Center for New Music: September, 2026

Next month is when the concert season “officially” gets under way. As of this writing, “first out of the gate” will be the Center for New Music (C4NM). As usual, the month will serve up the unusual and the familiar, the latter including the monthly G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event. As most readers probably know by now, the venue is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Each of the below dates is hyperlinked to an event page through which tickets may be purchased as follows:

Saxophonist Nora Free, Alex Heigl with his guitar, and bassist Chris Trinidad (poster design for the performers that will open the new season)

Friday, September 11, 7:30 p.m.: The season will begin with a one-off night of improvised music performed by a quartet. The “front line” will be taken by saxophonist Nora Free, accompanied by three “rhythm” musicians: guitarist Alex Heigl, Chris Trinidad on bass guitar, and drummer Ian MacKenzie. Those familiar with the wild improvisations by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders may detect his influence on Free. It is also worth nothing that McKenzie tends to prefer a “minimalist” approach to drum work. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, September 12, 7:30 p.m.: The title of this program is 2x2, because two duos will contribute to the program. After each of them takes a set, the program will conclude with their joining forces for a quartet performance. The program will begin with percussionists Kevin Corcoran and Jacob Felix Heule. They will be followed by James Fei and Bill Hsu, both working with electronic gear. Once again, general admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.

Saturday, September 19, noon: The first G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event of the new season will be the usual two-hour performance. The entrance fee will be $10 general admission with a $6 rate for students and C4NM members. There will be no further charge for the gourmet pancakes being served. There will be five sets of performances, most of which will be identified by what I have previously called “bleeding edge eccentricities.” Those sets will be as follows:

1. Dimmer is a duo of performers that depart from “the usual instruments.” Thomas Dimuzio is a pioneer in live sampling technology. He will be joined by Joseph Hammer who creates and works with tape loops.
2. Medicine Cabinet is the name for a solo performance by Marc Schnieder, who is based in Tracy, California; he creates is own networks of electronic gear for his shows.
3. Connor Tomaka has performed at C4NM in the past. At the end of April of 2022, he released an album entitled Mathematical Structuralism, currently available through a Bandcamp Web page. This was a duo performance with Eric Schmid involving a prodigious diversity of genres: metal, rock, alternative, hip-hop/rap, experimental, punk, pop, and ambient.
4. No information is currently available for the set taken by Impact Design.
5. The final set will be taken by Mabbie Bug & Company, described as “an alias or creative moniker associated with live music and experimental performance events.”

Saturday, September 26, 6:15 p.m.: Pianist Patrick Anderson will give a solo performance of the five numbered compositions by Philip Glass given the title Metamorphosis. The piano will be accompanied by live electronic and ambient effects. Glass selected the title because it was named for a novella by Franz Kafka. He composed his music to capture the book’s themes of isolation, emptiness, and despair. General admission will again be $15 with a $10 rate for students and C4NM members.