2023 Schedule

Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble

Founded by composer and conductor Jack Curtis Dubowsky, the JCDEnsemble specializes in live scores and combines intricately composed material and structured improvisation. A group of core players anchor the ensemble, which varies by size and instrumentation depending on the show. Silent film repertoire includes Nosferatu, The Black Pirate, The Golem, The Phantom Carriage, Sunrise, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In 2017 JCDE released ZORRO, an album of highlights of their score to The Mark of Zorro.
The Ensemble will debut a new peice that takes the audience on the adventure of a lifetime: a millionaire’s space tourism adventure aka "Space tourism show ". A combination of spoken word narration, musical accompaniment, and structured free improvisation.
This performance will feature dancer Isadora Kolmorgan a trained classical ballet dancer who has now found a parallel love for modern and contemporary in her most recent years. She values the joy and community in dance, and is grateful to get to share it with others!
Personnel:
Jack Curtis Dubowsky - Spoken word, keyboard | Charles Sharp - Reeds, electronics | Jeff Schwartz - Double bass | Isadora Kolmorgan - Dance

Cracking the Surface

Cracking the Surface fuses Skatch, piano and live electronics while morphing, reversing and re-imagining music from electro-acoustic and noise to classical, dark ambient, drone and beyond. Skatchboxes, Skatchplates and Skatchplatters share timbres from the inside and outside of the piano as they’re electronically sampled, processed and reconstituted. Skatch flags flying high with love and respect for the legacy of inventor and Cracking the Surface co-founder, Tom Nunn.
Personnel:
Thomas Dimuzio - Buchla modular synth, live sampling | Scott Looney - Piano, Hyperpiano DSP | David Michalak – various instruments of Skatch, box of junk, Phantom Harp

Eki Shola

“Half-time electronic soul for the mind” - Resident Advisor. Featured in PBS, NPR Tiny Desk Contest, KQED and Best of the Bay Editors’ Pick, Eki’Shola’s music transcends genre, as she seamlessly draws from jazz, electronica, and soul music to create a sonic landscape all her own. A vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and physician, Eki’Shola uses her music as a conduit for healing. Born in London, Eki’Shola was raised in a musical family. Later as a pre-med student at Cornell, she performed in Dr Karlton Hester’s jazz ensemble. In 2016, fueled by grief, she released her debut album, Final Beginning. After the traumatic 2017 wildfires, Eki’Shola composed Pieces, a trilogy, each album portraying a particular stage of healing. ASCAP Plus winner and selected “23 people to watch in 2023" by the Press Democrat, Eki’Shola has shared the stage with Donald Byrd and Steve Turre and has opened for Habib Koité, Bebel Gilberto, DakhaBrakha, Georgia Muldrow, and others. Eki’Shola completed her Essential Virtual Tour in 2021 and created Unmute Magazine which amplify underrepresented creatives. She recently completed an artist residency at OBRAS, Portugal and a recording in Japan completing her fifth album, かえる(Kaeru)
Personnel:
Eki'Shola - keyboard, midi controller keyboard, vocals

Lily Taylor

Vocalist, Lily Taylor, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Performance and Composition of Contemporary Music from College of Santa Fe in New Mexico in 2004, with a focus on vocal studies. After many years working as a professional musician, arts administrator, and private teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico and San Francisco, California, Taylor released her critically acclaimed solo album The Ride in 2014 while residing in Dallas, Texas. Her much anticipated album, Amphora is expected to release in 2023. Taylor continues to teach private voice lessons and hosts a radio show on 92.9FM KUZU LP Denton, Texas called BandWidthTX every 2nd and 4th Tuesday from 7-8PM CST. Lily Taylor has collaborated with musicians, dancers, performance artists, poets, fashion designers, and artists around the Bay Area, New Mexico, and the state of Texas - exploring the art of Drag, dive rock clubs, vintage jazz halls, SoMA theaters, parlors, galleries, and underground venues
Personnel:
Lily Taylor - -vocals -keyboard -looping and effects pedals

Kim Nucci & Mitch Stahlmann

Kim Nucci is an Oakland/Chicago-based multimedia artist, composer / improviser, sound engineer and technologist. They perform on saxophones, electronics, voice, and live projection. Nucci's research interests explore the pedestrian cybernetic body through critically examining our relationship with technology and with our instruments. Their solo performance practice is invested in the exploration of ritualism and trance states in improvisation. They hold an M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media, and an M.A. in Music Composition from Mills College, and a B.A. in Visual Arts from Bennington College. They are the head of A.C.R.E. Residency's Sound/AV department. They are the Technical Director of Driven Arts Collective, having recently finished the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency where DAC premiered 2 evening length works CELSO: In Utero & Digital Milk.
Mitch Stahlmann's practice encompasses the spectrum between music. The resulting musicality can be best imagined as Lee Renaldo playing a solo on the set of Pee Wee’s Playhouse with an audience of nearly twelve. My visual aesthetic easily follows this suite and has been represented through commissions for album art, poster and web designs. A resulting history has allowed space for my work and practice at The Walker Art Center (MPLS), Pro Arts (OAK), Yeah Maybe (MPLS), Elanor Hardwood Gallery (SF) an numerous other thoughtful establishments. My collaborative pursuits as a musician have equally boosted my credibility with pressings on Orange Milk, Moon Glyph and numerous other critically unacknowledged indy labels.
Personnel:
Kim Nucci & Mitch Stahlmann - modular synths, drum machine, laptop), voice and winds using samples and live processing

Phog masheeen

Phog masheeen began in 2007 at the Electro-Music Festival in Philadelphia, PA. Video was integrated early on, with an emphasis on live mixed video. When the pandemic arrived, Phog masheeen pivoted to the streaming platforms, organizing virtual events. Such as Santa Ana Noise Fest, Soundwave Festival and Wonder Valley Experimental Festival. The visual component of these events is handled by William Almas of Almas Art Video. The audio presentation is provided by Dr. K and Mark A Soden Jr. and the three of them comprise Phog masheeen in this instance.
They will be presenting "We're All Family here..." dealing with corporate personhood in a not so distant future. "#ArmtheAfghanWomen" approaches a go fund me campaign gone awry. "Tule Fog" brings the discussion of changing weather patterns to an oblivious commuter culture.
Personnel:
William Alma - video | Dr. K and Mark A Soden Jr. - objects, electronics

The Present Quartet

The Present Quartet is a collaborative, improvising ensemble formed by Jeff Schwartz on the occasion of his 50th birthday using a unique mix of instruments more common to chamber music than a usual jazz quartet. The performers bring a shared sensibility to the music, which blurs usual genre distinctions between avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary classical music. The performances are often highly structured, yet spontaneously realized. They dwell on the unique sounds of the prepared harp and bass and extended techniques from the woodwinds sometimes augmented with live electronic processing, creating evocative and unique soundscapes. “Present” here evokes Schwartz’s gift to himself as well as the emphasis on being in the moment so necessary in improvised music, and a reminder that being present is also temporal, a dwelling in place and time but also an awareness of movement and change.
Personnel:
Ellen Burr - flutes | Anne LeBaron - harp | Jeff Schwartz - bass | Charles Sharp - reeds

Rent Romus' Actual/Actual

Actual/Actual showcases improvised music with a blues music orientation at the core while keeping to a broad outlook towards “spontaneous composition”. Their wide swath takes in swing, Latin music, fusion, doom rock, reggae, punk, and many other musical elements. It's all “grist for the mill” as they create a new context for these elements where improbable connections are made and things happen when you least expect them to. Romus originally hails from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and has made it a point to engage and collaborate with musicians from the region. This band represents recent “talent reconnaissance” and is truly a multi-generational affair.
Rent Romus is a saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, music producer, community activist, and 2023 Emmy award winning performing artist. Since 1988, his work on the saxophone has been dubbed “ferocious” by the San Francisco Weekly and “central to the creative music world of the West Coast” by writer Frank Rubolino. Gerard Cox is an American improvising musician whose primary instruments are piano and electric piano e.g. Wurly and Rhodes. Given to a very percussive and insistent kind of attack, his sound is at home in both very open, improvised situations and in jazz funk or swing jazz bands where an instigating “wild card” is desired. Josh Strange is a Grammy-nominated Instrumentalist (Nas, Lauryn Hill, G Herbo), vibraphonist, composer and trumpet player based in Cincinnati Ohio. Troy Kunkler studied music at Ohio University, where he studied classical percussion with Roger Braun and Joseph VanHassel and drum set with Guy Remonko. Troy has played, toured, and recorded with a variety of bands and ensembles on drum set, bass, and vibraphone.
Personnel:
Rent Romus - alto, soprano, c-melody, sopraino saxophones | Gerard Cox- piano, key bass | Josh Strange - vibraphone | Troy Kunkler - drums

Myles Boisen's Ornettology

Ornettology began 10 years ago as a group dedicated to the music of Ornette Coleman, ranging from the early "classic quartet" to the later harmolodic years. Rather than recreating past ensembles or recorded pieces, the group uses Coleman's compositions as a springboard for re-interpretation, group improvisation, and free jazz exploration, always keeping a focus on Coleman's distinctive melodies. Written heads may appear as medleys, overlapping layers, or brief interludes framing unpredictable improv. Energetic septet arrangements alternate with a variety of subgroupings - duos/ trios/ quartets - to keep the textures varied and surprising.
Personnel:
Jordan Glenn - drums | Lisa Mezzacappa - double bass | Myles Boisen - guitar | John Shiurba - guitar | Steve Adams - alto saxophone | Sheldon Brown - tenor saxophone | Chris Grady - trumpet