Guerrilla Composers Guild, entrepreneurship at SFCM
Nick Benavides is an outgoing graduate composition student at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was recently placed equal first at the biennial SFCM Choral Composition Competition. He had his work for brass ensemble performed by Bay Brass under conductor Edwin Outwater. On top of this, Nick is also one of the founding members of the Bay Area based Guerrilla Composers Guild, which has worked with well over 20 different composers and 4 different groups in the past 2 years.
We have been super lucky with the folks we have gotten the chance to work with. Our list is always growing, but notable mentions are: The SFCM Percussion Department, The International Low Brass Trio, Jarring Sounds, Phonochrome, and singers who normally perform with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, International Orange Chorale, and Cappella SF. As you can see the groups vary in style and approach but all of them are highly accomplished and, just as importantly, entrepreneurial and willing to get their hands dirty.
Every new ensemble has brought something completely unexpected and beautiful to our group, and we've grown immensely in terms of what we feel we can accomplish with each subsequent concert. I've found that most of the groups we work with have an ongoing relationship with both us and also the composers we bring in. Everybody we've worked with we have always found immense artistic support after our project has completed.
Our cast of composers changes with almost every concert. We operate as a mostly small and loose collective with only a handful of members that is kept intentionally small so we can always reach out and work with new folks. The Guerrilla Composers Guild was founded by me, Danny Clay, and Brendon Randall-Myers, though Brendon has since moved to the East Coast. For every concert either Danny or I (or both) will contribute a piece, and then we will recruit anywhere from 4-7 composers to fill out the rest of the set via our online application. This is always super fun, since we get to listen to so much great stuff!
We've worked with composers ranging from high school students to those who have already received PhDs. As you can see, the range is wide. Each concert involves a couple in-person workshops and we try and get a mix of people who will be able to bounce ideas off of one another and really push each other to write at the highest level.
The Guerrillas are all about finding ways to increase listenership and involvement with new music by cultivating a culture. Our events are intimate precisely because we want the audience to be involved. Our programs challenge the audience in that we often leave composers anonymous and present audiences with opportunities to talk about the music and make guesses as to who wrote what. Spoiler alert: those who follow our facebook page and website closely will often get a lot of clues! We like to leave a lot of room for socializing (and often have beer or other beverages at concerts) because we want people to approach performers and composers and talk about the event. We think that by forming small human connections with the art form, that we can help support the culture and interest of new music in the Bay Area (next up, the world!)
We started around January of 2012 when Brendon and I were chatting after a San Francisco Contemporary Music Player's concert... it was a fantastic show and during the reception we just kind of started to think, "why aren't we doing this? It seems like a blast?" Our project has of course evolved to be something totally different, but the inspirations are the same. Soon after I met Danny and before we knew it we were plotting concerts over cups of coffee (our official drink of choice.)
We wanted something that is sort of a hybrid of composer collective, presenter, ensemble, and arts advocate, and ideally we are accomplishing all four! As a business model, here in the Bay we are directly inspired by groups such as Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Switchboard Music Festival, and Composers Inc. All have completely different methods, and we are following in their footsteps in our own, weird, mutt kind of way.
On May 29th we are having one of our most specifically curated concerts ever with Phonochrome! They are a core group of flute/cello/piano (Elizabeth Talbert, Laura Gaynon, and Allegra Chapman) with the ability to call on other forces as needed. They are so amazingly entrepreneurial and have been on a tear as of late in the Bay Area in terms of performances and press. The music for them ranges from piano four hands to a full quartet with outside performers (Pei-Ling Lin and Anne Rainwater). The show's theme is Phonochromaticism, and we are going to explore all the primary colors through separate pieces with George Crumb's iconic Vox Ballanae to anchor us with blue. I think the theme is absolute genius, and must give them credit for it since I am not so clever.
Here is a list of composers and performers and venues that we have collaborated with! It's long, so bear with me, but we are super proud of all of the ensembles and performers especially who have worked so hard on past (and future performances:)
Composers: Phonochrome: Mark Ackerley Nathan Campbell Alex Christie Matthias Mcintire Benjamin Pesetsky Jarring Sounds: Kyle Hovatter Justin Ralls Garrett Shatzer Jon Yu Winton White International Low Brass Trio: Eric Choate Shahab Paranj Matthew Joseph Payne Martin Ulikhanyan Andrew Vickers Lillian Yee Percussion Project: Luis Escareño Lucas Floyd Kaito Nakahori Ryan Rey Vocal Music Showcase: Leslie LaBarre Todd Lerew Elizabeth Kimble Anthony Porter Lucas Ramirez Brendon Randall-Myers Nico Samanez Jeremy White Performers: Phonochrome Jarring Sounds International Low Brass Trio SFCM Percussion Studio (McKenzie Camp, Matt Centanni, Elizabeth Hall, & Nick Matthieson) GCG Vocal Ensemble (Nick Benavides, Elizabeth Kimble, Matthew Peterson, Danielle Reutter-Harrah, Winton White, Anthony Porter) Venues: The Center for New Music Musically Minded Academy Zion Lutheran Church Nick's Guerrilla Garage