event highlights | news travels goings-on | event details | past gazzetti | pamelaz.com

An Autumn of Travel and Very Fine Art

Gentle Gazzetta Readers,

I’m returning to San Francisco after about forty days (and forty nights) of travel. It’s been a lovely (if slightly fatiguing) journey with stops in Indiana, New York, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, and Germany! I kept very busy in all of those places – giving performances, talks, seeing and hearing loads of art, visiting family and friends, writing, rehearsing, and making recordings. And now, to make the best of a three-hour (and counting) flight delay, I’m sitting in Denver International Airport writing to you.

Crazy Busy Fall
I’ve had an extremely active and productive Fall since the previous Gazzetta. I went to New York to participate in Elastic City’s conceptual art walks festival, and I played a gig on the Wayward Music Series in Seattle. I completed a commissioned score for Jo Kreiter and Flyaway Productions’ aerial dancework Multiple Mary Invisible Jane, made a sound collage/remix for Mary Armentrout’s latest dance/installation work, and composed a song for Amy X Neuburg and the Paul Dresher Ensemble’s current project, They Will Have Been So Beautiful.

My song for Amy – inspired by a Donald Swearingen photograph of the now defunct “17 Reasons” sign that once graced the corner of 17th and Mission Streets in San Francisco – will premiere at Cal Performances December 5th and 6th along with works by 9 other composers commissioned by Amy & the Dresher Ensemble. Scroll (or jump) down if you’re chomping at the bit to learn the details of that concert or any of my other upcoming events.

In addition to my very full calendar of composing, performing and collaborations, I’ve received some interesting press. Most notably, I was written up in a Huffington Post article with the headline: “14 Artists Who are Transforming the Future of Opera”. I was surprised and flattered to find myself at the top of that list, and in such good company as interactive media artist Toni Dove, composer/performer Bora Yoon, and avant-opera singer Julianna Snapper.

Connecting with Colleagues
One of the perks of my constant traveling is the opportunity to meet and catch up with friends and colleagues across the globe. I had the pleasure of a brief hang with Stephen Vitiello during my stay in Richmond, VA, and I spent some time with Robin Cox and Stephanie Nugent in Indiana. I connected with all the usual suspects in New York (including Miya Masaoka, with whom I shared a concert at Spectrum, Toni Dove, Dan Joseph, Larry Simon, and a number of other NYC pals) and I spent time with Juraj Kojs in Miami.

In Germany, I finally got to meet Mischa Kuball at KHM in Cologne, and got to see their “KlangLabor” electronic music lab, and I was delighted to see 2014 SFEMF alum Joker Nies, who attended my performance/talk and then joined us for a meal after. In Düsseldorf, I re-connected with Hauschka (Volker Bertelmann), who organizes the Approximation Festival. The festival was excellent and quite broad in scope, and I had a great time attending all the events after my concert. I had to miss Phill Niblock’s concert – the festival opener – because I was still in Cologne that night giving a performance/talk at KHM.

Nourishing Art!
It’s always important to me to take in as much performance and visual art as possible whenever I travel, and this trip was no exception. I made it a point to see Pina Bausch Tanztheater performing the 1978 masterpiece Kontakthof at BAM in New York. (Truth be told, I pretty much built the East Coast leg of my tour around that event.) I also saw great shows at MoMA, El Museo del Barrio, and the Jewish Museum, which had a wonderful Lee Krasner/Norman Lewis exhibition. And I went to a Christie’s pre-auction show and looked at an overwhelming number of iconic works while rubbing elbows with prospective buyers. I was amused to overhear more than one couple discussing whether or not a certain Calder or Rauschenberg would go nicely above their couch.

I was thrilled to attend a new production of Stockhausen’s Originale at the Kitchen – a work I once performed with Zakros New Music Theater at Theater Artaud in San Francisco back in 1990. My role (“the Street Singer”) was performed by Nick Hallett in this production, and the “Action Painter” was portrayed beautifully by Joan Jonas.

In Miami, I had the honor of staying with Juraj Kojs and his charming partner–gallerist Harold Golen in their spectacularly decorated home filled with art deco furnishings and pop-surrealist art. I visited Harold’s gallery and had a nice walk through the Wynwood arts district.

When I got to Düsseldorf, I spent my nights attending every concert of the Approximation Festival and spent my days visiting museums and galleries. The Kunsthalle Düsseldorf was adjacent to the venue where I performed, and I also took a nice long walk to see the Katharina Grosse exhibition at the Museum Kunstpalast. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they also have some amazing works in their permanent collection in another wing. I saw installations by Nam Jun Paik, Joseph Beuys, and Laurie Anderson, to name a few.

And Düsseldorf loves Kraftwerk. They are held in very high esteem there, and I got a kick out of seeing Kraftwerk books, T-shirts, boxed sets, and other paraphenalia on sale in their fine arts museum gift stores. I nearly purchased a Krafwerk T at the Kunsthalle gift shop, but it was a bit pricey and (fortunately) too small.

In the course of my lengthy travels, I stopped back in San Francisco twice for just a day and a half and, while there, I managed to see Dohee Lee's epic Mago performance at YBCA. It had some magical moments, and included a stellar design crew including Adria Otte, Donald Swearingen, David Szlasa, and José María Francos. I also ingested some very memorable Bay Area work during the period immediately preceding my trip. This year's Day of the Dead exhibition at SOMArts was quite rich, and I'll never forget Vessels of Improvisation – a stunning ensemble performance by ROVA Saxophone Quartet and Inkboat on board a docked ship at Hyde Street Pier. And in October, while I was in Seattle briefly, I took in a beautiful Ann Hamilton exhibition at Henry Art Gallery. Experiencing work like this makes me feel nourished and inspired.

Pina Bausch Tanztheater curtain call at BAM Next Wave Festival

Recording in Boulder
The last leg of my extensive journey was originally intended as a Thanksgiving week visit with my family in Colorado, but it wound up becoming another semi-working trip. Violinist Lina Bahn, who is currently on the string faculty at CU Boulder, is working on a new recording project and expressed interest in including a violin transcription of my “Four Movements for Violoncello and Delays”, a work that was originally commissioned by the Saint Luke’s Chamber Orchestra in 2003 for their principal cellist. Naturally, I was happy to spend the last part of my Colorado visit in Boulder working with Lina on the piece. We rehearsed and recorded it in Grusin Hall (on the very stage where I gave my senior recital back in the Pleistocene Era when I was doing my music degree at Boulder!) She plans to release it on an album that will also contain works by the likes of John Drumheller, Ken Ueno, and others.


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

And now, I’m back home in San Francisco, finishing up this little letter to you, and gearing up for my next flurry of activities – including a duo performance with the inimitable Shinichi Iova-Koga at the Center for New Music. And, I must get started composing the music for Span, my upcoming collaboration with video artist Carole Kim. Read on for all the deets!

Love to you all,

Pamela

Dana Iova-Koga and Dohee Lee in Vessels of Improvisation

PZ with Karen Finley after Karen's Elastic City walk

Jo Kreiter's dancers on an 80' Wall

PZ with Stephen Vitiello in Richmond

Elena María Bey's Day of the Dead Installation at SOMArts

Joan Jonas as the "Action Painter" in Stockhausen's Originale

PZ flanked by Harold and Juraj

Nam Jun Paik video installation at Düsseldorf Kunstpalast

A Street named for Bueys in Düsseldorf

PZ with Mischa Kuball at Salon des Amateurs, D'dorf

KlangLabor at KHM in Cologne

I walked past these two every day that I was in Düsseldorf

Lina Bahn & PZ in CU Boulder's
Grusin Hall

gazzetta | event highlights | news travels goings-on | event details | past gazzetti | pamelaz.com

upcoming event details: