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Preparing for take off

Gentle Gazzetta Readers,

Almost as if to make up for how land-locked I have been over the past summer and spring, I will be taking to the skies for a good part of the fall season ahead. Yes, I will be installing myself in “the cloud” for many a tightly confined hour – making terrestrial stops for activities as nearby as Seattle WA and as far away as Düsseldorf Germany, as well as lots of East Coast activity in New York, Virginia, and Florida, with a little Indiana stop on the way. But before I get started on this heavy touring jag, I have work showing locally and somewhat simultaneously as part of two unrelated dance pieces for which I have composed music. Scroll (or hyperly jump) down if you’re anxious for event details.

Crazy Busy in San Francisco
Members of the Bay Area portion of my list can attest to how busy my last few months have been in San Francisco. Their email in-boxes might be a little sore from all the SF-centric gig notices I’ve been sending out. I presented four concerts on the ROOM series, performed in the annual Garden of Memory Summer Solstice event, created and performed two world premiere solo pieces, and mounted a sound and video installation – all within the past three months. Acqua, the work I premiered on MEDIATE Art Group’s Soundwave Festival, was a nice milestone for me because it afforded me the opportunity to play through the Exploratorium’s beautiful, 100-speaker Meyer Constellation sound system in the Kanbar Forum. It was quite a thrill to diffuse my live and sampled water and voice sounds thoughout that space! It made me want to make more multichannel sound works, and I hope for the possibility to do so in the near future.

As I write this, I’m coming to the end of a ridiculously packed week. After fifteen years (!) I am still one of the organizers of the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (SFEMF), which just unfolded in four nights of amazing concerts this week. Also, I have composed music for not one but two dance works that both started their performance runs this past week. Mary Armentrout Dance Theater’s new beautiful, whimsical, and deep work was only this weekend (and done by the time you read this), but Jo Kreiter and Flyaway Productions’ new piece runs twice a day for two weekends, so those of you in the area still have plenty of chances to attend that one.

New Work and More New Work
The Flyaway piece, titled Multiple Mary Invisible Jane, is an aerial dance work about aging homeless women, and my score uses text samples of the voices of several Bay Area women who have struggled or are still struggling with homelessness. Jo has her dancers flying off of an 80-foot wall in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district for this piece, which features her “apparatus-based” choreography and my original music. The 30-minute recorded score weaves together the homeless women’s speaking voices, my singing voice, electronic processing, and sampled sounds, with string and reed parts (deftly performed in my studio by the likes of Theresa Wong, Adria Otte, and Beth Custer.) The bits of the dance I saw during rehearsal last week were exciting. I actually didn’t get to attend any of the opening week performances due to the crazy schedule mentioned above, but I’m looking forward to seeing the finished work this coming week.

I’ve been making new work like a fiend in recent months. In addition to the dance scores I created, and two new solo multi-media performance works (Acqua for the Soundwave festival and La Reproduction Interdite for SOMArts’ 35th anniversary event), I also created a new interactive video and sound installation called La Reproduction (after Magritte) which was shown in a shared exhibition called “Projected Personae” this summer at SOMArts. The work, which involves projections on two tall hanging screens, and sound delivered through a Brown Innovations Sound Dome, explores confusion around reflected images by inserting the viewer into the piece in the manner of an unexpected mirror or reflective window pane. That work, along with my Suitcase (from Baggage Allowance) were shown alongside multiple artists’ works in the month-long exhibition.

Making Time to See and Hear...
With all the feverish art-making this past season, I haven’t been going out to see other artists’ work nearly as much as I’m usually accustomed to doing. Still, I have tried to make time to get out of my studio, take walks through my increasingly unrecognizable city, and get myself to some of the (thankfully still plentiful) performances, exhibitions, and screenings that the Bay Area has to offer. I did manage to catch several good things, including a wonderful evening at Milkbar featuring an engaging performance by Evelyn Ficarra, and a strange and clever little film by Rajendra Serber. I also enjoyed some very nice sfSound Group concerts at the SF Conservatory and Old First, where they performed works by the likes of John Zorn, Terry Riley, and Stockhausen. I was able to catch a small performance by the inimitable Dohee Lee, a handful of lovely concerts at the Center for New Music, and a delightful, site specific Russian River Opera by Hugh Livingston. And, as one of its organizers, I was of course afforded the opportunity to attend all of the evenings of the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, which have been remarkably good this year – featuring great touring artists like :zoviet*france: from the UK , as well as some of our own shining locals like Xo Xihn. As I write this, I’m still coming down from the excitement of the final evening (with Nic Collins, Ezra Buchla, and Julia Mazawa). All four evenings were stellar, and made for a very satisfying cap for our first fifteen years!


View of the disappearing "ghost bridge" from the new eastern span bike path.

Recharge and Go Again
As I catch my breath from this crazy period, I must already begin work on the next set of upcoming projects I have planned. (Completed composing deadlines always seem to get replaced by new and upcoming composing deadlines!) I need to start work writing a song for Amy X Neuburg, which she will perform with the Paul Dresher Ensemble in December, on a Cal Performances concert featuring photo-inspired songs commissioned from 10 different composers. And, I will also begin work on a collaborative multi-media chamber work about bridges called Span, in collaboration with video artist Carole Kim. In preparation for this work, I recently took a bicycle trip along the pedestrian path of the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. I did the ride with my friend, video artist Jeanne Finley, and we photographed the gradually disappearing “ghost bridge” – as I like to call the retired cantilever section of the bridge that is currently being dismantled. We both got a lot of great still and video shots of the old bridge and the busy activity on the bay.

I’m gearing up for all the touring I have scheduled for the fall. As I look at the next few months of my calendar, it seems a bit daunting, but I must say that I’m looking forward to getting out and about again after so much stationary, albeit insanely busy time spent here in San Francisco. Read on for details of my numerous upcoming on-the-road engagements!

Love,

PZ

FLAX on Market Street: another San Francisco institution about to disappear

Jeanne Finley & PZ w/Bridge

Luciano Chessa and Sarah Cahill play the ROOM Series

Donald Swearingen glimpses his reflection at SOMArts

Pamela Z performing
La Reproduction Interdit at SOMArts

Mary Armentrout's Installation in Artaud Lobby

Ronald Chase and Pamela Z take a coffee at Universal

Sarah Davachi looking timeless with her analog synth at SFEMF

Evelyn Ficara performing a very delightful (and just) piece at MilkBar

Adria Otte in iso booth at PZ's Studio

Wobbly plays the ROOM Series

David Dunn's beautiful box of circuitry at SFEMF

Ben Tinker, Luciano Chessa, Tom Duff, Nic Collins, Elisabeth Beaird of SFEMF

sfSound Group takes a bow
at Old First

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