sfSoundSeries: September 13, 2003

Saturday, September 13, 2003, 8 pm
Community Music Center San Francisco
544 Capp Street (between 20th and 21st in the Mission)
admission $0-$5

BLOCK brings together accomplished local ensembles Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet, the sfSoundGroup, and Zeek Sheck's Town's People for a rare meeting in a full-length work that explores the intersections between electronic and classical music. Funded by the American Composers Forum's Subito Grant for new composers, BLOCK establishes common ground between the three disparate groups based in the San Francisco DIY tradition. The three-part work encompasses theater, fairy tales, science fiction, and new compositions by the three ensembles, each of which will create a plot akin to a neighborhood block of curious origin, reflecting singular and communal takes on the ebb and flow of (not-so) everyday life.

program:

Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet
In "BLOCK" the Krankenkabinet will enact a storybook narrative based on 'The Maiden Without Hands' by the Brothers Grimm. Falling somewhere in between the pioneering works of David Tudor's live electronics and Walt Disney's haunted mansion, Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet will utilize electronics, tape, homemade instruments, props, scenery, and costumes in an adaptation of the civic lessons put forth by the Brothers Grimm.

sfSoundGroup
Made up of the Bay Area's foremost composer-performers, the sfSoundGroup will present a new work composed by musical director Matt Ingalls that draws from classical, electronic, and computer music. The sfSoundGroup's "BLOCK," scored for wind, brass, string, and percussion, meshes the timbres, textures, and dynamics of electronic music with acoustic instruments and draws on the sfSoundGroup members' strengths as classical musicians, improvisers, and composers of 21st-century acoustic noise for orchestra.

sfSoundGroup musicians for this event include Diane Grubbe (piccolo), Matt Ingalls (Bb and bass clarinets), Jacob Lindsay (Ab piccolo and contrabass clarinets), John Ingle (alto and bari saxophones), Dan Plonsey (soprano and bari saxophones), David Bithell (trumpet), Tom Yoder (trombone), Ron Heglin (tuba), Garth Powell (percussion), Tom Djll (trumpet), Toyoji Tomita (trombone), John Shiurba (electric guitar), David Ryther (violin), Jorge Boehringer (viola), and Eli Crews (contrabass).

Zeek Sheck TOWN'S PEOPLE
The Town's People will hold a "BLOCK" ceremony commemorating the slaves that died in the battle between the Care Company and the hole-boring machine team of revolutionaries and miners. This incorporates a "radio room" of 30 radios and transceivers, a horn section, computer, homebuilt electronics, an dmany noisemakers. The story line includes a breakdown of the technology that once made the Care Company the center of the world, and a specially designed set of robotic characters.