The Nature of Music 13

The Nature of Music: Charles Amirkhanian
75th Birthday Concert
Sunday January 19, 2020 @ 4pm
Goldman Theater, David Brower Center

Join us for the 13th installment of our Nature of Music series. This concert will be a special benefit for Other Minds and will feature the work of our Executive and Artistic Director, Charles Amirkhanian. The concert will also be an album release party for Amirkhanian’s new New World Records 2 CD set Loudspeakers.

The concert will feature Amirkhanian’s Im Frühling (In Springtime) including quiet forest, elephant seals mating, birds, water lapping, thunderstorms, and Son of Metropolis San Francisco on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Im Frühling features natural sounds recorded all over the globe which are slightly effected and layered to create a kind of environmental symphony. In Son of Metropolis San Francisco various water sounds predominate because San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Nature sounds and a reflective mode dominate the work rather than bustling city sounds. Amirkhanian’s San Francisco refers to an area larger than the city itself—a rural California which is evident in the sounds he has chosen to incorporate in the piece reflecting the strong consciousness of the environment which is prevalent in Northern California. There is a respect for, and love of, nature which is reflected in the thriving environmental movement centered nationally in this area.

Both Im Frühling and Son of Metropolis San Francisco are featured on Amirkhanian’s latest CD “Loudpeakers,” a 2-CD set just released in December, 2019, by New World Records. The CD also features some of Amirkhanian’s work for pianola, and the title piece, a vocal portrait of the late composer Morton Feldman. The recording can be purchased on our web store if you’d like to get a preview of the works to be presented at this event.

Snacks and refreshments will be served in the lobby following the performance.