DOROTHEA SCHÜRCH GACHAPON (
Nancy Beckman, CINDY WEBSTER,
Tom Bickley, and
Dean Santomieri)
with
CHRISTINA BRAUNDOROTHEA SCHÜRCH presents a solo for colored breath inspired by the voices of the Ultra-Lettrist. Schürch is internationally active as a singer and performer. She has worked interdisciplinary in the fields of improvisation, music, theater, and performance for 40 years. The emancipatory and anarchistic approaches of the 80s have shaped her work focusing on the voice as a respiratory-physiological soundscape on one hand and as an experimental research tool on the other. Schürch's performances have taken her to festivals such as the Workshop Free Music Berlin, Taktlos Zurich, Festival de la Bâtie Genève, Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon, Jazz Festival Willisau, After Yodel New York, High Zero Festival Baltimore, Total Music Meeting Berlin, Wien Modern, Donaueschinger Musiktage, festival de la musique actuelle Victoriaville, Western Front Vancouver. She wrote a doctoral thesis on avant-garde vocal practices of the Ultra-Lettrist movement in the 1960s in Paris.
Schürch is currently in Oakland as a postdoctoral research fellow working on tape-recorded compositions of the 1950s and 1960s as part of the Bern Academy of the Arts project "Schreiben mit Stimmen" [Writing with Voices] which is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on tape-recorder compositions from the perspective of studio work including the crafting and experimentation with the machines and sounds. This research is inspired by practice-based musicology addressing questions of re-enactment, redoing, re-considering, and the exploration of learning and understanding versus appropriation. She is also interested in theoretical approaches to the questions arising from composing with recordings. Her work has received numerous awards.
GACHAPON is an improvising quartet of local musicians. For this performance, they will be collaborating with San Francisco dancer
CHRISTINA BRAUN.
Nancy Beckman (shakuhachi)
CINDY WEBSTER (voice, amplified bowed saw, hurdy-gurdy)
Tom Bickley (EWI and electronics)
Dean Santomieri (guitar, taishogoto)
CHRISTINA BRAUN (dance)
Cost: $10-$25 sliding scale