Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St, San Francisco, CA 94108
Saturday, September 10, 2022
7pm doors / 8pm show
Tickets $20 (discounted or free for members)
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Mask required for entry
Sarah Davachi (b. 1987, Canada) is a composer and performer whose work is concerned with the close intricacies of timbral and temporal space, utilizing extended durations and considered harmonic structures that emphasize gradual variations in texture, overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena, and tuning and intonation. Her compositions span both solo and chamber ensemble formats, incorporating a wide range of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Similarly informed by minimalist and long-form tenets, early music concepts of intervallic and modal harmony, as well as experimental production practices of the electroacoustic studio environment, in her sound is an intimate and patient experience that lessens perceptions of the familiar and the distant.
In addition to her acclaimed recorded output, Davachi has toured extensively alongside artists such as Grouper, Ellen Arkbro, Oren Ambarchi, William Basinski, Catherine Lamb, Aaron Dilloway, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Michael Pisaro, Loren Connors, Áine O'Dwyer, David Rosenboom, Arnold Dreyblatt, and filmmaker Paul Clipson. Commissioned projects include large-scale works for the London Contemporary Orchestra, Quatuor Bozzini, Yarn/Wire, Apartment House, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Cello Octet Amsterdam, Bonner Kunstverein, the Canadian International Organ Competition, and Western Front New Music. Her work has been presented internationally by Southbank Centre (London, UK), Kontraklang (Berlin, DE), Radio France (Paris, FR), Issue Project Room (New York, USA), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, DE), Organ Reframed (London, UK), The Getty (Los Angeles, USA), Lampo (Chicago, USA), Orgelpark (Amsterdam, NL), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht, NL), Barbican Centre (London, UK), The Museum of Jurassic Technology (Los Angeles, USA), Tusk Festival (Newcastle, UK), Suoni Per Il Popolo (Montréal, CA), Mazeum Festival (Kyoto, JP), Ambient Church (Los Angeles, USA), Open Frame (Sydney, AU), Unsound (Krakow, PL), Temppeliaukio Church (Helsinki, FI), and Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid, ES). In 2020 she founded Late Music, an imprint within the partner labels division of Warp Records.
Between 2007 and 2017, Davachi had the unique opportunity to work for the National Music Centre in Canada as an interpreter and content developer of their collection of acoustic and electronic keyboard instruments. She has held artist residencies with The Banff Centre for the Arts, Composer's Kitchen, STEIM, Elektronmusikstudion, OBORO, the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, the National Music Centre, and the Swiss Museum & Center for Electronic Music Instruments, and holds a master's degree in electronic music and recording media from Mills College in Oakland, California. Davachi is currently a doctoral candidate in musicology at UCLA, focusing on timbre, phenomenology, and critical organology, and is based in Los Angeles, California.
Photo by Alex Waber