Wed 8/27 7:00 PM Mr Tipple's [39 Fell St SF]
Jenny Scheinman & Friends

7:00 pm - 8:15 pm
and
8:45 pm - 10:00 pm  More...

Wed 8/27 8:00 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St. SF]
Max Cooper On Being 3D/AV Live  More...

Thu 8/28 8:00 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
The new August Return the Gift curated series at Temescal Arts Center continues with two great sound artists featuring Merlin Coleman and Ava Koohbor.

Merlin Coleman is a multimedia artist making work ranging from a Gargling Chorus to a layered piece about a local quarry’s environmental degradation. Coleman holds an MFA in Composition from California Institute of the Arts.

Ava Koohbor is an experimental sound artist and instrument builder. Through an undetermined process she transforms the acoustical properties of everyday’s objects to create an immersive experience of sound in space.  More...

Thu 8/28 8:00 PM Noisebridge Hackerspace [272 Capp St, San Francisco, CA 94110]
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  Click to make donation  
Resident Electronic is a monthly electronic audio-visual open mic event started in 2017. Resident is casual and cool, and the community you’ll find is like no other for aspiring electronic musicians in the Bay. No judgments, no bullshit, just positive support and openness to new ideas.  More...

Thu 8/28 9:30 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St. SF]
Max Cooper On Being 3D/AV Live  More...

Fri 8/29 12:00 PM Tristram’s Shanty [(address provided with ticket purchase)]
Click to make donation  
Woodstockhausen (Day 1) spirals into its 10th edition of experimental music, synesthetic video, and performance.  More...

Fri 8/29 7:00 PM Medicine for Nightmares [3036 24th St SF]
Other Dimensions in Sound Presents David Boyce (reeds and efx)  More...

Fri 8/29 7:00 PM First Presbyterian Church of Oakland [2619 Broadway Oakland]
Centripetal Force and Optical Sound Experience are excited to present an evening of deep music at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, featuring Nate Mercereau, Luke Schneider, and Heavy Arts Ensemble  More...

Fri 8/29 7:00 PM Lloyd's Records [3829 Telegraph Oakland]
Matt Ingalls
Nathan Chamberlain & Lenny Gonzalez
Evidence Trio  More...

Fri 8/29 8:00 PM 2727 [2727 California Street Berkeley, CA 94703]
Sonic Cartographies
An ever-evolving performance series connecting continents through sound and collective improvisation, unfolding simultaneously in different locations.

August 29
8 PM
@2727californiastreet  More...

Sat 8/30 12:00 PM Tristram’s Shanty [(address provided with ticket purchase)]
Click to make donation  
Woodstockhausen (Day 2) spirals into its 10th edition of experimental music, synesthetic video, and performance.  More...

Sat 8/30 5:30 PM Piedmont Piano Company [1728 San Pablo Ave Oakland]
Carmen Staaf

"Sounding Line" Album Release Preview  More...

Tue 9/02 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
Improvisation Workshop hosted by Lewis Jordan: Inviting musicians, poets, dancers, to a non-hierarchical setting to improvise together. Improvisation is the key.  More...

Tue 9/02 8:00 PM Little Hill Lounge [10753 San Pablo Ave El Cerrito]
Every First and Third Tuesday of the month, Eli Knowles and Rent Romus perform slow music, jazz ballads, and ambient improvisations while Little Hill serves up classic beverages and cocktail specials.
Special Guests TBA
Free Admission  More...

Wed 9/03 6:30 PM 836M [836 Montgomery Street San Francisco]
836M presents its second Creative Lab with the Kronos Quartet featuring guest musician Victoria Shen  More...

Fri 9/05 7:00 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St. SF]
Screening of "The Secret Life of Plants" (1979) and Plant Music Performance  More...

Fri 9/05 8:30 PM Bird & Beckett Books and Records [653 Chenery St. SF]
The Actual Trio  More...

Sat 9/06 7:30 PM Bird & Beckett Books and Records [653 Chenery St. SF]
Karl Evangelista's Apura - "Bukas" Album Release

Karl Evangelista (guitar, compositions) with Lewis Jordan, Francis Wong (saxophones), Rei Scampavia (keys), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), Donald Robinson (drums)

Karl Evangelista's Apura ensemble reconvenes to celebrate the release of "Bukas," a brand new album available from 577 Records (featuring legendary drummer Andrew Cyrille). Apura presents blazing free jazz with an activist twist, detailing elements of the Filipino-American experience.

Album Out Now on Bandcamp  More...

Sun 9/07 2:00 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St SF]
Harold Carr + Bruce Ackley, Andrew Voigt, Cervino-Wood, Derek Coombs  More...

Sun 9/07 2:00 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St SF]
Bassist Harold Carr has primarily been known as a sideperson (e.g., Lightnin' Hopkins, Bobby McFerrin, Crystal Gayle, Steve Lacy). He is excited to share his compositions in this album release concert featuring long time friends Andrew Voigt (sax & flute), Bruce Ackley (sax), Flavia Cervino-Wood (violin) and Derek Coombs (piano).  More...

Sun 9/07 4:00 PM The Tiger Garage [private studio in south Berkeley, near Ashby BART]
Please note: performance time is now 4 pm
Improvising the Afternoon:
Gusty Winds May Exist (Nancy Beckman & Tom Bickley) with Sarah Grace Graves: Improvisations on the five sections of the medieval Swan Sequence enclose four free improvisations by this trio of performers using voice, shakuhachi, recorder, electronics and percussion. We’re delighted to perform with Sarah Grace before she departs the Bay Area for life in Europe. We hope you can attend!  More...

Sun 9/07 7:00 PM Mills College Littlefield Concert Hall [Richards Rd Oakland, CA 94613]
Other Minds welcomes pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera to present a two piano recital of the music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny (1945–2020) and Robert Ashley (1930–2014) on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland. This concert is part of Other Minds’s PastForward series, presented in cooperation with the Center for Contemporary Music, Northeastern University and Mills Performing Arts.  More...

Sun 9/07 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
Doors That Only Open in Silence (open participation, non-hierarchical workshop in free improvisation)

Monthly series of improvisation research at Temescal Arts Center. Bring your instrument or come to listen. Movement and other disciplines encouraged. No advance notice needed — just show up.  More...

Mon 9/08 7:00 PM SFJAZZ Center [201 Franklin Street (at Fell) SF CA]
Kasey Knudsen Leads the Community Jam Session at SF Jazz  More...

Thu 9/11 7:30 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St. SF]
Gray Area Festival 2025
Three-day festival 9/11, 9/12, 9/13  More...

Thu 9/11 8:00 PM The Back Room [1984 Bonita Ave Berkeley]
Scott Amendola’s SticklerPhonics  More...

Thu 9/11 8:00 PM Peacock Lounge [552 Haight Street, SF, CA]
Bruce Ackley & Fred Lonberg-Holmes
The Anti-cellist arrives at the gate of the Peacock Lounge on Sept. 11. Pupils ablaze with unholy mastery of harmonics, timbre and scale, summoning our own neighborhood druid, Bruce Ackley, weilding the sonic sceptres known as clarinet, soprano and tenor.

JETZTAHORA
From the blind-beyond a fantasy supertrio of Danishta Rivero, Sandy Buschman-Román, and Kyle freaking Bruckmann appears to your ears.

Theresa Wong
Nowhere do past and future comingle more clearly than in Theresa Wong's musical embrace. By voice, cello, light, and through composition new possibilities unfold.

Headboggle
Derek Gedalecia's acoustic/electronic performance-art research utilizing his very own kitchen sink which at any moment might uncork with Moog, Harmonica, Banjo, Harpsichord, Irish Harp, EMS Synthi, Violin, Drums, Clavinet, Serge Modular, field recordings, or your very own squirming brain.  More...

Sat 9/13 12:00 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St SF]
25 years of sculpting soundscapes that dissolve the boundaries of auditory perception - a gourmet banquet for the third ear. Compositions caramelized dissonance glazed in universal abyss harmonics, each experimental trajectory fizz-candied into razor-sharp shards of destabilized madness. The deliciousness of working with these experimental sounds manifests as reality itself phases into criminally perfect audio ventures, creating exhilarating new senses... all served with the huge boon of maximum vegan gourmet pancakes - because what better accompaniment to top-notch sonic experimentation than flapstacks heating the creative edges???  More...

Sat 9/13 3:00 PM San Francisco Public Library, Golden Gate Valley Branch [1801 Green St. San Francisco, CA 94123]
Abstract Lounge: San Francisco singer and improviser David Israel Katz will be spinning a wide range of experimental music from his vinyl collection, blending the liquid with the granular, the muddy with the foggy and the windy with the luminescent.  More...

Sun 9/14 7:30 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St SF]
South Bay flutist Meerenai Shim will perform works from her latest album, The Audacity, including “Vermont Counterpoint” by Steve Reich, "Whispers on the Wind" by The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, and world premieres from Brent Miller and Janice Misurell-Mitchell.  More...

Tue 9/16 8:00 PM Little Hill Lounge [10753 San Pablo Ave El Cerrito]
Every First and Third Tuesday of the month, Eli Knowles and Rent Romus perform slow music, jazz ballads, and ambient improvisations while Little Hill serves up classic beverages and cocktail specials.
Special Guests TBA
Free Admission  More...

Thu 9/18 7:30 PM Wyldflowr Arts [809 37th St West Oakland]
Francis Wong
3-Day Residency
featuring Purple Gums

Get tickets  More...

Thu 9/18 7:30 PM The Back Room [1984 Bonita Ave Berkeley]
INSECT LIFE: Ben Goldberg, Raffi Garabedian, Danny Lubin-Laden, Ben Davis with Myra Melford & Hamir Atwal.  More...

Fri 9/19 6:00 PM Mr Tipple's [39 Fell St SF]
Lisa Mezzacappa Quartet

Two sets:
6:00 pm - 7:05 pm

7:25 pm - 8:30 pm  More...

Fri 9/19 7:30 PM CNMAT [1750 Arch Street Berkeley]
INSECT LIFE: Ben Goldberg, Raffi Garabedian, Danny Lubin-Laden, Ben Davis with Myra Melford & Hamir Atwal  More...

Fri 9/19 8:00 PM Indexical [Tannery Arts Center 1050 River St. #119 Santa Cruz]
Luke Wyland + Briana Marela  More...

Sat 9/20 7:00 PM BKUMC Church [451 MORAGA Way, Orinda CA 94563]
Ensemble ARI, a professional classical group, presents Schumann’s Piano Trio alongside vibrant contemporary works by California composers.  More...

Sat 9/20 8:00 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St SF]
Alex Heigl presents a concert of original compositions augmented by historical images and recordings drawn from the Library of Congress' collection "California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties."  More...

Wed 9/24 8:00 PM Tom's Place [3111 Deakin Street Berkeley]
Twitch: Fred Frith & Jordan Glenn  More...

Thu 9/25 7:30 PM Wyldflowr Arts [809 37th St, Oakland]
Fred Lonberg-Holm w/ Krys Bobrowski and Brenda Hutchinson  More...

Thu 9/25 8:00 PM California Ballroom [1736 FRANKLIN ST. OAKLAND, CA 94612]
Click to make donation  
Award-winning composer and record-holding one-man band, Samson Y Hiss, brings his psychotic ooze of circus horror, opera, and theatre to Oakland. The theatrical experience features an original story, art song, an avant-garde quartet (organ, sax, tuba, percussion), circus performers and overhead projectors. Synopsis? Patient 51 escapes an insane asylum, falls headfirst into a traveling carnival and flees across the desert from the authorities—a wake of vultures. Carnival of Psychos isn't a place, but a theatrical escape hatch into terror and lunacy.  More...

Thu 9/25 8:00 PM Gray Area Art And Technology [2665 Mission St. SF]
Kelly Moran Live AV
with Shipwreck Detective

Join us for an unforgettable evening with Kelly Moran, blending virtuosic piano with electronic dreamscapes.  More...

Fri 9/26 7:00 PM California Ballroom [1736 FRANKLIN ST. OAKLAND, CA 94612]
Click to make donation  
Award-winning composer and record-holding one-man band, Samson Y Hiss, brings his psychotic ooze of circus horror, opera, and theatre to Oakland. The theatrical experience features an original story, art song, an avant-garde quartet (organ, sax, tuba, percussion), circus performers and overhead projectors. Synopsis? Patient 51 escapes an insane asylum, falls headfirst into a traveling carnival and flees across the desert from the authorities—a wake of vultures. Carnival of Psychos isn't a place, but a theatrical escape hatch into terror and lunacy.  More...

Sat 9/27 8:00 PM Indexical [Tannery Arts Center 1050 River St. #119 Santa Cruz]
Rick Walker + David Tristram + CHATT3R  More...

Sun 9/28 8:00 PM Center for New Music [55 Taylor St SF]
Featuring Northern California’s most versatile and innovative musicians—Motoko Honda (pianist-composer), Cory Wright (multi-woodwinds), Jordan Glenn (drums), and Matt Small (bass)—the Simple Excesses Quartet delivers a bold blend of classical chamber music, jazz, free jazz, and experimental sound. Intricate, dynamic, and full of surprises, their performances take audiences through shifting sonic landscapes, captivating both performers and listeners alike.  More...

Thu 10/02 7:00 PM Shapeshifters Cinema [567 5th St. Oakland]
Do-Over Music Series @ Shapeshifters Cinema

7pm: Chris Brown's "RhythmiChrome"
8pm: Improvised music and film with Chris Brown, Matias EA, Danishta Rivero, Sadie Greyduck, Jordan Glenn and films screened and manipulated by the Shapeshifters hosts  More...

Sat 10/04 5:00 PM Indexical [Tannery Arts Center 1050 River St. #119 Santa Cruz]
Whitney Johnson - FIAT  More...

Sun 10/05 2:00 PM The Tiger Garage [a private studio in south Berkeley, near Ashby BART]
The Birthdays Concert by Three Trapped Tigers Recorder Duo (David Barnett & Tom Bickley, recorders and electronics): medieval, trecento, and new music, including selections from Alvin Curran's "Music for Every Occasion," Tom Bickley's "Hibernian Cities/Hebridean islands," and Pete Rose's "Medieval Nights."  More...

Sun 10/05 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
Doors That Only Open in Silence (open participation, non-hierarchical workshop in free improvisation)

Monthly series of improvisation research at Temescal Arts Center. Bring your instrument or come to listen. Movement and other disciplines encouraged. No advance notice needed — just show up.  More...

Tue 10/07 7:30 PM Temescal Arts Center [511 48th Street Oakland]
Improvisation Workshop hosted by Lewis Jordan: Inviting musicians, poets, dancers, to a non-hierarchical setting to improvise together. Improvisation is the key.  More...

Sat 10/11 8:00 PM Indexical [Tannery Arts Center 1050 River St. #119 Santa Cruz]
Maria Chavez + La Macacoa  More...

Sat 10/11 8:00 PM Zellerbach Hall [UC Berkeley Berkeley]
Kronos Quartet will perform new and recent works by an international cohort of strikingly original women composers, including world premieres by Dai Wei and Victoria Shen; plus a special presentation of Beyond the Golden Gate, featuring Wu Man, pipa, in conversation with David Lei.  More...