SFSOUND: TOSHI ICHIYANAGI & WENDY REID
RON HEGLIN + RIC LOUCHARD + TIM PERKIS
SFSOUND members and friends perform WENDY REID'S ambient bird - mosswood (2022). Avant-garde composer TOSHI ICHIYANAGI is remembered with performances of his graphic scores Sapporo (1962) and Music For Electric Metronomes (1968). Pianist HADLEY MCCARROLL performs Ichiyaagi's Music for Piano No. 2 (1959) and In memory of John Cage (1993)
RON HEGLIN (low brass and voice) RIC LOUCHARD (piano) and TIM PERKIS (electronics) perform trio improvisations.
M U S I C I A N S
Lulu, african grey parrot
Wendy Reid, violin
Krys Bobrowski, glisglas
Ron Heglin. tuba
Brenda Hutchinson, long tube
Aurora Josephson, voice
David Samas, percussion
Sam Weiser, violin
Monica Scott, cello
Kjell Nordeson, percussion
Kanoko Nishi-Smith, koto
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Hadley McCarroll, piano
Brendan Lai-Tong, trombone
John Ingle, saxophone
Matt Ingalls, clarinet
Diane Grubbe, flute
Tom Djll, trumpet
Natalia Badziak, viola
WENDY REID'S site-specific work ambient bird - mosswood is an interspecies sonic landscape which reflects a philosophy of connecting with all living creatures and the environment. The structure of this work can be described as a musical process which attempts to reflect nature’s manner of operations: sonic fragments of an African grey parrot become the cells of a spatially notated score to be interpreted and performed by the musicians within the ambient environment. Contextual in nature, the work allows performers to act according to unpredictable conditions and variables which arise within the musical continuity. In performance, an attempt is made at a spontaneous unforced growing of sound and silence in which emphasis is placed on formation rather than pre-established form, as in the building and shaping of cell-like units in living processes. The first incantation of ambient bird entitled ambient bird 433, pays homage to John Cage’s composition 4’33” (1952).
Wendy Reid (Los Angeles, 1952) received degrees from Mills College (M.A.), the University of Southern California, School of Performing Arts (B.M.), and attended Stanford University, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Between 1975-77, she was a private pupil of Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Les Écoles D'Art Americaine at Fontainbleau. She also studied with Terry Riley, Robert Ashley, Halsey Stevens, James Hopkins and film composer David Raksin. Reid is producer of the new music series NEW MUSIC WITH BIRDS, FROGS AND OTHER CREATURES sponsored by the Natural Sciences Department of the Oakland Museum and the San Francisco Art Institute, and teaches music composition at Mills College and violin at Holy Names University PMD.
TOSHI ICHIYANAGI (1933 – 2022) was a Japanese avant-garde composer and pianist. One of the leading composers in Japan during the postwar era, Ichiyanagi worked in a range of genres, composing Western-style operas and orchestral and chamber works, as well as compositions using traditional Japanese instruments. Ichiyanagi is known for incorporating avant-garde techniques into his works, such as chance music, extended technique, and nontraditional scoring. A former protégé of John Cage who was once married to Yoko Ono, he was part of a lively experimental music scene in New York and became a leading modern composer in Japan.
sfSound's pianist HADLEY MCCARROLL is a well-known San Francisco Bay Area-based collaborative and solo pianist. She has performed in the United States, and internationally with, among others: Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in Paris and New York, the Festival del Sole in the Napa Valley, Composer’s Inc., Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and most recently in recital with KRONOS Quartet violist Hank Dutt in San Francisco. For the past fifteen years she has performed as the pianist of the cello/piano duo martha & monica. Hadley has also worked at the Royal Danish Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, West Edge Opera and as accompanist for the James Toland Vocal Arts International Competition for the past 6 years. Equally at home as a soloist, Hadley has given wide-ranging performances, including the Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and programs featuring Carter, Beethoven, Ligeti, Liszt and Schumann. She frequently premieres new piano works. Ms. McCarroll received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin.
RON HEGLIN is a trombonist and vocalist working with extended technique on the trombone and with spoken and sung imaginary languages as a vocalist. His vocal music has been influenced by his study of North Indian vocal music. He works both compositionally and in an improvisational mode and is a member of the Bay Area music context as well as performing internationally. He is a founding member of the groups MUSIC FOR ALL OCCASIONS, ROTODOTI, and BRASSIOSAURUS, and has performed with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Leo Smith, Henry Brant, Logos Duo, Tim Perkis, John Bischoff, Tom Djll, and Toyoji Tomita.
RIC LOUCHARD grew up in Palo Alto, California. From 1972 to 1976, Ric went to the University of Northern Colorado to study piano and composition. Ric ran out of money for school in 1976 so he returned to the Bay Area teaching piano and attending San Jose State University to study baroque performance on piano and harpsichord with Fernando Valenti and composition with Allen Strange. In the 1990s he released five CDs on the Music For Little People record label. The first, "G'Night Wolfgang, Classical Piano Solos for Bedtime" was a finalist for the "Indie" award for best classical release of 1990. He went on to record solo piano recordings "G'Morning Johann", "Hey Ludwig", "Ragtime Romp" (which won Oppenheim Toy Portfolio's 2002 Platinum Award for children's audio), and, playing harpsichord with recorder player David Barnett, "Winter Light". Ric has been performing house concerts around the bay area lately and just finished a CD of one of the programs he likes to perform: "Slouching Towards Individuation".
TIM PERKIS is a well-known figure in the worlds of improvised and electronic music. He is also a founding member of several electronic music ensembles, including Fuzzy Bunny, Splendor Generator and the pioneering computer network band The Hub. Recordings of his music are available on the Artifact, Tzadik, New World and EMANEM labels, among others. His documentary film NOISY PEOPLE (2007) and NOISY PEOPLE podcast (2015) are available at noisy people.net and perkis.com.