Trance Mission

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Garden of Memory

June 20, 2018 in Club Foot Orchestra, Trance Mission, Uncategorized by Beth | Permalink

My very favorite annual concert is tomorrow, June 21st, the solstice gig known as Garden of Memory. I’ll be performing with didgeridoo master Stephen Kent, we’ll be playing our chestnuts, our new works, and some improvisations. Stop by for a bit and then wonder on through the cavernous halls with 50+ musicians gracing every square inch of the Julia Morgan designed treasure of a building, the Chapel of Chimes. Not to be missed I reckon!

Early August will bring Trance Mission to the Indijinus Festival in Oregon. They don’t have the lineup online yet but check back soon, we’ll be performing either August 10 or 11th in case you’re in the Oregon ‘hood!

Club Foot Orchestra will be performing a marathon of some of our silent film scores as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival on September 15th at the glorious Castro Theatre. Bring your kids, grannies, and grandkids!

It is with profound gratitude that I have received the venerable San Francisco Arts Commission award to compose a work on climate change in collaboration with Cellista and her Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble in 2019. More on that as it develops!

Hope to see you out there!

Red House Concert Series: Rinde Eckert!

September 20, 2016 in Red House Speak Easy, Trance Mission by Beth | Permalink

I’m restarting our Red House Speak Easy house concert series again with amazing Rinde Eckert. An amazing musician with a voice like no other, I got to perform with Rinde in the early ’90’s on Gina Leishman‘s lovely Burning Dreams opera in San Diego. Don’t miss this cherished musician in our intimate, acoustically wonderful house concert setting.

Stephen Kent and I will be toiling away on a new CD during the months of October and November. To celebrate our toils, we’ve got another Maybeck Studios gig on October 16th, 3pm. Don’t be square!

I have the premiere of my first foray into composing for orchestra coming up. Thanks to Bernie Weiner, three songs I composed, two with lyrics by Weiner, will be performed by the Mill Valley Philharmonic November 4, 5, 6 in Mill Valley and San Rafael. Check their site for times.

Can you believe I’ve never been to New Orleans? I can’t. I remedied this quandary by putting two plane tickets on a credit card for early October in celebration of my husband’s 65th birthday. If you’d like to buy us a meal or a beignet, a concert ticket or a plane ticket, go here to contribute. Much appreciated.

Cheers,

Beth

From the Gateway to Yosemite to the SF Russian Center!

June 9, 2015 in Beth Custer Ensemble, Stephen Kent/Trance Mission, Trance Mission by Beth | Permalink

Dear Lovely Ones,

Being a full time musician is a grace, it’s lovely to do what you love for a living. People often ask me ‘why do you play in so many bands?’ I’ve pondered this often and run the gamut of reasons but the one that shines through is my desire to play music in as many situations as possible, I love the challenge that each musical endeavor presents.

Whether it’s playing in my first ever Sondheim musical at the Drew School (Into the Woods, what a lovely score, thanks for hiring me James Garrison!), to scoring a film (don’t miss Plastic Man this summer!), to performing a live original score to Bee Film by Cathy Lee Crane, to recording The Beth Custer Ensemble‘s upcoming release in Jeff Cressman‘s cozy studio (almost done!), to teaching private music lessons, to performing with my ensembles, I have a lot of work to do every day and it’s fascinatingly challenging. Anyway… I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do, so there you have it.

One of my very favorite ensembles to play with is Trance Mission. After years of being somewhat dormant as a group we’ll be blossoming out big time this month on June 12th at Cousin Jack’s Mariposa Evenings music festival, on June 13th Russian Center in SF, and at Chapel of Chimes Garden of Memory on June 21st. Come out and hear our new material that we recently recorded and are priming to release soon (hopefully in the fall) and chestnuts from our four seminal releases. Big congrats to Sir Stephen Kent for being honored by Berkeley City Council as Artist of the Month, well done!

You too can commission a composer as the Bernal Hill Players so generously did with me thanks to a grant from SFFCM. I created Four Hidden Stairways of San Francisco for them and the premiere is at the Presidio Officer’s Club on June 19, 6pm and it’s free!

All the Very Best,

Beth