Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Center for New Music: February, 2022

This turned out to be a very sparse month for performances at the Center for New Music (C4NM). As of this writing, the only scheduled concert for the month will be presented by Ensemble for These Times this coming Saturday, January 29. A second concert, the fourth installment in the Surround Sound Salon Series (SSSS), had been announced for the following afternoon; but, as of this morning, it has been rescheduled for next month. According to the current schedule of events, that SSSS event will be the last of four concerts taking place at C4NM during that month.

For those that do not already know, 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 processed in advance through the C4NM Events page. Masks are still required for all in attendance, and those in the audience are required to be fully vaccinated. Furthermore, since those pandemic conditions still prevail, the audience capacity will be reduced; so purchasing tickets early is desirable. Specifics are as follows with hyperlinks for the respective event pages, each of which has a “Buy Tickets Online” hyperlink to the appropriate Eventbrite event page:

Sunday, February 6, 4 p.m.: The Symbiotics Quartet consists (in alphabetical order) of Chris Brown (piano and electronics), Ben Davis (cello), Danishta Rivero (sound artist), and Marshall Trammel (drums). This will be the first time that these four improvisor/composers will join forces. For each selection the musicians will employ a simple algorithm to play one of all of the possible combinations of solos, duos, trios, and a quartet. The focus will always be on continuous listening and interdependence of the music created spontaneously by every player.

Friday, February 11, 8 p.m.: This will also be a program of improvisations involving four performers (again in alphabetical order): Evelyn Davis (keyboards), Phillip Greenlief (saxophone), Motoko Honda (piano), and Beth Schenck (saxophone). In this case, however, all of the improvisations will be duos. The primary pairings wil involve Davis-Greenlief and Honda-Schenck. However, other pairings may be engaged “in the spirit of exploration and joy.”

Saturday, February 12, 8 p.m.: This will be the latest showcase of new works written by members of the Bay Area Chapter of the NACUSA (National Association of the Composers of the United States of America), usually referred to as NACUSAsf. As of this writing, the program will present music by nine composers scored for different combinations of voice, winds, guitar, and piano. This program will be live-streamed from the C4NM facility. Ticket holders will receive electronic mail for viewing the performance through a link to YouTube.

Sunday, February 20, 4 p.m.: This will be the rescheduled SSSS concert, and the program will be the same as the one that was announced this past Thursday. [added 2/11, 7:45 a.m.:

Sunday, February 27, 7:30 p.m.: February will conclude with a recently-announced two-set concert to honor saxophonist Tim Berne. The first set will be a solo performance by Gordon Grdina, alternating between guitar and oud. He will play selections from his latest album, The Music of Tim Berne: Oddly Enough, which is scheduled for release one week from today. This will be followed at 8:30 p.m. by Berne himself giving a duo performance with guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi. They will play a set of selections from their new album, Mars. This performance will not be live-streamed but only performed before an audience.]

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