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2023 concerts sunday january 8, 2023 7p sfsound: toshi ichiyanagi & wendy reid / heglin+louchard+perkis january 13-15, 2023 san francisco tape music festival 2023 @ victoria theatre sf sunday january 22, 2023 7p chris brown piano recital / mosswood improv group: r murray schafer sunday january 29, 2023 7p frances-marie uitti & luciano chessa sunday february 5, 2023 4p angela edwards (sharkiface) / xopher davidson (antimatter) sunday february 19, 2023 7p ahern+allen+benedict+casini+duff / ueno+mezzacappa+cooper+bruckmann++ sunday february 26, 2023 7p thomas dimuzio / moe staiano guided ensemble sunday march 19, 2023 7p william lang + anne rainwater / social stutter sunday march 26, 2023 7p dan flanagan's the bow and the brush :: view entire concert history here :: |
| SUNDAY JANUARY 8 2023 7pm $10-$25 |
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SFSOUND: TOSHI ICHIYANAGI & WENDY REID RON HEGLIN + RIC LOUCHARD + TIM PERKIS  
   
RON HEGLIN (low brass and voice) RIC LOUCHARD (piano) and TIM PERKIS (electronics) perform trio improvisations. SFSOUND members and friends perform WENDY REID'S ambient bird - mosswood (2022). Avant-garde composer TOSHI ICHIYANAGI is remembered with performances of his graphic scores Sapporo (1962) and Music For Electric Metronomes (1960). Pianist HADLEY MCCARROLL performs Ichiyaagi's Music for Piano No. 2 (1959) and In memory of John Cage (1993). M U S I C I A N S Lulu, african grey parrot Wendy Reid, violin Krys Bobrowski, glisglas Ron Heglin. tuba Brenda Hutchinson, long tube Aurora Josephson, voice David Samas, percussion Sam Weiser, violin Monica Scott, cello Kanoko Nishi-Smith, koto Lisa Mezzacappa, bass Hadley McCarroll, piano Brendan Lai-Tong, trombone John Ingle, saxophone Matt Ingalls, clarinet Diane Grubbe, flute Tom Djll, trumpet WENDY REID'S site-specific work ambient bird - mosswood is an interspecies sonic landscape which reflects a philosophy of connecting with all living creatures and the environment. The structure of this work can be described as a musical process which attempts to reflect nature’s manner of operations: sonic fragments of an African grey parrot become the cells of a spatially notated score to be interpreted and performed by the musicians within the ambient environment. Contextual in nature, the work allows performers to act according to unpredictable conditions and variables which arise within the musical continuity. In performance, an attempt is made at a spontaneous unforced growing of sound and silence in which emphasis is placed on formation rather than pre-established form, as in the building and shaping of cell-like units in living processes. The first incantation of ambient bird entitled ambient bird 433, pays homage to John Cage’s composition 4’33” (1952). Wendy Reid (Los Angeles, 1952) received degrees from Mills College (M.A.), the University of Southern California, School of Performing Arts (B.M.), and attended Stanford University, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Between 1975-77, she was a private pupil of Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Les Écoles D'Art Americaines at Fontainbleau. She also studied with Terry Riley, Robert Ashley, Halsey Stevens, James Hopkins and film composer David Raksin. Reid is producer of the new music series NEW MUSIC WITH BIRDS, FROGS AND OTHER CREATURES sponsored by the Natural Sciences Department of the Oakland Museum and the San Francisco Art Institute, and currently teaches music composition at Mills College and violin/ensemble/composition at Holy Names University PMD. TOSHI ICHIYANAGI (1933 – 2022) was a Japanese avant-garde composer and pianist. One of the leading composers in Japan during the postwar era, Ichiyanagi worked in a range of genres, composing Western-style operas and orchestral and chamber works, as well as compositions using traditional Japanese instruments. Ichiyanagi is known for incorporating avant-garde techniques into his works, such as chance music, extended technique, and nontraditional scoring. A former protégé of John Cage who was once married to Yoko Ono, he was part of a lively experimental music scene in New York and became a leading modern composer in Japan. sfSound's pianist HADLEY MCCARROLL is a well-known San Francisco Bay Area-based collaborative and solo pianist. She has performed in the United States, and internationally with, among others: Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in Paris and New York, the Festival del Sole in the Napa Valley, Composer’s Inc., Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and most recently in recital with KRONOS Quartet violist Hank Dutt in San Francisco. For the past fifteen years she has performed as the pianist of the cello/piano duo martha & monica. Hadley has also worked at the Royal Danish Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, West Edge Opera and as accompanist for the James Toland Vocal Arts International Competition for the past 6 years. Equally at home as a soloist, Hadley has given wide-ranging performances, including the Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and programs featuring Carter, Beethoven, Ligeti, Liszt and Schumann. She frequently premieres new piano works. Ms. McCarroll received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin. RON HEGLIN is a trombonist and vocalist working with extended technique on the trombone and with spoken and sung imaginary languages as a vocalist. His vocal music has been influenced by his study of North Indian vocal music. He works both compositionally and in an improvisational mode and is a member of the Bay Area music context as well as performing internationally. He is a founding member of the groups MUSIC FOR ALL OCCASIONS, ROTODOTI, and BRASSIOSAURUS, and has performed with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Leo Smith, Henry Brant, Logos Duo, Tim Perkis, John Bischoff, Tom Djll, and Toyoji Tomita. RIC LOUCHARD grew up in Palo Alto, California. From 1972 to 1976, Ric went to the University of Northern Colorado to study piano and composition. Ric ran out of money for school in 1976 so he returned to the Bay Area teaching piano and attending San Jose State University to study baroque performance on piano and harpsichord with Fernando Valenti and composition with Allen Strange. In the 1990s he released five CDs on the Music For Little People record label. The first, "G'Night Wolfgang, Classical Piano Solos for Bedtime" was a finalist for the "Indie" award for best classical release of 1990. He went on to record solo piano recordings "G'Morning Johann", "Hey Ludwig", "Ragtime Romp" (which won Oppenheim Toy Portfolio's 2002 Platinum Award for children's audio), and, playing harpsichord with recorder player David Barnett, "Winter Light". Ric has been performing house concerts around the bay area lately and just finished a CD of one of the programs he likes to perform: "Slouching Towards Individuation". TIM PERKIS is a well-known figure in the worlds of improvised and electronic music. He is also a founding member of several electronic music ensembles, including Fuzzy Bunny, Splendor Generator and the pioneering computer network band The Hub. Recordings of his music are available on the Artifact, Tzadik, New World and EMANEM labels, among others. His documentary film NOISY PEOPLE (2007) and NOISY PEOPLE podcast (2015) are available at noisy people.net and perkis.com. |
| SUNDAY JANUARY 13/14/15 2023 |
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THE SAN FRANCISCO TAPE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2023 
Victoria Theatre 2961 16th Street San Francisco click here for more info |
| SUNDAY JANUARY 22 2023 7pm $10-$25 |
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CHRIS BROWN THE MOSSWOOD IMPROVISERS GROUP 
CHRIS BROWN performs a set of 20th Century Solo Piano Pieces Arnold Schönberg - Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, op.19 (1911, 5 minutes)This piano set of short acoustic piano pieces asserts sonic connections between 20th century composers whose music is not normally associated with each other’s. Rather than emphasizing their differences in compositional style, it proposes links based on the intention of listening to the sound of the piano just for itself. I’m especially drawn to the opportunity to play this music on a Bösendorfer piano, since 20th century music was never permitted to be played on the Bösendorfer at UC Santa Cruz where I got my B.A., and it was strictly reserved for repertoire classical repertoire through the Romantic era. But Bösendorfer was always Cecil Taylor’s piano of choice, so it will be interesting to see how it responds to Feldman, Cowell, Crawford Seeger, and Brown! --C.B. THE MOSSWOOD IMPROVISERS GROUP performs R MURRAY SCHAFER'S graphic score, minimusic (1968) and a group improvisation. M U S I C I A N S Tim Perkis, electronics Eric Glick Rieman, keyboards Kjell Nordeson, percussion Matt Ingalls, clarinets Sarah Grace Graves, voice Tom Djll, trumpet Ben Davis, cello Kevin CK Lo, violin CHRIS BROWN, pianist, began his piano studies in 1958 in Manila, Philippines with Jan Deats, then studied in the early 1960s in Chicago with Claire Oppenheim, and from 1965-8 with Robert McDowell at the Chicago Musical College. In 1969-70 he received a scholarship for piano studies at the Hochschule für Music in Berlin. He attended the University of California/Santa Cruz from 1970 where he studied piano with Sylvia Jenkins and won the Santa Cruz County Young Artist Award that culminated in a performance of the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Santa Cruz Symphony. On the side, he got interested in music of the New York School, performing music by Cage, Feldman, and Wolff, and he was introduced byGordon Mumma to electroacoustic music in performing Cage’s multiple-piano, open form piece Winter Music. After finding Henry Cowell’s tone-cluster scores in the UCSC library he began performing Cowell’s music leading to a performance in 1974 at the Menlo Park Bicentennial Celebration of their native son Cowell’s intensely dissonant Tiger, which SF Chronicle music critic Alfred Frankenstein described as “Chris Brown made the typical Cowell thunder reverberate, with rolling motion from elbow to wrist over the keyboard.” At the same time he began exploring improvised music and jazz under the influence ofCecil Taylor’s pianism. His performances of Cowell’s most radical tone-cluster works at Hertz Hall in 1997 appeared on the CD New Music: Piano Compositions by Henry Cowell, New Albion Records . As a composer his own music became increasingly concerned with electronic and computer music, and his compositions and performances for piano solo and electronics between 1990 and 2020 are recorded on the double-CD Retrospectacles (f’oc’sle Records). His solo suite for piano in just intonation Six Primes (2014) is also available on New World records. |
| SUNDAY JANUARY 29 2023 7pm $10-$25 |
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FRANCES-MARIE UITTI LUCIANO CHESSA  
The world-renowned cellist FRANCES-MARIE UITTI permieres PIOMBO, a new composition for solo 2Bows Cello by LUCIANO CHESSA. Uitti and Chessa also perform QUEST[O] / Una meditazione (2022) for cello, piano and voices. FRANCES-MARIE UITTI composer/performer, pioneered a revolutionary dimension to the cello by transforming it for the first time into a polyphonic instrument capable of sustained chordal (two, three, and four-part) and intricate multivoiced writing. Using two bows in one hand, this invention permits contemporaneous cross accents, multiple timbres, contrasting 4-voiced dynamics, simultaneous legato vs articulated playing. György Kurtág, Luigi Nono, Giacinto Scelsi, Jonathan Harvey, Richard Barrett, Horatio Radulescu, Lisa Bielawa are among many who have used this technique in their works dedicated to her. LUCIANO CHESSA is a composer, conductor, audiovisual and performance artist, and music historian. His performance of "intensely visual scores" in a concert he curated for NYC's Roulette last December, has been named "gripping" by The New York Times' chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini. Chessa's compositions include Cromlech, a large organ piece he premiered in Melbourne’s Town Hall in May 2018 as part of a solo organ recital that received over 2,200 ticket bookings; the opera Cena oltranzista nel castelletto al lago—a work merging experimental theater with reality TV which required from the cast over 55 hours of fasting—and A Heavenly Act, an opera commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with original video by Kalup Linzy. Chessa has been commissioned multiple times by the Performa Biennial, and in 2014 he presented three events at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as part of the exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe. |
| SUNDAY FEBRUARY 5 2022 4pm $10-$25 |
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ANGELA EDWARDS (SHARKIFACE) XOPHER DAVIDSON (ANTIMATTER)  
ANGELA EDWARDS presents Invoke: Parte 2, an aleatory score in the form of a card game. The deck consists of 30 text and 10 visual cards. In this case, the conductor chooses cards for the players and determines the length of time each card is played. The specifics of the card and the order is left to fate. Players include: ALEXANDRA BUSCHMAN-ROMÁN, voice; MATT INGALLS, clarinets; KANOKO NISHI-SMITH, koto; BRAN(…)POS, electronics; and MITCH STAHLMANN, flute. Edwards also performs her electro-acoustic solo project, SHARKIFACE. XOPHER DAVIDSON performs a solo set of sound. ANGELA EDWARDS (SHARKIFACE) is a sampling siren and static-witch from Texas, who has been weaving incantations through experimental sound since 1999. Relocated from Austin, she's played in many Bay Area noise, experimental and electro-acoustic musical projects over the last 20+ years and founded LCM, Life Changing Ministry, a former noise venue housed in an old church in West Oakland. Sharkiface has toured the US, Europe and Japan and played festivals in many countries. XOPHER DAVIDSON’S work (ANTIMATTER) is an ongoing exploration into the material of sound. Exploring a multiverse of of sound worlds from subatomic drift to subharmonic long waves. He has performed as a member of Circular Firing Squad, Citizen Band, and 45/102. Collaborating with Zbigniew Karkowski he released the albums Function Generator, Khz, Divide by Zero, and Processor. He has released the solo albums: Transfixion, Antimatter vs. Antimatter, Our Lady of the Skies, Reset, and Lux Perpetua. |
| SUNDAY FEBRUARY 19 2022 7pm $10-$25 |
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ALLEN + DUFF + BENEDICT + AHERN + CASINI UENO + MEZZACAPPA + COOPER + BRUCKMANN + INGALLS 
Two vocal improv quintets making their public debut: The ALLEN-DUFF-BENEDICT-AHERN-CASINI Quintet is a collection of musicians engaging in free improvisation. The nucleus of the band is the long-standing collaboration between saxophonist Josh Allen and bassist Tim Duff. Allen, Duff, and Lorin Benedict have engaged in regular practice over the past several years and has performed in public within the Bay Area since 2020. With Steve Ahern and Dave Casini joining the trio, this particular quintet has benefited from regular playing sessions over the last many months. The unique grouping of bay area stalwarts KEN UENO, LISA MEZZACAPPA, CHRIS COOPER , KYLE BRUCKMANN, and MATT INGALLS has been arranged for this concert and will be the first time these musicians have performed together in this configuration. M U S I C I A N S KEN UENO - voice A recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize, KEN UENO is a composer/vocalist/sound artist who is currently a Professor at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor Chair in Music. Ensembles and performers who have played Ken’s music include Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky, Mayumi Miyata, Teodoro Anzellotti, Aki Takahashi, Wendy Richman, Greg Oakes, BMOP, Alarm Will Sound, Steve Schick and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Nieuw Ensemble, and Frances-Marie Uitti. His music has been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln Festival, the Muziekgebouw, Ars Musica, Warsaw Autumn, Other Minds, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, Steim, and at the Norfolk Music Festival. Ken’s piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, was featured in their repertoire for over ten years, with performances at such venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall in England, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and was aired on Italian national radio, RAI 3. Another work, Pharmakon, was performed dozens of times nationally by Eighth Blackbird during their 2001-2003 seasons. A portrait concert of Ken’s was featured on MaerzMusik in Berlin in 2011. In 2012, he was a featured artist on Other Minds 17. In 2014, Frances-Mairie Uitti and the Boston Modern Orchestra premiered his concerto for two-bow cello and orchestra, and Guerilla Opera premiered a run of his chamber opera, Gallo, to critical acclaim. He has performed as soloist in his vocal concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in New York and Boston, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Symphony, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and with orchestras in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and California. Ken holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. A monograph CD of three orchestral concertos was released on the Bmop/sound label. His bio appears in The Grove Dictionary of American Music. LISA MEZZACAPPA - bass Berkeley, CA-based composer and bassist LISA MEZZACAPPA has been part of California’s vibrant music community for nearly 20 years. Her activities as a composer and ensemble leader include ethereal chamber music, electro-acoustic works, avant-garde jazz, music for groups from duo to large ensemble, and collaborations with film, dance, and visual art. Recent projects include Cosmicomics, a suite for electro-acoustic jazz sextet based on Italo’s Calvino’s stories about the cosmos; Organelle, a chamber work for improvisers grounded in scientific processes; Glorious Ravage, a song cycle for large ensemble and films drawn from the writings of Victorian lady adventurers; and Touch Bass, a collaboration with choreographer Risa Jaroslow for three dancers and three bassists. She also co-leads the community improvisation ensemble, the duo B. Experimental Band, with drummer Jason Levis, and is creating the serial audio opera The Electronic Lover in collaboration with writer Beth Lisick. MATT INGALLS - clarinets Reviled for his "shapeless sonic tinkering" by the Los Angeles Times, Oakland musician MATT INGALLS is a composer, clarinetist, concert producer, and computer music programmer. Often incorporating elements of improvisation, his music is heavily influenced by his long involvement in computer music. His composerly solo improvisations explore extended clarinet techniques that interact with the acoustic space, often as combination tones. Matt is the founder and co-director of sfSound, a new music series, ensemble, and internet radio station devoted to new ideas and traditions of experimental music, performance art, live electronic music, Bay Area composition, and the various facets of contemporary improvisation. TIM DUFF - double bass TIM DUFF has a double bass. He is well known by a small number of people to produce acceptable sounds from that instrument when appropriate. CHRIS COOPER - electronics CHRIS COOPER often performs under the moniker ANGST HASE PFEFFER NASE, with frequent help from others. Live performances typically use prepared guitar and electronics as a portable lab to explore electroacoustic crevices with cartoon-like precision. Freed from the constraints of real time, recordings - released since the early 90s on labels such as Menlo Park, Ultra Eczema, and Senufo Editions - follow a more home-made musique concrete aesthetic. AHPN's “Slugwater” was one of only 571 pieces to be selected for inclusion in the exhibition Audiosfera, organized by Francisco Lopez at the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid, Spain. As a member of Bhob Rainey's improvising octet The BSC (also including Greg Kelley and Howie Stelzer), Cooper has collaborated with Pauline Oliveros, Andrea Neumann, and Axel Dorner. And let's not forget skewed rock-ish band Fat Worm of Error, fritzy-electronic trio White Limo, a nameless duo with Bill Nace, or the long-running Massachusetts-based improv trio Barn Owl (with Matt Weston). DAVE CASINI - vibraphone DAVE CASINI has been playing jazz in the Bay Area for 50 years. He released two albums of his compositions in 2019, is on CDs with Tribu, Octobop, as well as 9 videos at the Cadillac Hotel. While the pandemic has limited gigging, Dave is the vibist with Primavera Latin Jazz, Joel Dorham’s Latin Jazz Octet, Orion’s Joy of Jazz and drummer with the Bob Roden Quintet. Dave has played multiple performances at the SF Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, Yoshi’s and the Fillmore. KYLE BRUCKMANN - oboe Oboist KYLE BRUCKMANN tramples genre boundaries in widely ranging work as a composer/performer, educator and New Music specialist. His creative output – extending from conservatory-trained foundations into gray areas encompassing free jazz, post-punk rock, and the noise underground – can be heard on more than 100 recordings. Current ensemble affiliations include Splinter Reeds, SFCMP, Eco Ensemble, Quinteto Latino, and the Stockton Symphony; significant projects he has led or collaboratively founded include Degradient, EKG, Lozenge, and Wrack. He is Assistant Professor of Practice in Oboe and Contemporary Music at University of the Pacific. LORIN BENEDICT - voice LORIN BENEDICT is an improvising vocalist (scat singer, essentially) living in Emeryville, California. He has co-led small groups (duos, trios) in which the roles of the musicians are somewhat mutable even in contexts where highly structured forms are being played. Examples include Bleeding Vector with guitarist Eric Vogler, and another duo project with east bay saxophonist Kasey Knudsen. Together, these three musicians jointly lead the trio project, The Holly Martins. He has also co-led duo projects with drummer Sam Ospovat, vocalist Ron Heglin, and bassist Logan Kane. JOSH ALLEN - tenor saxophone JOSH ALLEN has created his own personal language on the tenor saxophone, with an emphasis on polytonal and asymmetrical phrasing, as well as extending the range and sonic ability of the instrument. He was born in Berkeley, California in 1972. Like many of today’s prominent musicians, Mr. Allen was a product of the Berkeley public school system, studying saxophone starting at the age of nine under Phil Hardymon. He went on to study with such prominent Bay Area musicians as Bill Aron, Joe Henderson, and Rory Snyder. With his focus squarely on jazz composition and performance, Mr. Allen moved to Southern California in the early nineties to study with Rick Helzer at San Diego State. He became active in the Latin Jazz community, and worked with various musicians such as Dennis Chambers, and Eddie Palmieri. Mr. Allen’s return to the Bay Area in the mid 90s to finish his Bachelors degree at Sonoma State. His association with saxophonist Marco Eneidi led to working relationships with musicians such as Glen Spearmann, Matthew Goodheart, Damon Smith, and eventually Cecil Taylor. STEVE AHERN - guitar STEVE AHERN has played the guitar for four decades. His earliest experiences with the instrument were in Texas, his state of origin. Upon moving to the Bay Area, he studied formally at Diablo Valley College before playing in a wide range of settings that led ultimately to a long-standing association with jazz tenor saxophone great, Vince Wallace. Most recently, he has explored open improvisation with saxophonist Josh Allen, bassist Tim Duff, and a host of other participants at the monthly Doors That Only Open in Silence session at the Temescal Arts Center. |
| SUNDAY FEBRUARY 26 2023 7pm $10-$25 |
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THOMAS DIMUZIO MOE STAIANO GUIDED ENSEMBLE  
THOMAS DIMUZIO presents a solo performance of electronic sounds. MOE STAIANO guides an ensemble of musicians in a composition written specially to be performed at Mosswood Chapel. Musicians will be distributed among its hallways and rooms surrounding the main performance space. The seated audience will experience the work acoustically "mixed and mastered" in real-time as the instrumentalists roam throughout the building. This will be the second performance of this composition. MOE STAIANO GUIDED ENSEMBLE Robin Walsh - Guitar Melne Murphy - Guitar Drew Wheeler - Guitar Jeff Hobbs - Cello Tim Duff - Upright Bass Naomi Johnson - Piano Jordan Glenn - Xylophone Moe Staiano - Percussion THOMAS DIMUZIO is a musician, composer, improviser, sound designer, mastering engineer, label proprietor, and music technologist residing in San Francisco, California. Dimuzio's music is like a sonic excursion transporting the listener to other worldly aural realms. “His work has a narrative, filmic tug that will draw you into its dark corners, ears alert… brilliant and rarely less than entertaining.” (Peter Marsh, BBC). His recordings have been released internationally by ReR Megacorp, Asphodel, RRRecords, No Fun Productions, Sonoris, Drone Records, Record Label Records, Odd Size, Seeland, and other independent labels. Among his collaborators are Chris Cutler, Dan Burke, Joseph Hammer, Alan Courtis, Nick Didkovsky, Due Process, Voice of Eye, Fred Frith, David Lee Myers, Alaric, ISIS, 5uu's, Scot Jenerik, Matmos, Wobbly and Negativland. Prepandemic performances include AngelicA Festival Internazionale di Musica, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, CCRMA at Stanford, Recombinant Media Labs Buchla Memorial, and Ende Tymes Festival of Experimental Art and Liberation. Dimuzio hosted and produced Frequency Modulation Radio featuring live on-air performances of sonic practitioners exploring the fringes of music and broadcast on KPFA-FM Berkeley. MOE STAIANO is a musician and composer of new music works and angular rock music. Since 1995, he has been at the forefront of the Bay Area improvisation scene, playing drums and percussion through innovative solo shows that can feature prepared drum kit, found objects, audio looping and the inventive use of a "percussion guitar." All this is woven in with a performance art aspect that gets the audience involved and wondering what might happen next. He will play (or smash into pieces) just about anything he can get his hands on, and somehow make a compelling musical statement out of it. Moe's compositional work has included music for large ensembles, a piece for two bass clarinets, and a work for percussion quartet. He has also conducted aleatoric improvisatory ensembles, using a glossary of handcues as well as composed sections cued in the moment. As conductor and composer for the Moe Staiano Ensemble, (formerly Moekestra!), he has composed pieces that can include over 30 musicians playing instruments ranging from violins, clarinets and cellos to drum kits, wine glasses, sirens, oscillators and electric guitars. Moe Staiano Ensemble performances are high-energy, electrifying experiences that create unique and intriguing soundscapes. Moe is currently the leader and frontman for Surplus 1980, a post-punk band that continually evolves its percussive, no-wave progressive musical exploration. Surplus 1980 features Moe's bracing guitar and wry wordplay and a wide palette of timbres from the multi-instrumentalist members of the group. They have released three albums, 2011's "Relapse In Response," 2014's mini-album "Arterial Ends Here," and 2019's "Pigeon Obstacle Course." Additionally, Surplus 1980 appears on one side of the shared 7" record, "International Static Split," with Dutch band King Champion Sounds. They have a forthcoming album in the works for 2022 and a single with G.W. Sok. In 2018, a collaboration with vocalist G.W. Sok (Formerly with The Ex) led to the creation of a 14-piece expanded version of the band--the Surplus 1980 Collectiv Ensembl. This unique group recorded "Forget All This," an album featuring Sok's poetry set to Moe's music, which was released in 2019. Later that year, the group, including Sok, brought this album to the stage in full for a pair of shows in the San Francisco Bay Area. From 1999-2004, Moe was a percussionist for metal progsters Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (and appeared occasionally for live guest performances afterward). He appears on their albums "Grand Opening And Closing," and "Of Natural History," as well as the "Live" album. He played and recorded with San Jose collective Vacuum Tree Head (also doing percussion first, then as drummer) from 1996 to the early 2000's. In 2006 he formed Mute Socialite, an angular no-wavish punk band, in which Moe played drums (and occasional guitar), along with second drummer Shayna Dunkelman, and guitarist Ava Mendoza. They released one album, "More Popular Than Presidents And Generals." Over the years, Moe has worked with a veritable who's-who of the Bay Area creative music scene, including Gabby Fluke-Mogul, Fred Frith, Ron Anderson (the Molecules, RonRuins, PAK), Tom Nunn, Vacuum Tree Head, Thollem McDonas, Z'ev, Amy X Neuburg, Ava Mendoza, Nurse With Wound, David Slusser, Karen Stackpole, Ches Smith, Michael Evans (God Is My Co-Pilot), Caroline Kraabel & John Edwards (Shock Exchange), Gino Robair, William Hooker, Tom Dimuzio and has performed with all these plus Henry Kaiser, Mark Growden's Electric Pinata, Amy Denio, Jordan Glenn, Telepathic Birds, Feona Lee Jones, Jon Raskin (ROVA), Cheer-Accident and has performed in the sfSoundGroup, Rova::Orkestrova, Terrie Hessels (the Ex), Rhys Chatham (A Secret Rose for 100 guitars) among others. |
| SUNDAY MARCH 19 2023 7pm $10-$25 |
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WILLIAM LANG + ANNE RAINWATER SOCIAL STUTTER 
WILLIAM LANG and ANNE RAINWATER perform two recently-commissioned works: local composer Anne Hege's boom boom terror, boom boom bliss, and Brooklyn-based composer Scott Wollschleger's between breath, premiered last spring. In addition, they will present compositions by Arvo Pärt, Jeremy Howard Beck, and others. SOCIAL STUTTER, a saxophone quartet led by composer/altoist BETH SCHENCK, blurs the line between strictly written chamber music and soaring free jazz. Solos emerge from the natural order of intricately written lines that, although begin simply in structure, twist and distort themselves into surprisingly complex shapes and forms. Unlike traditional saxophone quartets, some of the pieces are composed for two altos and two tenors, which leads itself to denser harmonic territory and a uniquely homogenous sound. Masters of texture and nuance, the quartet has a keen awareness of how to support and push one another's creative boundaries. Social Stutter is comprised of some of the Bay Area's most unique voices: KASEY KNUDSEN, PHILLIP GREENLIEF, CORY WRIGHT and BETH SCHENCK. The LANG/RAINWATER PROJECT is a duo partnership established over ten years ago while both members were studying at Manhattan School of Music’s groundbreaking Contemporary Performance Program. While both trombonist William Lang and pianist Anne Rainwater specialize in contemporary music, they also perform a wide range of classical literature, from Bach and Schumann to young composers such as Alex Temple and Quinn Mason. The Lang/Rainwater Project’s mission is to expand the trombone-piano repertoire by working with diverse and distinct voices of contemporary music. In addition to canonical trombone and piano works and transcriptions of classics, the Lang/Rainwater Project maintains an active commissioning portfolio dedicated to championing traditionally underrepresented composers. They regularly promote these composers’ new works in concerts at universities and conservatories and encourage students and teachers to perform them as well. The Lang/Rainwater Project has performed across the United States, from tours of the South to performances on both coasts to residencies in the Northeast, with an upcoming, 4-university residency and commissioning project in the Philadelphia area later this March. ANNE RAINWATER has released 2 solo albums – J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (2018) and Anywhere But Here (2020), featuring electronic keyboard works by Jude Traxler. She is a 2019 recipient of an InterMusic SF Grant. Anne is working on her first book, which explores the internal and external ecosystems that contribute to the understanding, practicing, and performing of music. When not at the piano or writing, she is running long distances, reading, or obsessively watching baseball. WILLIAM LANG has recorded for projects such as his groundbreaking ensemble loadbang to international acts such as David Bryne and St. Vincent, as well as for Philip Glass. He is an active champion of the art of solo trombone, and works he has commissioned have been warmly reviewed by the The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and several European publications. When not practicing the trombone, he can be found rock climbing, spending time with his family, or obsessively watching basketball. |
| SUNDAY MARCH 26 2023 7pm $10-$25 |
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DAN FLANAGAN The Bow and the Brush    
 
The Bow and the Brush Created by violinist/composer DAN FLANAGAN, The Bow and the Brush integrates the visual arts with new music. Dan is joined by cellist VICKY EHRLICH, trombonist BRUCE CRISP, and violinist GABRIELLE WUNSCH to perform new works by Libby Larsen, Nathaniel Stookey, Linda Marcel Marcel, Shinji Eshima, Jacques Desjardins, Cindy Cox, Maija Hynninen, Jose Gonzalez Granero, Edmund Campion, Emily Onderdonk, Peter Josheff, Evan Price, Michael Panther and Dan Flanagan. All compositions will be Oakland premieres and will be performed with projected images of the paintings and sculptures that inspire them. Violinists TAMMIE DYER and JULIE KIM will join Flanagan in a premiere of a new trio by Eric Schwartz. DAN FLANAGAN has built a multifaceted career as a soloist and orchestral musician, performing concertos with orchestras in California and recitals throughout the United States and Europe. Flanagan currently serves as Concertmaster of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, Concertmaster of West Edge Opera, and Instructor of Violin at University of California, Berkeley. Described as “an excellent violinist” (New York Concert Reviews), the 2022-23 season includes solo recitals in New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Sacramento, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Rome, Perugia, London, Bordeaux, and Paris. His program, The Bow and the Brush, includes 23 newly composed solo violin pieces inspired by paintings and sculptures. Several of these compositions can be seen on his Youtube channel (recommended by KDFC, The Strad, and SF Classical Voice) and heard on his album, The Bow and the Brush, which will be released by MSR Classics in early 2023. He will perform the program at Carnegie Hall in the 2023-24 season. A dedicated orchestral player, Flanagan has performed as concertmaster with the Oakland Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, California Symphony, California Musical Theater, Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, Symphony San Jose, Modesto Symphony, Opera Parallèle, Merced Symphony and Symphony Napa Valley. He performs regularly with the San Francisco Opera and Ballet and records film, video game, and television soundtracks with the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra. Active in the Bay Area since 1989, BRUCE CRISP is presently principal trombone of the Santa Rosa Symphony, Marin Symphony, Vallejo Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, Carmel Bach Festival, and Fresno Philharmonic orchestras, and is a member of the Opera San Jose orchestra. Additionally, Chrisp performs regularly with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, and the San Diego Symphony. He is in demand as a recording artist and records frequently at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. A founding member of the San Francisco Brass Company, a brass quintet based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chrisp also enjoys performing renaissance and baroque works on a replica of an instrument made in Nuremberg in 1595. Violinist TAMMIE DYER holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University, an M.M. from Rice University, and a B.M. From the University of Utah. She has studied with many of the great artists of our time, including Philip Setzer, Dorothy DeLay, Pamela Frank, Soovin Kim, Kathleen Winkler, members of the Cleveland String Quartet, and the Emerson String Quartet. She has also attended the Tanglewood, Aspen, Sarasota, Eastern, and Marrowstone music festivals. Tammie enjoys playing a variety of musical styles, and is passionate about sharing the transformative experience of live music. An active chamber musician, Tammie performs regularly throughout the Bay Area, with such groups as the Hidden Valley String Orchestra in Carmel, on the Opus Series in Mendocino, and the Bellarosa String Quartet. She is a member of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, Principal Second of the Mendocino Music Festival Orchestra, and performs with Santa Rosa Symphony and San Francisco Opera. VICKY EHRLICH (cello) studied at Southern Methodist University, the Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her teachers included Robert Marsh, Bernard Greenhouse, and Robert Gardner. Prior to joining the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in 1984, she played with the Santa Fe Opera, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and was principal cellist with the Symphonies of Omaha, Richmond and Phoenix. Ms. Ehrlich has performed with the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Symphony, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Composers Inc., Berkeley Symphony, the Russian Chamber Orchestra, and Lamplighters. She is also an active chamber musician, performing regularly with the Ariel Quartet, resident ensemble of the Sacramento Chamber Music Society; the Bridge Players, who specialize in music by Jewish and Holocaust composers; the Picasso Ensemble, who present concerts in the historic Senon House in Aptos; the International Orange Piano Quartet; and the Fath Chamber Players, a fixture in Mill Valley. JULIE KIM started playing the violin at the age of 6 and received her Bachelor of Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She began her string quartet career with the acclaimed Franciscan String Quartet in 1982. The quartet was awarded the Wardwell Fellowship at Yale University to study with the Tokyo String Quartet and won First Prize at the prestigious Banff International String Quartet competition. They were also awarded the Press Prize and the City of Evian Prize at the Evian International String Quartet competition. The quartet went on to become the Resident String Quartet at Dartmouth College and toured throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. She has participated in the Aspen, Norfolk and Banff Music Festivals and pursued chamber music studies with the Tokyo, Julliard, Cleveland, Emerson and Vermeer String Quartets. Ms. Kim performs extensively with the San Francisco Opera, Ballet, Opera Center and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. GABRIELLE WUNSCH enjoys a varied and active performance schedule in the United States and in Europe. A Carmel Bach Festival musician since 2004, she has performed chamber and solo programs at the Utrecht, Barcelona, and Göttingen festivals, and was a prize winner in the 2010 Premio Bonporti International Baroque Violin Competition held in Rovereto, Italy. She plays regularly with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, which toured this spring through North America, playing at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, Place des Arts in Montreal, and the Walt Disney Hall, among others. She is a member of Voices of Music, and can be found on many of its videos online. In Europe she continues to play with B’Rock and Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, and has been a member of the Festival Orchestra at Göttingen Händel-Festspiele for ten years. On her modern violin she regularly performs with the Santa Rosa, Marin, Fresno, and Monterey Symphonies. Gabrielle holds performance degrees from Eastman School of Music (BM) and SUNY Stony Brook (MM), as well as in baroque violin from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (BM and MM). Major teachers include Pamela Frank and Mitchell Stern for modern violin; Enrico Gatti, Lucy van Dael, Elizabeth Wallfisch, and Manfredo Kraemer for baroque violin. |
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BOOKING Our focus is on the bay area experimental and new music community, hopefully encouraging crossover among sub-scenes (composition and improvisation; established and emerging; institutional and underground; etc.) We strongly suggest local musicians attend concerts before requesting to perform on the series. Visting artists aritsts are also welcome, ideally splitting a concert with local musicians. There is a "hall-like" reverberation in the space, so until we have a better feel for the limits of the space, we are only programming mostly acoustic performances, but we will also consider lightly amplified electronics. 50% of ticket sales is given to the performers. If you are interested in performing on the series, please send an email to series@sfsound.org. |
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