Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release: A Mills College Music Reunion Concert

Presented by Mills College at Northeastern University, the Center for Contemporary Music, and Mills Performing Arts

This event is Free and Open to the Public

Registration Requested

An evening of new music, free improvisation, and sonic exploration, this concert celebrates the enduring creative connections forged at Mills College and the adventurous spirit of the music that continues to grow from them.

Sally Decker & Brendan Glasson open the evening with a portion of their work in progress, Mirrored Variation. Using grand piano, electric organs, and synthesizers in four-channel sound, the duo weaves patient musical movements that explore independence, connection, and interdependence through a shifting cast of instrumental relationships.

The Brown-Davis Duo, Chris Brown & Ben Davis, bring their celebrated partnership of piano, electronics, cello, and percussion, developed through years of free improvisation and drawing on deep roots in new music, jazz, and classical traditions. Performing with a live sampling system that expands their improvisations into instantly rendered orchestral textures, Brown and Davis pursue a constant search for new ideas and sounds. Their 2025 release Jongleurs was praised by the East Bay Express for its "mercurial dialogues" and openness to "a sudden shift in perspective."

Robert Lopez, Aaron Oppenheim, and Shanna Sordahl close the night with a set of free improvisation, bringing together three singular voices from the Bay Area's new music community.

A conversation between the artists, moderated by David Bernstein, will follow the concert.

Artist Bios:

Chris Brown, composer, pianist, and electronic musician, creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles. Collaboration and improvisation are consistent themes in his work, along with the invention and performance of new electronic instruments and software.

cbmuse.com

Ben Davis, cellist and composer, concentrates on fusing his classical, jazz and contemporary music experiences into a raw vehicle of acoustic expression. He studied cello and composition at the Guildhall, London and started to improvise while playing for the dance company Earthfall Dance, UK. His own group Basquiat Strings collaborated with Ellery Eskerlin in the BBC Electric Proms and was nominated for the Mercury Music Awards 2007.

bendavismusic.com

Sally Decker is a composer & performer working with feedback, synthesizers, text and voice. She explores the emotional potential of sounds as portals of connection. Her approach to form and process is rooted in embodied knowing, healing processes, and sound as a vessel for practicing presence. She has performed at venues such as The Lab, SFMOMA, Indexical, Pioneer Works, and has been featured by The Quarterless Review, WFMU, and Bandcamp Daily. Her album In The Tender Dream was released in 2021 on NNA Tapes. She also collaborates in duo projects with Brendan Glasson and with Briana Marela.

sallydecker.net

Brendan Glasson is a musician living and working in Oakland, CA. He is interested in detail, texture, and slowness as launching points for a kind of augmented experience of duration and listening. His forthcoming album, h i g h l a n d (Wow! signal) explores synthesized utopian landscapes. His 2019 collection of work, "The Reality of People" and Other Works for Reed Organ (Debacle Records), focuses on finding tone clusters that activate resonances in the organ, creating a pulsing, throbbing music of limited gesture. Brendan collaborates in several projects, including: a duo with Sally Decker, Risa with Mitch Stahlmann, and he tours playing synthesizers and guitar with Chris Cohen, Cole Pulice, and Briana Marela. Brendan holds an MFA from Mills College, where he worked for several years as Technical Director for the Center for Contemporary Music. He is currently a Montalvo Lucas Arts Music and Composition fellow.

brendanglasson.com

Robert Lopez is a percussionist, improviser and researcher based in Oakland. Since 2011, he has been an active member of the Bay Area new music community working with groups SO AR, the Red Room Orchestra, Grex and Jordan Glenn’s BEAK among others. Since 2014, he has maintained a close relationship with Brazilian master drummer Jorge Alabê. This partnership has led to presentations at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, awards from the Fulbright US Student Program and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. He is currently a PhD student in Ethnomusicology and UC Davis and teaches at the San Francisco Community Music Center.

robertlopezmusic.net

Aaron Oppenheim is a composer and multimedia artist currently working as the Technical Director for the Center for Contemporary Music at Northeastern University Oakland. Aaron received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in 2013, where he studied with renowned musicians and composers such as Roscoe Mitchell, Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins, John Bischoff, Chris Brown, and James Fei. His recent work focuses on using cheap and obsolete electronics to create pseudo-natural processes and spontaneous compositions. Aaron has recordings as a composer or performer available on Full Spectrum Records, Geomancy Records, and Other Minds.

aaronoppenheim.com

Shanna Sordahl is a sound artist and composer based in Oakland, CA. Shanna’s work is a continual exploration of one's relationship to both sound and physical spaces, questioning ingrained relationships and patterns of perception while articulating unexpected processes of change. They often employ unconventional playing techniques combined with electronics or amplification to emphasize timbral changes and the resonant body of the cello. They have collaborated with a wide array of choreographers, composers, and musicians including Simpson/Stulberg Collaborations, Wax Poet(s), Trimpin, Wrekmeister Harmonies, and Sarah Davachi. With an MFA in Electronic Music Composition from Mills College, Shanna is currently pursuing a DMA at the University of California Santa Cruz, where they are focusing on relationships between composition, outdoor spaces, and neurodivergence.

shannasordahl.net

Questions/Accommodations? Email: [email protected]

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