Area invented instrument community. Pamela Z and Donald Swearingen will perform alongside special guests Krys Bobrowski, Brenda Hutchinson, and the Karen Stackpole Trio. The performance will be preceded by a reception with new music by Window Gallery curators Bart Hopkin and David Samas, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. General admission will be $30 with a $20 charge for C4NM members. Proceeds will support the Window Gallery and the development and implementation of the exhibits it presents.

Friday, June 28, 7 p.m.: Herndon’s final curated concert of the month will be a solo piano recital by Ju-Ping Song. She will present West Coast premieres of powerful, visceral works for solo piano, soundtrack, and video by four women with strong, individual voices: Lois Vierk (United States), Rahilia Hasanova (Azerbaijan), Nicole Lizée (Canada), and Kate Moore (Australia). Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, June 29, 8 p.m.: Brown will curate a two-set evening. The performers will be Peter J. Woods and Christopher Burns, both of whom work with blends of sound, performance, and video art. Admission will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.