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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 769.

Next: Program 778
100 Years of Benjamin Lees

Benjamin Lees black and white headshot

KALW Broadcast: March 24, 2024
Host: Joseph Bohigian

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.

Previous Programs

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.

Program 773: Sweet Potatoes, Suitcases, and Glass Tea Cups

On this broadcast of Music from Other Minds, Liam Herb plays works of sound art in memory of Phill Niblock (1933-2024) and Steve Roden (1965-2023). Tune in to hear Niblock’s composition Sweet Potatoes (2002), and Roden’s teacup composition winter couplet (2002). Also on the program, Annea Lockwood‘s Glass World (1970) and Francisco López‘ luggage travel from the airplane to baggage claim in his 2023 piece San Francisco (OAK).

Program 772: A Madrigal Sandwich

This program begins and ends with two modern takes on the madrigal by Peggy Glanville-Hicks and James Weeks, moving inward, drone pieces by Noah Jenkins and Mattie Barbier, further inward, percussion and piano pieces by Tyondai Braxton and Joan Tower, all centered around a vibraphone piece by Matt Sargent.

Program 771: From the OM Archives

Another dive into the recently opened Other Minds Archives brings this program featuring Jin Hi Kim discussing Korean court music and playing the komungo; Lou Harrison and William Colvig demonstrating the instruments of their American gamelan; pianist Marilyn Crispell and violinist Leroy Jenkins playing together for the first time in public; and, in the final Speaking of Music program in 1992, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan performing with Swapan Chaudhuri.

Program 770: The Art of Anahid Ajemian

Charles Amirkhanian pays homage to visionary violinist Anahid Ajemian (January 26, 1924–June 13, 2016) in celebration this week of the 100th anniversary of her birth in New York City. Ajemian, and her older sister, pianist Maro Ajemian, were early advocates of the music of maverick composers John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, and Lou Harrison. They went on to record dozens of LPs in the 1950s for MGM Records featuring then-little-known contemporary music, some of which is heard here by composers Wallingford Riegger, Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Chavez, and others. Included are rare recordings of the 1942 American premiere of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto, a 1947 V-Disc of Debussy’s Violin Sonata, and a 1948 RCA Victor 78rpm side of Khachaturian’s Chant-Poéme. The broadcast coincides with the launch this week of the new Other Minds Archives website.

Program 769: Archiving the Arts

This program features interviews and music from the new Other Minds Archives, which will be available for free public access on January 26, 2024. Included are excerpts of interviews and music by Laurie Anderson, Jim Nollman, Tom Marioni, Terry Riley, and Charles Amirkhanian‘s 1981 RadioVisions program “The New Consonance.”

Program 768: Selections from the OM Archives

This program features interviews and music from the new Other Minds Archives, which will be available for free public access on January 26, 2024. Included are excerpts of interviews and music by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Henry Cowell, Pauline Oliveros, Nicolas Slonimsky, Mari Kimura, Tony Gnazzo, Pamela Z, and Sheila Davies.

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