Blog – Page 3 – Center for New Music

Aeolian Day: Celebrate the Sound of the Wind

In partnership with Thingamajigs. Presenting Bay Area instrument inventors’ collaborations with a force of nature, Aeolian Day is a recurring festival in Oakland, CA, mounted by Thingamajigs. Aeolian Day exhibits solo works and installations created with local OUSD schoolchildren. The event fosters the creative interplay of art, music, and science through innovative sound sculptures. […]

Animal Magnetism: Tape Music of the 2020s

Join us on October 18 at 6pm for a discussion of this menagerie of instruments, compositions, and other audio experiments that explore the myriad musical uses of magnetic tape in the 21st century. Watch the broadcast: A menagerie of instruments, compositions, and other audio experiments that explore the myriad musical uses of magnetic tape […]

Sound Pieces by Norman Tuck

The Center for New Music hosted a reception for the exhibit featuring a performance by Richard Marriott and a discussion between gallery curator Bart Hopkin and Norman Tuck About Sound Pieces Sound is created by vibration. In the works chosen for exhibition at the Center for New Music listening as the various pieces vibrate […]

Mirror of Light by Marielle V. Jakobsons

Mirror of Light (2021) It is said that water has the ability to hold our collective memory, a comfort in knowing our connection to each other is already within us. After a year of pandemic lockdown prohibiting access to shared spaces and restricting our physical locations and interactions, it forces us to look with a […]

MAP SCORES by Phillip Greenlief

YERBA BUENA for solo saxophone – commissioned by SOMArts gallery, SF (2018) History of MAP SCORES i began creating MAP SCORES for the 2+2 project with jon raskin in 2005 and have since created numerous works for solo and ensembles. these piece feel like the some of the first works where i was striking […]

The Innate by Alan Tower and Hans Houkes

About the Innate “We wanted to create a new instrument based on the Huaca above, a three-chambered vessel flute invented by Sharon Rowell in Berkeley,1980. As musicians, we worked for five years to crack the code for creating a timeless chordal wind instrument that would call anyone to play from the inside out by requiring […]

Synths in Place by Kirk Pearson with Dogbotic Labs

The Gallery: The Discussion: About the Show In March 2020, two weeks after the COVID-19 lockdown, Berkeley-based audio laboratory Dogbotic teamed up with Oakland nonprofit Thingamajigs to produce “Synth In Place,” a socially-distant beginner’s workshop on the joys of DIY electronics. Designed with absolute beginners in mind, the nine-week curriculum teaches participants the […]

Tonal Relativity: Studies by Alyce Santoro

Alyce Santoro will be discussing her work with David Samas on 4/8 at 5pm on YouTube Live. The gallery will be open on 3/28 and 4/11 from 11am until 2pm. Reservations are required. Showings will be 20 minutes and only for small groups and individuals. Please contact annemarie@centerfornewmusic.com for information and booking. […]

sounding flow by Doga Buse Cavdir

Event banner image for Doga Cavdir show at the C4NM Window Gallery

This exhibit is experienced best with headphones. Doga Cavdir discussed the work with Window Gallery curator Bart Hopkin on 3/18/21 YouTube Live. Introduction Doga Cavdir on sounding flow: I design gestural interfaces and movement-based musical performances to create an intermediate medium between physical interfaces and the musician’s body. My work explores the correspondences between […]

Tonal Access III: The Array Fields of Bill Wesley

Line drawings of tonal arrays by Bill Wesley

The Array Bill’s focus has always been on creating new ideas. Realizing the limitations of the 12 tone (Halberstradt) keyboard, Bill wanted to access more octaves and other intervals (4ths, 5ths, 3rd,s, etc.) more ergonomically and came upon adapting the mbira (African finger piano) to play several octaves stacked up to be played with […]