Two Monthly Schedules for April, 2020 (for now)

This is the time of the month when I start writing for those wishing to make plans for the following month. Two of the organizations that I have tried to follow consistently are Sunset Music and Arts and the Center for New Music (C4NM). As of this writing Sunset plans to reschedule all performances taking place for the rest of this month, but specific details are currently pending. For now it is sufficient to say that no further concerts will take place at Incarnation Episcopal Church during the month of March. However, four of the seven concerts for next month are, at least for now, still scheduled to take place. Similarly, as has already been announced, C4NM will be dark for the rest of the month; but there are events in the April calendar that have not yet been cancelled as of this writing.

[updated 3/18, 9:30 a.m.: All April Sunset events have been cancelled, and the organizers are considering shutting down the early May events as well.

That said, here is the information about the four Sunset concerts that have not yet been cancelled:

• Friday, April 3, 7: 30 p.m.: DuoArt is a far cry from the usual chamber music duo. Violinist Leonid Iogansen is also a composer, whose works have been performed by such notable ensembles as the JACK Quartet. He is paired with pianist Sasha Burdin, who is equally at home with the classical and jazz repertoires. He has formed a jazz quartet not only to provide a platform for his own compositions but also to explore innovative approaches to the standard jazz repertoire, written by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane and others. As might be guessed, program details have not yet been provided and will probably be announced during the concert.
• Saturday, April 4, 4:30 p.m.: Pianist Monica Chew has taken an interesting approach to preparing her program. Maurice Ravel’s finger-busting suite Gaspard de la nuit will serve as the “spinal cord” for the performance. The opening movement, “Ondine,” will be preceded by the “On its way” movement from Nicky Sohn’s suite Estimated Delivery, which she completed in 2018. Between “Ondine” and “Le gibet” Chew will perform two relatively short selections by Heitor Villa-Lobos. “Le gibet” will then be followed by four compositions, each with its own take on modernism from a different time. The earliest of these will be a 1937 piece by Ulvi Cemal Erkin; and the latest (as well as the last of the four), will be Adam Zolty’s “Drum Kit,” which he composed in 2017. The program will then complete Ravel’s suite with the performance of “Scarbo.”
• Friday, April 17, 7:30 p.m.: This program will present two different “skill sets” in the San Francisco Girls Chorus School. Level III of the School will perform a varied program of classical, contemporary, and multilingual folk songs in vibrant choral arrangements. The older singers of the Soloist Intensive division will then present art songs, opera, and musical theater scenes. All the singers will then join forces to present a few collaborative songs.
• Saturday, April 18, 7:30 p.m.: The final program to be presented in April (as of now) will be presented by the Circadian String Quartet. Based in the Bay Area, the members of this ensemble are violinists David Ryther and Monika Gruber, violist Omid Assadi, and cellist David Wishnia. This group has performed several times for Old First Concerts; and, unless I am mistaken, this will be their Sunset debut. They have not yet announced their program; but they have a long-standing reputation for imaginative programming.

All performances will take place in the Sunset district at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, located at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street. Ticket prices are $20 for general admission with a $15 rate for students and seniors. Because the demand tends to be high, advance purchase is highly advised. Tickets may be purchased online through Eventbrite. Each of the hyperlinks on the above dates leads to the event page for single ticket purchases. Further information may be obtained by calling 415-564-2324.]

As of this writing, the April schedule for C4NM will take place on the same day as the first April concert in the Sunset series:

• Friday, April 3, 8 p.m.: This concert will feature a trio of improvisers working with both acoustic instruments and electronic gear. The acoustic instruments are violin (Teodora Berg) and piano (Chris Brown). Brown also will perform through computer software, complementing analog synthesizer work by Thomas Lehar. The charge will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.
• Sunday, April 5, 3 p.m.: The San Francisco Chapter of NACUSA (National Association of Composers of the United States of America) will present new works by seven of its member composers. The program will include three piano works: Jacob E. Goodman’s “Variations on a Theme of Beethoven,” Simon Bokman’s “Ballet-Sonata,” and Davide Verotta’s “Unhinged” for piano and electronics. The program will also present two chamber works:  three short pieces for clarinet quartet by Karl Schmidt and Greg Steinke’s “Colvin House Haunts” for violin and cello. Vocal works on the program will include two songs from John Bilotta’s “The League of Minor Characters,” and Sheli Nan’s “Journey–The Song Cycle.” The charge will be $20 for general admission and $15 for C4NM members, seniors, and students.
• Monday, April 6, 7 p.m.: Classical guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan will give his third performance at C4NM with a program entitled Directions. This program will include solo compositions by Vineet Shende and Ken Ueno and music for guitar and electronics by Tom Flaherty and Lou Bunk. In addition he will be joined by local guitarist Michael Goldberg to given the Bay Area premiere of his arrangement for two prepared guitars of “Bacchanale,” composed by John Cage originally for prepared piano. The charge will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.
• Thursday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.: Clarinetist Gregory Oakes will give a recital, primarily of solo compositions. He will also play music by Ueno, as well as Lisa Atkinson, Viet Cuong, Suzanne Farrin, Helmut Lachenmann, Eric Mandat, and Ken Thomson. He will also be joined by clarinetist Jeff Anderle for a duo selection. The charge will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.
• Friday, April 17, 8 p.m.: The Surround Sound Salon Series, curated by Chris Brown, will continue with its fourth concert. The program will feature three sets of composers who present their fixed media and/or live electronic music through the 8-channel surround system, generously provided by Meyer Sound. Those composers will be John Bischoff, Sam Genovese, and the duo of Sally Decker and Brendan Glasson. They will mix their sounds from the center of the space, and the audience is free to choose their own listening location and to move within the space to hear the music from different vantage points. The charge will be $10 for general admission and $5 for C4NM members and students.
• Sunday, April 19, 8 p.m.: Originally scheduled for March 29, Rova 2020: The Music Revealed Take 1 will be the next performance by the Rova Saxophone Quartet to be hosted by C4NM. As they are putting it, they will perform “works devised or brought to a place of revelations in this 2019 -20 season, including at least one world premiere.” (The Take 2 incarnation of this program will take place in May.) The charge will be $15 for general admission, $10 for C4NM members, and $6 for students.
• Wednesday, April 22, 8 p.m.: The next Latitudes program to be curated by Blaine Todd will be a two-set evening of sounds from highly diverse sources. Marisa Anderson channels her past experiences in American folk music with twentieth-century classical techniques and West African guitar music. Tara Jane O’Neil is a multi-instrumentalist, whose work ranges from noise blitz to ambient dreamscape to bittersweet folk dirge. The charge will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.
• Friday, April 24, 8 p.m.: Gaze Emanations will present an album release concert that will feature both improvised painting from live music and improvised music from visual compositions. The musicians will be the members of Pet the Tiger and Co.: Suki O’Kane, Tom Nunn, Tom Djll, Krys Bobrowski, Chris Brown, Bryan Day, Thomas Dimuzio, and David Samas. The visuals will be watercolors by Brian Lucas and spontaneous abstract painting by Ethan Cranke. The charge will be $12 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.
• Saturday, April 25, 8 p.m.: Departure Duo consists of soprano Nina Guo and bass player Edward Kass. This will be their third performance at C4NM. They will present the results of four commissions arising from their “30 by ’30” project to create and catalog 30 hours of music for the duo by 2030. The four compositions on their program will be by Emily Koh, Mikhail Johnson, Emily Praetorius, and Sarah Gibson. Gibson’s piece will be receiving its world premiere performance. The charge will be $15 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.
• Tuesday, April 28, 8 p.m.: Ueno’s next appearance at C4NM will see him performing his own composition(s) as part of the Subjective Objects series. The program will also include Viola Yip and others yet to be announced. The charge will be $12 for general admission and $10 for C4NM members and students.

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. Each of the hyperlinks on the above dates leads to the appropriate Vendini Web page.