Departure Duo / Cheryl E. Leonard + Wobbly

Boston-based DEPARTURE DUO (Nina Guo, soprano and Edward Kass, double bass) returns to the Bay Area with a program of high-low works. Cheryl E. Leonard and Jon Leidecker (AKA Wobbly) explore submerged soundscapes from a local newt pool via field recordings, electronics, and amplified natural objects.

April 12, 2026 7:15pm
$10 - $25

West Oakland Sound Series
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

https://www.sfsound.info/#april-12-2026

MilkBar #58

Music by Thomas Carnacki (Cheryl E. Leonard and Gregory Scharpen). Listening to recordings by Evelyn Ficarra, Heather Frasch, and Myra Melford. Video by Ian Winters. Dance by Paige Starling Sorvillo with sound from Evelyn Ficarra and Kanoko Nishi-Smith. Plus a performance by Kim Ip.

March 27, 2026 8pm doors, 8:30 show
$15-25, NOTA

MilkBar
241A S. 1st Street
Richmond, CA

https://milkbar.org/milkbar-58-march-27th-2026/

Rebecca Lawrence / Oakland Reductionist Orchestra

Sets by bassist Rebecca Lawrence (Berlin) and the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra.

March 8, 2026 7pm
$10 - $25

Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

https://www.sfsound.info

KZSU Day of Noise 2026

All things strange and beautiful. Twenty-four hours straight of live experimentation and improvisation, featuring experimental/noise/drone bands and artists from the Bay Area and beyond. A KZSU tradition since the ’90s: this is the 21th Day of Noise. Listen in on 90.1 FM in the Bay Area and kzsulive.stanford.edu around the world. Euphotic (Bryan Day, Tom Djll, and Cheryl E. Leonard) plays 10:30-11:00am.

January 31, 2026 0:00am - 11:59pm
free

KZSU Stanford 90.1FM

https://kzsu.stanford.edu/dayofnoise/2026/

S*Glass / Petra Zelie / Thomas Carnacki

An evening of sonic textures and projected imagery. Three sets for the price of one evening: each performance approaching the notion of “experimental music” from a different practical angle, but unified by a shared sense of immersion, the subtle, and perhaps the uncanny. Thomas Carnacki (Cheryl E. Leonard and Gregory Scharpen for this iteration) is engaged in unsettling moods, organic sources, occasional flights of whimsy, and subtle nuance. Petra Zélie develops immersive compositions utilizing granular synthesis, voice manipulation, and site-specific interventions. S*Glass creates electro-acoustic sound collages by combining tape music, electronic processing, voice, found sound, and chance operations.

January 18, 2026 7pm

Shapeshifters Cinema
567 5th Street
Oakland, CA

https://www.facebook.com/events/1382961326589570/

UB Radio Salon

Big City Orchestrae • live experimental sound session
 featuring Cheryl E. Leonard, Cliff Neighbors, dAs, and pxe 
on DFM Radio International

January 11, 2026 5-7pm Pacific Time / 2-24am CET

DFM Radio International

http://213.133.109.221:8205/dfm_1

Matt Ingalls / SF Sound / Oakland Reductionist Orchestra

A solo set by Matt Ingalls, plus improvisations and compositions performed by SF Sound and the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra

December 14, 2025 7pm
$10-25

West Oakland Sound Series
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

https://www.sfsound.info

Thomas Carnacki / Meeranai Shim + Anne Rainwater

Thomas Carnacki (Cheryl E. Leonard, Gregory Sharpen, Agnes Szelag) plays an improvised set featuring uneasy textures, nuance, organicity, and peculiarity. Meeranai Shim (flute) and Anne Rainwater (piano) perform duos and solos including works by Emma O’Halloran, Caroline Ansink, Elliot Carter, and Brent Miller.

November 16, 2025 7pm
$10-25

West Oakland Sound Series
Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

https://www.sfsound.info

Queen Bee Micro-Fest #3 Day One

The Oakland Reductionist Orchestra performs in celebration of their new album on Queen Bee Records. Special guest sets by Kristin Miltner (computer), and Roco Córdova (voice, electronics) + Theresa Wong (cello, voice). A reception will follow the music.

November 5, 2025 7pm
$20 at the door

Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

https://www.facebook.com/events/2776934062516863/

Iceline at Code:ART Festival

Iceline, by visual artist Oona Stern and composer Cheryl E. Leonard, is an interactive video and sound installation about melting glaciers and rising sea levels. It will be one of four Urban Interventions installed outdoors in downtown Palo Alto during the Code:ART Festival. Video and audio for Iceline was recorded in Liefdefjorden, Svalbard. The audience is invited to work together to influence the installation and help slow the effects of climate change. Iceline combines art, science, technology, and global citizenship, offering a glimpse into a wild, beautiful, and remote environment.

 October 16, 17, 18, 6-10pm
FREE

Lane 20 and Florence Street
Palo Alto, CA

https://www.paloalto.gov/Departments/Community-Services/Arts-Sciences/Public-Art-Program/CodeART

UB Radio Salon no. 919

UB Radio Salon no. 919
Big City Orchestrae • live experimental sound session
featuring Cheryl E. Leonard, Cliff Neighbors, dAs, pxe
on DFM Radio International

August 24, 2025 5-7pm Pacific Time / 2-4am CEST
free

LISTEN via http://213.133.109.221:8205/dfm_1

https://www.facebook.com/events/1475555163872023

Thomas Carnacki and Ven Voisey

An evening of improvised and composed sounds from Ven Voisey and Thomas Carnacki (Cheryl E. Leonard, Gregory Scharpen, Agnes Szelag).

August 7, 2025 7:30pm doors, 8pm music
$ donation

Temescal Art Center
511 48th Street
Oakland, CA 94609

https://www.bayimproviser.com/EventView.aspx?e=22013

Listening with the Wild

Join us for a sonic journey with composer Cheryl E. Leonard. Leonard will discuss how she has collaborated with wild environments across California, and in both Antarctica and the Arctic, to create music that deepens our connections with the natural world. She will share field recording successes and defeats, instrument-building eureka moments, how to play music on limpet shells, and strategies for notating fizzy icebergs. Her presentation will feature unique audio examples and live demonstrations of natural-object musical instruments. An audience Q & A will follow her talk.

August 2, 2025 3-4pm
free, registration required

Program Room
Sunnyvale Public Library
665 W. Olive Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086

https://sunnyvale.libcal.com/event/14721535

Headlands Summer Open House

A once-a-season opportunity to roam the various buildings at Headlands Center for the Arts, meet current artists, view works in progress, and attend screenings, performances, and readings. See what Artists in Residence and Graduate Fellows are up to in their studios, stop by the Project Space to view in-progress installations, and enjoy a housemade lunch from the Mess Hall. Summer Open House will include an audio installation and two live sets in the Gym by Headlands alum, Cheryl E. Leonard.

July 20, 2025 12-5pm, live sets 1-1:30pm & 3:45-4:15pm
free

Headlands Center for the Arts
944 Simmonds Road
Sausalito, CA 94965

https://www.headlands.org/event/summer-open-house-2025/

Thin Ice

From Antarctic icebergs, to Europe’s largest glacier, to frozen lakes in Yosemite National Park, voices of melting ice are showcased in a musical performance by Cheryl E. Leonard. Field recordings interweave with sounds played live on rocks, shells, driftwood, penguin bones, water, and kelp in compositions about our transforming polar and alpine regions. Rooted in her personal explorations and informed by scientific research, Leonard’s music shares sonic wonders and stories of change from Earth’s icy realms.

July 13, 2025 1-2pm
free

Koret Auditorium
San Francisco Main Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/general-collections/everybodys-climate-2025

Sonic Cartographies II

Blurring boundaries between digital and physical presence, Sonic Cartographies offers a platform for local performers to engage with, interpret, and respond to sonic and visual works shared by Klank.ist members across Berlin, Istanbul, Strasbourg, Graz, Yalova, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Experimental music and interdisciplinary collaboration will be explored through live improvisations, graphic scores, recorded interventions, and multimedia gestures. Performers include Alexandra Buschman-Román, Kyle Brickman, Eryk CB, David Coll, Nathan Corder, Eda Er, Brendan Lai-Tong, Cheryl E. Leonard, Mat Muntz, George Papajohn, Danish Rivero, Danniel Ribeiro, and Eric Theise. With contributions from Ecem Güleç (Yalova). Curated by Eda Er.

July 11, 2025 8pm

2727 California Street
Berkeley, CA

https://www.2727.today/calendar/sonic-cartographies-1

Future Flows Exhibition

Future Flows is a group exhibition examining the San Francisco Bay as both a vital ecosystem and a key indicator of the global climate crisis, and brings together local and international artists to explore pressing challenges related to water. Through a variety of artistic mediums, including immersive installations, soundscapes, social engagement and research-driven works, artists respond to the current precarity of water resources and environmental shifts impacting our world. The exhibition includes music, natural-object instruments, and the graphic score from Cheryl E. Leonard’s “Littoral.” Other featured artists: Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Pete Belkin, Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio, Carolina Caycedo, Patty Chang, Amor Muñoz, Lordy Rodriguez, Debra Scacco, Studio for Urban Projects, and Su Yu Hsin. Curated by Devon Bella and Jodi Roberts.

 April 19 - July 6, 2025
free

Marin Museum of Contemporary Art
1210 Fifth Avenue
San Rafael, CA, 94901

https://www.marinmoca.org/see-and-experience/

Moe!chestra: Death of a Piano

Moe Staiano and Ensemble return to the Buzzard with a much needed performance (and much needed mental release) of Death of A Piano with a full-on 45+ ensemble. Also performing will be Trough (body-horror jangle-squonk), Zebra Secrets (experimental acid jazz collage), and James Goode.

July 5, 2025 7pm doors, 8pm music
$15

First Church of the Buzzard
2601 Adeline Street
Oakland, CA

https://www.facebook.com/events/1415970859580303

Shapeshifters Summer Youth Media Makers Camp

The Shapeshifters Summer Youth Media-Makers Camp is a week-long, hands-on, workshop-style camp for youth, ages 12-17 to learn a variety of DIY, experimental film and sound-based processes from experienced Bay Area-based artists and educators. Campers will come away with basic knowledge of experimental media history and practice, a deeper understanding of visual and auditory sense perceptions, and a foundational toolbox to continue making creative, DIY moving image and sound projects using simple and accessible resources and processes. Scholarships are available for students registered in a Title I school. Cheryl Leonard teaches Found Sound on Tuesday, June 17.

 June 16 - 20, 9am - 3pm
$550, optional +$50 for lunches

Shapeshifters Cinema
567 5th Street
Oakland, CA 94607

https://shapeshifterscinema.com/camp/

Duetting with the Seashore

Join us for a sonic journey with composer Cheryl E. Leonard, who crafts immersive soundscapes using field recordings from the Bay Area and instruments made from seaweed, shells, driftwood, and more. In conversation with curators Devon Bella and Jodi Roberts, Leonard will share how she collaborates with coastal environments to create music that deepens our connection to the natural world. The discussion will be followed by a demonstration of Leonard’s natural-object instruments, including a chance for visitors to try playing them.

June 14, 2025 2-3:30pm
free

Marin Museum of Contemporary Art
1210 Fifth Ave
San Rafael, CA 94901

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/zfx5yru

The Euphotic Zone

Spotlight on local sound ensemble, Euphotic. The group’s three members (Bryan Day, Tom Djll, and Cheryl E. Leonard) are well-established artists in their own right, so we will also explore some of the projects individual members have been involved with outside of Euphotic. Featuring a live set by Tom and Cheryl in the KFJC Pit! Hosted by Max Level.

May 30, 2025 2-6pm
free

KFJC 89.7FM
https://kfjc.org/listen/

https://kfjc.org/listen/program-event-info?eventId=7262

Compound Love, Thomas Carnacki, Thomas Dimuzio, W.O.E.

Composed and improvised sonic worlds from Compound Love, Thomas Carnacki (Cheryl E. Leonard, Gregory Scharpen, Agnes Szelag), Thomas Dimuzio, and W.O.E.

April 10, 2025 8pm
$5-15

Peacock Lounge
552 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117

https://www.facebook.com/events/593124673565069/

Forms & Frequencies with Cheryl E. Leonard

In the March edition of Forms & Frequencies, Cheryl E. Leonard performs music exploring changes to environments and ecosystems in the polar regions and California. This series is programmed in conjunction with Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene, an exhibition featuring forty-four photo-based artists across the globe who use a variety of artistic methods to explore the complexities of this geological time.

March 20, 2025 6:30 - 8pm
free, RSVP at link below

Cantor Arts Center
Stanford University
328 Lomita Dr.
Stanford, CA 94305

https://thethirdplace.is/event/cheryl-leonard

John Davis, Shannon Gray, Cheryl E. Leonard

An evening of performances in conjunction with the art exhibition, Loss & Gain: Text Isle. Sets by John Davis (guitar/electronics/projection), Shannon Gray (aerial dance), and Cheryl E. Leonard (natural-object instruments and field recordings).

March 29, 2025 6-10pm

Art Ark Gallery
1035 South 6th Street
San Jose, CA 95112

https://www.artarkgallery.com/current.html

Lia Kohl + Cheryl E. Leonard

Lia Kohl performs a live rendition of Normal Sounds, her recent solo album on Moonglyph Records. Equal parts reverent and playful, Normal Sounds is built around field recordings of anthropogenic sounds: fridge drones, grocery store beeps, car horns. Using a textural cloud of cello and synthesizers, Kohl alternately hallows and mimics them, offering them to the listener in a new light. Cheryl E. Leonard performs compositions from her Glaciermarks project. Based on fieldwork in Norway’s Hardangerfjord, Jostedalsbreen National Park, and Folgefonna National Park, these pieces explore the lives and languages of mountains, glaciers, and fjords. Sounds played live on rocks, feathers, wood, water, and kelp are interwoven with recordings of wild soundscapes and site-specific improvisations.

February 20, 2025 8pm
$17 advance / $20 door / free or discounted for members

The Lab
2948 16th Street
San Francisco, CA

https://www.thelab.org/projects/2025/2/20/lia-kohl

Mundanas + Oakland Reductionist Orchestra

John McCowen presents Mundanas VII-XI, a set of pieces inspired by the earthquakes preceding the Fagradalsfjall volcanic eruption of March 2021 near his home in Reykjavík, Iceland. The Oakland Reductionist Orchestra is a supergroup of local musicians with a predilection for lowercase/fricative/reductionist acoustic improvisation that often sounds more electronic than acoustic. Performers will include Chris Cooper, Tom Djll, Diane Grubbe, Ron Heglin, Matt Ingalls, Cheryl E. Leonard, Kanoko Nishi-Smith, and more.

February 16, 2025 Doors 8pm / Music 8:30pm
$17 adv / $20 door / free or discounted for members

The Lab
2948 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

https://www.thelab.org/projects/2025/2/16/mundanas-oakland-reductionist-orchestra

KZSU Day of Noise 2025

All things strange and beautiful. Twenty-four hours straight of live experimentation and improvisation, featuring experimental/noise/drone bands and artists from the Bay Area and beyond. A KZSU tradition since the ’90s: this is the 20th Day of Noise.

February 8, 2025 0:00 am - 11:59pm Pacific Time
free

90.1FM in San Francisco Bay Area
https://kzsulive.stanford.edu

https://kzsu.stanford.edu/dayofnoise/2025/

San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2025

America’s only festival devoted to the performance of audio works projected in three-dimensional space, The San Francisco Tape Music Festival features four distinct concerts of classic audio art and new fixed media compositions by local and international composers. Hear members of the SF Tape Music Collective, along with guest composers, shape the sound live over a pristine surround system (24 high-end loudspeakers) with the audience seated in complete darkness. Cheryl E. Leonard’s Eremozoic is part of Friday evening’s concert.

January 10, 2025 8:30pm
$20 general, $10 balcony, $50 festival pass

Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street
San Francisco, CA

http://sfsound.org/tape/

Art in Nature IV Exhibition

This outdoor exhibition features photographs of 80 works by 40 artists from different latitudes. The show brings together artworks made in/with nature, to honor the planet and remind us that we should be in balance with the place where we live. Works will be mounted outside the museum, and on doors and windows in the neighboring town of Carrejo. The exhibition includes Creature and Kraken, two of Leonard’s natural-object musical instruments.

August 20, 2024 12pm opens, runs through 2024
free

Museo de la Naturaleza de Cantabria
Bo. Carrejo, s/n, 39592 Cabezón de la Sal
Cantabria, Spain

https://www.smproart.com/en-gb/arte-en-la-naturaleza-iv

EKG, Cheryl E. Leonard, Sarah Grace Graves + Eda Er, Tsviling

Performances from EKG (Kyle Bruckmann + Ernst Karel) Cheryl E. Leonard (natural-object instruments and field recordings), Sarah Grace Graves + Eda Er, and Tsviling.

December 9, 2024 7pm doors, 8pm music
$15 at the door

Beauty Arts Supply
Oakland, CA

Dogbotic Audio Carnival

The Dogbotic Audio Carnival is a free community event celebrating the release of the book Electronic Music from Scratch. The Carnival features exhibitions from a wide range of San Francisco Bay Area DIY instrument makers, Audiofossil (a dial-up library of extinct sounds), Makerbot (a 12-foot tall inflatable robot), a scavenger hunt, and Indian food from local restaurant Pochy’s. Instrument exhibitors include Bryan Day, Sean Hallowell, Ramona Sharples, Ava Koohboor, Bart Hopkin, Cheryl E. Leonard, and Kirk Pearson.

December 8, 2024 1 - 5pm
all ages, free

924 Gilman Street
Berkeley, CA

https://dogbotic.com

Euphotic, Thea Farhadian + Chris Brown

An evening of free improvisations from Euphotic (Bryan Day: invented instruments, Tom Djll: electronics and trumpet, and Cheryl E. Leonard: natural-object instruments), plus Thea Farhadian (violin/electronics) and Chris Brown (piano/electronics) perform together for the first time.

December 1, 2024 7pm
$10-25

West Oakland Sound Series
Paul Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

http://sfsound.org/series/

Judy Dunaway - Balloon Tapestry with the Sound of it's Own Making

In celebration of her solo exhibition in the Window Gallery, Judy will present a performance version of “Balloon Tapestry with the Sound of Its Own Making” featuring herself, Kattt Atchley, Brenda Hutchinson, Cheryl E. Leonard, Brent Miller and more TBA. Judy will also perform solo free improvisations on amplified latex “tenor” and “twister” balloons.

November 2, 2024 7:30pm
Free with RSVP

Center for New Music
55 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

https://centerfornewmusic.com/event/judy-dunaway-balloon-tapestry-with-the-sound-of-its-own-making-tribute-to-robert-morris/

Will Guthrie, Cheryl E. Leonard

Australian percussionist Will Guthrie performs new works. Cheryl E. Leonard presents a set of recent compositions rooted in fieldwork conducted in Western Norway and along the coast of Northern California. Intertwining sounds played live on amplified natural objects with field recordings of soundscapes and site-specific improvisations, these pieces explore the lives and languages of mountains, glaciers, and forests; and how wild systems respond to, and recover from, human presence.

October 25, 2024 8pm doors, 8:30 music
$16 general / $12 members

Indexical
1050 River Street #119
Santa Cruz, CA

https://www.indexical.org/events/2024-10-25-will-guthrie-cheryl-e-leonard

Cheryl E. Leonard, Aine Nakamura, + special guest

An evening of compositions and improvisations from Cheryl E. Leonard, Aine Nakamura, and a very special guest from Berlin. Fans of field recordings, listening practices, and glacial movements will not want to miss this rare SF performance! Leonard will perform a set of works exploring the lives and languages of mountains, glaciers, and coastlines.

October 20, 2024 7pm
$10-20 donation

Adobe Books
3130 24th Street
San Francisco, CA

HOME WAVES

HOME WAVES is an interdisciplinary performance project navigating precarity and placemaking through a nuanced lens of body, sound, and camera. It will feature live music from Cheryl E. Leonard and Kanoko Nishi-Smith, along with video installation and dance performance by Isak Immanuel, Marina Fukushima, Crystal Mask-Caraway, and Efrem Baluyot (fellow tenants with Mercy Housing), with camera work by Surjit Nongmeikapam (Manipur-based dance artist). Presented as part of Intersection for the Arts’ 2024 Artist-In-Residency Program.

October 11, 2024 7-8pm
free, space is limited, RSVP at link below

Intersection for the Arts
1446 Market Street
San Francisco, CA

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/home-waves-intersection-air-open-process-tickets-1036964918987

Bertoli + Lane, Oakland Reductionist Orchestra

Violin and synthesizer music by Teorema Bertoli (Italy) and Tom Lane (Germany), followed by a set of improvisations in which they join the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra (Chris Cooper, Kevin Corcoran, Tom Djll, Sarah Grace Graves, Diane Grubbe, Ron Heglin, Jacob Felix Heule, Matt Ingalls, John Ingle, Cheryl E. Leonard, Kevin CK Lo, Joshua Marshall, Lisa Mezzacappa, Cody Putnam, Danishta Rivero, Hallie Smith)

September 29, 2024 7pm
$10 -25

West Oakland Sound Series
Paul Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

http://sfsound.org/series/

Nth Annual Skronkathon

An all-day marathon of experimental and weird music featuring some of the Bay Area’s best creative musicians. Cheryl Leonard will be performing as part of the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra (2:40pm), Euphotic (5pm), and Pet the Tiger (7:20pm).

September 1, 2024 noon - 9pm
$10-25

Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

http://sfsound.org/series/

Polar Resoundings

Field recordings from Antarctica and the Arctic intertwine with sounds played live on penguin bones, rocks, shells, driftwood, and kelp in a musical performance by Cheryl E. Leonard. Having witnessed firsthand the wonder and beauty of both polar regions, as well as rapid changes to their environments and ecosystems, Leonard presents a suite of compositions about the ends of our Earth. Informed by scientific research, her music showcases unique sounds from ice, wildlife, and weather, and shares stories from the transforming soundscapes of Svalbard and the Antarctic Peninsula.

July 13, 2024 3pm
free

San Francisco Public Library
Golden Gate Valley Branch
1801 Green Street
San Francisco, CA 94123

https://sfpl.org/events/2024/07/13/performance-polar-resoundings-eco-composer-cheryl-e-leonard

Susanne Lund Pangrazio: The sun sets over us

A solo installation of large-scale mountain paintings by Swedish artist Susanne Lund Pangrazio, accompanied by music from Cheryl E. Leonard, composed while in residence at KH Messen in Ålvik, Norway.

 5/15/24 - 7/3/24 Wed 1-4pm or by appointment

Gallery Altán Klamovka
park Klamovka, Prague 5
Czechia

https://www.aug.cz/en/altan-klamovka/clanek/susanne-lund-pangrazio-se-the-sun-sets-over-us/

Garden of Memory - Summer Solstice Concert

The annual walk-through summer solstice musical extravaganza at the Chapel of the Chimes features simultaneous performances in different parts of the building by Bay Area composers, musicians, sound artists, and other performers presenting a variety of acoustic and electronic music, installations, and interactive events. The audience is free to move throughout the building during the performances. Cheryl Leonard will be playing with Karen Stackpole (gongs + percussion) and Tom Djll (electronics and trumpet). Check the website for the complete list of performers and tips on attending.

ONLINE SALES ONLY. BUY YOUR TICKETS EARLY. THE EVENT WILL SELL OUT.

June 21, 2024 5-9pm
$20 adults, $15 students & seniors, $5 children

Chapel of the Chimes Oakland
4499 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA 94611

https://www.gardenofmemory.com

West Oakland Sound Series: Gretchen Jude + Cheryl E. Leonard

Gretchen Jude (voice, objects, field recordings) and Cheryl E. Leonard (natural-object instruments, field recordings) present Peregrinations, a set of improvisations that delve into sonic minutiae. Very quiet sounds are amplified and dialogue with extended vocal and instrumental techniques as the duo evokes imaginary topographies and ecosystems.

May 12, 2024 7pm
$10 - $25

Dresher Ensemble Studio
2201 Poplar Street
Oakland, CA

http://sfsound.org/series/

Wilding Exhibition

A solo exhibition featuring Cheryl Leonard’s natural-object musical instruments together with an assortment of graphic scores developed over the last two decades. Rooted in first-hand explorations of untamed and re-wilded places, these works are part of her ongoing attempts to untangle how to best duet with environments and ecosystems. Constructed out of materials gathered in California and Norway, the instruments evoke fantastical flora and fauna and produce a wealth of unique timbres, tones, and ambiances. Leonard’s approaches to scoring these instruments include timelines packed with intricate graphic symbols, recipes for improvisations, abstract gesture diagrams, and asemic calligraphies.

 March 1 - May 7, 2024
free

The Window Gallery
Center for New Music
55 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94118

https://centerfornewmusic.com/exhibit/

Wilding - Gallery Reception

Cheryl E. Leonard presents a set of new instruments fashioned from objects found in nature as well as graphic scores meant for use with the instruments. Reception with light refreshments starts at 6pm followed by a talk and mini-performance at 7pm by Leonard.

April 18, 2024 6pm reception, 7pm talk/demo
free

Center for New Music
55 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

https://centerfornewmusic.com/event/gallery-reception-cheryl-e-leonards-wilding/

Heglin/Leonard/Louchard + Euphotic

Improvised sets by two trios: Ron Heglin (trombone, voice), Cheryl Leonard (natural objects) and Ric Louchard (piano; and Euphotic (Bryan Day, Tom Djll, Cheryl Leonard).

April 2, 2024 8pm
donation

Tom's Place
3111 Deakin Street
Berkeley, CA

https://www.bayimproviser.com/EventView.aspx?e=20957

Cheryl E. Leonard, Aine E. Nakamura, Phipps Pt.

Solo sets by Cheryl E. Leonard, Aine E. Nakamura, and Phipps Pt.

March 15, 2024 8pm doors, 9pm music
$15 at the door

Beauty Supply Arts
Oakland, CA

Night of Ideas - Fault Lines: Outside the Lines

The Bay Area’s biggest celebration of creativity and critical thought is back at the San Francisco Public Library’s Main Branch! The fifth annual Night of Ideas brings together an array of local cultural organizations, leading thinkers, and artists to contemplate a future for city life that is more just, culturally vibrant, and sustainable. Join KQED, Asian Art Museum, the San Francisco Public Library and the Villa Albertine San Francisco, along with artistic curating partner Circuit Network, for an inspiring marathon of talks, performances, food, art and collective imagination. Cheryl E. Leonard performs a solo set in the Steve Silver Music Library promptly at 7:25pm as part of the Electronic Music Sound Garden. The other Sound Garden performers are bran(…)pos, Kaleidoscope Spelletich, Laetita Sonami, Jorge Bachmann, and Ava Koohbor. Register in advance for free entry: https://events.kqed.org/790/824

March 2, 2024 7pm - 1am, doors open 6:45pm
free, register at https://events.kqed.org/790/824

San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

https://nightofideas.org/san-francisco/

Cheryl E. Leonard: Wilderness Duets

Fridays with Faculty Event: Composer Cheryl E. Leonard discusses her work and performs pieces inspired by Antarctica, the Arctic, and California.

February 2, 2024 Noon - 1pm
free

270 Gardner Hall
School of Music
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT

https://events.utah.edu/arts/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D172010420

Arts and Sciences in Dialog: Representing Antarctica & Climate Change

A conversation about Antarctica and climate change with Cheryl E. Leonard (Visiting Artist in Film & Media Arts), Kenneth M. Golden (Distinguished Professor of Mathematics), and Emelie Mahdavian (Assistant Professor of Film)

February 1, 2024 5:30 - 7pm
free

Arthur Emery Building, Room 320
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT

Thomas Carnacki & Lexagon

An evening of fine sounds in a stunning architectural environment. Thomas Carnacki (Cheryl E. Leonard, Gregory C. Hagan, and Gregory Scharpen) and Lexagon (Alexa Burrell), perform in the beautiful, intimate Central Works Theater. This will also serve as a record-release show for Carnacki’s “Cadavre Isolé” and “Rencontre Fortuite” albums.

January 25, 2024 7:30 doors, 8pm music
$15 -$20 sliding scale

Central Works Theater
The Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley CA

https://thomascarnacki.bandcamp.com/merch/live-concert-thomas-carnacki-and-lexagon-25-january-2024-berkeley-city-club

Burke & Dimuzio, Æ, Euphotic, Gabbi Wen

Improvised and composed music by Dan Burke & Thomas Dimuzio, Æ (Audial Entanglement), Euphotic (Bryan Day, Tom Djll, and Cheryl E. Leonard), and Gabbi Wen.

January 11, 2024 8pm
$5-$15

Peacock Lounge
552 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA

https://www.facebook.com/events/728544498786892/

Ben Richter / The Oakland Reductionist Orchestra

In its West Coast premiere, composer-accordionist Ben Richter’s just-intonation accordion solo Laramidia creates an alien tonal landscape alternating among timbral fluctuations, melody and drone, and gradual resolution of shimmering, pulsing microtonal intervals. The concert also features the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra, a supergroup of local musicians with a predilection for lowercase/fricative acoustic improvisation that often sounds more electronic than acoustic. Performers: Chris Cooper, Kevin Corcoran, Tom Djll, Sarah Grace Graves, Diane Grubbe, Ron Heglin, Matt Ingalls, Brendan Lai-Tong, Cheryl E. Leonard, Kevin CK Lo, Lisa Mezzacappa, Cody Putman, Danishta Rivero, Kanoko Nishi-Smith.

December 17, 2023 7pm
$10 -$25

Mosswood Chapel
3630 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA

http://sfsound.org/series/

Mills After Mills: Three Days of Crazy Love

This three-day festival gathers a broad cross-section of composers associated with the legendary and now defunct Mills College Music Department for a series of performances driven by questions around legacy, institutional memory, and creative regeneration. Participating artists have been directed towards recordings from the 7000+ item audio archive at the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills, and invited to create new works inspired by their finds and/or create new realizations of these historic compositions.

Thursday’s lineup: House Band (Sally Decker, Brendan Glasson, Briana Marela, Michelle Moeller, Matt Robidoux, Mitch Stahlmann); Junior Mint Prince (Lula Asplund, Naomi Harrison-Clay); Cheryl E. Leonard; John Bischoff and James Fei.

November 9, 2023 8 doors/ 8:30 music
$15 (discounted or free for members)

The Lab
2948 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

https://www.thelab.org/projects/2023/11/9/mills-after-mills-three-days-of-crazy-love

How to Destroy the Universe - Part 8

Since 2003, How to Destroy the Universe has explored transgressive and transformative music/art/culture and counter-culture via Weirdness + Post Punk + Dark Wave + Experimental + Noise.

Saturday October 14: 5pm Videos; 7pm Tension Span (from Neurosis, Christ on Parade; 8pm Moeser (from Savage Republic, The Molecules, Dan Plonsey); 9pm F-SPACE; 10pm Cheryl Leonard + Thomas Dimuzio; 11pm Poster Session Discussion + DJ/VJ.

October 14, 2023 5pm - 11pm
$15 - $40, NOTAFLOF

Omni Commons
4799 Shattuck Ave.
Oakland, CA

https://mobilization.com/destroy8.shtml

Leila Abdul-Rauf / Thomas Carnacki / To End It All (w/ Vanessa Skantze) / M. Sauder

Music and Soundscapes by Leila Abdul-Rauf, Thomas Carnacki (Gregory Hagen, Cheryl E. Leonard, Gregory Scharpen), To End It All (w/ Vanessa Skantze), and M. Sauder.

September 23, 2023 8pm
$16

Teatro de la Psychomachia
1534 1st Ave S
Seattle, WA

https://toenditall.bandcamp.com/merch/9-23-23-seattle-leila-abdul-rauf-thomas-carnacki-to-end-it-all-vanessa-skantze-m-sauder-geist-tse

Leila Abdul-Rauf / Thomas Carnacki / irr. app. (ext.) / The Garbage Man

Music and soundscapes from Leila Abdul-Rauf, Thomas Carnacki (Gregory Hagan, Cheryl E. Leonard, Gregory Scharpen), irr. app. (ext.), and The Garbage Man (DJ set).

September 22, 2023 7pm

Xhurch
4550 NE 20th Ave
Portland, OR

https://xhurch.net/upcoming.html

Leila Abdul-Rauf / Thomas Carnacki / Latona Ogola / To End it All (w/ Vanessa Skantze)

Transcendental soundscapes and musical imagery by groundbreaking artists from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Sets by Leila Abdul-Rauf, Thomas Carnacki (Gregory Hagan, Cheryl E. Leonard, Gregory Scharpen), Latona Ogola, and To End it All (w/ Vanessa Skantze).

September 21, 2023 8 pm
$10

Cryptatropa Bar
421 4th Ave E
Olympia, WA

https://toenditall.bandcamp.com/merch/tix-9-21-23-olympia-latona-odola-leila-abdul-rauf-thomas-carnacki-to-end-it-all-vanessa-skantze

Cheryl E. Leonard + Wobbly / Dokuro

In celebration of their new album, “Multiple Park,” Cheryl E. Leonard and Jon Leidecker (aka ‘Wobbly’) will conjure a set of impossible locations while exploring the space between city life and utter wilderness. Dokuro (Agnes Szelag and The Norman Conquest) perform a site-specific set including projected live drawing by Toby West.

September 10, 2023 7pm
$10-25 sliding scale

Mosswood Chapel
3630 Telegraph Avenue
(enter 2nd door on 37th St)
Oakland, CA

http://sfsound.org/series/

Labor Day Skronkathon

An all-day extravaganza of adventurous music featuring some of the Bay Area’s best creative musicians. Eighteen acts utilize both rooms of the Mosswood Chapel. Cheryl Leonard plays in the Oakland Reductionist Orchestra at 5:45pm.

September 4, 2023 1-9pm
$10 -25 donation

Mosswood Chapel
3630 Telegraph Avenue,
(enter 2nd door on 37th St)
Oakland, CA

http://sfsound.org/series/

Headlands Center for the Arts: Summer Open House

Open House provides a once-a-season opportunity to roam the various buildings of Headlands Center for the Arts, meet current artists, view works in progress, and attend screenings, performances, and readings. Cheryl E. Leonard will host a “Listening Reserve” in her studio, featuring examples of her recent compositions and field recordings, as well as moments of live improvisation.

August 20, 2023 12-5pm
free

Headlands Center for the Arts
944 Simmonds Road
Sausalito, CA 94965

https://www.headlands.org/event/summer-open-house-2023/

Psychobotanikon: Sonic Nature Revealed

Cheryl E. Leonard performs recent works inspired by Norway’s Hardangerfjord and the California coastline. Pet the Tiger performs “Psychobotony.” This iteration of Pet the Tiger will be David Samas, Kanoko Nishi-smith, and Kevin Corcoran (field recordings), with Katarina Countiss (live projection) and Andrew Rose with Dominique Nigro (movement).

August 12, 2023 7:30pm
$30 advance/$40 door

New Mission Yoga
2415 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA

https://momence.com/David-Samas/Psychobotanikon%3A-Sonic-Nature-Revealed/88024443

Murmuration #4 - Performing Place

Listening, making, composing, interacting – a week exploring the possibilities of located sound. Our theme is performing place, considering how we interact with environments as material, memory, and in our need for a more symbiotic understanding of our impact on them. Curated by Jez Riley French and Phoebe Riley Law. Guest artists: Jenny Berger Myhre, Bethan Kellough, and Felicity Mangan. Plus a performance by Cheryl E. Leonard. (Places on the trip are already fully reserved.)

 June 10-16

Private Gathering
Glenshee, Scotland

https://jezrileyfrench.co.uk/murmuration-2023

Kunstnarhuset Messen Open Studios

Open studios with artists Cheryl E. Leonard (USA), Susanne Lund Pangrazio (Sweden), Hans Pulles (Netherlands/Norway), and Reto Steiner (Switzerland).

May 25, 2023 7-9pm
free

Kunstnarhuset Messen
Ålvikvegen 1065
Ålvik, Norway

https://www.khmessen.no

Listening at the Ends of the Earth - Lecture and Performance

Leonard will discuss working with sound in the polar regions, as well as close to her home in California. She’ll explain her compositional process, and describe field recording successes and defeats, instrument-building eureka moments, how to play music on penguin bones, and strategies for notating sounds from limpet shells and fizzy icebergs. Leonard’s performance will include selections from her latest album, Antarctica: Music from the Ice, together with pieces developed from fieldwork in Svalbard and Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

April 13, 2023 5:00-6:00
free, RSVP at https://apply.soc.northwestern.edu/register/sai-cherylleonard-2023

Northwestern Soundstage
Northwestern University
1877 Campus Drive, Room 105
Evanston, IL 60208

https://apply.soc.northwestern.edu/register/sai-cherylleonard-2023

Heglin/Leonard/Louchard at Nebraska Mondays

Nebraska Mondays presents an evening of experimental improvisations by Ron Heglin (voice, trombone), Cheryl E. Leonard (natural-object instruments), and Ric Louchard (piano).

April 10, 2023 7:30pm
$10

Luna's Cafe & Juice Bar
1414 16th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

https://www.lunascafe.com/calendar.html

Full: Radical Divination

Composer and visual artist Gino Robair presents Radical Divination, his “opera of augury through papermaking.” During this event, papermakers create—using performative, game-based structures—a score for an operatic work. That score then serves as a platform for interpretation by an ensemble of musicians and dancers. Musicians include Krys Bobrowski, Kyle Bruckmann, Tom Djll, Cheryl E. Leonard, John Shiurba, and Karen Stackpole.

April 5, 2023 7:30pm
included in museum admission ($14 general / $12 students, disabled, 65+ / Free for members; UC Berkeley students, faculty, staff; 18 and under)

BAMPFA
2155 Center Street
Berkeley, CA

https://bampfa.org/event/full-radical-divination

Cheryl Leonard, Foot SOS, Risa, The Human Deselection & Realization Nature Group

An evening of experimental sound from Cheryl E. Leonard, Foot SOS, Risa, and The Human Deselection & Realization Nature Group. More details coming soon.

March 9, 2023 8pm
$5-$15 sliding scale

Peacock Lounge
552 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA

https://fb.me/e/3fjzf44pB

Vinny Golia's Heptacontakaiheptagon Ensemble

Outsound Presents Vinny Golia celebrating 77 years with a special 77 piece large ensemble (Heptacontakaiheptagon) made up of some of the most adventurous musicians from the Bay Area and beyond. The award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist will debut a new piece created especially for this event.

March 5, 2023 7pm
$10-$40 sliding scale

Berkeley Finnish Hall
1970 Chestnut Street
Berkeley, CA

https://fb.me/e/2hsAfIQ2T

Sustain - Playground Ensemble

The Playground Ensemble presents an evening of music centered around the environment, works that point to the fragility and resilience of Earth and of ourselves. Here are beautiful and resonant compositions using bones from Antarctica as instruments; a work that calls out the plight of deforestation; a work connecting our region’s wind patterns to drum beats. This event is a partnership with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, including pairing local composer Sarah Whitnah and a climatologist for a world premiere. Cheryl Leonard’s Antarctic work, “Fluxes,” will be performed together with video by Oona Stern.

February 10, 2023 6-8pm

Saturn Auditorium
Denver Botanic Gardens
1007 York Street
Denver, CO, 80206

https://www.playgroundensemble.org/calendar/sustain

Post-Score Exhibition

Exhibition of graphic and text event scores from over 30 artists across media, from music and performance to poetry and painting. Artists created new event scores on index cards and sent them as mail art through the USPS. Included work ranges from text instructions in the tradition of Pauline Oliveros’s Sonic Meditations, to mutated traditional musical notation, to drawings and performance texts, showcasing the breadth of the form. The exhibition includes Cheryl E. Leonard’s graphic/text score “Ánemos.”

 Jan 13 - Feb 19, 2023
free

CO-OPt Research + Projects
4202 Boston Ave
Lubbock, TX

https://www.co-opt.art/postscore

San Francisco Tape Music Festival

America’s only festival devoted to the performance of audio works projected in three-dimensional space, The San Francisco Tape Music Festival features four distinct concerts of classic audio art and new fixed media compositions by 46 local and international composers. Composers shape the sound live over a pristine surround system (24 high-end loudspeakers) with the audience seated in complete darkness. Friday night’s concert includes “Multiple Park” by Cheryl E. Leonard and Jon Leidecker.

January 13, 2023 - 8:30 pm
$20 general, $10 balcony, $50 festival pass

Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street
San Francisco 94110

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/san-francisco-tape-music-festival-2023-tickets-475963267947

Psychobotanikon

Thomas Dimuzio, Cheryl E. Leonard, and David Samas perform three sets of improvised music with low dose tea service. New sounds creating new neurons.

Doors at 7, tea at at 7:30. No admittance after 7:45. Music 8-10:30.

December 15, 2022 - 7pm
$30

Turquoise Yantra Grotto
32 Turquoise Way
San Francisco, CA 94131

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/psychobotanikon-tickets-482807900427

Surround Salon Series #8

A monthly informal show in which composers present their works through the 8-channel surround system, provided by Meyer Sound. Works are mixed from the center of the space and the audience is free to choose their own listening location and move around within the space. This iteration features music by Danishta Rivero Castro, Nathan Corder, and Cheryl E. Leonard’s Antarctic piece, Meltwater.

November 6, 2022 4pm
$15 general, $10 members and students

Center for New Music

55 Taylor Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

https://centerfornewmusic.com/

LSG Creative Music Series: Euphotic, Ernesto Diaz-Infante

8pm: Euphotic – Bryan Day (invented instruments), Tom Djll (trumpet, electronics) and Cheryl E. Leonard (natural objects) improvise intersteller expeditions
9pm: Ernesto Diaz-Infante – solo electric guitar

October 19, 2022 8pm
$10-25 sliding scale (no one turned away for lack of funds), 
masks recommended

Luggage Store Gallery

1007 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

https://www.bayimproviser.com/venue/7/luggage-store-creative-music-series

Found Sound Workshop

Explore techniques for making and recording unsual sounds in this hands-on workshop. Learn about microphones and conventional and unconventional ways to use them. Uncover unique sounds from found objects, and investigate approaches to playing objects/materials in situ and assembling objects into “instruments.” Leonard will also share field recording tips and techniques. All skill levels welcome!

October 16, 2022 1-5pm
$45 (discount for Shapeshifters members)

Shapeshifters Cinema
567 5th Street
Oakland, CA 94607

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/found-sound-workshop-with-cheryl-e-leonard-tickets-409611106847

Antarctica: Music from the Ice - album release event

An evening of listening to Antarctica in celebration of Cheryl E. Leonard’s latest album, Antarctica: Music from the Ice. Leonard will give a short slideshow about the project, share field recordings from Antarctica (including previously-unreleased ones), and perform a solo set of compositions from the album. Stick around after the music for informal Q & A and an Antarctic instrument petting zoo.

October 7, 2022 8pm
$10-$25

Shapeshifters Cinema
567 5th Street
Oakland, CA 94607

http://www.shapeshifterscinema.com/#cinema

Mosswood Sound Series: Thomas Carnacki and Grale

Thomas Carnacki (Cheryl E. Leonard and Gregory Scharpen), and Grale (Gregory Hagan and Dale Sophiea) concoct unsettling soundscapes for the discriminating ear.

Masks and vaccination required for entry. Performers may be unmasked.

September 23, 2022 8pm
$10-$25

Mosswood Chapel
3630 Telegraph (enter 2nd door on 37th Street)
Oakland, CA

http://www.sfsound.org/series

Cheryl E. Leonard: Listening at the Ocean's Edge

Sounds played live on sand, shells, stones, and seaweed mix with recordings from California’s coastline in a musical performance by Cheryl E. Leonard. Inspired by our state’s rapidly-changing beaches, estuaries, and coastal cliffs, Leonard explores how land and sea interface.

August 20, 2022 2pm
Outdoors and Free!

San Francisco Public Library
Richmond District Branch
351 9th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118

Adequate Earth: Artists and Writers in Antarctica

Ongoing Event

The Antarctic Artists and Writers Collective presents an online exhibition of works by 13 former participants of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Adequate Earth portrays Antarctica through photography, sculpture, video art, musical compositions, poetry, and science illustration. Curated by Ulrike Heine, the exhibition includes works by Kirsten Carlson, Susan Fox Rodgers, Helen Glazer, Henry Kaiser, Cheryl E. Leonard, Greg Neri, Shaun O’Boyle, Michelle Schwengel-Regal

 


https://www.aawcollective.com/adequate-earth-exhibition