Music From Other Minds

This program honors the extraordinary musical life of Michael Tilson Thomas. As Music Director for the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years, MTT brought a commitment to American composers, innovative programming, and community engagement. Although best known as a conductor, pianist, educator, and tireless advocate for music, this program will focus on MTT’s compositions, which reflect his joy and omnivorous taste in music. Featured works include Island Music for marimbas and percussion, Agnegram for orchestra, Street Song for brass ensemble, and the song Grace, written for Leonard Bernstein.

Tonight’s program follows several pieces in the Brian Eno sphere of influence. You will hear two of Gavin Bryars’ pieces from his Book of Madrigal series, “The Pavillion of Dreams” by Harold Budd, produced by Brian Eno, and “Promises,” a collaboration album between the musician Floating Points and legendary saxophonist, Pharoah Sanders.

This program of Music from Other Minds features recent releases of music by American, German, Norwegian, and Italian composers. Included on the program are “Adagione” from Ars et vita by Magne Hegdal, performed by pianists Ellen Ugelvik, Håkon Austbø, and Sanae Yoshida; Carola Bauckholt’s Pacific Time performed by Ensemble Dal Niente; selections from Radis by Andrea Giordano, Kalle Moberg, and Jo David Meyer Lysne; Amy Williams’ Child’s Play performed by Bent Frequency Duo Project; selections from All-American Futurity Trials by Shutterspeed Duo; and John Luther Adams’ True Horizon performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

On this Music from Other Minds, we celebrate the work of American composer Richard Felciano, who died on February 21, 2026, at the age of 95 in San Francisco. We’ll move back and forth between an archival interview from 1976, in which Charles Amirkhanian interviews Felciano on KPFA about his work and musical background while playing work from his 1976 LP Instrumental Music, and other, more recent recordings available to stream on the composers website: In Celebration of Golden Rain, Constellations, Responsory, and Prelude for Piano. We’ll close the program with a recording of Felciano’s work for multiple carillons spread throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area: Islands of Sound.

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.