"Welcome and explore and inquire into everything, new or old, that comes your way, and then build your own music on whatever your inner life has been able to take in and offer you back again."
-Henry Cowell, "From Tone Clusters to Contemporary Listeners," Music Journal, 1956
Other Minds Presents
Henry Cowell: The Whole World of Music
Two distinct concerts of music by Henry Cowell
Thursday, November 12, 8pm
Valley Presbyterian Church, Portola Valley
Friday, November 13
7pm Panel Discussion, 8pm Concert
Presidio Chapel, San Francisco
Tickets
November 12: $20 general, $15 students/seniors
November 13: $25 general, $20 students/seniors
Two-concert Pass: $40 / $30 students & seniors
*****
LIMITED TIME OFFER: Two-concert pass for only $30! Use the code New Music. Click to purchase.
After August 31, this price will only be available for students and seniors.
*****
After extensive research into the archives of the under-appreciated American composer Henry Cowell (1897-1965), OM will mount Henry Cowell: The Whole World of Music, to include two separate concert programs in November 2009 (on the 12th in Portola Valley, CA, and on the 13th in San Francisco, CA) featuring Cowell's music exclusively. Among the works to be presented will be well-known compositions like Set of Five (1952), more obscure pieces like Quartet Euphometric (1916-19) and Sonata for Violin & Piano (1945), his complete organ works, and even a number of unpublished songs. A pre-concert panel discussion on November 13 will include composer John Duffy, founder of Meet the Composer and student of both Cowell and Aaron Copland; Joel Sachs, founder and conductor of New York's new music ensemble Continuum and author of a forthcoming Cowell biography (Oxford University Press); and Charles Amirkhanian. The Whole World of Music will also include an exhibition of Cowell's manuscripts, notes, and artwork. Featured performers will be the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, pianist Sarah Cahill, mezzo-soprano Wendy Hillhouse, organist Sandra Soderlund, and the Colorado String Quartet.
Henry Cowell: The Whole World of Music has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.
2. OM announces artists for 15th Other Minds Festival
Other Minds, in cooperation with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Eugene and Elinor Friend Center for the Arts of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, is proud to announce that the following artists will be featured at the 15th Other Minds Music Festival (OM 15), March 4-6, 2010, in San Francisco.Lisa Bielawa (USA)
Lars-Gunnar Bodin (Sweden)
Chou Wen-chung (China/USA)
Jürg Frey (Switzerland)
Tom Johnson (France)
Kidd Jordan (USA)
Carla Kihlstedt (USA)
Pawel Mykietyn (Poland)
Gyan Riley (USA)
Beginning next month, OM will offer MindAlert readers exclusive previews of each artist to be featured at OM 15. This year's Festival will bring to the Bay Area four highly influential senior composers:
* Perhaps the first modern Chinese composer to emigrate to the US, Chou Wen-chung became the founder of a movement for contemporary Chinese music, and counted among his students Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Ge Gan-ru (OM 9), and Chinary Ung (OM 14).
* Kidd Jordan of New Orleans organized the first World Saxophone Quartet, and in 2005 received knighthood from the Republic of France.
* Lars-Gunnar Bodin was an instrumental force (without instruments) in the transformation of Sweden's Fylkingen Society and its Electronic Music Studio into a hub of innovative electro-acoustic music.
* From 1972 to 1982, composer Tom Johnson was also one of the most influential new music critics in the US, writing brilliant reviews for the Village Voice of emerging "other minds" of the day such as Frederic Rzewski (OM 3), Pauline Oliveros (OM 8), La Monte Young (OM 3), Meredith Monk (OM 1), Philip Glass (OM 1), and Paul Dresher (OM 4).
These new music stalwarts will be joined by local talents Gyan Riley and Carla Kihlstedt, Bay Area ex-pat Lisa Bielawa, Switzerland's radical minimalist Jürg Frey, and Poland's rising star, Pawel Mykietyn.
Save the dates--March 4, 5, and 6--and watch for special ticket offers, available only to MindAlert readers, or to secure the best possible seats, buy your tickets now!
3. OM Archive to add Tenney treasures
The Other Minds Preservation Project, which has already made available hundreds of interviews and performances on radiOM.org, is proud to announce a new partnership with the Estate of James Tenney. The new effort will help preserve and make available on radiOM.org a variety of treasures from the personal audio archive of James Tenney (1934-2006), including:* Recordings of 1960s concerts by the Tone Roads Chamber Ensemble and others, of music by Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, Gavin Bryars, Conlon Nancarrow, and others
* Performances by Tenney of Sonatas & Interludes by John Cage and Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord" by Charles Ives, the latter of which Jim notoriously performed from memory!
* A wealth of unreleased recordings of Tenney's own music, including unknown orchestral masterpieces and test mixes of his early electronic music, dubbed from the original analog tape masters
* Rare interviews with Tenney as well as Alvin Lucier and John Cage
OM is thrilled to help make this incredible material available to the world, but needs your help to make it possible -- please donate what you can to help the OM Archive!
4. Now available for free listening at radiOM.org
Today we celebrate the 74th birthday of writer, composer, and former KPFA Music Director Charles Shere, who was born August 20, 1935 in Berkeley, CA, and raised on a small farm in Sonoma County. Listen to some of the amazing programs he produced for KPFA on radiOM.org, including this one:Interview with Morton Feldman, July 1967
This wide ranging, literate, and always fascinating conversation between composer Morton Feldman and writer/composer/journalist (and former KPFA music director) Charles Shere touches on the work of various composers, performers, artists, and writers. Feldman talks about ways of composing, including his own, and to what degree a composer is "on the make" with regard to his audience. The composers Feldman and Shere comment on include John Cage, Christian Wolff, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, and Milton Babbitt. Surprisingly, Feldman admits to admiring Babbitt, and wishes that he himself could write serialized music freehand, like Babbitt. Is it true that music will always have a great past, but never a great future? Is Feldman's music limited because he doesn't believe in Hegel? Discover the answers in this fascinating conversation. Thanks to the Estate of Morton Feldman for permission to share this historic interview (All Rights Reserved).
Also available for free listening at radiOM.org:
Speaking of Music: Laurie Anderson, 1984
In an interview recorded on December 6, 1984, before a live audience of 1000 as part of the San Francisco Exploratorium's Speaking of Music series, Charles Amirkhanian speaks with Laurie Anderson about songs from her album Mister Heartbreak. Anderson discusses the influences on many of the songs on that album including "Kokoku" and "Sharkey's Day." In addition, the composer explains this album's departure from her former release, Big Science, which contained the hit song "O Superman." Anderson's sense of humor emerges in stories of her "past" lives, the controversy of extinct animal cloning, and a funny incident with her "clone" being spotted in New York City. Anderson discusses and plays the music of those who have influenced her through the years, including Ken Nordine, Bongo Joe, and Henry Fiol, as well as her immersion in Cuban music through club visits in uptown New York, and how it has affected her music on her latest album. Anderson also discusses the origins and variations of the song "O Superman (for Massenet)." She plays a Jules Massenet piece sung by Charles Holland ("O Souverain") then her own "O Superman," as well as various bootleg/cover versions of "O Superman." She discusses the Eventide Harmonizer and illustrates the "three states of a song" by analyzing the song "It's Cold Outside" which was to become "Big Science" and listens to variations of both pieces. Anderson also delves into the transforming nature of technology, takes questions from the audience, and talks about writer William S. Burroughs.
Divertimento for Orchestra by Bruno Maderna & Luciano Berio (1973)
Charles Amirkhanian introduces the little known Divertimento for Orchestra, composed jointly by two Italian avant-garde composers, Bruno Maderna and Luciano Berio. Amirkhanian came upon this rare recording when rummaging through the archives of the West German Radio in Cologne, while on an exchange program with the Dutch radio station VPRO, in late 1973. The work is in three movements, the first, "Dark Rapture Crawl" by Maderna, and the second and third, "Scat Bag" and "Rhumba-Ramble" by Berio. This is a recording on a 1958 performance by the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Bruno Maderna.
Ode To Gravity: Bon Bonn Bon (1970)
Originally broadcast on the evening of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, this program would have had the deaf composer holding his head in amazement. An energetic mix of assorted musical genres, this program combines the madness one would associate with the Fugs with the elegance reminiscent of a Chopin nocturne, and with a healthy dose of jazz and a little bit of poetry by Ezra Pound thrown in for seasoning. The show concludes with a work for piano by the Maestro himself. A stunning tour de force of free-form avant-garde radio. Produced by Charles Amirkhanian and Richard Friedman this show also introduces the Harvey Shaw Ensemble of Florida in their West Coast premiere broadcast.
5. Muhal Richard Abrams receives NEA Jazz Masters Award
The pioneering pianist of creative music and OM Festival alum, Muhal Richard Abrams (pictured here with Ashot Zograbyan at OM 2, photo by John Fago), has received one of the most prestigious awards in jazz: He was one of eight artists honored with a 2010 NEA Jazz Masters award (official info here). NEA Jazz Masters are selected from nominations submitted by the public and receive a one-time grant award of $25,000. The other honorees for 2010 are: Kenny Barron, Bill Holman, Bobby Hutcherson, Yusef Lateef, Annie Ross, Cedar Walton, George Avakian. They will all be publicly honored in an awards ceremony and concert on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Abrams was born in Chicago and emerged in the mid 1960s as the co-founder and first president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). He moved to New York in 1975 and established an AACM chapter there, while also expanding his compositional activities; his String Quartet No. 2 was premiered by the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall in 1985. Abrams continues to tour and record: check him out on YouTube, in a performance in Zürich from last year.
6. Eventwire: New Frequencies @ Yerba Buena
New Frequencies @ YBCAThursday, August 20, 6 pm: Jackeline Rago & Steve Hogan Duo/ Kev Choice & Jennifer Johns Duo
Saturday, August 22, 8 pm: Juana Molina/ Amy X Neuburg & The Cello ChiXtet
Thursday, August 27, 6 pm: Chris Brown/ Mason Bates & David Arend Duo
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
New Frequencies @ YBCA features both emerging and world class musicians that expand the global landscape. In the galleries, musicians respond directly to the work of eight visual artists commissioned for YBCA’s exhibition Wallworks. Concerts in the Forum feature pioneers from the experimental music world, including OM alum Amy X Neuberg (OM 9).
7. Eventwire: San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
The San Francisco Electronic Music FestivalWednesday, September 16 through Saturday, September 19, 8pm
Brava Theater Center, San Francisco
The tenth annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival consists of four evenings of performances by internationally recognized artists and musicians in the electronic music field. The technology represented will range from old school synthesizers to laptop computer patches, including exploration of interactions between acoustic and electronic instruments and charting the artistic evolution of several of the festival's founders.The entire festival will be bookended with a debut of new work by festival founder Miya Masaoka (OM 3) on Wednesday evening and an intermedia performance by longest standing festival organizer Pamela Z on Saturday evening. Performances by two other festival founders, Ed Osborn and Donald Swearingen, will take place on the interceding nights, as the SFEMF celebrates its 10th anniversary (Pamela Z and Swearingen are pictured at right at OM 4, photo by John Fago). This year's lineup also includes Mason Bates, Frank Bretschneider (Berlin), Preshish Moments, Maria Chavez (New York), Joan La Barbara (New York), Lukas Ligeti (New York, OM 3), Gino Robair, [ruidobello], and Mark Trayle (Los Angeles). Lobby Installation by Dokuro.
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