V.L.P. (Vlatkovich, Liebig, and Powell) and the Ochs-Robinsonn Duo team up for a double bill of free improvised music at Center for New Music.

V.L.P.
While the band name V.L.P. may stir nebulous memory remnants of some progressive rock supergroup of a bygone era, it’s actually something of a creative jazz supergroup of this present era. V.L.P. stands for Vlatkovich, Liebig, and Powell, more completely trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, bass guitarist Steuart Liebig, and drummer-percussionist Garth Powell. What can be said about these three adept and distinguished artists? Each member of this aggregation is a veteran musician who has thoroughly demonstrated his aptitude for creative, spontaneous music-making, and this trio of heavy hitters, assembled with the idea of presenting some accomplished and adventurous improvised music, promises to bring it. – Alex Cline

Ochs-Robinsonn Duo
Larry Ochs, Tenor and Sopranino Saxophone / Don Robinson, Drums

Performing together in various ensembles since 1991, Ochs and Robinson performed for the first time as a duo in 2011 in their hometown San Francisco Bay Area. At each of the first two concerts, an enthusiastic recording engineer offered them free access to his studio in the following months. As a result, the duo recorded a CD’s worth of music over that summer, and that is now released as The Throne (in January 2015 on the CD label Not Two). That material comprises much of the music they performed on tour in 2013, their first year performing together (as a duo) outside San Francisco.

Although Ochs and Robinson have collaborated in various groups for more than 20 years – including in the trio What We Live with bassist Lisle Ellis – their duo is a recent phenomenon, having developed over the past couple of years. Ochs says: “Our playing together has evolved to a really special place, I think. We’re definitely coming out of the tradition of horn-drum duos from John Coltrane & Rashied Ali to Wadada Leo Smith & Billy Higgins, but we’ve found our own space after a long stretch of shows together. Our set will include new, original material, with some high-energy playing and things that are more spatial, as well as some homages to more popular music. In a sparse setting like this, the music hits a listener right away – nothing is obscured, everything is clear.  More...

The Black Cedar Trio brings their quest to create a new genre of chamber music for flute, cello, and guitar to the San Francisco Center for New Music. They will present three new works for their unique combination: “Tres Colores” by Chilean composer Javier Contreras, “In The Spring” by San Jose composer Andre Gueziec, and “Out of Nothing” by Minnesota composer Victoria Malawey, all commissioned by Black Cedar in 2018. San Francisco Classical Voice says, “Black Cedar forges a new repertoire with flair. They are not only willing but also quite capable of pursuing ‘a Path Less Trod.’ Audiences will be fortunate for the opportunity to hear live performances as these three musicians pave their own unique road.” With Kris Palmer on flute, Isaac Pastor-Chermak on cello, and Steven Lin on guitar, the Black Cedar Trio is the recipient of multiple grants from InterMusic SF and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.  More...

Center for New Music will host the June gathering for the All Ears Interfaith Sangha!

Join us in performing sound meditations and connecting with one another, ourselves, and with Spirit through creation and awareness of sound.

Celebrating love this month, we will perform Pauline Oliveros' Worldwide Tuning Meditation, and Heart Chant, and sonic meditations led by Andrew Jamieson (andrewbarnesjamieson.com) and Soyinka Rahim (https://www.bibolove.us) Our vocal and instrumental "orchestra" will also help expand our sound pallet, and lead us in Pauline Oliveros' Worldwide Tuning Meditation.

The All Ears Interfaith Sangha works to cultivate a spiritual community of musicians—with the understanding that anyone can be a musician, regardless of training, background, and profession, if they choose to interact with sound in critical and creative ways. Rather than attempting to create a space that is strictly neutral with respect to faith/nonfaith beliefs and traditions, we intend to celebrate any faith/secular traditions that are meaningful to participants, with an emphasis on healing, meditation, self-exploration and community-building. We strive to elevate traditions and voices that are marginalized in our unjust society, and do our best to challenge racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism and European secular/Christian cultural dominance, while acknowledging these as the context that surrounds our community and has shaped traditions and institutions of faith themselves, and believing that Spirit can transform us in spite of the presence of unjust forces.

Each month, we will gather to perform Sonic Meditations of Pauline Oliveros, alongside new sonic and meditative experiences. Afterwards, we will gather for a community meal, with space for both formal and informal conversation to discuss the experience of listening, and connect with fellow Sangha participants.

The All Ears Interfaith Sangha usually meets (in various locations) the first Sunday of every month at 5:30pm for about an hour, gathering for a meal around 6:30.  More...

Bay Area chamber group, Sleight Ensemble (Erika Oba – flute, Mia Bella D’Augelli – violin, and Jacob Lane – piano) perform their new program Angles of Time featuring new works inspired by alternate notations of time in music. The program includes Steve Parris’s new piece, The Inner Planets and The Apple Tree–inspired by the orbit of the planets–and premiers of works by ensemble members. The program will also feature live visuals by composer and artist Jessie Austin.  More...

Composers of electronic music are invited to bring a short piece to diffuse through the Center’s 6.1 Meyer system. If you want to participate, send an email in advance to curator Chris Brown cbmuse(at)gmail.com to confirm, and bring your digital sound file on a flash drive.

This workshop is part of EEP! … an (E)lectronic (E)nsemble (P)erformance Weekend

About EEP: Electronic music today is dominated by production, where musical flow is pre-recorded and we sing along slaved to its rhythm. Live electronic music survives mostly as a solo genre, since performers aren’t needed to produce every possible sound. But EEP! … music is a social practice! This weekend features electronic musicians who play live music together, because electronics allow us as artists to connect and converse musically in crazy and wonderful new ways. This mini-festival also celebrates the new multichannel sound system at C4NM generously provided by Meyer Sound, which is meant to encourage more electronic music at C4NM. Two free workshops (including this one!) precede the weekend shows to invite the community to participate in experiencing electronic music in our space.  More...

Amina Kirby and Jess Tambellini will demo instruments they invented and built that they will play in their set that opens EEP! on Friday evening, and discuss their strategies for making electronic music from scratch.

This workshop is part of EEP! … an (E)lectronic (E)nsemble (P)erformance Weekend

About EEP: Electronic music today is dominated by production, where musical flow is pre-recorded and we sing along slaved to its rhythm. Live electronic music survives mostly as a solo genre, since performers aren’t needed to produce every possible sound. But EEP! … music is a social practice! This weekend features electronic musicians who play live music together, because electronics allow us as artists to connect and converse musically in crazy and wonderful new ways. This mini-festival also celebrates the new multichannel sound system at C4NM generously provided by Meyer Sound, which is meant to encourage more electronic music at C4NM. Two free workshops (including this one!) precede the weekend shows to invite the community to participate in experiencing electronic music in our space.

***Image courtesy of Kevin Blechdom and Blevin Blectum, who will perform alongside Jess and Aminna on EEP! 6/14.  More...

Amina Kirby and Jess Tambellini, Handmade Electronic Instruments

Amina Kirby and Jess Tambellini are recent Master’s degree graduates at Mills College where they developed their skills as composers, performers and technicians. Their duet performance features exclusively handmade electronic instruments of their own design and assembly built during their attendance at Mills. The instruments utilize sequencing, audio feedback, radio and analog synthesis to create waves of tension and release throughout the performance.

Monopiece + Rodolfo Cordova

Monopiece is a trio consisting of Nathan Corder on Electronics, Matt Robidoux on Guitar and Tim Russell on Percussion, which formed at Mills College in the Fall of 2017. They represent three parallel lines, meeting at infinity, conceiving the singular. For every show, a traveler is invited to join in on this journey towards the infinite, unveiling new and exciting facets formed in improvisational performance. This performance will feature the vocalist Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron.

This performance is part of EEP! … an (E)lectronic (E)nsemble (P)erformance Weekend

About EEP: Electronic music today is dominated by production, where musical flow is pre-recorded and we sing along slaved to its rhythm. Live electronic music survives mostly as a solo genre, since performers aren’t needed to produce every possible sound. But EEP! … music is a social practice! This weekend features electronic musicians who play live music together, because electronics allow us as artists to connect and converse musically in crazy and wonderful new ways. This mini-festival also celebrates the new multichannel sound system at C4NM generously provided by Meyer Sound, which is meant to encourage more electronic music at C4NM. Two free workshops (6/11 & 6/12) precede the weekend shows to invite the community to participate in experiencing electronic music in our space.  More...

Sally Decker & Brendan Glasson

Using different means and methodologies, Brendan Glasson and Sally Decker are interested in static musical structures that reveal texture, movement, and physicality. Their collaboration will explore chaotic events within controlled environments. Brendan uses organs, electric pianos, and electronics to create slow, expansive forms. Sally primarily uses feedback systems in performance as a platform for negotiating the psychic space between control and non-control.

Blectum from Blechdom

Kevin Blechdom and Blevin Blectum will whisk you away to a psychedelic organic-electronic universe of sonic snauses and fractal mallards intertwined in a generative long-from game for the future. Monstrous walls of well-executed mega-structured sound and piles of visionary questing antics await you in this long-anticipated reunion show taking place in the city in which Blectum from Blechdom spawned in the glory wormhole days of 1998.

This performance is part of EEP! … an (E)lectronic (E)nsemble (P)erformance Weekend

About EEP: Electronic music today is dominated by production, where musical flow is pre-recorded and we sing along slaved to its rhythm. Live electronic music survives mostly as a solo genre, since performers aren’t needed to produce every possible sound. But EEP! … music is a social practice! This weekend features electronic musicians who play live music together, because electronics allow us as artists to connect and converse musically in crazy and wonderful new ways. This mini-festival also celebrates the new multichannel sound system at C4NM generously provided by Meyer Sound, which is meant to encourage more electronic music at C4NM. Two free workshops (6/11 & 6/12) precede the weekend shows to invite the community to participate in experiencing electronic music in our space.  More...

Feeney Chaplin Sumner Trio

Los Angeles-based Tim Feeney, Clay Chaplin, and David Sumner make ambient electroacoustic improvisation. They coax bass shakers, vibrating sheet metal, field recordings, synth tones, and tuning forks into evolving drones, disparate characters, and patient textures. Patient, but like a wall is patient.

The HUB – Computer Network Music

John Bischoff, Chris Brown, Matt Ingalls, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Tim Perkis and Phil Stone

Computer network music, as practiced by The HUB for more than three decades, is characterized by the sharing of digital information via a network, which is used to algorithmically influence the music played by each player in the group. This form of interaction provides the opportunity for composer/performers using computers to use the unique attributes of this instantaneous sharing to create new ensemble relations. The musical behavior that results when each performer individually creates their own realization of a data-sharing specification in a variety of computer music languages affords a rich and unpredictable environment. Emergent behaviors and inexplicable synchronicities abound, and are used to enhance a collaborative, and improvisational performance practice. Last year The HUB was awarded the 2018 GigaHertz Prize for lifetime achievement in electronic music by ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany.

This performance is part of EEP! … an (E)lectronic (E)nsemble (P)erformance Weekend

About EEP: Electronic music today is dominated by production, where musical flow is pre-recorded and we sing along slaved to its rhythm. Live electronic music survives mostly as a solo genre, since performers aren’t needed to produce every possible sound. But EEP! … music is a social practice! This weekend features electronic musicians who play live music together, because electronics allow us as artists to connect and converse musically in crazy and wonderful new ways. This mini-festival also celebrates the new multichannel sound system at C4NM generously provided by Meyer Sound, which is meant to encourage more electronic music at C4NM. Two free workshops (6/11 & 6/12) precede the weekend shows to invite the community to participate in experiencing electronic music in our space.  More...

Instrumentarium: C4NM Benefit
a fundraiser celebrating the Bay Area invented instrument community and the Window Gallery

5:30pm, reception hosted by the Board of Directors
-with new music from curators Bart Hopkin and David Samas
7pm, concert featuring Pamela Z and Donald Swearingen
-special guests Krys Bobrowski, Brenda Hutchinson, Karen Stackpole Trio

Join us for a celebration of the Bay Area invented instrument community and C4NM’s Window Gallery. 5:30-7pm, our Board of Directors will host a reception with new music by curators Bart Hopkin and David Samas. From 7-9pm Pamela Z and Donald Swearingen will perform alongside special guests Krys Bobrowski, Brenda Hutchinson, and the Karen Stackpole Trio. Proceeds from this special event will support C4NM’s Window Gallery, allowing us to continue presenting the most imaginative instrument inventors and artists crossing the boundaries between visual art, acoustic craftsmanship, and music.

Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist who makes solo works combining a wide range of vocal techniques with electronic processing, samples, gesture activated MIDI controllers, and video. She has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. Her work has been presented at venues and exhibitions including Bang on a Can (NY), the Japan Interlink Festival, Other Minds (SF), the Venice Biennale, and the Dakar Biennale. She’s created installations and has composed scores for dance, film, and chamber ensembles (including Kronos Quartet). Her awards include the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Artist Impact Award, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation residency, the Herb Alpert Award, and an Ars Electronica honorable mention, and the NEA/Japan-US Fellowship.

Donald Swearingen is an Oakland, California-based composer, performer, multimedia artist, and designer of interactive performance systems and installations. Classically trained, but with an ear to the radio, he gravitated to popular music in his teens and early twenties, working for 10 years in the Memphis music industry, both as a traveling performer, and recording artist at such legendary studios as Stax and Hi. Eventually, his work with studio electronics and synthesizers reoriented his focus, and he turned to the academic world where he pursued undergraduate studies in computer music, mathematics, electronics and physics, followed by advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science.
For the past 20 years, his work has revolved around the use of movement and gesture as the source of media control in an expanded, computer-assisted performance environment.

Krystyna Bobrowski is a sound artist, composer and musician. In addition to French horn she plays acoustic and electronic instruments of her own design. Her collection of original instruments includes bull kelp horns, prepared amplified rocking chairs, leaf speakers, Gliss Glass and the Sliding Speaker Instrument.

Through her work with large-scale experiments in socially based improvisations and interactions, Brenda Hutchinson has developed a body of work based on a perspective about interacting with the public and non-artists through personal, reciprocal engagement with listening and sounding. She has also been making sounds and singing into one end of a 9 1/2 foot Long Tube since 1990 and has developed a more bionic, electronically enhanced version of the Long Tube that she uses for both solo performance and to improvise with other musicians.

Karen Stackpole is a drummer/percussionist who specializes in gongs and metals in particular. She has a penchant for subtle sounds and experimental music, playing both solo and in collaboration with others. Over the years she has managed to amass a wide collection of traditional and exotic percussion instruments as well as an arsenal of found objects that she uses to create some truly unique soundscapes.

Bart Hopkin is maker of acoustic musical instruments and a student of musical instruments worldwide. From 1985 to 1999, he edited the quarterly journal Experimental Musical Instruments. The journal served as an essential resource and clearing house in an otherwise scattered but lively and growing field. During those year and in the years since, Bart has written over a dozen books on instruments and their construction. In recent years, Bart has focused more than ever on the making of one-of-a-kind musical instruments, assembling a collection of well over a hundred unique types. In his work as an instrument maker, Bart’s primary interest has been in exploring diverse acoustic systems. His Savart’s Wheel, a tuned, motor-driven scraper with a range of over two chromatic octaves, is one of the most irritating musical instruments ever devised.

GRAMMY wining vocalist David Samas is a polymath composer, conceptual artist, instrument inventor, curator, poet, painter, shaman and permacultualist native to San Francisco. The queer son of mixed immigrants, David holds a BFA in Conceptual Art from the SF Art Institute, and is a certified hypnotist, sound healer, wilderness first responder and Reiki master. He is director of Pet the Tiger, a Bay Area instrument inventors collective and curates the Window Gallery for invented Instruments at the Center for New Music SF. He is the founder and primary composer for of the Harmonic Series Gamelan.  More...

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...