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| New Music Society of California | |
|---|---|
| Name | New Music Society of California |
| Formation | 1970s |
| Type | Nonprofit arts organization |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Region served | Bay Area |
| Genres | Contemporary classical, experimental, electronic, avant-garde |
New Music Society of California is an organization dedicated to presenting, commissioning, and documenting contemporary and experimental music in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Society has operated alongside institutions such as San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, California Institute of the Arts, and Mills College, engaging composers, performers, and ensembles associated with John Cage, Morton Feldman, La Monte Young, Lou Harrison, and Harry Partch. Its activities intersected with festivals and venues including Bang on a Can, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and regional presenters like Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
The Society emerged in the milieu of the postwar American avant-garde, influenced by figures linked to San Francisco Tape Music Center, New York School (music), Columbia University (New York), and European centers such as Darmstadt School and IRCAM. Early interactions involved composers and performers who also collaborated with North American New Music Festival, The Kitchen (nonprofit arts center), Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and ensembles connected to Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and London Sinfonietta. During the 1970s and 1980s the Society developed relationships with presenters including Union Square Music Festival, Red Poppy Art House, California EAR Unit, and media outlets such as KFJC, KDFC, and WNYC.
Founded by a coalition of composers, performers, patrons, and academics associated with University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and Stanford University, the Society aimed to expand audiences for new work, commission scores, and preserve experimental recordings. Its mission echoed initiatives by Meet the Composer, New Music USA, Rockefeller Foundation, and Ford Foundation that supported contemporary composition, while aligning with community arts efforts like Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and arts education programs at San Francisco Unified School District.
The Society mounted season programming that included premieres, retrospectives, workshops, and symposia drawing artists from Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and Ann Southam. It sponsored composer residencies analogous to programs at Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, and Bellagio Center, and established commissioning partnerships with ensembles such as Bang on a Can All-Stars, Third Coast Percussion, International Contemporary Ensemble, and orchestras like San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Educational outreach included masterclasses connected to Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, and local conservatories.
Collaborators and members ranged from seminal composers and performers to administrators associated with institutions like Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and National Endowment for the Arts. Notable affiliated artists included composers and performers in the orbit of Morton Subotnick, Peter Garland, Ingram Marshall, Gamelan orchestras, Suzanne Ciani, Annea Lockwood, and instrumentalists who also worked with Philip Glass Ensemble, Merce Cunningham, San Francisco Opera, and Berkeley Symphony.
The Society produced and distributed recordings, scores, and periodicals similar to releases from Nonesuch Records, Electronic Music Studios (EMS), Tzadik Records, and archival series like Smithsonian Folkways. Publications included liner notes, critical essays, and catalogs that referenced scholarship from Leonard Bernstein, Theodor Adorno, Leopold Stokowski, and contemporary critics writing for The New York Times, The Guardian, and San Francisco Chronicle. The archive held tape collections akin to those of Pauline Oliveros and manuscript deposits comparable to collections at Bryn Mawr College Special Collections and UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
Performances occurred at a range of Bay Area and international venues including Zellerbach Hall, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Cal Performances, Masonic Auditorium (San Francisco), and experimental spaces like The Fillmore, Great American Music Hall, and artist-run galleries tied to Southern Exposure (arts organization). Tours and exchanges brought work to festivals such as Montreux Jazz Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and concert halls including Royal Albert Hall and Lincoln Center.
The Society's legacy is visible in the Bay Area's sustained experimental scenes, influencing institutions like SF MOMA, Headlands Center for the Arts, BAMPFA, and networks of ensembles and festivals that commission new work. Its archival materials informed retrospectives, exhibitions, and scholarship at University of California Press, Routledge, and academic conferences hosted by American Musicological Society and Society for Ethnomusicology. The model it provided for composer-run organizations paralleled initiatives by Cleveland Composers Guild, New York Philharmonic's commissioning programs, and contemporary curatorial practices at MoMA.
Category:Music organizations based in California Category:Contemporary classical music organizations