Wed 12/17 6:00 PM San Francisco Public Library, Golden Gate Valley Branch [1801 Green St. San Francisco, CA 94123]
Phil Kline's Unsilent Night: Free all ages participatory neighborhood promenade with shimmering ambient music. Gather in front of the SFPL Golden Gate Valley library in Pacific Heights, SF for this special holiday event. Each participant simultaneously plays one of four pre-recorded tracks from a mobile device that amplifies music as we walk together on a pre-determined 45 minute route that will take us to the nearby Marina branch library and back to the Golden Gate Valley branch. No steep hills. This event will take place rain or shine.  More...

Thu 12/18 6:30 PM Mercury Cafe [201 Octavia Blvd (at Page) SF, Ca]
Live music performed by the Shimmering Leaves Four X
Original and improvised post genre music
tonal, pantonal, modal, rhythmic, spacious, active, beautiful sounds performed by
4 wonderful musicians with special guests.
also celebrating the 70th birthday of drummer, pianist, composer Dave Mihaly  More...

Thu 12/18 7:30 PM Wyldflowr Arts [Oakland]
Scott Amendola/Kasey Knudsen/Mat Muntz Trio  More...

Thu 12/18 7:30 PM Audium [1616 Bush St. SF]
1000 Whispers From Our Future by Pat Mesiti-Miller  More...

Fri 12/19 6:00 PM Bird & Beckett Books and Records [653 Chenery St. SF]
SCOTT FOSTER / DAVID BOYCE  More...

Fri 12/19 7:00 PM Medicine for Nightmares [3036 24th St SF]
Other Dimensions in Sound presents Subterranean Fire.  More...

Fri 12/19 7:30 PM Audium [1616 Bush St. SF]
1000 Whispers From Our Future by Pat Mesiti-Miller  More...

Sat 12/20 12:00 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St. SF]
Click to make donation  
Cybersentics Book Club, no. 2: reading Bio-Music (1971) by Manford Eaton!  More...

Sat 12/20 7:30 PM Audium [1616 Bush St. SF]
1000 Whispers From Our Future by Pat Mesiti-Miller  More...

Sat 12/20 8:00 PM Ugra Deva Loka [1035 22nd Ave. Unit 14 Oakland, CA 94606]
A night of dark dungeon sounds
Mortwight (Denton, TX (anti-heroic martial ambient))
Magick Creature (Oakland Gothic Industrial Dungeon Doom)
Forwyrd (Epic dungeon synth)
Ray-Al-Ta (Raw psychedelic drone)  More...

Sun 12/21 6:52 AM Winslow House Project [Inquire]
Streaming only:Click for stream  Click to make donation  
From the beginning of Civil Twilight at 6:52am to its end at 5:22pm on this shortest day, tune in to hear the monumental drone quartet of Suki O'Kane, Michael Zelner, Michael Wertz, and Andy Cowitt.  More...

Sun 12/21 11:52 AM Berkeley Finnish Hall [1970 Chestnut St. Berkeley]
musicians and dancers performing in duration as the light falls on the shortest day of the year
we begin at 11:52am (solar noon), we end at 6:32pm (end of astronomical twilight)

Kevin Corcoran, Diana Lara, Laila Shabazz, Kara Lin, Shoshana Green, Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş, Rose Huey, Lawrence Tome, Kevin CK Lo, ChiChi Chang, Miriam Wolodarski, Karla Quintero, Megan Nicely, Michael Mersereau, Gemma Szusterman, Rosemary Hannon, Tom Djill, Chris Cooper, alex cruse, Sholeh Asgary, Rachel Sharkland, Aine Nakamura, Zekarias Musele Thompson, Jacob Felix Heule, Danishta Rivero, Galen Rogers, Nico Maimon, Melissa Lewis Wong, Ronice Stratton, Audrey Johnson, Wayne Grim, Jennifer Perfilio, Joy Cosculluela, Jose Abad & paige starling sorvillo  More...

Sun 12/21 2:00 PM San Francisco Public Library [100 Larkin Street, San Francisco]
Sarah Cahill performs a range of music by Terry Riley  More...

Sun 12/21 7:00 PM Beauty Supply [1214 Webster St. Oakland]
- Oakland Reductionist Orchestra
- Lonnie Garnett Memorial Library Band
- Corsick/Pontac
- Olivia Arizmendi & Isabelle Waldner Kalb
- Nathan Nakadegawa-Lee, Jacob Felix Heule, Nick Reeves  More...

Fri 12/26 7:00 PM Medicine for Nightmares [3036 24th St SF]
Other Dimensions in Sound presents Funkonya.  More...

Fri 12/26 8:00 PM Tom's Place [3111 Deakin Street Berkeley]
Kevin Murray Trio with Josh Allen and Tim Duff. 80 Minutes! Energy music in the Yuletide.  More...

Sat 12/27 8:00 PM Tom's Place [3111 Deakin Street Berkeley]
Rent Romus and Heikki Koskinen + TBA  More...

Sun 12/28 8:00 PM Tom's Place [3111 Deakin Street Berkeley]
Fred Frith (guitar), Simon Hanes (baritone guitar), Nora Stanley (alto sax).  More...

Mon 12/29 8:00 PM 2727 [2727 California St, Berkeley]
Giulia / Nora Stanley / George Cory Todd / Benny Bock  More...

Thu 1/01 7:30 PM Audium [1616 Bush St. SF]
1000 Whispers From Our Future by Pat Mesiti-Miller  More...

Fri 1/02 7:30 PM Audium [1616 Bush St. SF]
1000 Whispers From Our Future by Pat Mesiti-Miller  More...

Sat 1/03 7:30 PM Audium [1616 Bush St. SF]
1000 Whispers From Our Future by Pat Mesiti-Miller  More...

Sun 1/04 7:00 PM Artists' Television Access [992 Valencia SF]
Click to make donation  
Thingamajigs Performance Group welcomes the new year with the expanded cinema apparatus of Keith Evans, percussion, Jurassic electronics, and projection by Suki O'Kane, glass, shō, hijiriki, and electric guitar by Edward Schocker, and voice and objects from Rae Diamond.

An early show with proceeds benefiting ATA. Pay at the door or show your donation receipt to gain entry. No one turned away for lack of funds.  More...

Sun 1/04 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
Doors That Only Open in Silence (open participation, non-hierarchical workshop in free improvisation)

Monthly series of improvisation research at Temescal Arts Center. Bring your instrument or come to listen. Movement and other disciplines encouraged. No advance notice needed — just show up.  More...

Tue 1/06 7:30 PM Herbst Theatre [401 Van Ness Ave SF]
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players continues its partnership with ARTZenter Institute's Emerging Composer Grant Program, presenting world premiere performances of 4 new compositions for chamber orchestra at Herbst Theatre.  More...

Tue 1/06 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
Improvisation Workshop hosted by Lewis Jordan: Inviting musicians, poets, dancers, to a non-hierarchical setting to improvise together.
Improvisation is the key.  More...

Thu 1/08 7:30 PM Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College at Northeastern University, Oakland [Richards Rd Oakland, CA 94613]
Other Minds welcomes pianist Amy Williams to perform Morton Feldman’s monumental—and rarely performed—Triadic Memories on Thursday, January 8, 2026, at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, in celebration of the composer’s centennial.  More...

Fri 1/09 8:30 PM Victoria Theatre [2961 16th Street San Francisco]
The San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2026: The Bay Area's legendary annual event dedicated to the performance of audio works projected in three-dimensional space, The San Francisco Tape Music Festival features four distinct concerts of classic audio art and new "fixed media" compositions by local and international composers. Hear members of the SF Tape Music Collective, along with guest composers, shape the sound live over a pristine surround system (24 high-end loudspeakers) with the audience seated in complete darkness. It's a unique opportunity to experience music forming, literally, around you.

This year's program features composers HORACIO VAGGIONE, FRANCISCO LÓPEZ, YASUNAO TONE (1935 - 2025), BARRY VERCOE (1937 - 2025), MONIQUE JEAN, ROBERT NORMANDEAU, and ELAINIE LILLIOS, among many others.

The local sound art community is also well-represented, with works by THOM BLUM, CLIFF CARUTHERS, NATHAN CORDER, Thomas Dimuzio, JAMES GOODE, Matt Ingalls, David Michalak, KRISTIN MILTNER, BARBARA NERNESS, Maggi Payne, STELLA SINGER, and DONALD SWEARINGEN (1950 - 2025) performed throughout the festival.  More...

Sat 1/10 7:00 PM Victoria Theatre [2961 16th Street San Francisco]
The San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2026: The Bay Area's legendary annual event dedicated to the performance of audio works projected in three-dimensional space, The San Francisco Tape Music Festival features four distinct concerts of classic audio art and new "fixed media" compositions by local and international composers. Hear members of the SF Tape Music Collective, along with guest composers, shape the sound live over a pristine surround system (24 high-end loudspeakers) with the audience seated in complete darkness. It's a unique opportunity to experience music forming, literally, around you.

This year's program features composers HORACIO VAGGIONE, FRANCISCO LÓPEZ, YASUNAO TONE (1935 - 2025), BARRY VERCOE (1937 - 2025), MONIQUE JEAN, ROBERT NORMANDEAU, and ELAINIE LILLIOS, among many others.

The local sound art community is also well-represented, with works by THOM BLUM, CLIFF CARUTHERS, NATHAN CORDER, Thomas Dimuzio, JAMES GOODE, Matt Ingalls, David Michalak, KRISTIN MILTNER, BARBARA NERNESS, Maggi Payne, STELLA SINGER, and DONALD SWEARINGEN (1950 - 2025) performed throughout the festival.  More...

Sat 1/10 7:30 PM Presidio Theater [99 Moraga Avenue San Francisco, CA]
Edward Simon Trio with Chris Potter & Del Sol String Quartet  More...

Sat 1/10 9:30 PM Victoria Theatre [2961 16th Street San Francisco]
The San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2026: The Bay Area's legendary annual event dedicated to the performance of audio works projected in three-dimensional space, The San Francisco Tape Music Festival features four distinct concerts of classic audio art and new "fixed media" compositions by local and international composers. Hear members of the SF Tape Music Collective, along with guest composers, shape the sound live over a pristine surround system (24 high-end loudspeakers) with the audience seated in complete darkness. It's a unique opportunity to experience music forming, literally, around you.

Saturday's 9:30 PM concert focuses on late-night-appropriate works that lean toward ambient and long-form sonic exploration, with works by ROBERT NORMANDEAU, STÉPHANE ROY, Thomas Dimuzio, MONIQUE JEAN, and NATHAN CORDER.  More...

Sun 1/11 7:00 PM Victoria Theatre [2961 16th Street San Francisco]
The San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2026: The Bay Area's legendary annual event dedicated to the performance of audio works projected in three-dimensional space, The San Francisco Tape Music Festival features four distinct concerts of classic audio art and new "fixed media" compositions by local and international composers. Hear members of the SF Tape Music Collective, along with guest composers, shape the sound live over a pristine surround system (24 high-end loudspeakers) with the audience seated in complete darkness. It's a unique opportunity to experience music forming, literally, around you.

The festival concludes on Sunday night with a major presentation BERNARD PARMEGIANI'S monumental 1984 masterpiece, "La Création du monde," which will be performed in its full, concert-length duration from a newly released four-track long version.  More...

Thu 1/15 8:00 PM Peacock Lounge [552 Haight St SF]
Flatways
The triumvirate Jordan Glenn, Sudhu Tewari and Matt Robidoux are virtuosi of the grim visage. Don't let them get away with it, come laugh and cheer and point at Flatways inside the Peacock Lounge!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DHL1OeBp3Ox/

Toussaint St. Negritude
Pairing the call of his poetry with the intuitive responses of the bass clarinet, Toussaint's Fabulous Fugitive Freedom Tour steams into SF. A cosmic spectacle of trans-dimensional journeys, all sights, ears, and souls are summoned to the poignant joys of our collective humanity.
www.toussaintstnegritude.com

Julia Mazawa
Always already collaborating, Julia Mazawa is an improviser, illustrator, sculptor and recordist who lives life with play and record buttons both mashed flat, raising timbres from etched slabs, laying and delaying their path from tonearm to circuit to soundspace. https://soundcloud.com/juliamazawa

Sung Kim
He extends the legacy of Bay Area composers Partch, Harrison, Oliveros by crafting original instruments like the "Ozukuri", "Trebuchet" and "Nuns Horn" the singular sounds of which really must be experienced in shared physical space to be believed.
https://www.instagram.com/sungkimwoodworkanddesign/  More...

Sat 1/17 7:30 PM Bird & Beckett Books and Records [653 Chenery St. SF]
Darren Johnston Quartet  More...

Sat 1/17 8:00 PM The Lab [2948 16th St SF]
Kara-Lis Coverdale + Theresa Wong  More...

Mon 1/19 7:30 PM Noe Valley Ministry [1021 Sanchez St, San Francisco]
Earplay - Concert 1  More...

Thu 1/22 8:00 PM Noisebridge Hackerspace [272 Capp St SF]
Resident Electronic Music! is a recurring electronic music open mic every fourth Thursday of the month at Noisebridge.

Do you make electronic music you'd like to perform? We want you!! First time performers welcome! Just make sure it's *your* music!

Sets are 20 min or less. Yes, 2 minutes is fine too.

Do you do visuals? We want you!!

The event is free, and donation is suggested!  More...

Wed 1/28 8:00 PM Ivy Room [860 San Pablo Ave Albany]
Amendola/Frith/Dimuzio/Goldberg/Ochs aka Strolling Gnomes
performing two sets for an intimate evening at Ivy Room  More...

Thu 1/29 7:30 PM Wyldflowr Arts [809 37th St Oakland]
Philip Gelb Residency — Day 1

Solo Shakuhachi & Buchla

Philip Gelb’s first solo shakuhachi performance in the Bay Area in over a decade, blending traditional and modern works with Buchla modular synthesizer.  More...

Fri 1/30 7:30 PM Bing Concert Hall [327 Lasuen St, Stanford, CA 94305]
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  
CCRMA at Bing: The Silence of the Amps | Concert 1

Young CCRMA trainee Cadence Starbing seeks help from the brilliant, sonically deranged Dr. Audible Lecturer to catch another serial sampler, "Buffer Bill," who strips his audio sources for a patch. Dr. Lecturer agrees to help only if Starbing shares personal details about her traumatic sonic past, creating a dark, psychoacoustic bond as she races against time to find Bill and save his latest multichannel audio capture—the composer's piece—all while confronting her own inner feedback loops and Lecturer's dangerous modulations.  More...

Fri 1/30 7:30 PM Wyldflowr Arts [Oakland]
Philip Gelb Residency — Day 2

Kra Pao

An improvisational ensemble exploring the dynamic interplay between modular synthesis and acoustic instruments, featuring an all-star lineup of creative musicians.  More...

Sat 1/31 7:30 PM Wyldflowr Arts [Oakland]
Philip Gelb Residency — Day 3

Pauline Oliveros Tribute

An all-star cast of Bay Area musicians honors the visionary composer and Deep Listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros.  More...

Sat 1/31 7:30 PM Bing Concert Hall [327 Lasuen St, Stanford, CA 94305]
CCRMA at Bing: The Silence of the Amps | Concert 2

Young CCRMA trainee Cadence Starbing seeks help from the brilliant, sonically deranged Dr. Audible Lecturer to catch another serial sampler, "Buffer Bill," who strips his audio sources for a patch. Dr. Lecturer agrees to help only if Starbing shares personal details about her traumatic sonic past, creating a dark, psychoacoustic bond as she races against time to find Bill and save his latest multichannel audio capture—the composer's piece—all while confronting her own inner feedback loops and Lecturer's dangerous modulations.  More...