Other Minds News

Louis Andriessen, the most widely acclaimed Dutch composer of his generation, died on Thursday, July 1, in a care home in Weesp, North Holland. His death was confirmed by Boosey & Hawkes, his publisher. He was 82 years old. No cause of death was given, but as reported in The Guardian in Dec., 2019, Andriessen […]

Jon Hassell, the influential American avant garde composer who invented the global-minded “fourth world” musical aesthetic, has died aged 84. In a statement, his family said the “iconic trumpet player, author and composer” died in the early hours of 26 June, after just over a year of health complications. For the complete Guardian article click […]

Frederic Rzewski, an American-born composer and pianist who worked in manifold musical genres throughout a career that spanned 60 years, died June 26 in Montiano, Italy. He was 83. For the complete Washington Post article click here

Guitarist, improviser, composer, and Other Minds 25 artist Mary Halvorson was interviewed in the May 2021 edition of Stereophile Magazine. Click here to read a scanned PDF version of the interview.

Julius Hemphill’s music uses stark, lyrical abstraction and svelte dissonances to confront the vicissitudes of black American life. “I like to make things,” the saxophonist and composer Julius Hemphill told an interviewer from the Smithsonian in 1994, a year before his death from diabetes. “It might not equate to the great American novel…but I can […]

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, Terry Riley decided to stay right where he was, which just so happened to be in Japan. The composer had arrived in the country in February 2020 to do preliminary work for a piece commissioned by an arts festival held on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan. […]

“I am sitting in a room,” Alvin Lucier’s classic work of sound art, will be performed by 90 artists in honor of his 90th birthday. Alvin Lucier at home in Connecticut. His most famous work involves him repeatedly playing and rerecording his taped voice into a space. Credit…Jillian Freyer for The New York Times  By […]

Services like Spotify and Apple Music pulled the business back from the brink. But artists say they can’t make a living. And their complaints are getting louder. The heart of musicians’ critique is how payouts are distributed. In Britain, more than 150 artists signed a letter asking Prime Minister Boris Johnson for reforms. In the […]

During the pandemic, some houses have continued finding ways to make their spaces and performances more environmentally sustainable. La Scala in Milan is now using LED bulbs and smart lighting.Credit…Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times By Rebecca Schmid May 10, 2021, 5:02 a.m. ET The coronavirus pandemic has challenged day-to-day norms in the opera […]

Julia Wolfe talks with SFCV’s Jonathan Leal about her new video performance of Steel Hammer (2009). Read the full article on San Francisco Classical Voice’s website.