Welcome to Avonova. We are a house concert venue in Oakland, California dedicated to making top quality live music available to listeners in an informal and comfortable setting. Feel free to poke around and learn more about what we do. For upcoming shows, have a look at the Calendar and Reservations. If you are an artist seeking to play here, go to Booking. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions.

We exist because there is an apparent need for what we provide. Artists and their audience have been to the clubs, halls, night-spots and theaters where the music has traditionally been presented. They come to Avonova because it is an alternative experience to those types of venues. Here, artists are free to create, experiment, challenge each other and take risks, without commercial restrictions. Artists appreciate a rapt audience that listens to their music with no distractions, in an intimate and inspiring environment.

The audience is so a part of the performance that they literally interact with the music as it is being made. At intermission, listeners chat with the artists and buy CDs, meet other music fans over snacks and exchange their experiences and phone numbers. It is an opportunity for connectivity, where community is fostered and maintained.

This type of gathering is increasingly important in our day and age, when music is recorded and distributed in electronic formats that do not necessarily require the musicians to be in the same room at the time of recording, and when audiences often hear the music via ear buds, in solitary, as they perform other tasks. While electronic devices greatly increase access to recorded music, they are no substitute for the in-the-moment experience of witnessing a joyful expression from a group of musicians. Our events aspire to recreate the type of environment where the music was invented in the first place – in people’s living rooms, front porches and backyards. We hope you will join in the fun by attending an upcoming show.