Ensemble EKT / I Lo U

A rare treat from Europe, Ensemble EKT brings an unusual trio configuration of bari sax, bass, and custom electroacoustic sound sculpture to the confines of the Center. Opening will be a new trio, I Lo U, with Matt Ingalls on reeds, Scott R. Looney on piano and Hyperpiano DSP, and Ken Ueno on vocals, membranes, and devices.  More...

Friction Quartet with bass clarinetist Bruce Belton: October

Friction Quartet will be joined by bass clarinetist Bruce Belton at the Center for New Music for the Bay Area premieres of new quintets by Marc Mellits, Sebastián Tozzola, and Michael Torke.  More...

Brainwave Curious?

Research based soundscapes generated by brainwaves.

Join Joshua W Bruner for a unique meditative listening experience at C4NM where we’ll practice ambient listening techniques while drifting to soundscapes created with an Electroencephalophone (EEG) and various virtual instruments.

Research into how our brain processes sound suggests that music has a profound effect on brain function. Sonic techniques using pink noise, auditory beat stimulation, and nature sounds offer us inexpensive stress relief, improved sleep, sharper memory recall, and relief from pain and depression.

During this event we’ll learn about how we can use bioambient music to help shape our consciousness and improve our overall health and wellbeing. Sound has been guiding humans into meditative states since the beginning of our existence and continues to influence our past, present, and future self.

Joshua teaches classes at Anchor Meditation Studio in San Francisco with a focus on guiding listeners into relaxed states of being through the power of biologically timed sound frequencies, vibroacoustics, neurofeedback, and plant biofeedback.

www.flowerandfrequency.com  More...

FACE OF A STRANGER (1977), a restored feature film by San Francisco filmmaker and musician David Michalak. Tonight’s premiere will feature a newly recorded score by the internationally acclaimed pianist, Thollem McDonas. An exhibition of selected Film-Frame prints will be on view in the lobby and the show will open with a short set by Rova’s Bruce Ackley.

While famed director Nichols Ray worked on his "experimental" film with students at SUNY COLLEGE in Binghamtom, N.Y., local upstart David Michalak worked on his own feature, paying tribute to shadowy German expressionism, silent movies and the serials of the 1920s.

Not a word is spoken in this tale of a kind-hearted man who turns to cruelty when his lover dies an unexpected tragic death. His sanity is challenged further when he meets a woman bearing a strong resemblance to his deceased partner. Expression and gesture covey the story. Michalak shot the film on location at a restored turn of the century house, a rock quarry (The Devil's Punch Bowl) and in the lush forests of upstate New York with his film company Eye-Full Films.

James Russell Lowell’s review from the premiere at Roberson Museum in 1977 is, in part, quoted here, calling the film “remarkable....poetic and hypnotic...”

“David Michalak’s folkloric opus transports his audience into a world shared by UFA expressionists of the silent era yet it possesses a wonderful, uncanny immediacy – both poetic and hypnotic.”   
 
The film is full of nightmares, dreams and visions of a love lost and features glowing performances by Billie-Marie as both the haughty Otillia and servant Anna.
                       
“What a revelation it is to see an actress who truly, innately, comprehends the visual relevance of cinema!  She endows her face - her every gesture - with emblematic meaning, conveying an almost unearthly quality. Michalak’s camera, script and direction allow us to see her as the ultimate trusting soul; accepting one fate after another, finding empathy only in a dancing dream-clown, who all-too-briefly enchants her.”

The film also stars: David Gardner as Gunnar, Gerald Michalak as Jarl and Michael Butler as Hynek who dances.  More...

Jesse Perlstein & Shinya Sugimoto + Glenda Bates/OboeTronics

Jesse Perlstein (US) & Shinya Sugimoto (JP) combine haunting vocals, field recordings, piano etudes, oscillator drones and digital algorithmic noise to create minimal soundscapes that blossom into lush nostalgia-tinged requiems. The balance between ambience and harmonic vox/keys swells give these improvised performances a feeling of intention and composition that reflects the long-standing collaboration the two artists have shared. OboeTronics is an ongoing performance project featuring twenty-first century works for oboe and tape performed by oboe and English horn virtuoso, Glenda Bates. Composers Semegen, ter Veldhuis, and Khamda, provide vibrant electronic soundscapes with which the oboe dances, sings, and improvises.  More...

Neil Rolnick: Journey’s End, with pianist Kathleen Supové

Composer and laptop performer Neil Rolnick will perform a program of new work with pianist and New Music Diva Kathleen Supové. The concert will include the World Premiere of Journey's End, written for Ms Supové. It will also include the West Coast Premieres of Mirages, for piano and computer, and Messages for solo laptop.  More...

Kinda Green (Tim Perkis, Tom Djll) / Kim Nucci solo

Tim Perkis and Tom Djll, as Kinda Green, combine electronics and trumpet in softly unsettling ruminations on the meaning of smooth jazz. Kim Nucci opens with a probing solo electronics set.  More...

Kathleen Supové, Pianist: Rise Up, Take Flight

A concert of dramatic works and a call to action, featuring world premieres of "Steps" by Belinda Reynolds and "Road Trip Snapshots" by Dan Becker, plus works by Randall Woolf, Kathleen Supové, and John King.  More...

Ensemble PHASE performs recently-composed repertoires written for Korean traditional instruments.

Ensemble PHASE is a group of musicians with a long-time passion for experimental projects, creating and performing new repertoires through experimentation on Korean instruments with various musical materials and artistic forms.

Ensemble PHASE has been actively performing traditional and contemporary repertoires, collaborating with living composers and performers from diverse musical backgrounds. Also, in order to expand interest in writing for Korean instruments, Ensemble PHASE has given workshops and lectures for composers and students to better understand Korean music and instruments, in and out of Korea.
Since 2017, Ensemble PHASE’s projects have been sponsored by the City of Seoul, Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture, Art Council Korea, National Gugak Center, Korean Traditional Performing Arts Foundation and Studio Paju.

Daegeum: Kilyong Chae
Piri/Saengwhang: Minseop Song
Geomungo: Jeongmin Park
Haegeum: Jeonghyeon Joo
Gayageum: Nayeong Park

Scheduled Program
‘Karma (業)’ by Yesong Ra
‘Rare Bird’ by Benjamin Sabey
‘Suite for PHASE’ by Kilyong Chae
-and new work(s) from 2018-2019 season

* Programs are subject to change.  More...

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble

Free preview of new works concert before Left Coast travels to the Wunsch New Music Festival. Music by Melinda Wagner, Mei-Fang Lin, Jennifer Higdon, Kurt Rohde, Sheila Silver, and Christopher Stark.  More...

Wooden Fish Ensemble with Special Guest: Yuki Endo on Shinobue

The program includes, Shinobue solo (traditional or new music), Piano solo (new music by Hyo-Shin Na), Koto solo (new music by Hyo-shin Na), Japanese/Korean folk songs Koto and Shinbone and Koto and Piano duo

The Wooden Fish Ensemble presents concerts of music and musicians from a variety of cultural and national backgrounds working together in a collaborative way. The Ensemble has presented concerts of traditional music from Asia and new music by a diverse group of composers that includes John Cage, Christian Wolff, Frederic Rzewski, Morton Feldman, Hyo-shin Na, Boudewijn Buckinx and Walter Zimmermann. They have given numerous world premieres.  More...

“FutureJazz” (Edgetone EDT4171) is the latest work by drummer and electronic percussionist E. Doctor Smith (Brian Eno, Madonna, Facing East, Deep Energy Orchestra) and his seventh album on the Edgetone Records label. FutureJazz unites Smith with guitarist Peter McKibben (Savant Garde) and features flautist, Laura Austin Wiley (Resonance). Smith’s unique fusion approach with his Zendrum EXP MIDI percussion controller, combines with McKibben’s inspired guitar looping mastery and Wiley’s thoughtful flute playing to create music swirling between the sublime and the incendiary.  More...