Other Minds is dedicated to the encouragement and propagation of contemporary music in all its forms through concerts, recordings, broadcasts, audio preservation, and public discussions that bring together artists and audiences of diverse traditions, generations, and cultural backgrounds.
RECENT UPDATES
Other Minds welcomed pianist Geoffrey Burleson to present his solo piano recital “From Antheil to Zappa” on Saturday, April 5, 2025, at Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland. Burleson’s performance featured forgotten mid-century masterpieces by American composers, including works by Vincent Persichetti, Gerald Strang, Irving Fine, Norman Dello Joio, Samuel Barber, George Antheil, Frank Zappa, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Herbie Nichols.
New in the Other Minds Archives: the Dorothy Renzi Collection. Soprano Dorothy Ohannesian Renzi (1924–2014) pursued a burgeoning career in New York City during the late 1950s, recording many premieres of music by contemporary composers for MGM Records. In the early 1960s, she moved to her hometown of Fresno, California, where she became a professor of voice in the Music Department at California State University, Fresno. This personal collection of her tapes, discs, and other ephemera documents her long career and includes many live performance recordings otherwise unavailable.
New on OM Records: Thea Farhadian’s Tattoos and Other Markings is an electronic composition exploring the symbolic power of memory. After discovering a rarely discussed tattooing practice among female survivors of the Armenian Genocide, Farhadian became motivated to investigate questions about what has the power to be known and archived, what is remembered and what is forgotten.
Music from Other Minds is a weekly two-hour radio program of new and unusual music by innovative composers and performers around the world. Produced and presented by Other Minds staff members and associates Liam Herb, Joseph Bohigian, Ed Herrmann, and Charles Amirkhanian. Air time is 8pm Sunday evenings on KALW 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A celebration of the centennial of Pierre Boulez, comprising an inventive concert of music for two pianos played by Gloria Cheng and Ralph van Raat at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland on March 26, 2025. The duo performed several pieces by Boulez alongside music by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Frank Zappa, Magnus Lindberg, and Igor Stravinsky.
A bevy of composers convened for the 28th Other Minds Festival at San Francisco’s Brava Theater. The highlight was the world premiere performance of The Cello Quartet by the visionary Seattle-based media artist Trimpin, featuring three autonomous cellos, human cellist Lori Goldston, and a trio of circus artists, choreographed by Margaret Fisher.