Most people are fans of free concerts – especially ones close to campus.

The Festival of New American Music, also known as FeNAM, is celebrating 34 years of existence Thursday through Nov. 13, with artists from Sacramento and all over the country. The festival kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Capistrano Music Recital Hall at Sacramento State with performers Eric and Mary Ross.

FeNAM started in 1978 and has continued to display new American artists at its festivities each year. FeNAM continues to run and be available to the public because of the grants the festival receives. The concert consists of Eric Ross playing the theremin, electric guitar, piano and singing, while Mary Ross controls the media aspect of the performance. A theremin is a purely melodic electronic musical instrument typically played by moving the hands in the electromagnetic fields surrounding two projecting antennae.

This year’s artistic director is Keith Bohm, a saxophone and general education lecturer at Sac State. Bohm was previously the co-director for the past five years, with Stephen Blumberg as artistic director, who was director for the past seven years. This year, the two swapped, now with Blumberg as co-director.

“Usually, a lot of new music festivals are one weekend,” Bohm said. “I think (FeNAM is) something different. I think a lot of people get scared by new music. Sometimes they think it’s going to be music that’s not easy to listen to. I would say that is the biggest misrepresentation of new music.”

FeNAM offers a variety in new music today from American composers. Bohm said the only requirement is for the composer be an American citizen, which then also includes people with dual citizenships and brings in diverse music styles.

Bohm said the festival is one of the longest-running musical festivals in the world and also one of the longest in length.

Along with the many concerts held throughout the 10-day festival, there will also be performances at local high schools. With this outreach program, some of the community will still get to experience the different composers within the festival that might not have been able to otherwise attend the other concerts.

FeNAM also reaches out to the Sacramento community by holding “master classes,” where the artists teach students, at Sac State and it also holds pre-concert talks with the composers. Bohm said the festival has nearly 60 events, which really gives access and opportunity for the community to see what the festival is all about.

Blumberg said the acts differ from group to group. Allegresse Trio will perform more neo-romantic music, whereas Iridium Saxophone Quartet will have tonal music against atonal music. Neo-romantic simply means music that is written in the romantic style of previous centuries, yet written in today’s time. Tonal consists of music that is within traditional music and atonal is marked by avoidance of traditional musical tonality.

Other acts include Zephyrus Duo, Latin jazz act Nagual, Wet Ink Ensemble, California Youth Symphony, Lisa Moore and Martin Bresnick. Bohm said students will get to hear the extremes of what an instrument can actually do.

“We’ve got concerts that range from solo piano up to an orchestra of over a hundred musicians,” Blumberg said.

Bresnick is giving the keynote address Tuesday at noon in the Music Recital Hall. Bohm said he will talk about composition and ideas in new music today.

“He is such a big name today in the compositional world,” Bohm said. “It’s really a great opportunity for students to see someone of such prowess.”

On Thursday, the concert will be broadcast on the Web as well as the radio. In previous years, there has been broadcasting on the radio, but this is the first time FeNAM will broadcast on the web, Bohm said.

Bohm said he hopes to have all the concerts broadcast on the Web for next year.

“What I think is nice about this festival is, not only do we have music that really pushes the boundaries, whether it be what instruments that are being used or video or media, but you also have composers who are writing in this neo-romantic style – very beautiful, very tonal,” Bohm said. “So you’re getting this mix … of genres of music.”

Bohm said the festival shows Sacramento as a really strong leader in contemporary art.

“I think its a great opportunity to educate,” Bohm said. “Not only do we have the performances, but the education aspect is so important. It’s accessible. Accessibility is important, especially in this economy, to have free concerts to broaden your mind, to broaden your ideas of what you think music are. It is one of the few things in this area that brings these types of artists in for free. You don’t see anything like this.”

Courtney Owen can be reached at [email protected].