How music is chosen for concerts
National Calls for Scores are posted in Newsletters of Society of Composers, Composers Forum, American Music Center and various list services. Deadlines are cited. Deadline for the 2009 concert is July 7, 2008.
Phase I: Composers send photocopies of no more than 10 pages from submitted scores of up to 2 works (no tapes) to Herb Bielawa, Sounds New, 38 Sunset Drive, Kensington, CA 94707. Submissions should include email address, telephone number(s), and mailing address. (Composers whose pieces have been performed in recent concerts should wait three years to submit music again.) Potential program possibilities are made and notices to supply materials for Phase II. Regrets are also sent.
Phase II: Invited composers send full scores and tapes. Deadlines are cited. All members of the ensemble are assembled for an evening of perusing scores and tapes. Players choose works for the program.
Concert Venues: All home concerts are presented at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley in Kensington, California (North Berkeley). The building is stone and concrete and has extraordinary acoustic ambience.
Tour Venues: Concert programs given at other venues can feature a work by one of the local composers at that site.