Center for New Music: October, 2022

Next month the Center for New Music (C4NM) will ramp up its schedule of performances. Furthermore, the month will begin with a landmark celebration. On October 1 C4NM will celebrate ten years of new music with a Birthday Bash. There will be complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and C4NM members will be admitted at no charge. For others the suggested donation is $5. Festivities will get under way at 6 p.m.

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. Tickets for all remaining events in the month may be processed in advance through the Events page on the C4NM Web site. 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:

Saturday, October 8, 8 p.m.: Tom Nunn died earlier this year. He was a prodigious contributor to free improvisation, almost always involving playing instruments of his own invention. Christina Braun and David Samas have prepared a program to share memories and celebrate Nunn’s life. Speakers will include Sudhu Tewari, Bart Hopkin, Paul Winstanley and Priscilla Nunn. There will be a reception at 7 p.m., which will include a film by Doug Carrol and a skatch film with a recorded score by David Michalak. Both Samas and Braun will perform, along with Sudhu Tewari, Chris Brown, Ron Heglin, Rent Romus, John Ingle, Tom Djll, and Thomas Dimuzio. Short stories written by Nunn will be read by Dean Santomieri. There will be no charge for admission, but donations are encouraged.

Sunday, October 9, 7 p.m.: This will be the seventh installment in the Surround Sound Salon Series, the sixth having taken place this past June. This series consists of informal shows in which electronic music composers present their fixed media and/or live electronic music through the 8-channel surround system, generously provided by Meyer Sound. The composers mix their sounds from the center of the space, and members of the audience are free to choose their own listening location(s) and to move within the space to hear the music from different vantage points. The Bay Area composers contributing to this program will be John Bischoff, David Michalak, and Chris Brown. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members and students.

Thursday, October 13, 8 p.m.: Noise by Noise West is a tour of “bleeding edge” music performed by Thomas Dimuzio and Scot Jenerik. That tour will take place during most of the month of October. However, the journey will begin at C4NM. General admission will again be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members and students.

Saturday, October 15, 8 p.m.: The Art of Bowing is a project initiated by haegeum performer and composer Jeonghyeon Joo. She will present new works for haegeum solo and haegeum with electronics by Ben Sabey. The two of them will also present a duo improvisation. There will be no charge for admission, but donations are encouraged.

Saturday, October 22, 8 p.m.: This will be an evening of performances by the trio of Nathan Clevenger, Jordan Glenn, and Cory Wright, all based in Oakland. Following their trio set, they will be joined by Kasey Knudsen on alto saxophone and cellist Crystal Pascucci. General admission will again be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members and students.

Sunday, October 30, 4:30 p.m.: The month will conclude with a solo piano recital by Thomas Schultz. As usual, the program will include music by his colleague Hyo-shin Na. Her selection will be “Rain Study.” He will also play Galina Ustvolskaya’s fifth piano sonata, two chorale preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach arranged for piano by Ferruccio Busoni, and the complete set of North American Ballads by Frederic Rzewski. General admission will again be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members and students.