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- Other Minds Podcast
Archives
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- Contribute
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Alan Hovhaness

Scenes from A New Music Séance

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Posted February 18, 2022

In

By Randall Wong

Scenes from A New Music Séance

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San Francisco non-profit dedicated to contemporary music through concerts, recordings, broadcasts, audio preservation, & public discussions 🎵

Throwback to our Boulez at 100 concert a few month

Throwback to our Boulez at 100 concert a few months ago with @gloriachengpiano and @ralphvanraat playing Boulez's Structures Livre 1, 1a! Performed at Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, Boulez at 100 featured the composer’s rarely heard two-piano masterpieces Structures Books I and II, alongside music by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Frank Zappa, and Magnus Lindberg, concluding with Igor Stravinsky’s elegant neo-classical masterwork Sonata for Two Pianos. This concert was part of Other Minds’s new PastForward series, presented in cooperation with the Center for Contemporary Music, Northeastern University and Mills Performing Arts.

We'll be featuring another duo piano recital at Littlefield Concert Hall this September at our Blue + Bob concert, where @cahill_piano and Joe Kubera will play the music of Robert Ashley and "Blue" Gene Tyranny. Click on the link in our bio to grab your tickets today!

On yesterday’s sleepy edition of @kalwpublicmedi

On yesterday’s sleepy edition of @kalwpublicmedia's Music from Other Minds, the elusive American Dream takes on a humorously literal meaning as host Ian Mahanpour guided listeners through 30 years of American experimental music concerning sleep, dreams, lullabies, bedtime stories, and everything in between. Featured on the program were the nocturnal drones of Charlemagne Palestine’s Holy 1 & Holy 2 (1967), originally composed as a compliment to New York City’s nighttime soundscape; a short excerpt from RIP Hayman’s Dreamsound (1976) event, an all-night concert where the audience was expected to sleep during the performance; selections from Doris Hays’s rare Sleepers (1985) LP, a compendium of experimental lullabies; as well as pieces by Pauline Oliveros, Alison Knowles, La Monte Young, and Tom Johnson. Painting is Flaming June by Sir Frederic Leighton.

Click on the link in our bio to check out the full 2-hour program!

📂 From the OM Archives 📂 This photograph is

📂 From the OM Archives 📂

This photograph is from the recording of Tom Zahuranec's Bucket-ful Mercury Walk (Radio Event No. 13) aired on March 4, 1971 from Mills College. Sponsored by KPFA's Radio Event series, Zahuranec’s project envisioned simultaneously activating a large number of synthesizers all in one room. He invited audience members to drive to the Mills College music studio in Oakland to turn the dials, switch the switches, patch the patches, and generally explore the ensuing chaos. An astonishing 200+ participants arrived and created what in retrospect is a masterpiece of analog electronica. See more images of this event as well as the recording of the full program by visiting the link in our bio! Photo by Charles Amirkhanian.

📂 From the OM Archives 📂 Interviewed by Cha

📂 From the OM Archives 📂

Interviewed by Charles Amirkhanian in 1983, composer Robert Ashley speaks on the changing perceptions of opera in contemporay American music. Catch the full interview by clicking on the link in our bio!

...and if you want to hear even more of Ashley, you can grab tickets to our Sept. 7th concert at Littlefield Concert Hall in Oakland featuring the music of Robert Ashley and "Blue" Gene Tyranny! Link in our bio for tickets and the full concert program.

In celebration of Ezra Pound's daughter Mary de Ra

In celebration of Ezra Pound's daughter Mary de Rachewiltz' 100th birthday, our friend and Ezra Pound scholar Margaret Fisher wrote an informative blurb about the centenarian's impact on preserving the legacy of Pound's musical activities:

"The Other Minds community is rare in the music world in that they are aware of Pound’s music, having attended OM Festival 7 in 2001 which featured excerpts from across Pound’s oeuvre—2 operas, an unfinished opera, and a dozen violin works.

We have Mary de Rachewiltz to thank—she made sure the rat’s nest of often untitled, undated music and music sketches, arriving at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to join the Ezra Pound Papers in the American literature division, would be identified, sorted, catalogued (and it is, thanks to Bob Hughes), and eventually performed. Without her advocacy, we still might not have the definitive performance scores that followed."

You can learn more about OM Festival 7 by visiting our website, and can listen to Pound's excellent music by purchasing a copy of our record Ego Scriptor Cantilinae released in 2003. Link in our bio!

(Image is of Mary de Rachewiltz at the Festivaletteratura in 2012)

Today marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of

Today marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of maverick American composer George Antheil (1900-1959), the publisher-proclaimed "bad boy" of music. Antheil's oeuvre is chock-full of modernist gems, many of which border on the outright scandalous: his earlier pieces such as Piano Sonata No. 2 "The Airplane" (1922), recently performed at an Other Minds event by Geoffrey Burleson, and Ballet Mécanique (1924) are marked by Antheil's fascination with the rapidly evolving technology of the 20th century and the kinds of music they may engender. Rapid and angular rhythms, pounding dissonance, collage-like structures, and wholly strange instrumentation (an airplane propeller was used for Ballet Mécanique) featured in Antheil's music coalesced into a shockingly discordant—albeit highly original—vision for the future of music.

Other Minds's undying love for the music of Antheil has manifested itself in multiple ways: we've released George Antheil, the Complete Works for String Quartet (2005) recorded by the Del Sol String Quartet and Antheil Plays Antheil: The Rare SPA Recordings and Private Audio Documents 1942-1958 (2000). Both albums offer a bevy of scarcely performed and recorded pieces from Antheil's musical output that are sure to pique the interest of music lovers like you.

The OM Archives also contain a treasure trove of recordings and photographs including the historic 1970 retrospective concert of Antheil's music that launched an international revival of his music.

And one more thing: our KALW 91.7 radio program Music from Other Minds will broadcast a special program on the music of George Antheil and Ezra Pound on July 27th from 8pm-10pm. Tune in to enjoy some rare and fascinating recordings with insightful commentary by the program's host, Randall Wong.

Click the link in our bio to purchase our Antheil records and peruse his materials in the OM Archives!

If you think inviting listeners to offer their mus

If you think inviting listeners to offer their music for broadcast would result in a wildly varied, even incoherent, program, you are correct. This past Sunday, Ed Herrmann sorted through industrial noise, gamelan, computer modified flutes, toy pianos, field recordings, manic laughter, robots, ancestor rituals, inscrutable electronics, and more (even some almost conventional chamber music) to make this @kalwpublicmedia 91.7 Music from Other Minds program like no other you’ve heard. Don’t blame him for how it sounds—it’s your music!

Click on the link in our bio to check out the program!

🇺🇸 From the OM Archives 🇺🇸 Celebrate

🇺🇸 From the OM Archives 🇺🇸

Celebrate this year's 4th of July by listening to one
artist's vision for America. Interviewed by our director
Charles Amirkhanian in 1972, painter and sculptor
Arthur Frick lays out a bold vision for America through
advocating for dictatorial governance, the creation of
"fiend parks," and the glorification of the nose.

You can hear the full interview by visiting the link in our
bio!

💧 Other Minds Hydro Flask! 💧 Stay hydrated

📂 From the OM Archives 📂 Meredith Monk (@me

📂 From the OM Archives 📂

Meredith Monk (@meredithmonk), Philip Glass (@philipglass), & Conlon Nancarrow (l to r) in a group portrait taken during the retreat at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, prior to their appearance at the 1st Other Minds Music Festival in November of 1993. Photo by John Fago

Missing OM 28? Relive those memories by visiting t

Missing OM 28? Relive those memories by visiting the link in our bio and watching our newly uploaded panel discussions featured at the festival! Moderated by our director Charles Amirkhanian, theses discussions feature artists Annea Lockwood, Trimpin, Margaret Fisher, IMA (Amma Ateria @amma_ateria and Nava Dunkelman @nldunk). Marshall Trammell, Hafez Modirzadeh, and many more.

Photos by ebbe roe yovino-smith.

In memory of composer-accordionist Guy Klucevsek (

In memory of composer-accordionist Guy Klucevsek (February 26, 1947–May 22, 2025), yesterday's edition of @kalwpublicmedia's MfOM will present a special batch of archival recordings ca. 1980’s, focused on live performances by Klucevsek, and some of collaborators performing his works. Guy Klucevsek championed new music for the accordion and bridged a natural relativity between experimental and traditional musics with the instrument. Like Pauline Oliveros, he has also influenced how the accordion (and accordion player) are perceived and played, making room for new thought and sound. We’ll hear Klucevsek play his own works and others by Henry Cowell, Ramon Sender, William Duckworth, William Obrecht, Jim Hiscott, Arne Nordheim, William Schimmel, and Carl Finch.

Listen to the program at the link in our bio!

📂 From the OM Archives 📂 Percussionist Will

📂 From the OM Archives 📂

Percussionist William Winant (@steakatto) and violinist/composer David Rosenboom play a duo at the 1986 Speaking of Music event series held in San Francisco. Photo by Susan Schwartzenberg.

Hear more of Winant at this year's Other Minds Festival as he performs in Zeena Parkins' harp and percussion duet Modesty of the Magic Thing. Purchase your tickets by clicking on the link in our bio.

💽 From OM Records 💽 For a brief period betw

💽 From OM Records 💽

For a brief period between 1940 to 1954, the now-defunct paper The New York Herald Tribune maintained a staff of music critics headed by composer Virgil Thomson which over the years also included John Cage, Paul Bowles, Lou Harrison, and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Around the same period, Thomson was asked to curate a series of records for Columbia Records under the name Modern American Music. These records were among the first recorded documents of pioneers and mavericks of American New Music, including many of his colleagues at the Tribune.

Released in 2017, this OM Records classic features those recordings lovingly re-mastered from the original Columbia Records for the very first time. The release also includes a 60-page full color booklet that includes rarely seen photographs, two Virgil Thomson essays, and new essays and program notes on each piece by Charles Amirkhanian.

Purchase your copy by clicking at the link in our bio!

📂 From the OM Archives 📂 A one page handwri

📂 From the OM Archives 📂

A one page handwritten letter in beautiful calligraphy from composer Lou Harrison to pianist Maro Ajemian. In it, Harrison congratulates and compliments Ajemian on a recent performance of pieces by Komitas and Satie.

🎂 Composer Terry Riley has become a nonagenaria

In celebration of Riley’s birthday, our KALW 91.

In celebration of Riley’s birthday, our KALW 91.7 radio program Music from Other Minds will broadcast a special Terry Riley program this Sunday, June 22nd. Host Liam Herb will give listeners a brief survey of this visionary composer’s 60-plus-year inspiring career in which he has combined his interest in classical rigor, jazz improvisation, and the spirituality of Indian classical music to fashion music that is universally hailed.

Click on the link in our bio to listen to the program!

(Image is from a 2018 Other Minds concert featuring Gloria Cheng and Terry Riley. Photo by ebbe roe yovino-smith.)

📂 From the OM Archives 📂 IRVING M. EVERYTHI

📂 From the OM Archives 📂

IRVING M. EVERYTHING

...is an essay penned by composer and WBAI radio producer Eric Salzman in 1970 for WBAI's February Folio. In it, he theorizes a new, capacious music concept commensurate with the age of mass media, advanced audio recording technology, and the perceived revolutionary potential of music that he dubs Irving. According to Salzman, this neologism, both a commentary on the social impact of music as well as conventions of style and genre, perfectly encapsulated what the eclectic, non-commercial programming of WBAI was all about.

💽 From OM Records 💽 Visit our webstore or B

💽 From OM Records 💽

Visit our webstore or Bandcamp to grab a copy of our 2023 release of @samuelcarladams' album Current! Adams writes of the album's titular piece that:

“The crux of the piece is the relationship between the minimal digital language of the resonating snare drums and the warm, acoustic complexity of the string quartet. … The result is a virtuosic display of four individuals performing with artificial, indifferent musical elements. Together, a complex polyphonic musical organism emerges. … The title Current seemed appropriate both for its reference to the electric currents that activate the resonating snare drums as well as the intense, weather-blasted quality of the work’s sound world.”

Get your copy at the link in our bio!

📂 From the OM Archives 📂 Hosted by Charles

📂 From the OM Archives 📂

Hosted by Charles Amirkhanian, KPFA's "Ode to Gravity" was a pioneering radio program in the broadcast of 20th century avant-garde music. This photograph from a 1972 program broadcast shows the set up of an in-studio performance of Annea Lockwood's "Music for Multiple Hummers." Lockwood is seated on the far left and is wearing glasses. Photo by Charles Amirkhanian.

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Other Minds® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our federal tax ID is 94-2728116. Other Minds is a federally registered trademark, number 3668959.
For questions regarding accessibility, please contact Joseph Bohigian at joseph@otherminds.org or (415) 934-8134. © ℗ 2025 Other Minds. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy

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