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event highlights: March 14 , 2012 Meridian Music Series Pamela Z solo concert at Meridian Gallery San Francisco, CA USA March 30 , 2012 room: Low Reed ROOM Series features woodwinds of the low end persuasion (w/Pamela Z) San Francisco, CA USA April 11, 2012 Music @ Noon Series Pamela Z solo concert at Santa Clara University Santa Clara, CA USA April 13, 2012 New Music Festival in Pittsburgh. PA Pamela Z solo performance at Kelly Strayhorn Theater Pittsburgh, PA USA April 21 , 2012 SF Live Arts Series Pamela Z in a Shared Concert with "Open Box" San Francisco, CA USA May 12 , 2012 Rova: Art of Improv Pamela Z joins ROVA and others in an Improv evening at ODC San Francisco, CA USA May 17, 2012 Pamela Z's Memory Trace opening Pamela Z's installation opens at ARC Gallery's Project Space San Francisco, CA USA May 19, 2012 Pamela Z at TED Conference Pamela Z gives a short performance at the upcoming TEDx coference at Stanford. More details to come. Stanford, CA USA

Still from Pamela Z's Memory Trace

gazzetta | event highlights | news travels goings-on | event details | past gazzetti | pamelaz.com Construction, Contemporary Music, & Concerts

Gentle Readers, A quarter of a year spins by incredibly quickly, does it not? Here I am again, with a full slate of activities to report to you and an exciting list of upcoming events to invite you to.... Winter 2011-12 was (and continues to be) eventful! In a nutshell: I spent most of January and the first part of February at home working very hard on a major studio improvement and working out a live arrangement for my version of Meredith Monk’s Scared Song. Then I resumed my travels for performances in New York and Savannah, Georgia. Now I’m back in San Francisco for an intense month of local contemporary music events including major festivals and premieres to attend, and two quickly approaching live performances of my own. Read on... New Recording Booth The studio improvement of which I spoke is a brand new isolation booth for recording–built under a loft in my space. As you may know, for many years I’ve lived and worked in an artist building which is essentially a concrete warehouse in San Francisco’s North-East Mission Industrial Zone. As a result, I frequently have to wait till the middle of the night to record, in order to avoid unwanted sounds invading my tracks. So, recently, I did some thorough research on the details of how to best achieve true isolation, and then how to treat the inside of a space to make it acoustically neutral. I sought advice from many of my esteemed sound-engineering-savvy colleagues including Norman Rutherford who maintains a studio across the way at Project Artaud (and to whom I’m particularly grateful for the immense amount of time and and care he put into helping and advising me), as well as the illustrious Gregory Kuhn who’s done sound for every Bay Area contemporary music ensemble and festival you can name, Paul Geluso of Harvestworks in NY, Marco D’Ambrosio of MarCoCo, Terri Winston of Women’s Audio Mission, and Steve Horowitz. They all had varying opinions about some of the details, but I was able to glean a lot of uber-valuable information and basic principles about which they all agreed. I created a small floating room within a room with double walls that don’t touch, built on a pentagonal footprint with no parallel sides. I used double layers of sheetrock inside and out (with loads of a goopy substance called "green glue" sandwiched in between), and fiberglass insulation in the cavity between the two sets of walls. I ran cable for mics and headphones through the walls, plus RCA, USB, VGA, and every other kind of connector I could think of – trying to “future-proof” it before I sealed everything, and I finished it all with inner and outer solid wood doors – each with a half inch thick laminated glass window. Then, I did a lot of work to acoustically treat the inside of the booth. It was quite a laborious project, but I’m thrilled with the results and looking forward to making my first recordings in it! New York CD Release Event As soon as I neared completion on the recording booth, I had to clear away all the dust and get myself set up to do some work on my Mereidith Monk piece. Late last year, I arranged and recorded a track for “Monk Mix”, a new double CD of remixes and interpretations of works from throughout Meredith’s long, distinguished career. I chose to do Scared Song, and created a layered studio arrangement of it for the CD. Then, I was asked to come to New York to perform the piece in the CD release concert. So I had to figure out how to perform my version of it live. I went off to New York at the end of February and performed in the concert on February 19th at Joe’s Pub along with several other artists on the record including Don Byron, DJ Spooky (who curated & executive produced the record), and Theo Bleckmann. Meredith was on hand to banter with the MC in between performers, and joined us all on stage at the end to dance up a celebratory storm to the mixes of DJ Rehka. It was a fun and musically diverse evening, and the CD itself is even better. I am in very good company with 24 other excellent artists including Björk, Caetano Veloso, Lukas Ligeti, and Vijay Iyer, to name just a few, and I highly recommend purchasing a copy (or download) of it. Concerts and Related Exhibitions After NY, I came home briefly to give a performance at SF State in connection with an exhibition called smARTspace that is still running in the Fine Arts Gallery. After my solo concert in Knuth Hall, I went over to see the exhibition. I was floored by Jim Campbell’s beautiful, expansive installation with his signature low-res “video” made of floating incandescent bulbs. Then, I went to Savannah, GA to perform a solo concert at the Telfair Museum in their Pulse Arts Festival of Art & Technology. There’s a really nice exhibition in their contemporary galleries including an extensive Leo Villareal show. His work with LEDs draws to mind Dan Flavin’s fluorescent pieces and Jim Campbell’s incandescent bulb works. One work called “Field” was like an enormous, softly pulsing canvas. Bay Area Flooded by Contemporary Music Now that I’m back in San Francisco, I’ve completely fallen into a bottomless abysss of local contemporary music activity in the month of March. Between Other Minds, SF Symphony’s American Mavericks, sfSound’s Cage-tribute concert, the Lou Harrison documentary premiere, and my own performances at Meridian Gallery and my ROOM Series, this month is enough to make any contemporary music enthusiast’s head swim. I, for one, plan to just jump in the deep end and keep immersed throughout the month, only coming up for air in those brief moments between concerts. And, of course, for those of us who survive March, there’s the Switchboard New Music Marathon on April 1st! I attended all three of the Other Minds Festival concerts this past weekend, accompanied by my good friend, San Diego new music presenter Bonnie Wright, who will no doubt be blogging extensively about the events in “So Forth”, her online journal. The programming was stellar and really delightful. The very next night, I attended a magical concert with Jaap Blonk and sfSound Group doing improvisations and John Cage works at the Community Music Center. Jaap did a fantastic palindromic version of Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonata in which he performed one movement half-way through and then reversed it – singing it back to the beginning in an effort to “erase” his performance. Priceless! Tuesday, I plan to go Eva Soltes’ Castro Cinema premiere of her Lou Harrison documentary. (Terry Riley will be rising up in the pit playing the Castro pipe organ to intro the film!). And next week, I’ll be attending most of the SF Symphony’s American Mavericks concerts – including what promises to be a remarkable evening featuring Joan LaBarbara, Meredith Monk, and Jessye Norman, all singing works of John Cage! PZ Events Amidst all this Bay Area contemporary music activity, I actually have two local performances myself. I’ll be giving a solo concert on March 14th as part of the Meridian Music Series. I’ll be doing works for voice, electronics, and video. Some of my signature pieces will be included, along with new works and works in progress, and I’ll probably include my Meredith Monk “cover tune” somewhere in the evening. I hope to see you there! Then, at the end of the month (on March 30), my ROOM Series has its first event of the season, “Low Reed”. This concert will feature some illustrious musicians of the bass woodwind persuasion (Jon Raskin of ROVA on bari sax, the Bay Area’s bass clarinet duo Sqwonk, and SoCal’s bass clarinetist Marty Walker). All three of these bass reed entities will play alone and in duet with me or each other, and then all of us will come together in an improvised finale for low reeds and voice & electronics. Once I get through all this March activity, I’ll need to get to work completing my media installation Memory Trace, which will debut at Arc Gallery’s project space in May. Keep scrolling and reading on for details of those and all my other upcoming events in the Bay Area and elsewhere... Baci, PZ

PZ performing Scared Song at Meredith Monk CD release in NY Recording Booth skeleton Every cable I could think of View through the booth's outer & inner doors. PZ and Meredith Monk at Joe's Pub NYC. PZ and Meredith dancing to Rehka's mix More dancing and celebrating A drainpipe with a fish spout in Savannah. Savannah's beautiful Historic District Jim Campbell's tilted plane at SF State Fine Art Gallery. Leo Villareal large "painting" of light.   Obey Giant sighting in a Savannah alley. Bonnie Wright blogging in my studio. PZ performing Memory Trace excerpt.

Photos by: Pamela Z, Beverly Brooks, Elise de Jong, SFSU Fine Arts, Villareal, Ahmad Hamad

upcoming details: gazzetta | event highlights | news travels goings-on | event details | past gazzetti | pamelaz.com Meridian Music Series Solo Concert at Meridian Gallery Meridian Gallery 535 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA, USA Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 7:30 pm Pamela Z performs new and old works for voice, electronics, and video as part of Meridian Music Series at Meridian Gallery at 7:30 pm in San Francisco, CA USA top ROOM Series: Low Reed The 2012 Room Series opens with a Concert featuring reeds of the bass persuasion. Royce Gallery 2901 Mariposa Street #18, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA Friday, March 30, 2012, 8 pm Pamela Z Productions presents ROOM: Low Reed, an evening of new music for bass clarinets, baritone sax, and other low reeds (combined with a little voice & electronics). at The Royce Gallery in San Francisco, CA In the first event of its 2012 season, Pamela Z Productions presents ROOM: Low Reed Marty Walker (bass clarinet) Jon Raskin (baritone saxophone) Sqwonk (bass clarinets) Pamela Z (vox & electronics) Each will do a solo set and/or duo with Pamela Z, and then Pamela will join all of them in an ensemble finale. Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa Street #18, San Francisco, CA   top Music @ Noon Santa Clara University Music Recital Hall Santa Clara, CA, USA Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 12:00 pm Pamela Z will give a solo concert for voice, electronics, and video as part of the Music @ Noon Series at Santal Clara Univiersity Music Recital Hall at 12pm in Santa Clara, CA USA top   New Music Festival in Pittsburgh, PA Kelly Strayhorn Theater Pittsburgh, PA, USA Friday, April 13, 2012, 10:30 pm Pamela Z performs a solo set of works for voice and electronics. top San Francisco Live Arts Series Shared Concert at SF Live Arts at Cyprian’s, 2097 Turk Street, San Francisco, CA Wednesday, April 21, 2012, 8:00pm Pamela Z will share a concert with "Open Box" (Jon Raskin, Carla Harryman, John Shiurba, Gino Robair, Ava Mendoza, Aurora Josephson, Roham Sheikhani) as part of SF Live Arts at St Cyprians in San Francisco, CA USA SF Live Arts at Cyprian’s, 2097 Turk Street, San Francisco, CA top ROVA: Art of Improv Collaborative, improvisational concert at ODC Theater 3153 17th Street, San Francisco, CA, USA Saturday, May 12, 2012 Pamela Z performs on voice and electronics in collaboration with ROVA Quartet, Ikue Mori, and Gino Robair as part of ROVA: Art of Improv at ODC Theater in San Francisco, CA USA ROVA: Art of Improv, ODC Dance Commons, Studio B 351 Shotwell Street SF CA 94110 top Pamela Z installation: Memory Trace Arc Studios & Gallery Project Gallery 1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 Opening: Thursday, May 17, 2012 6-9pm Exhibition run: Thursday May 17- June 2, 2012 Pamela Z's Memory Trace will be an interactive media installation work involving multiple channels of video and audio. The projected video – populated by moving, full body images, faces, and abstract material – will form an ensemble delivering a collage of stories and interwoven memory fragments. The installation will respond to the presence of a viewer with changes in content, sonic texture, and visual attributes. "I can still remember the time in the early nineteen nineties when I first purchased memory. I delighted in the fact that I could hold it in my hand: a thin, green wafer etched with a lattice of metal lines. And I quickly noticed parallels between the computer’s memory and my own. Prone to anthropomorphism, I continue to compare and often confuse the two. I am interested in exploring how humans and computers store memory. How do they “misplace” information and how do they lose it entirely? How can we differentiate between dreams, “real” and “manufactured” memories? How do certain sounds and aromas trigger very old memories?" -Pamela Z top   gazzetta | event highlights | news travels goings-on | event details | past gazzetti | pamelaz.com Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist whose solo works combine a wide range of vocal techniques with electronic processing, samples, video, and gesture activated MIDI controllers. Ms. Z has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. Her work has been presented at venues and exhibitions including Bang on a Can (NY), the Japan Interlink Festival, Other Minds (SF), the Venice Biennale, and the Dakar Biennale. She's created installation works and composed scores for dance, film, and new music chamber ensembles. Her numerous awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Fund, the CalArts Alpert Award, the ASCAP Award, an Ars Electronica honorable mention and the NEA/JUSFC Fellowship. www.pamelaz.com Pamela Z Productions is fiscally sponsored by Circuit Network. If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution to Pamela Z Productions, you can make a donation via PayPal: or you can write a check to Circuit Network with "Pamela Z Productions" in the notation and send it to: Circuit Network, 499 Alabama Street, Suite 203, San Francisco, CA 94110 gazzetta | event highlights | news travels goings-on | event details | past gazzetti | pamelaz.com