For 25 years, Other Minds has brought the Bay Area revolutionary new music with our annual Other Minds Festival and our environmental concert series The Nature of Music. We also produce Special Events focusing on a variety of unique musical presentations, including Latitudes, focusing on indie rock & other experimental forms. On this page you’ll find a chronological list of our upcoming extravaganzas, along with ticket links plus audio and video links so you can preview our artists.
Join us as to discover more about fine innovative composers spanning the globe.
The Nature of Music: Charles Amirkhanian
Sunday January 19, 2020 @ 3pm
Goldman Theater, David Brower Center
Sunday January 19, 2020 @ 3pm
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 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.
Snacks and refreshments will be served in the lobby following the performance.
Scenes from Hutong, an opera-in-progress
Thursday, March 12, 2020, 8:00pm @ Cinnabar Theater
3333 Petaluma Blvd North Petaluma, CA 94952
Thursday, March 12, 2020, 8:00pm @ Cinnabar Theater
3333 Petaluma Blvd North Petaluma, CA 94952
Other Minds, in collaboration with Cinnabar Theater and Dartmouth College is presenting scenes in workshop from the opera-in-progress, Hutong, by award-winning Chinese American composer, Kui Dong.
Hutong is a comic opera in fifteen parts about the whimsical nature of urban coincidence and the white space between vignettes. Set during a late summer in Beijing.
Beijing, the capital city of China has over 3,000 years of history. Unfortunately, the quest for modern high-rise apartment buildings, offices and shopping malls has destroyed many authentic hutongs located in prime areas of Beijing’s city center.
The opera is a day in the fantasy life of a hutong, peopled by a disparate array of characters: a blind Norwegian sailor, the Beijing police department, assorted international architects, some children, a frog, all presided over by the Fenghuang, or phoenix.
You can RSVP to this event by clicking the button market “free event”.
Other Minds marks its milestone 25th festival with 4 nights honoring the art of improvisation, presenting an astonishing convergence of the world’s leading contributors to the history of creative music.
Running from April 2 through April 5 at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco, Moment’s Notice will feature such lauded icons of spontaneous composition as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker and Wadada Leo Smith alongside trailblazing artists including Myra Melford, Darius Jones, Elliott Sharp, Mary Halvorson, and Jen Shyu.
Limited number available! By purchasing a festival pass you save $25 compared to buying individual tickets.
Other Minds marks its milestone 25th festival with 4 nights honoring the art of improvisation, presenting an astonishing convergence of the world’s leading contributors to the history of creative music.
Running from April 2 through April 5 at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco, Moment’s Notice will feature such lauded icons of spontaneous composition as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker and Wadada Leo Smith alongside trailblazing artists including Myra Melford, Darius Jones, Elliott Sharp, Mary Halvorson, and Jen Shyu.
Concert 1 Program:
Myra Melford, piano
Mark Dresser, bass
Oguri, dance
Improv Set
William Winant, percussion
Zeena Parkins, harp
Ikue Mori, vocals and electronics
Improv Set
William Parker, bass flutes and brass;
Hamid Drake, percussion and voice;
Patricia Nicolson, dance and voice
The Sky is Trembling
Other Minds marks its milestone 25th festival with 4 nights honoring the art of improvisation, presenting an astonishing convergence of the world’s leading contributors to the history of creative music.
Running from April 2 through April 5 at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco, Moment’s Notice will feature such lauded icons of spontaneous composition as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker and Wadada Leo Smith alongside trailblazing artists including Myra Melford, Darius Jones, Elliott Sharp, Mary Halvorson, and Jen Shyu.
Concert 2 Program:
Roscoe Mitchell, woodwinds, percussion
Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet
Junius Paul, bass
Vincent Davis, drums
Improv Set
Mats Gustafsson, sax
Joe McPhee, sax
Improv Set
Jen Shyu, Compositions, vocals, Taiwanese moon lute, Korean gayageum and soribuk drum, Japanese biwa, piano, dance, sound design, choreography, Timorese gong and Korean gong (ggwaenggwari)
Nine Doors
(Kristen Robinson, Visuals; Alexandru Mihail, Director; Kristen Robinson, Set & Props Designer; Solomon Weisbard, Original Lighting Designer; Naoko Nagata, Costume designer; Danang Pamungkas, Javanese “Bedhaya Pangkur Tunggal” choreography; Lianne Arnold, Original Projection Programmer; Satoshi Haga, Co-director with Shyu of “Song of Silver Geese” (2016), which inspired much of “Nine Doors”)
Other Minds marks its milestone 25th festival with 4 nights honoring the art of improvisation, presenting an astonishing convergence of the world’s leading contributors to the history of creative music.
Running from April 2 through April 5 at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco, Moment’s Notice will feature such lauded icons of spontaneous composition as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker and Wadada Leo Smith alongside trailblazing artists including Myra Melford, Darius Jones, Elliott Sharp, Mary Halvorson, and Jen Shyu.
Concert 3 Program:
Joelle Leandre, bass
Lauren Newton, voice
Improv Set
Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet
Jesse Gilbert, video
Reflections and Meditations on Monk
Darius Jones, alto sax
Amirtha Kidambi, voice
Angels and Demons (based off the poetry of Sun Ra)
Other Minds marks its milestone 25th festival with 4 nights honoring the art of improvisation, presenting an astonishing convergence of the world’s leading contributors to the history of creative music.
Running from April 2 through April 5 at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco, Moment’s Notice will feature such lauded icons of spontaneous composition as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker and Wadada Leo Smith alongside trailblazing artists including Myra Melford, Darius Jones, Elliott Sharp, Mary Halvorson, and Jen Shyu.
Concert 4 Program:
Mary Halvorson, guitar
Sylvie Courvoisier, piano
Improv Set
Elliot Sharp, 8-string guitar
Improv Set
Anthony Braxton, sax
Jacqueline Kerrod, harp
Improv Set