The San Francisco Bay Area’s underground music scene covers a tremendous range of styles and artists. What they share is a love of improvisation, and of new or unusual compositions and sound-making techniques. Coming out of genres as diverse as jazz, electronica, contemporary composition, world music, hip-hop, and metal, the performing artists are led by their desire to learn and impart something new about music. The Bay Area new music scene often works outside of traditional venues, creating special environments for new kinds of sound. Outsound volunteer curators are dedicated to presenting the cutting edge of sound and music composition and performance.

The Outsound New Music Summit runs from July 15th-21st, and marks its eleventh consecutive year in 2012 with a night of wildly imaginative poetry with Ronald Saur, rAmu Aki, and Carla Harryman along with some of the Bay Area’s finest improvisers. Also featured will be a night of new compositions, featuring John Shiurba’s 9:9 Ensemble. A night of extended percussion ensembles with Falkortet, and Benjamin Ethan Tinker’s Seems An Eternity follows, and the festival ends with an all blow out night of master improvisers from both East and West coasts…multi-instrumentalist and award-winning composer Vinny Golia as well as keyboardist Dave Bryant (from Ornette Colman’s Prime Time). In addition, the Johnny Appleseed of improvisation Jack Wright will play solo.

Sacramento living legend Tony Passarell will bring his “Thin Air Orchestra” to play the Summit for the first time! The festival kicks off Sunday, July 15, 7:00 p.m., with its always-popular Touch the Gear night, a free hands-on expo where attendees can experience new and exotic instruments and electronic gear and make some of their own unique sounds.

The 2012 Outsound New Music Summit
July 15th-21st
San Francisco Community Music Center
544 Capp Street @ 20th
San Francisco, CA click for map
Q&A Sessions 7:15 -7:30 pm
Performance 8:15 pm


Sunday July 15: Touch the Gear Expo! 7-10pm Free Admission
A hands-on experience of sound producing gear and instruments!
Touch the Gear is a hands-on, family-friendly event that allows the public to roam among 25-30 musicians and inventors with their various different configurations of “gear.” -- Everything from oscillators to planks of wood with strings attached. Everyone gets to ask questions, make sound and experience how these set-ups work. It’s an environment that demystifies technology while inspiring creativity.

Monday July 16: Composers Symposium 7-9pm Free Admission
Compositional Process and Changing the Rules
2012 composers John Shiurba, Christina Stanley, Benjamin Ethan Tinker, and Matthew Goodheart will discuss the elements of their compositional styles and how they navigate the worlds of modern compositional techniques, combined with individual forms of experimentation. There will be a Q&A segment for attendees of this free public
event.

Wednesday July 18: Sonic Poetry
Unique word and sound fusions and fissions
poets: Ronald Sauer, rAmu Aki, Carla Harryman
Musicians: Jacob Felix Heule, Jordan Glenn, Karl Evangelista,
Jon Raskin, Gino Robair
In a special Outsound presentation, three leading Bay Area poets collaborate with some of music’s top improvisers to create new word and sound compositions in this evening of visionary literary experimentation.

Thursday July 19: The Composers Muse
World debut performances from some of the Bay Area’s most adventurous composers
Christina Stanley's Skadi Quartet,
Matthew Goodheart’s recursive physical object electro-acoustics
John Shiurba's 9:9

Friday July 20: Thwack, Bome, Chime
an evening of structured percussion
Dave Douglas' The Walls Are White With Flame
Benjamin Ethan Tinker's “Seems An Eternity”
Falkortet
Showcasing the wide and wild world of modern percussion in all shapes, sizes, and sounds.

Saturday July 21: Harmolodics Workshop w/ Dave Bryant
2-4pm Free Admission
Pianist Dave Bryant will present material gleaned from his years of performance and study with Ornette Coleman
on Harmolodic Theory and practice.

Saturday July 21: Fire & Energy
Masters of improvisation from East & West Coast meet for the Summit Finale
Jack Wright
Dave Bryant Trio
Vinny Golia Sextet
Tony Passarell's Thin Air Orchestra
A massive blowout of seasoned veterans of the improvised-jazz-inspired-music collide on this final night
of the 11th Annual Outsound New Music Summit.