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In this January 2012 issue:
1. OM 17 Composer Preview: Harold Budd
2. OM 17 Composer Preview: Simon Steen-Andersen
3. Listen to the music of OM 17 Composers on MFOM
4. Travel to Spoleto with Other Minds, May 31-June 4
5. A Fong Farewell / Other Minds is hiring
6. Eventwire: John Cage's MUSICIRCUS
7. Super Bowl Antidote: Thomas Buckner with Annea Lockwood
8. Eventwire: Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927) with Oakland East Bay Symphony
1. OM 17 Composer Preview: Harold Budd
"I like the arbitrary restrictions that one places on oneself, so that you don't get scatterbrained and don't reach for everything that's available. Keep your focus very narrow: just this and nothing more, and make that absolutely exquisite."
At the age of 75, Harold Budd has made his musical name thanks to the discipline of keeping a very narrow focus. His understanding of minimalism and his use of consonant harmonies both symbolize a revolt against mid-century modernism. Budd explains that in the 1970s he made a conscious break, both psychologically and aesthetically, by purposely creating music that was "so sweet and pretty and decorative that it would positively upset and revolt the avant-garde."
This stance helped him pioneer ambient music, as he left his teaching post at California Institute of the Arts to record new compositions with producer Brian Eno, and continue writing and recording his cycle of compositions titled The Pavilion of Dreams.
Budd brings his trademark atmospheric piano style to the Other Minds stage in collaboration with Seattle bassist Keith Lowe on Friday, March 2.
Buy tickets for OM 17
2. OM 17 Composer Preview: Simon Steen-Andersen
Following studies with Karl Rasmussen and Bent Sørensen (OM 14) in Aarhus, Denmark's Simon Steen-Andersen has lived and worked in Paris, Freiburg, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen and Rome. Now, at the age of 35, he's landed in Berlin after a DAAD Residency.
Steen-Andersen's peripatetic musical career has garnered a host of prizes and awards, but it's his continual search for "the human being behind the instrument" that makes him one of the most intriguing young voices in European music. His recent pieces place barely audible sounds under extreme amplification, revealing a micro-world of sounds.
Steen-Andersen's work will help kick off the first evening of three OM 17 concerts at the JCCSF. The Norwegian ensemble asamisimasa performs a set of his works including Study for String Instrument #3, a haunting work for cello with a "video-shadow."
Buy tickets for OM 17
3. Listen to the music of OM 17 Composers on MFOM
Tune in from now through March to hear radio previews of each of the nine featured composers of Other Minds 17. Hosted by Charles Amirkhanian, Adam Fong, and Brent Miller, these 1-hour features will air on KALW 91.7-FM at 11pm every Friday, and be available all of the following week online.
Last week, Fong explored works by Ken Ueno and Tyshawn Sorey. Tonight's program features music by Ikue Mori, hosted by OM Production Assistant Brent Miller. And tune in next Friday for works by John Kennedy and Harold Budd, with host Charles Amirkhanian.
Listen to OM 17 Previews on Music From Other Minds
Check out OM 17 Artists on YouTube
4. Travel to Spoleto with Other Minds, May 31-June 4
Join your fellow Other Minds this June for a special trip to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. From June 1-3 guests will enjoy the American premiere performances of Feng Yi Ting by Guo Wenjing and Kepler by Philip Glass (OM 1). The June 3 program, "Orchestra Uncaged," pairs works by Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) with three more US premieres: the orchestral trilogy of Twenty-Six, Twenty-Eight, and Twenty-Nine, composed by John Cage in 1991.
Keep an eye on the Other Minds website or Facebook page for further details and a complete itinerary, which will include luxurious accommodations at the new Renaissance Hotel and tours of Fort Sumter and a local plantation garden.
5. A Fong Farewell / Other Minds is hiring
After more than five years with Other Minds, Associate Director Adam Fong will be leaving the team in April of this year to develop a new initiative in support of our music community, a Center for New Music.
Adam arrived at OM in 2006, fresh from studies with James Tenney (OM 7) and Leo Smith (OM 13) at CalArts, and had an immediate impact on both the programs and administration of the organization. We're sorry to lose him, but will continue to work closely with him as he pursues his exciting new project.
Other Minds has begun the search for an Operations Director with significant experience in non-profit administration and operations. The Director will assist the Artistic/Executive Director and will be responsible for the organization's operations through oversight and facilitation of: the development, implementation and coordination of all programs; budgeting and financial management; and the ongoing cultivation of resources and community relations.
Please forward the link below or let us know of any qualified candidates who would make a great addition to our small and dedicated Other Minds staff.
Job posting for Operations Director
6. Eventwire: Eventwire: John Cage's MUSICIRCUS
MUSICIRCUS
Presented by CalArts San Francisco Alumni Chapter
Saturday, January 28, 1:30-5pm
Walt Disney Family Museum
The Presidio of San Francisco
Over thirty musicians will participate in this MUSICIRCUS at one of the most picturesque locations in San Francisco, the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. The impressive line-up includes Fred Frith (OM 11), Chris Brown, David Rosenboom, Dan Becker (OM 13), Becky Allen, Steve Adams, and more. The afternoon's MUSICIRCUS will also be followed by a showcase concert at 6pm.
7. Super Bowl Antidote: Thomas Buckner with Annea Lockwood
Works for Voice featuring Thomas Buckner
Sunday, February 5, 4pm
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
Baritone Thomas Buckner (OM 1) brings a set of commissioned works to San Francisco with a sextet of accompanying artists that includes kiwi-American electronic music pioneer Annea Lockwood (OM 8). The program includes works by new music luminaries Lockwood, Robert Ashley (OM 1), and Alvin Lucier (OM 5), as well as lesser-known innovators Anne Gutherie, Kit Young, and Narong Prangcharoen. Escape the Super Bowl Sunday madness with an evening of provocative works: Young's piece incorporates poetry by Burmese artist U San Oo; Lockwood's 4-channel work draws on texts from Guantanamo detainees; and the sardonic title of Ashley's work hints at its subversive power: World War III (Just The Highlights).
Pictured: Buckner signals for a touchdown at OM 8, with Lockwood in background (2002), photo by John Fago
8. Eventwire: Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927) with Oakland East Bay Symphony
Napoleon
by Abel Gance
Restored by Kevin Brownlow & BFI
American Premiere Screening
featuring Oakland East Bay Symphony, cond. Carl Davis
March 24, 25, 31 & April 1
Oakland Paramount Theatre
Abel Gance's silent masterpiece Napoleon (1927) will be presented by San Francisco Silent Film Festival in four special screenings at Oakland's Paramount Theatre with live music by Carl Davis, who will conduct the Oakland Easy Bay Symphony. The restoration is the most complete version of Gance's epic since its 1927 premiere at the Paris Opéra.
Because of the enormous expense and technical challenges associated with properly presenting the epic 5.5-hour film, which concludes with an elaborate three-screen panorama, it has taken Brownlow and company over 30 years to mount American screenings with the magnificent Davis score, which has previously been performed only in Europe. Each screening will begin in the afternoon and be shown in four parts with three intermissions, including a dinner break.
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