Calendar
QL performs León’s De Memorias
Pulitzer Prize winning composer Tania León’s De Memorias is an important standard in contemporary wind quintet repertoire. Quinteto Latino is excited to take it on! 
We’ll also perform Ronaldo Miranda’s tuneful Variações Sérias, Júlio Medaglia’s exquisite Belle Epoque en Sud-America and a suite of tangos by Gerardo Matos Rodriguez and Astor Piazzolla including his fiery masterpiece Libertango.
San José Chamber Music Society
Saturday, May 17, 2025
7pm
St. Frances Episcopal Church
1205 Pine Avenue
San José, CA
Tickets: $12 – $52
Purchase here
The Marriage of Figaro
Pocket Opera presents Mozart’s brilliant comedy continuing the story of Figaro, the famous barber of Seville.
Friday, February 21, 2025
7:30pm
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
500 Castro Street
Mountain View
Sunday, February 23, 2025
2pm
Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley
Sunday, March 2, 2025
2pm
Gunn Theatre
Legion of Honor
100 34th Avenue
San Francisco
Tickets and more information here.
Mundanas & Oakland Reductionist Orchestra
Sunday, February 16, 2025
8pm
$17 adv / $20 door / free or discounted for members
The Lab
2948 16th St
San Francisco
Intangible & Oakland Reductionist Orchestra
Intangible, (Gamin on Korean reed instruments, tenor saxophonist Robert Reigle, bassist Jeff Schwartz, and percussionist Tim Feeney) is a new ensemble. Its members have toured and recorded internationally, testing the potential and limitations of experimental music as a means of cross-cultural collaboration, and examinations of the terms “folk,” “Western,” and “world.” The ensemble’s name reflects gamin’s esteemed status as a bearer of an intangible cultural asset and the group’s dedication to exploring complex acoustic phenomena and the mysterious essence of successful improvisation.
The concert also features the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra, a supergroup of local musicians with a predilection for lowercase/fricative/reductionist acoustic improvisation that often sounds more electronic than acoustic. This ensemble grows out of a rich tradition of “American reductionist” music that emerged (re-emerged?) in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Monica Scott, cello
Danishta Rivero, voice
Cody Putman, bassoon
Kanoko Nishi-Smith, koto
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Joshua Marshall, tenor saxophone
John Ingle, saxophones
Matt Ingalls, clarinets
Ron Heglin, tuba
Diane Grubbe, flutes
Tom Djll, trumpet
Kevin Corcoran, percussion
Chris Cooper, objects, electronics
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe, english horn
Sunday, January 19, 2025
7pm
$10-$25
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland
Quinteto Latino at Chico State
Chico Performances has been presenting stellar events for over 40 years. QL looks forward to making their debut there with a unique program of traditional and contemporary music by Latina/o/e composers. Come to Chico State’s lovely Arts Recital Hall for music of Paquito d’Rivera, Gabriela Ortiz, Gabriela Lena Frank and many more!
Sunday, November 3, 2024
2pm
$41 | youth age 17 and under $17 | Chico State student $17
West Oakland Sound Series
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland
Duo performance with flutist Meerenai Shim
Bay Area flutists Diane and Meeranai Shim perform Robert Dick’s duo Time is a Two Way Street. Meerenai will premiere Whispers on the Wind for flute and electronics by The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker. Diane will perform Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronism No. 1 for flute and pre-recorded tape, Dai Fujikura’s Glacier for bass flute, and Alyssa Aska’s Circles.lines for glissando flute & tape.
The second half of the evening features The Holy Martins, Kasey Knudsen (alto saxophone), Lorin Benedict (voice), and Eric Vogler (guitar). They have been playing in this configuration for over 15 years, during which time the group has explored a broad range of composed music (written by them and by others), improvised game pieces, and collective free improvisation. The nucleus of their approach is rooted in the jazz idiom, writ large, but the conspicuous absence of a “rhythm section” pushes the team in directions bordering on the altogether unfamiliar.
Sunday, October 27, 2024
7pm
$10-$25
West Oakland Sound Series
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland
Mezzacappa’s Music for More Than a Few of Us
Silvia Matheus (computer and electronic music composer, sound artist, and improviser) teams up with Ric Louchard (pianist, composer, and improviser) to create The VisitoR, a performance where electronics and acoustics meet and interact. The VisitoR goes beyond a simple two-person conversation, embracing a lively interplay of actions that flow freely. The soundscape blends algorithmically generated sounds with fixed compositions, all layered with live-processed acoustic elements, creating a rich and dynamic auditory experience. This piece will be presented in a multiple-speaker configuration.
Bassist and composer Lisa Mezzacappa presents a set of new and newly-arranged works for improvising large ensemble, featuring members of sfSound, the oakland reductionist orchestra, and special guests. Exploring noisy abstraction, gnarly grooves and austere lyricism, her compositions incorporate graphic notation, game strategies, and conducted improvisation to engage a spirit of play and exploration.
Performers:
Sarah Grace Graves, voice
Hallie Smith, violin
Diane Grubbe, flutes
Tom Dambly, trumpet
Matt Ingalls, clarinets
Joshua Marshall, tenor saxophone
Ron Heglin, trombone
Monica Scott, cello
Kathryn Schulmeister, double bass
Lisa Mezzacappa, double bass
Brett Carson, pianoChris Cooper, electronics
Kjell Nordeson, drums
Sunday, October 20, 2024
7pm
$10-$25
West Oakland Sound Series
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland
Bertoncini & Lehn | Oakland Reductionist Orchestra
Tiziana Bertoncini (Italy) and Thomas Lehn (Germany), violin and analogue synthesizer, move in an abstract territory, their approach to sound is contemporary. Nevertheless their consideration to music is quite classical insofar as based principally on tension/release, rupture, intensity and expressivity in all its facets.
The concert concludes with the duo joining THE OAKLAND REDUCTIONIST ORCHESTRA in an improvised set. A supergroup of local musicians with a predilection for lowercase/fricative/reductionist acoustic improvisation that often sounds more electronic than acoustic, this ensemble grows out of a rich tradition of “American reductionist” music that flourished in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Performers:
Hallie Smith, violin
Danishta Rivero, voice
Cody Putman, bassoon
Kanoko Nishi-Smith, koto
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Joshua Marshall, tenor saxophone
Kevin CK Lo, violin/flute/piano
Cheryl E. Leonard, natural-object instruments
John Ingle, saxophones
Matt Ingalls, clarinets
Ron Heglin, tuba
Diane Grubbe, flutes
Sarah Grace Graves, voice
Jacob Felix Heule, percussion
Tom Djll, trumpet
Kevin Corcoran, percussion
Chris Cooper, objects, electronics
Sunday, September 29, 2024
7pm
$10-$25
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland
Wendy Reid’s Ambient Bird
A performance with Wendy Reid and ensemble, including live and pre-recorded African grey parrot, blue parrotlet and green parrotlet.
Monday, September 23, 2024
Live Oak Park
1301 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA
6pm
FREE
Diane Grubbe has appeared as a soloist with the Siena Music Festival in Italy, the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, L’Orchestre de Notre Dame in San Francisco and the Calabasas Chamber Orchestra in Southern California, with whom she recorded the Vivaldi Piccolo Concerto for their CD The Baroque Concerto.