Calendar

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 art of creative electrical engineering, the cultural significance of electronic audio, and how to blend DIY music with students’ pre-existing creative practices. After building a variety of theremins, talkboxes, stepped tone generators, sequencers, and vactrols, students have the opportunity to design, engineer, and fabricate an instrument entirely of their own creation—several of which you’ll see in front of you. [More]

The Center for New Music and the Paul Dresher Ensemble co-host an online Zoom event with the cast and creators of The Electronic Lover, a new podcast opera by Bay Area composer Lisa Mezzacappa and New York writer Beth Lisick, on Saturday, February 27 at 7pm PST. The free event celebrates the release of the opera’s second episode on March 1. [More]

Ensemble for These Times continues its 2020/21 home season with a timely program about women’s prophetic voices, “The Cassandra Project,”* a program of works inspired by the famed priestess in Greek mythology who was cursed to utter true prophecies that were never believed. E4TT’s annual commissions program, the concert will feature four World Premieres by composers Hannah Lash ("Wild Sage" for piano trio), Jessica Rudman ("Cassandra, or Don't Girls Love Horses?" for soprano, cello, and piano to a new libretto by Kendra Preston Leonard, with projected visuals), Valerie Liu ("The Cassandra Effect" for cello and piano), and E4TT co-founder David Garner ("Die gefluesterte Zukunft" ("The Whispered Future"), a music video by videographer Benoit LaCasse for soprano and piano trio) plus "Moerae" ("The Fates") for piano trio by Armenian-American Mary Kouyoumadjian. Pre-concert composer talk at 7 p.m. [More]