The Neighborhood Concert Hall
February 8, 2021 marked the 40th anniversary of the first concert presented by San Francisco Live Arts!
I’d like to send a big shout out and thank you to all our friends who have been so great about coming to our concerts and supporting us and all the extraordinary performers we’ve presented throughout these many years.
We hope you’re staying safe and observing all precautions for Covid.
Our series started at the Noe Valley Ministry on February 8, 1981 with a concert by saxophonist Bishop Norman Williams. Originally called Noe Valley Jazz the first series of concerts was held on Sunday afternoons. Bobby McFerrin (with Mark Little) performed two months later. That fall, we switched to Saturday evenings and rechristened it as The Noe Valley Music Series (at Noe Valley Ministry). For the next 30 years we featured many great international and local artists (Bill Frisell, Warren Zevon, Joan Baez, Jesse Winchester, Gil Scott-Heron, & so many more). 10 years ago (due to renovations at NVM) we moved to St. Cyprian’s at Turk & Lyon and continued our great series there, renaming it SF Live Arts at Cyprian’s. We have featured an enormous range of performers -comedians, actors, dance companies, monologists, & visual artists in addtion to, of course, musicians. In fact, we’ve presented a full range of MEGOT performers: Mac Arthur Genius, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award winners over the years, Here’s one of our flyers from 1984 (look at those ticket prices!)
We’ve always prided ourselves in presenting top performers in an intimate concert setting at very reasonable prices and will continue to do so (hopefully starting sometime this year).
We’ll be looking forward to having performers we’ve had to cancel, so look out for Trance Mission, Ancient Future & Noah Gundersen, along with others we love, like David Jacobs-Strain, Diana Gameros, Van-Anh Vanesssa Vo, Mahsa Vahdat and many more at our venue in late summer or fall. AND we’ll celebrate the 40th Anniversary of our concert series! With that in mind, we’re planning on doing some shows back at the Noe Valley Ministry (our original venue) as well as at our home venue, St. Cyprian’s Church.
We look forward to seeing you and hearing some great music at our venues next year!
Thanks again for all your support.
Take Care & Stay safe,
Larry Kassin & the SF Live Arts crew
Since 1981, SF Live Arts at Cyprian’s (formerly Noe Valley Music Series) has earned a reputation as one of the most diverse and innovative music/performance series in the Bay Area.
The series has garnered praise for its programming of nationally and internationally known musicians (many who’ve won Grammys, Academy Awards, Mac Arthur “Genius” Grants and Guggenheim fellowships) and Bay Area performers of the highest quality. Founded by jazz flutist, Larry Kassin, SF Live Arts depends on grants and donations to bring their special blend of international and local musical talents to San Francisco.
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TRANCE MISSION – POSTPONED
$18adv/$22 door
In March 2020, TRANCE MISSION releases Le Pendu, their fifth album and first in over two decades. This new trio version of the San Francisco Bay Area’s original “4th World” band celebrates the dynamic confluence of three extraordinary multi-instrumentalists/composers at the top of their game. Trance Mission founders Beth Custer and Stephen Kent have collaborated since first meeting in San Francisco in the early 90’s. Peter Valsamis joined them in 1997. Sculpted in California over the last several years Le Pendu is an expansive aural journey combining virtuoso acoustic musicianship into a unique and eclectic world of sound. The driving multi-phonic tones of Kent’s didgeridoos, together with Valsamis’s brilliantly versatile and musically inventive drumming sets the stage for the gorgeous melodies of Custer’s clarinets. Her soulful tunes and funky riffs duet with Kent’s guttural growls and kickass grooves. The layering of ambient percussion, swinging bass lines and spare, vital use of electronic atmospheres underpin the arrangements and keep the band true to their global roots in both ancient and contemporary musical fields.
LIVE in concert, with the addition of guitarist Anastasi Mavrides emphasizing the recorded evidence of Le Pendu, this TRANCE MISSION dives into the current with a fresh and vibrant urban tribal approach that is as vital now as ever!
Beth Custer – Bb, Alto, Bass & Contrabass Clarinets
Stephen Kent – Didgeridoo, Cello-Sintir, Percussion, Bass
Peter Valsamis – Drum Set, Dumbek, Bendir, Electronics
With: Anastasi Mavrides – Guitar, Bass
Facebook.com/TranceMissionTrio