Sunday, November 19, 2017

Center for New Music: December, 2017

The impact of the holiday schedule on this month’s events at the Center for New Music (C4NM) will continue into next month, when there seem to be more opportunities for holidays with each passing year. This site has already provided information about the sfSoundGroup performance, since December 2 is part of what may turn out to be the only busy weekend of the month. That leaves only four other concerts, which, for the most part, will take place during the first half of December.

C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, half a block north of the Golden Gate Theater, which is where Golden Gate Avenue meets Market Street. Not all of the events listed below will have the same price of admission, so that information will be provided with the description of each particular show. However, all tickets may be purchased in advance through a Vendini event page. Hyperlinks to the appropriate Web pages will be attached to each of the dates in the following summary:

Saturday, December 9, 7:30 p.m.: This will be a duo recital by cellist Alex Kelly and drummer PC Muñoz, both of whom supplement their instrument work with electronics. They will present a program entitled River, which they describe as “an evening of artfully re-imagined holiday season music, drawing from varying traditions and genres.” They also claim this will be a family-friendly program. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

[added 11/29, 1:25 p.m.:

Sunday, December 10, 4 p.m.: Rae Diamond, founder of the Long Tone Choir, will join forces with the Thingamajigs Performance Group, an ensemble of composers, who work co-creatively in a variety of media and with a wide array of local and international artists, to present a performance piece entitled Doorways. Diamond will supplement her vocal work by performing on found objects. The other performers will be Dylan Bolles (voice, flutes, stones), Keith Evans (performative projection, Musique concrète), Suki O’Kane (voice, percussion, electronics), and Edward Schocker (reeds, glass). General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.]

[added 12/6, 9:40 a.m.:

Monday, December 11, 8 p.m.: This will be a two-set evening. The first set will feature the release of PHASES, a new album by Steve Blum. These are all works for synthesizer based on the works of minimalist composers. Composition techniques such as repetitive structures and phase-shifting are extended by using the synthesizer for generative techniques and allowing for improvisation. The composers of the sources for Blum's pieces are Steve Reich, Morton Subotnick, Conlon Nancarrow, Kaitly Aurelia Smith, Aphex Twin, and others. Blum will be followed by the Guthrie Project, which is the duo of guitarist Matt Wrobel and saxophonist Beth Schenck, who also provides the compositions. Schenk has used this duo to develop her own approaches to minimalism. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.]

Wednesday, December 13, 8 p.m.: Jason Thorpe Buchanan will curate a performance by [Switch~ Ensemble], a new music group for which he serves as Artistic Director. The program will consist of solo and chamber ensemble works with electronics. Selections will include Fausto Romitelli’s “Domeniche alla periferia dell’impero” for amplified quartet, Tonia Ko’s “Tribute | Axis II” for violin and piano, Santiago Diez-Fischer’s “Loop’s Definition” for solo violin and electronics, and Elvira Garifzyanova’s “Aurora borealis” for solo flute and electronics. General admission will be $20 at the door but only $15 if purchased in advance through the above hyperlink on the date and time. There will be a $10 for both C4NM members and students.

The concert will be preceded at 2 p.m. by a workshop and reading session. This event will be free and open to the general public. Composers are invited to submit examples of their work for the reading session. The deadline is December 1; and a Web page with specifics for applying to submit a score has been created, which includes a hyperlink to a Google Forms application form. Those only interested in observing just have to show up that afternoon.

Friday, December 15, 7:30 p.m.: Dan Becker will curate a program entitled David Harrington & Friends. Harrington is both first violinist and founder of the Kronos Quartet, which may well have achieved the status as the most famous string quartet in the world. The evening will consist of part talk, part discussion (with the audience), part sampling of musical examples, part reminiscence, and part performance and master class. There will be participating guest performers, who have not yet been identified. The event will be preceded by a reception, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for both C4NM members and students.

Monday, December 18, 7:30 p.m.: This will be the other “holiday” program of the month. Keyboardist Andrew Jamieson is preparing a program entitled Holidays Deconstructed. He will both perform and direct music that deconstructs the dominant narrative of the holidays. In the spirit of Charles Ives, this will involve superimposing familiar songs in different keys and tempos, as well as performing some backwards or “inside out” (whatever that may mean)! General admission will be $15 with a $10 rate for C4NM members.

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