January 15–17, 2015 launches the first
New Music Gathering, an annual coming-together of people focusing on topics of current music made in the classical music tradition. Combining concerts, discussions, and presentations about new music and its creators and activists, New Music Gathering brings top contemporary musicians, artists, administrators, and musicologists together to meet, talk, and foster relationships in the new music community. The 2015 debut is headlined by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) cofounder and flutist Claire Chase; pianist, writer, and producer
Sarah Cahill; the Grammy Award–winning Kronos Quartet; internationally renowned pipa virtuoso Wu Man; and the boundary-breaking ensemble The Living Earth Show. This year’s event, hosted by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (50 Oak Street) and Center for New Music (55 Taylor Street), will focus on “Artist-Led Ensembles” with over fifty presenters and performing acts over the course of three days. Advance Tickets: $60 full conference pass, $30 day pass. For more information, visit newmusicgathering.org
Cofounded by four musicians—Lainie Fefferman, Daniel Felsenfeld, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Matt Marks—the goal of New Music Gathering is to offer a time and place to exchange ideas and to focus on the needs and desires within the new music community. “We founded New Music Gathering because it needed to exist. There were conferences for just about everything else but none for us, and so, in the spirit of our first annual event—which is dedicated to artist-led ensembles—we opted as artists to build ourselves a space. It will never be comprehensive, but it will also never be limited: style isn’t an issue for us—everyone is welcome. Our sincerest hope is to get people talking, because that is how great things happen, and we just want to give people a place to do that.”
Cost: $30–$60