fbpx

Skip links

Since January 2005, Music From Other Minds has presented new and unusual music by innovative composers and performers from around the world. Produced weekly for KALW 91.7 FM San Francisco by Charles Amirkhanian and the Other Minds staff, and aired at 8pm every Sunday, Music From Other Minds aims to open up radio listeners to experimental classical work by living and recent composers. We bring you the latest in contemporary music from around the world, and some glimpses into the past, to give a context for today’s music.

Follow this link for information and track listings from programs prior to program 501.
Follow this link to download a complete list of works played on MFOM up to program 791.

Previous Programs

Program 783: To Hell and Back

In this week’s program, electronic artist Philippe Petit offers a new interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Using a Buchla system and other analog synthesizers, prepared piano, sounds from inside the piano, metal percussion, cymbalon, field recordings, and voices, Petit creates a stunning adaptation of the 14th Century classic. Tracing Dante’s trip through Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise, it’s a mind bending journey on a cinematic scale. A few screams will be heard, but don’t abandon hope! The program opens with Diamanda Galás singing John Lee Hooker’s “Burning Hell” and concludes with an excerpt from Éliane Radigue’s electronic portrayal of the bardo, Kyema, Intermediate States.

Program 782: A Piano Recital by Emily Wong

On this program, we’ll listen to an archival recording of an Ode to Gravity program from 1982. From a recording made on August 2, 1982, pianist Emily Wong performs a live recital of both modern and more classical compositions in the KPFA studios. Charles Amirkhanian hosts the broadcast and provides some background about each of the pieces, which include a rare performance of early works by Conlon Nancarrow, a selection of standards by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy, and two works by John Adams. The program finishes with an excerpt of Russ Jennings’ 1987 interview with the late artist Marian Zazeela and composer La Monte Young about their collaborative work, The Well-Tuned Piano.

Program 781: Before Other Minds

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb takes us back to the Composer-to-Composer Festival, a proto-Other Minds of sorts, which took place from 1988-1991 in Telluride, CO. Founded by Charles Amirkhanian and John Lifton as an opportunity for composers from across literal and ideological seas to meet and discuss their works, this four year experiment was home to performances by composers like Henry Brant, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Conlon Nancarrow, and many more.

Program 780: New Releases

On this program, we’ll listen to recently released music by Øyvind Torvund, Soosan Lolavar, Wendy Eisenberg, and Nadah El Shazly, as well as selections from Movses Pogossian’s monumental new 4-disc set of Armenian chamber music by Artur Avanesov, Tigran Mansurian, Vache Sharafyan, and Koharik Gazarossian.

Program 779: Loren Rush

Bay Area native Loren Rush had a long and varied career. Spanning over 50 years, his compositions explored aleatoric procedures, minimalism, serialism, just intonation, and the search for beauty. He was chairman of the Composition Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and director of the Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. As a co-founder of the Good Sound Foundation, he pioneered the digital enhancement of acoustic sounds. This program presents music from the few commercial recordings of Loren Rush’s music, as well as historical recordings from the Other Minds Archives.

Program 778: 100 Years of Benjamin Lees

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Benjamin Lees (January 8, 1924–May 31, 2010). To celebrate, we’re broadcasting some archival interviews with Lees from the Other Minds Archives. Lees was born in Harbin, Manchuria to Jewish parents who had fled pogroms in Ukraine. His family moved to the United States the next year, settling in San Francisco. He was a student of George Antheil and came into public attention as a composer in the 1950s, receiving commissions from major American orchestras.

Program 777: Dennis Russell Davies at 80

Dennis Russell Davies was born April 16, 1944, in Toledo, Ohio, studied piano and conducting at New York’s Juilliard School, and developed a wide-ranging repertoire from Baroque to modern.

On Friday, March 22, 2024, Other Minds will celebrate Dennis Russell Davies’ 80th birthday in San Francisco with a sold out concert of piano music by Bedřich Smetana, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, and John Cage.

Tune in to this program to hear past performances by Davies, both solo and with Maki Namekawa.

Program 776: Górecki: The Other Symphonies

The Polish composer Henryk Górecki (1933–2010) is most well known for his third symphony, composed in 1976, which became a rare commercial success in 1992 via a recording released that year by Nonesuch Records with the London Sinfonietta and soprano Dawn Upshaw. Górecki also wrote three other symphonies, all much less known than the third, and these works form the bulk of this program. Closing out the program is Symphony No. 4 by Alexandre Tansman, the 20th century Polish composer and dedicatee of Górecki’s fourth symphony.

Program 775: Henry Threadgill: Beyond the Pulitzer Prize

In 2016, Henry Threadgill won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his composition In For A Penny, In For A Pound, joining Ornette Coleman and Wynton Marsalis as the only jazz artists to receive the award. Threadgill’s recent compositions are based on sets of intervals and metric patterns, often unique to each player. Along with a movement from In For A Penny, In For A Pound, this program features And More Dirt, excerpts from Old Locks and Irregular Verbs, plus a 2022 concert performance, Of Valence.

Program 774: From the Archive—Robin Rubenstein (1980)

On this Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb broadcasts Charles Amirkhanian’s conversation with pianist Robin Rubenstein (1980). Tune in to hear in studio performances and tapes of Rubenstein performing Brahms, Gershwin, Grainger, and more.

Close Search

Start typing and press Enter to search