WEST
OAKLAND
SOUND
SERIES
a weekly new music and experimental sound series every sunday
presented by new performance traditions and sfSound
dresher ensemble studio :: 2201 poplar street, oakland california
ample parking! please park perpendicular when past the trees on poplar
$10-$25 sliding scale (cash & venmo accepted at door - order advance here)
concerts start promptly at 7:15
:: late arrivals follow instructions on door to get buzzed in ::
APRIL 12 2026 7:15pm
Boston-based DEPARTURE DUO (Nina Guo, soprano and Edward Kass, double bass) probes the experimental side of soprano and double bass with commissioned pieces from Christian Wolff, Erin Gee, and Andrew Watts. In a program that pushes their high-low combination through the Looking Glass, Departure Duo invites listeners to a world where voice and instrument become one sonic body, sound off on a proto-language, and follow gargoyles on a PM walk. Bring open ears to explore the extremities of soprano and double bass with us.
For Charles North’s 15 Poems and Liner Notes 2 by Christian Wolff
Mouthpiece 43 by Erin Gee
Garden Clocks by Njabulo Phungula
Linear B by Andrew Watts
CHERYL LEONARD makes field recordings of natural soundscapes, and builds and plays electroacoustic instruments made out of natural materials such as bones, driftwood, shells, seaweed, feathers, and stones. WOBBLY sees the long histories of feedback and generative music as attempts to better understand what all those animals are singing about. Recently they've been driving to the Marin Headlands to make hydrophone recordings of the Newt Pond that was once an anti-aircraft gun turret, you know the one, but if you haven't stuck your head underwater to hear the sound of photosynthesizing pond weed, don't -- those newts are poisonous.
APRIL 26 2026 7:15pm
HOMMAGES TO JANÁČEK AND KURTÀG
MONICA SCOTT + KATE STENBERG + LINDA GREEN + HADLEY MCCARROLL + KYMRY ESAINKO
Subtle colors, quiet nuances and intense communication - György Kurtág and Leos Janáček's music for pianos and strings will draw you into a magical world where every sound, every gesture conjures up memories or heightens awareness of the present.
Cellist and composer MONICA SCOTT has transcribed Janáček's piano work The Overgrown Path for violin, viola and cello, inspired by the unique way the composer transforms melodies through harmonic experimentation, and how he treats rhythms drawn from speech patterns and nature. Interspersed with the 10 short pieces in that series, are György Kurtág's exquisite miniatures Signs, Games and Messages - in versions for piano four hands, two pianos and string trio.
The trio is: violinist KATE STENBERG, who has appeared numerous times at the Dresher Studio, most recently in a commission by Pamela Z, alongside Sarah Cahill; violist LINDA GREEN, whose career spans teaching music in OUSD, performing with the Oakland Symphony and many other local orchestras, and frequent chamber music collaborations throughout the Bay Area; cellist MONICA SCOTT - who is a member of sfSound, oakland reductionist orchestra and duo martha & monica - all of whom perform often at the Dresher Studios and West Oakland Sound Series. Pianist HADLEY MCCARROLL (of martha & monica and sfSound) is joined by KYMRY ESAINKO - another pianist well known to Bay Area audiences - for the works by Kurtág and his transcriptions of Machaut and Bach.
The program also includes two short works, Hommages to Janáček and Kurtàg, composed by Monica Scott.
