Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Center for New Music: December, 2022

Readers may have noticed that the Bleeding Edge has “gone dark” for the last couple of weeks. Mind you, Thanksgiving Week is one of the quietest of the year, due to the progression from preparing to eating and then to recovering. This week, in the wake of those festivities, there was a single San Francisco item on the Bay Improviser Calendar; and that turned out to be the first of the only two events taking place this month at the Center for New Music (C4NM). It thus seemed preferable to account for both of those events on the monthly summary.

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 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, including a brief account of this week’s events, with hyperlinks for the respective event pages, each of which has a “Buy Tickets Online” hyperlink to the appropriate Eventbrite event page:

Saturday, December 3, 7:45 p.m.: This will be a memorial program, given the title Recalling the Dream ~ Ghost in the House and Friends. It will present a spirited musical and visual celebration paying tribute to former Ghost in the House band members Richard Waters, Tom Nunn, and Kinji Hayashi. The contributing performers will be as follows:

  • David Michalak – lap steel guitar, percussion, phantom harp
  • Karen Stackpole – gongs, percussion, waterphone
  • Polly Moller – bass flute
  • John Ingle – saxophones
  • Bruce Ackley – soprano saxophone, clarinet
  • Gary Knowlton – chase plate, waterphone
  • Bart Hopkin – inventions
  • Dean Santomieri – spoken word, guitar
  • Cindy Sawprano – singing saw

(Michalak and Stackpole are two of the founding members.) The musical selections will include “A Dream” (setting a text by Edgar Allan Poe), “Waterphone Calling,” and “Innocence Walks a Dark Path.” There will also be films of a dance excerpt by Kinji Hayashi, taken from The Weight of the News, and Skatch Garden, which features Nunn’s Skatchart.

Friday, December 9, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the ninth installment in the Surround Sound Salon Series (SSSS). This is the series in which all presentations utilize the eight-channel surround system provided by Meyer Sound. This particular program will be a spontaneous improvisation by four composer/performers sharing the gear dynamically. Those four participants are Zachary James Watkins (electronics), Ava Koohbor (electronics), Ben Davis (cello), and Chris Brown (virtual piano and electronics).

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