The Switchboard Music Festival is an 8-hour music festival bringing together composers and musicians who are all pushing the boundaries of their respective genres—and, whether they’re aware of it or not, are pushing towards each other. No other Bay Area music festival or concert series is dedicated to the idea of bringing together such an eclectic, genre-crossing/-breaking/-bastardizing group of experimentalists, innovators, and musical omnivores. This is a concert designed for an audience grown accustomed to the boundary-less world of the internet and the iPod, where all music is equal and must meet only one criterion: It must sound good.

A Switchboard Festival audience member is there seeking music that challenges their notions of musical style. They know that great music comes in many styles and forms, of which only a fraction is represented on the radio, or even in the biggest record store. This is a listener who enjoys interacting with their music, being challenged by it and perhaps exposed to new modes of listening. The question, “What kind of music do you like?” confounds them. They like good music, in all its endless variety and mongrel manifestations.

Being local performers ourselves, we have had first hand contact with some of the finest and most original musicians in the Bay Area. The groups featured on the Switchboard Music Festival include: the Del Sol Quartet, Edmund Welles: the bass clarinet quartet, Amy X Neuburg, Slydini, Inner Ear Brigade, and Gamelan X. In addition, as composers we have encountered many like-minded artists who deserve attention from a broader public. These include: Osvaldo Golijov, Dan Becker, Jonathan Russell, Christopher Adler, Ian Dicke, Ryan Brown, Robin Estrada, Erik Jekabson, Ian DIckinson and Aaron Novik.

JEFF ANDERLE is a clarinetist and bass clarinetist currently enjoying an extremely varied musical life as a member of the ensembles Edmund Welles (a bass clarinet quartet), Sqwonk (a bass clarinet duo) and Redshift (a small contemporary ensemble based in NY). He has also performed with groups such as the Del Sol String Quartet, the Adorno Ensemble, and New Music Works. Visit him at www.jeffanderle.com

Composer-performer RYAN BROWN's compositions have been performed by many notable groups, performers, and presenters, including Bang on a Can All-Stars Lisa Moore and Mark Stewart, the Robin Cox Ensemble, the BluePrint Project, and the MATA Festival. He recently won the Gerbode Foundation's 2007 Emerging Composer Award. Upcoming premieres and commissions include music for violinist Todd Reynolds, Sqwonk, and the Paul Dresher Electro-Acoustic Band. For more information visit his website at www.ryanbrownmusic.net

JONATHAN RUSSELL writes music for a wide range of ensembles, from orchestra to chorus to rock band. His works have been performed by many groups, including the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Empyrean Ensemble, new music bands Capital M and FIREWORKS, Edmund Welles, and pianists Sarah Cahill and Lisa Moore. Also an active performer, he is co-founder of the Sqwonk bass clarinet duo, and a member of the Edmund Welles bass clarinet quartet and the klezmer/Balkan/avant-improv band Zoyres. www.jonrussellmusic.com

New Music Bay Area was formed around 1990 by composers, musicians and new music lovers in the Bay Area and for the first decade of its life was know as the 20th Century FORUM.
The primary objectives of New Music Bay Area are:

•To provide performance opportunities and related services to composers, performers and presenters of new musical, mixed media and performance art works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

•To provide music education and related services for the purpose of promoting contemporary music in the community.

•To stimulate interest in and community support for the works of local composers.

•To encourage composers and performers to participate in the production of new works.

We accomplish these goals by a mixture of activities including the organization of concerts, calls for scores of new music, and the regular publication of a calendar of events and newsletters in both print and on the Web. We are well known for our printed calendar of events, the Music of Changes, as well as the concerts we sponsor such as the popular Chapel of the Chimes event held each year during the summer solstice and featuring contemporary composers in an otherworldly setting.