Music From Other Minds

Percussion music that spans the sonic gamut with taps, scrapes, whistles and space, melodies, rhythms, and noise. Music composed by Charles Amirkhanian, Amy Brandon, Swapan Chaudhuri, Jacob Druckman, Anna Höstman, Roscoe Mitchell, Monica Pearce, Michael Torke, Ryan Scott, Hiroki Tsurumoto, and Mohammed Abdul Wahab; performed by Swapan Chaudhuri, The Meadows Percussion Ensemble, Roscoe Mitchell, Dominic Murcott, Sandbox Percussion, Ryan Scott, Third Coast Percussion, and Trinity Laban Percussion Ensemble.

On this Music from Other Minds, Rachel Schonfeld introduces the music of David Rothenberg by walking through many of his past projects and albums. This program is in preparation for our next Nature of Music 20 on April 16th at 7:30pm at the Goldman Theatre in the David Brower Center where David will give the West Coast premiere of his newest work, Eleven Paths to Animal Music. The program also features music that inspired this work, such as George Crumb’s Vox Balanae, and Olivier Messiaen, and similar, nature-based music, from the Other Minds Label.

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays the work of the late great Bay Area composer Donald Swearingen (1950–2025) to celebrate his numerous contributions to the musical landscape. Selected works include his radio artwork Salvation at 1am, as well as 1924 and Cooking Demonstration, both of which were performed live at the Other Minds Festival 4 in 1997. Also on the program, works by Pamela Z, John McGuire, and Hanna Hartman. 

On this Music from Other Minds, we celebrate the work of French composer Éliane Radigue, who died on February 23, 2026, at the age of 94 in Paris, France. We’ll start with an archival interview from 1980, in which Charles Amirkhanian interviews Radigue on KPFA about her work and musical background and Radigue performs her music live in studio. Then, we’ll hear Laetitia Sonami, a former student, performing Radigue’s Occam IX on her Spring Spyre interface/instrument. We’ll close the program with Mariel Roberts Musa’s sunder, performed by pianist Conor Hanick on her recent New Focus Recordings release.

This Music from Other Minds features two “A” students: 1) أحمد [Ahmed]—a jazz quartet featuring Pat Thomas, Seymour Wright, Joel Grip, and Antonin Gerbal that works to “re-arrange and re-imagine in real time the music of composer, bassist and oud player Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1927-1993)” and 2) selections from Philip Glass’ 1983 opera Akhnaten.

Yoko Ono, born February 18, 1933, is a pioneer in performance art, film, and conceptual art, and is known for her activism for peace and social justice. The first hour of this Music from Other Minds surveys Ono’s life and art, drawing from “Music of the Mind,” a retrospective of her work organized by the Tate Modern in London. The second hour features electronic and instrumental music by Toshi Ichiyanagi (February 4, 1933 – October 7, 2022). He and Ono were married 1956–1963. Together they arranged John Cage and Merce Cunningham’s first visit to Japan. Ichiyanagi was a preeminent Japanese composer, writing chamber and orchestral music, multimedia pieces, operas, electronic music, and music using traditional Japanese instruments.

On this Music from Other Minds, Rachel Schonfeld featured the Dagbe Cultural Troupe. The Troupe is part of the Dagbe Cultural Institute and Arts Centre, a Ghanian organization promoting Ewe (eh-weh) culture, the language, culture, and ethnic group that originated in the Volta region in Ghana. Traditional Ewe music is typically performed in various kinds of social gatherings with a hierarchical drum ensemble and dancers. Schonfeld was lucky to spend a study trip at the Centre in 2024 to learn about West African drumming and dancing practice. The program also featured master-drummer Godwin Agbeli, highlife and jazz from Ghanian guitarist Ebo Taylor, ventured briefly to Nigeria for some afrobeat from Fela Kuti, and ended with Ghanian pop musicians Stonebwoy and Seyram Music, who reinterpret and incorporate Ewe rhythms with a multitude of other global influences.

On this Music from Other Minds, Devin King plays a wide-ranging interview from December 7, 1989 of the English avant-garde guitar player Derek Bailey by the Northern Californian avant-garde guitar player Henry Kaiser.

A true original, Morton Feldman (1926–1987) abandoned systematic approaches to composition in favor of his intuition, working from one sound to the next, usually quiet, and often for very long durations. He was a pioneer in graphic scores, but later in his career returned to conventional notation. This program includes early works such as Intermissions and Durations, as well as selections from his late masterpieces, Clarinet and String Quartet, Crippled Symmetry, Rothko Chapel, and the sublime Piano and String Quartet. We’ll also hear Feldman’s voice in Charles Amirkhanian’s Loudspeakers.

On this rebroadcast of an earlier Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb explores the many approaches to electronic music. Tune in for collage-based compositions of Gordon Mumma and John Oswald (Plunderphonics), the interactive electronics of David Behrman, analog works by Victoria Shen and John Bischoff, electro-reinforced sound poetry by Enzo Minarelli, improvised electronics with drums by Laurie Spiegel, and the kitchen sink with Pauline Oliveros.