Sure, a short latte, or a couple humbows & a coke… Or, just about any couple weeks through this year, that or even less will get you into any of a slew of great concerts in the sfSound series. Beginning tomorrow (!), when you can hear Steve Reich’s Four Organs (1970), Giacinto Scelsi’s Kya (1959), Salvatore Sciarrino’s Muro d’orizzonte (1997), Tom Dambly performing Mauricio Kagel’s Atem (1970) for trumpet and tape, violist Alexa Beattie performing Alan Hilario’s kibô (1997), and a new collaboratively-created piece by sfSoundGroup, directed by Matt Ingalls.

The sfSound Group consists of a central core (currently David Bithell – trumpet; Kyle Bruckmann – oboe; George Cremaschi – bass; Matt Ingalls – clarinet; John Ingle – saxophone; Christopher Jones – piano, conductor; Monica Scott – cello; Erik Ulman – violin) augmented by a whole constellation of Bay-Area-and-beyond collaborators. Together they put on a stellar (constellation-stellar… cute, huh?) series of concerts; some upcoming shows include:

  • A sampling of theatrical compositions from the 1960’s San Francisco Tape Music Center by Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Robert Moran and others; plus Brian Ferneyhough’s In nomine a 3, Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Intercommunicazione, Chris Burns’s Double Negative, and the premiere of a new work written for sfSound by local composer Erik Ulman.
  • Toyoji Tomita Memorial Concert (wonderful trombonist and sfSound collaborator who died this year) – work(s) by John Cage, improvisations, and more.
  • Morton Feldman’s 80+ minute composition For John Cage (1982), performed by violinist Graeme Jennings and pianist Christopher Jones.
  • sfSound’s saxophonist John Ingle in a recital of new solo and ensemble compositions, improvisations, and a concerto by local composer Josh Levine; plus, NYC-based percussion duo Hunter-Gatherer (Russell Greenberg and Ian Antonio) perform the West Coast premiere of a new work by David Lang, David Bithell’s Whistle From Above for percussion and robotics, and Gérard Grisey’s Stele for 2 bass drums.

Details & dates for all these and many more are listed on their series webpage. So spend that pocket change where it counts…