a weekly new music and experimental sound series every sunday
presented by new performance traditions and sfSound

 

 

DRESHER ENSEMBLE STUDIO

2201 poplar street :: oakland ca

 

ample parking! please park perpendicular when past the trees on poplar
$20 (FREE for students/underemployed)

 cash & venmo accepted at door - order advance here
 

concerts start promptly at 7:30
:: late arrivals follow instructions on door to get buzzed in ::

 

submit a proposal to perform!

 

view previous concerts

October 18 2026  7:30pm

$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online

(FREE for students/underemployed)

Pianist-composer JARED REDMOND performs MORTON FELDMAN'S 1981 masterpiece Triadic Memories for piano solo. Described by the composer as "the biggest butterfly in captivity", Triadic Memories typifies Feldman's late style: a dreamlike work woven of hypnotically shifting, mosaic-like patterns, unrelentingly fragile and quiet, and of great length. Influenced deeply by the abstract visual art of his time, Feldman uses resonance, repetition, and register as colors, and speaks of the influence of painter Cy Twombly, whose gesso brushwork inspired Feldman to "smudge" the music's hypnotizing harmonies into "a kind of precarious rainbow".

 

oakland reductionist orchestra performs their unique interpretation of MORTON FELDMAN'S  Intersection #1 (1951).

 

MUSICIANS

tom djll, trumpet

ron heglin, tuba

monica scott, cello
matt ingalls, clarinets
lisa mezzacappa, bass 

kevin ck lo, violin/flute/piano

kanoko nishi-smith, koto

joshua marshall, tenor saxophone

john ingle, saxophones

john bischoff, electronics

isabelle waldner kalb, viola

diane grubbe, flutes

danishta rivero, voice

cody putman, bassoon

chris cooper, guitar, electronics

October 25 2026  7:30pm

$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online

(FREE for students/underemployed)

LARRY OCHS (tenor and sopranino saxophones) offers up a deeply felt set of improvised music, created by this stellar ensemble of San Francisco Bay Area improvisers BEN DAVIS (cello); DARREN JOHNSTON (trumpet); LISA MEZZACAPPA (acoustic bass)... and we invite you, the creative listeners, to dig in to our spontaneous but thoughtfully sculpted music as it happens, in real time.      

 

Conceptually, Subconscious Life might be said to be administratively led by Larry Ochs, who also might add carefully placed comments before and after sessions. The music itself, however, is developing collectively as the four performers listen, respond and focus on the collective musical elements, each player reacting from his or her own composerly perspective. As some of you will hear: "Form" is definitely part of the creative process in this band. As a result, the plan is to have each piece "magically" end up with a formal shape and its own distinct character. In other words: there's a sign outside the entrance to the Studio that reads NOTICE: EARS WORKING.

 

 

The trio of RON HEGLIN (tuba and trombone) - KAREN STACKPOLE (gongs and percussion) - TOM DJLL (trumpet and electronics) has been making music for nearly 20 years, appearing at Mills College, the Garden of Memory Solstice events, and various Bay Area music venues. Their extended sonic landscapes explore and exploit the sonorities of vibrating brass, expressed in shimmering textures and microtuned beating tones.

November 1 2026  7:30pm

$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online

(FREE for students/underemployed)

MATT ROBIDOUX presents the Bay Area premiere of The Spiral Worker, developed during his Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency (DEAR). This new work operates as a connector within a rhizomatic network, fundamentally distinct from tree-like hierarchical structures that impose predetermined order. Drawing from Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the rhizome and Stockhausen’s moment form, this happening establishes multiple entry points and non-linear pathways through which performers engage with material transformation: corn synth, corn silk, corn husk. The spiral worker gathers, transfers, and transforms these materials through a performance process that operates sculpturally and sonically. At the core of this system sits the corn synth, a modular system built around two touch-controlled aluminum corn ear sculptures. These objects serve as both interface and world unto themselves.

 

Featuring: matt robidoux, Chris Cooper, Michelle Lee, Ava Lynch, Mitch Stahlmann, and Jasmine Zhang.

 

 

RODRIGO BARRIGA is a composer and performer based in Santa Cruz. His music explores performer interaction and participants’ relationship to space. His project, the Rodrigo Barriga Ensemble, focuses on the performance of improvised and indeterminate music as well as performance art, often through the interpretation of text and graphic scores.

November 8 2026  7:30pm

$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online

(FREE for students/underemployed)

CORNELIUS CARDEW CHOIR
PET THE TIGER

November 15 2026  7:30pm

$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online

(FREE for students/underemployed)

JULIA RIGBY
BEN GOLDBERG + MYRA MELFORD + MAT MUNTZ

November 22 2026  7:30pm

$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online

(FREE for students/underemployed)

BRISTLE
LENNY GONZALEZ + ERIK ELLESTAD

November 29 2026  7:30pm

$20 click here to purchase advance tickets online

(FREE for students/underemployed)

PHILLIP GREENLIEF + EVELYN DAVIS + JORDAN GLENN 
BEVIN BLECHDOM + THOMAS DIMUZIO + JAMES GOODE

PROPOSALS

Our focus is on the bay area experimental and new music community, hopefully encouraging crossover among sub-scenes (composition and improvisation; established and emerging; institutional and underground; etc.) We strongly suggest local musicians attend concerts before requesting to perform on the series. Visiting aritsts are also welcome, ideally splitting a concert with local musicians.

We are also seeking compositions (in all forms of notation) to be performed by the sfSoundGroup.

We have a 92-key (down to a Low F!) 1953 Imperial Bösendorfer 7’4” Model 225 Piano (no sostenuto pedal; inside/prepared is OK). The venue hosts a Meyer Sound System, drum kit, additional piano, lighting, and projection equipment.

Please send proposals to mattingalls at me dot com

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