David Samas is a composer, cosmologist, poet, painter, performer, philosopher, farmer and father of 4; he is a practitioner and professor of arcane healing technologies and traditional magics- a field which includes massage, herbalism, hypnotherapy, psychoacoustics and shamanism. He has a BFA from the SF Art Institute in conceptual art and studied poetics at the New College of California, Vassar, Bennington and S.F. State. As a young man he performed with the SF Boys Chorus, the SF Opera and the SF Symphony with which he won a GRAMMY for the “best classical recording” of 1994. He also makes sacred geometry amulets and talismans, is an excellent cook, and self publishes small editions of hand bound art books.

Lately, he focuses on inventing instruments and extended vocal techniques. He is the creator of the Superb Metaliphone, the Gamelan Piano, the Crystalithaphone, Glassilalia and a number of musical paintings which serve as sets, orchestras and characters for his inventive operas and shadow plays. He uses Tuvan overtone singing and Tibetan deep chanting along with a host of birdsongs, whale songs, howling and polyphonic split tones to weave a dense tapestry of unusual sounds.

David has performed everywhere from the altar of Grace Cathedral on Easter, to the Art in Nature Festival in the Oakland woods, to guerilla audience performances of “orchestrated applause” at the Other Minds Festival and Davis Symphony Hall. David has performed and been interviewed on local and national radio (KALW-2012, PRN-2011, KQUD, Fifi?) on topics as diverse as organic farming, historical shamanism and healing song. His chamber opera “The Green Wood” premiered at Berkeley Arts Festival in Oct. 2012 and will be performed at shotwell studios in march 2013.   His collaborative trombone concerto premièred at Meridian gallery’s Composers in Performance series Nov 2012 and will be performed tellamatically (bicoastaly) with Pauline Oliveros at CCRMA Stanford and Reinssleir Polytechnical simultaneously . He has performed invented instruments at the Exploritorium (2000) and the SF Art Institute (2001) and received honorable mention form the NFA (1997).

check out his invented instruments on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.383195125039619.110511.100000474044278&type=3
or listen to him on soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/david-samas 

David Samas is also the impresario and host of the Turquoise Yantra Grotto-
a house concert series for avant improvisers and invented instrumentalists with a focus on ethno-modernism and extended techniques. TYG holds a monthly event which is part concert, part art opening and part social club, with Chinese tea service, near Glen Canyon in San Francisco. In that context has recently collaborated with Joe Lasqo, Bart Hopkin, Bob Marsh, Laurie Amat and Tom Nunn. 
Check out tyg on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Turquoise-Yantra-Grotto/284577768269213
or listen in at sondcloud: http://soundcloud.com/turquoise-yantra-grott

He currently plays with and composes for Pet the Tiger, an improvised acoustic collective for invented instruments with Grace Renaud (keyboards and percussion), Ash Ritter (idiophones and aquatiphones), and Peter Bonos (horns and explosives).


no matter. try again. fail again. fail better.

Miguel Frasconi is a composer and improviser whose instrumentarium includes glass objects, electronics and instruments of his own design. His glass objects are struck, blown, stroked, smashed and otherwise coaxed into vibration, while his unique approach to composition takes a similar approach, yet solely in the sonic domain. His array of activities have included collaborations with the Balinese composer Dewa Berata on music for a large-scale shadowplay, with operatic tenor John Duykers on unique music/theater events, and with the Tibetan songwriter Techung, with whom he has toured throughout India. He has composed chamber music, most recently for Ensemble IPSE; operas, most recently for Experiments in Opera; and numerous dance scores, most notably as music director for dance pioneer Anna Halprin. In 2017 his live score for Ripe Time’s production of Haruki Murakami’s Sleep was performed at the BAM Next Wave Festival. Miguel has works closely with composers John Cage, Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, James Tenney, Joan La Barbara, and Jon Hassell. In 2012 the New York Times called his CAGE100 Festival @ The Stone "one of the best observances of John Cage's 100th birthday" and included performances by his Noisy Toy Piano Orchestra and John Cage Variety Show Big Band. He was a founding member of The Glass Orchestra, the internationally renowned ensemble featuring all glass instruments (1977-86), and the San Francisco sound-sculpture band Mobius Operandi (1990-95) and has performed as a keyboardist with the Paul Dresher Ensemble (1988-95) and the Philip Glass Ensemble (1992). His music has been released on New Albion, Porter, and Clang.

David Samas is following