West Oakland Sound Series

GIACOMO FIORE presents Lost Horse Wash Drone - a series of works composed after one week in residence at the Lou Harrison House in Joshua Tree, California, contemplating matters of tuning, improvisation, and our environment. The music is built on small just intonation modes, played on fretless electric and refretted resophonic guitar with live electronic […]

PHILIP GELB After a long absence from the music scene, Philip Gelb has returned to performing, marking his first ensemble performance since the Pauline Oliveros Memorial Festivals. During those festivals, Gelb emerged from self-imposed retirement to pay tribute to his mentor and dear friend. Previously, due to dental issues, he was forced to give up […]

Cracking the Surface: Featuring David Michalak (instruments of skatch), Scott Looney (piano, hyper-piano), and Thomas Dimuzio (Buchla 200E, processing). This performance celebrates their new release recorded at Fantasy Studios with Tom Nunn, marking his last recording.​ Chris Brown & Ben Davis: Celebrating the release of "Jongleurs," this duo explores free improvisation with influences from classical […]

LISA MEZZACAPPA 5(ISH) Bassist and composer LISA MEZZACAPPA (acoustic bass) brings her newest ensemble to the WEST OAKLAND SOUND SERIES in advance of its NYC debut at The Stone later this month. Mezzacappa's previous works have drawn inspiration from Dashiell Hammett and Paul Auster's lean noir crime novels and Italo Calvino's hilarious and poignant Cosmicomics stories. Now she's […]

ERNST KAREL: ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS ERNST KAREL presents his multichannel, ongoing iterative work, Atmospheric Rivers. This piece’s subject is a key component of the global water cycle: the enormous streams of concentrated water vapor which flow through the sky from the tropics towards the poles, releasing heavy rain in high wind, particularly in the western U.S, and […]

In the perfect environment for close listening, the two cellos and saxophone TRIO BEN DAVIS - FRED LONBERG-HOLM - LARRY OCHS invite you, the avid listeners, to join the musicians in enjoying their spontaneous but carefully sculpted music as it happens, in real time. Through repeated performances, musical discussions after shows and rehearsals, this music […]

THE SAN FRANCISCO TAPE MUSIC COLLECTIVE presents their summer east bay festival of fixed media works projected live over a 16-channel Meyer Sound System. Featuring a wide range of works by international composers and collective members.

SILVIA MATHEUS, composer and sound artist, presents Recycling — a solo performance with Kyma, Eurorack, and Buchla systems. Past works are dismantled and rebuilt live, their fragments reshaped by algorithmic processes and hands-on control. The result is a constantly shifting sonic environment where memory and invention collide, creating an experience that is irreproducible and shared […]

FRED LONBERG-HOLM is trying to make sense of this world while making sounds on the cello and just about anything else he can get his hands on. He performs a duo of improvised music with Grammy-nominated percussionist WILLIAM WINANT, internationally regarded as a leading performer of avant-garde music. Bassist KATHRYN SCHULMEISTER—praised for her “expressive and […]

VEN VOISEY is a sculptor, composer, and designer who currently splits his time between Oakland, CA and Wonder Valley (Twentynine Palms), CA. His work is informed by an attention to surroundings; he creates rituals, tools and circumstances as a means of exploring the relationship between internal and external space; between the spiritual and physical. THREE […]

sfSOUNDGROUP presents a concert honoring recently departed composers. The first half features works by the Russian composer SOFIA GUBAIDULINA (1931 – 2025), known for her spiritual and dramatic works. The second half includes a circular breathing wind duo by the pioneering minimalist composer TOM JOHNSON (1939–2024), and a work for improvisers and tape by the […]