San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
Encyclopedia
The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players is an ensemble of classically trained instrumentalists that commissions, performs, and records innovative new music, including music that integrates electronic and acoustic sounds.
began organizing a series of avant-garde
music concert
s in San Francisco art galleries. He called the series BYOP (Bring Your Own Pillow), because audience members sat on the floor. Three years later, his colleagues, harpist Marcella DeCray and oboist/conductor Jean-Louis LeRoux, reorganized the concert series as a nonprofit corporation and began to recruit musicians to form its core ensemble.
A ten-time winner of the national ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players has performed more than 1,100 contemporary works, including many U.S. and world premieres, and has commissioned new pieces from such composers as John Adams, John Cage
, Fred Frith
, Liza Lim
, James Newton
, and Julia Wolfe
.
led the ensemble in performing music by Edgard Varèse
. The concert, which was emceed by Jefferson Airplane
vocalist Grace Slick
and held in the San Francisco Opera House, attracted an audience of more than 2,000 people. In 1997, electric guitarist Bill Frisell
and drummer Joey Baron
appeared as soloists with the ensemble, performing Steven Mackey
’s concerto, Deal. Later the same year, vocalist Dawn Upshaw
appeared with the ensemble in a performance of George Crumb
’s Ancient Voices of Children.
History
In 1971, composer Charles BooneCharles Boone (composer)
Charles Boone is an American composer of contemporary classical music, living in San Francisco.-Biography:Boone studied first at the University of Southern California and later with composers Ernst Krenek and Adolph Weiss in Los Angeles...
began organizing a series of avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
music concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
s in San Francisco art galleries. He called the series BYOP (Bring Your Own Pillow), because audience members sat on the floor. Three years later, his colleagues, harpist Marcella DeCray and oboist/conductor Jean-Louis LeRoux, reorganized the concert series as a nonprofit corporation and began to recruit musicians to form its core ensemble.
A ten-time winner of the national ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players has performed more than 1,100 contemporary works, including many U.S. and world premieres, and has commissioned new pieces from such composers as John Adams, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
, Liza Lim
Liza Lim
Liza Lim is an Australian composer.Lim writes concert music as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects...
, James Newton
James Newton
James W. Newton is an American jazz flautist, composer, and conductor.-Biography:From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African American music, including urban blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel. In his early teens he played electric bass guitar, alto saxophone,...
, and Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...
.
Artistic collaborations
In 1983, Frank ZappaFrank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
led the ensemble in performing music by Edgard Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
. The concert, which was emceed by Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
vocalist Grace Slick
Grace Slick
Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
and held in the San Francisco Opera House, attracted an audience of more than 2,000 people. In 1997, electric guitarist Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
and drummer Joey Baron
Joey Baron
Joey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...
appeared as soloists with the ensemble, performing Steven Mackey
Steven Mackey
Steven Mackey is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator.-Life:As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are informed by rock and jazz, though in an avant-garde vein...
’s concerto, Deal. Later the same year, vocalist Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...
appeared with the ensemble in a performance of George Crumb
George Crumb
George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...
’s Ancient Voices of Children.
Principal conductors/music directors
- Jean-Louis LeRoux (1975 – 1988)
- Stephen L. (Lucky) Mosko (1988 – 1997)
- Donald PalmaDonald PalmaDonald Palma is a prominent classical double bassist, conductor, bass instructor, and educator of ensemble performance. He is a native of New York City, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School. Mr...
(1998 – 2000) - David Milnes (2002 – 2009)
- Steven Schick (2011- )
Recent discography
- 1996: John Thow, Songs for the Earth (CD) Music and Arts Programs of America, Inc.
- 1996: Morton Feldman, Only (CD) New Albion Records.
- 1998: Earle Brown, Centering (CD) Newport Classic.
- 1999: Hyo-shin Na, Music for Piano and Strings (Transcription) (CD) Seoul Records Inc.
- 2000: James Newton, As the Sound of Many Waters (CD) New World Records.
- 2002: Andrew Imbrie, Spring Fever: Chicago Bells, Songs of Then and Now (CD) Albany Records.
- 2004: Kui Dong, Pangu’s Song (CD) New World Records.
- 2005: Jorge Liderman, The Song of Songs (CD) Bridge Records.
- 2006: Pablo Ortiz, Oscuro (CD) Albany Records.
- 2008: Edmund Campion, Outside Music (CD) Albany Records.