Bonnie Wright doesn’t play an instrument, compose or perform. But that hasn’t stopped some of the world’s most acclaimed cutting-edge music artists from happily singing her praises over the past two decades.
Their praise is now reaching a crescendo for Wright, 83, who says of herself simply: “I listen and listen.”
On Friday at Liberty Station, the San Diego native will host the 224th and final installment of her groundbreaking Fresh Sound concerts.
The series started small, by design, in 1997. It stayed small, also by design, while featuring giants and rising stars from across the spectrum of risk-taking, forward-looking music.
“The Fresh Sound series became known around the world,” said composer and former University of California San Diego music professor George Lewis. Now the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University, Lewis is the recipient of a 2002 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, as well as a 2015 American Academy of Arts and Sciences inductee and a 2019 Doris Duke Foundation Award honoree.
“It was great for San Diego, as a city, to have that kind of audacious alternative-experimental concert series on a regular basis,” Lewis continued, speaking from his New York home. “That the series was basically run by one person — one super-energetic person with exquisite musical taste — is extraordinary.”
Those sentiments are seconded by percussion dynamo and UC San Diego music professor Steven Schick, whose 15-year tenure as music director of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus will conclude in 2022. He performed solo at the Fresh Sound debut concert in 1997 and will do so again at Friday’s finale. Schick has performed at Fresh Sound more than any other artist, both on his own and with several different ensembles.
“The mark of a great city of culture is measured less by its profiled palaces of fine art and more by the vitality of the lives of the artists themselves,” said Schick, the 2020 recipient of the prestigious Ditson Conductor’s Award.
“For 24 years, Bonnie Wright has been the muse and muscle — the indefatigable advocate and guiding light for the kind of grassroots creative exploration that makes a city great,” Schick continued.
“She has fostered and presented more creative and adventurous musicians than any other single person I know anywhere in the world. She is nothing less than a treasure.”
Wright has never done anything by the numbers in her nearly quarter-century of presenting concerts. But she cites some very specific numbers for her decision to now draw her Fresh Sound series to a close.
“I’ve done 224 concerts over 24 years. I’m now 83 — and 8 times 3 is 24,” she said. “I know that sounds glib, but I have no other reason. Maybe I just feel like it’s enough.”
Award-winning orchestra conductor and composer Steven Schick holds Fresh Sound concert mastermind Bonnie Wright in the highest esteem. “She has fostered and presented more creative and adventurous musicians than any other single person I know anywhere in the world,” he says. “She is nothing less than a treasure.”
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Appetite for aural adventures
The concerts Wright has presented have showcased everything from contemporary classical, outside-the-box jazz and electronica to entirely improvised music and an altogether unclassifiable amalgamation of styles. The artists who have appeared under the auspices of Fresh Sound at various San Diego venues over the years are remarkable by almost any standard.
They have ranged from minimalist pioneer Terry Riley, former Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, Tijuana’s Nortec Collective and visionary English guitarist Derek Bailey to electronic music maverick and accordionist Pauline Oliveros, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Dutch drum legend Sir Han Bennink and pianist, composer and 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Davis.
Wright has also featured standout young talents who went on to achieve national acclaim. A sampling includes pianist/composer Vijay Iyer, guitarist Nels Cline (both before and after he joined the band Wilco), saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, singer and electronic-music provocateur Pamela Z and vocal wizard Theo Bleckmann.
Fresh Sound also hosted the San Diego debut of Chris Brown (albeit the edgy pianist of that name, not the controversial R&B singer). And it served as a key creative incubator for Trummerflora Collective, a San Diego group of like-minded experimental musicians whose ranks included saxophonist Jason Robinson, pianist Ellen Weller, electronics ace Hans Fjellestad, guitarist Marcos Fernandes and percussionist Nathan Hubbard.
Most of the artists Wright has spotlighted share an appetite for charting new sonic territory and a constant quest to push the limits of their creativity. With Fresh Sound, she was able to champion them in an intimate setting ideal for attentive listening.
Equally impressive, Wright was able to do so as a labor of love on a shoestring budget that saw her host out-of-town musicians at her Mission Hills home. The musicians were responsible for providing their own meals and transportation to and from San Diego.
“I paid each of them a tiny, flat fee of $500,” Wright said. “When I heard and met performers I liked in New York, Vancouver, or wherever, I’d say: ‘If you are ever doing a tour of the West Coast and want to play in San Diego, call me.’
“There were never any contracts, so it was all done on a handshake (basis). That’s why I kept the series small. If someone wanted to come play for $500, that was great. If they didn’t, they didn’t come.”
She chuckled.
“We did concerts with such major artists as Terry Riley and Vijay Iyer,” Wright said proudly. “I sure as hell couldn’t afford them now!”
The San Diego native proudly named some of the other visionary artists Fresh Sound has presented. She also acknowledged that, as human beings, some of those artists did not come close to measuring up their illuminating music.
“I had a few people play the series, who I’m not going to name, who were real a--holes, " Wright said. “I never had them come back again. Doing this series for 24 years has been great and I’ve enjoyed all of it — except for, you know, some of the a--holes!”
For open-minded listeners, Fresh Sound provided a welcome platform to experience up-close performances by a coterie of dedicated, resolutely uncompromising artists. Many of them would not have performed here if Wright had not provided that platform.
“What an amazing series Bonnie has had,” said Sharon Griswold, a retired administrator for the city of San Diego.
“The musicians she has presented — even the electronic ones who I thought would not be my cup of tea — have always been interesting and really good. We’ve attended concerts at every venue Fresh Sound had been held in.”
Her husband, retired UC San Diego medical professor Bill Griswold, agreed, adding: “We’d never seen Terry Riley before he played for Fresh Sound. Bonnie brought artists here who have a real talent for playing very special music.”
Electronic musicians Bostich (left) and Fussible, who co-founded Tijuana’s acclaimed Nortec Collective, are among the notable international artists who have performed Fresh Sound concerts over the past 24 years.
(Jacobo Parra para La Tuna Group)
Freewheeling academic inspiration
It was while attending UC San Diego in the 1990s that Wright studied with — and befriended — Lewis, Schick and other genre-blurring standouts. Their daring work inspired her to launch the Fresh Sound series.
“She followed her instincts, which are formidable, and her ears,” said Lewis, who fondly recalls the paper Wright wrote for his UC San Diego class on the impact of jazz saxophone icon John Coltrane’s 1966 “Ascension” album. She subsequently became his concert tour manager.
“Bonnie’s affiliation with me may have helped open a few doors at first, but she created her own credibility,” Lewis said. “And she did this incredible series for more than 20 years. I just hope someone in the future steps up to do something in San Diego like she did.”
It was Lewis, specifically, who encouraged her to start a concert series.
“The whole idea when I started Fresh Sound was to keep myself connected to music and to bring artists to San Diego that people here didn’t otherwise get to hear,” said Wright, who singlehandedly curated and produced the series.
She presented her concerts without any paid staff, relying on a handful of dedicated volunteers to help set up and take down rows of folding chairs, sell tickets at the door and operate the audio system. With no advertising budget whatsoever, Wright depended on media coverage and word-of-mouth to promote Fresh Sound.
She was as eager to learn as her audiences and to look forward and back, sometimes simultaneously. She did precisely that with “Illuminating the Evolution of Electronic Music,” a four-part Fresh Sound series in 2009 that featured soundscape artist Margaret Noble and vocal wizard Susan Narucki.
Wright is an endlessly enthusiastic great-grandmother who married at 19, divorced at 29 and then entered the business world to support her three children. She laughed when asked what her reaction would have been if, in 1997, anyone had predicted Fresh Sound would last for nearly a quarter of a century.
“I would have said: ‘Of course, I’ll still be here!’ ” she said, laughing again. Wright then grew more contemplative.
“I had no idea if it would last. But once I did start and the musicians stayed at my house and I got to know them, it really became a fun ride and I have stayed connected with the music. That’s why I’m worried about what comes next.”
What, exactly, might be next?
“I don’t know,” she replied. “That’s the problem! We’ll see. Maybe I’ll do some house concerts at my home.”
Wright is also the founder of Henceforth Records, an indie label she created in 2006 to release music by some of the same artists who performed at Fresh Sound. The label has put out 11 albums to date, although she takes exception to being called a musical entrepreneur.
“‘Entrepreneur’ is not quite right, because it makes it sound like I did it for money, and I never did it for money,” Wright stressed.
“The whole idea was to keep it small, so that nobody could boss me around, and to make new music available to the community.
“One of the things I really liked is the people who were at almost every Fresh Sound concert. If they are there for the last concert on Friday, I will thank them in person because they were willing to take a chance with me.
“I like to say: ‘If you don’t hear all the music, how will you hear the music you like?’ In order to hear the really good stuff, curiosity is the key.”
A moving musical feast
Bonnie Wright’s Fresh Sound concert series has been held at various San Diego venues since launching in 1997. Here’s a chronological look at the different locations and some of the featured performers.
1997-2002: Spruce Street Forum in Bankers Hill. First concert: Steven Schick. Final concert: Joelle Leandre, George Lewis, Lisle Ellis and bass Willie Winant.
2004: San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. First concert:
Miller Puckette and Juliana Snapper. Final concert: Steve Feld.
2005-2008: The series was on hiatus while Wright lived in New York City, where she scouted new musical talent for the next decade of Fresh Sound.
2009-2010: Sushi Contemporary Performance & Visual Art in downtown’s East Village. First concert: Nels & Alex Cline. Last concert: Oliver Lake.
2011: The Loft@UC San Diego in La Jolla. First concert: Pamela Z. Last concert: Alex Nowitz.
2012, 2013 and early 2014: Space 4 Art gallery in downtown’s East Village. First concert: Ben Goldberg Trio. Last concert: Todd Reynolds.
2014-2018: Bread & Salt in Logan Heights. First concert: Erik Byers. Last concert: Ches Smith Trio.
2019-2020: White Box Theater at Liberty Station. First concert: Stephanie Richards. Last concert: Carl Stone. (Most of the 2020 and all of the 2021 Fresh Sound seasons fell through as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
(In 2014, one Fresh Sound concert was held at the Athenaeum School for the Arts in University Heights and two were held at the Loft@UC San Diego in La Jolla.)
Fresh Sound farewell concert, featuring Steven Schick
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: White Box Theater, 2650 Truxtun Road, Suite 205, Liberty Station
Tickets: $10 (students), $20 (general public); reservations are required.
Phone: (619) 987-6214
Online: freshsoundmusicseries.com/steven-schick-percussion
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Fresh Sound concert series, Bonnie Wright's showcase for cutting-edge music, to bid farewell after 24 years - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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