Editorial
December, 2019
November, 2019
October, 2019
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July, 2019
June, 2019
May, 2019
April, 2019
March, 2019
- Lauren Yee’s Multi-Layered Play is a Chinese Puzzlebox
- MoAD Hosts Exhibition from Harlem’s Studio Museum
- New Asian Art Exhibition Spotlights Kimono
- New Opera Reimagines “Howards End”
- British Light Artist Bruce Munro Illuminates Montalvo
- Berlin & Beyond Showcases German Film
- Matthew Goudeau Takes Helm of Grants for the Arts
- Art-making From a Trans/Queer POV
February, 2019
January, 2019
December, 2018
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October, 2018
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July, 2018
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April, 2018
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December, 2017
November, 2017
October, 2017
September, 2017
- Cunning Sociopolitical Tale Premieres at Crowded Fire
- Why Citizenship? YBCA Invites Artists to Ponder the Question
- Margaret Jenkins Dance Opens 43rd Season
- One-Woman Play Captures Yearning for Home
- Poignant Ballet Examines Homelessness
- Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed
- Degas: A Tip of the Hat to Milliners
August, 2017
July, 2017
June, 2017
May, 2017
April, 2017
March, 2017
February, 2017
- “The Blues Project”: A Performance for Our Time
- Faith-Based Play Explores Compassion, Belief, Community
- Photo Exhibit Captures a Lost Generation of Syrians
- Noche Flamenca Brings Passion, Soul to “Antigona”
- The Tale of Two Afghan Women at Heart of New A.C.T. Play
- Feb Film Fests: Eclectic, Compelling
- Cal Performances: A Home Away From Home For The Trocks
January, 2017
December, 2016
November, 2016
October, 2016
September, 2016
August, 2016
July, 2016
June, 2016
May, 2016
- Beethoven Pops Up All Over Town
- The San Francisco Symphony Brings Bernstein Classic to the Stage
- Activism Takes Center Stage at SF International Arts Festival
- Ojai at Berkeley Celebrates Josephine Baker, Simone Weil
- SFDanceworks Debuts Inaugural Season
- Bringing the Blues Forward
- CJM Hosts Bill Graham Retrospective
April, 2016
March, 2016
February, 2016
January, 2016
December, 2015
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September, 2015
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July, 2015
June, 2015
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April, 2015
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December, 2014
November, 2014
October, 2014
September, 2014
August, 2014
July, 2014
June, 2014
May, 2014
April, 2014
March, 2014
February, 2014
January, 2014
December, 2013
November, 2013
October, 2013
September, 2013
August, 2013

The Other Minds Festival, headed by Charles Amirkhanian, made San Francisco a launching pad for new music.
Charles Amirkhanian, the co-founder and director of Other Minds, says that the looming threat of spreading radiation forced him to cancel European travel back then, and to reluctantly abandon carefully designed musical plans. A long chain of happy coincidences led, in turn, to Telluride, Colorado, where the prototype for Other Minds took shape. Within a few years, what would become Other Minds had moved to Amirkhanian’s home state of California, and the festival was on its way to being one of San Francisco’s musical landmarks.
Amirkhanian, a composer, producer and long-time nurturer of musical talent, has long been a leader of the Bay Area new music scene, and his San Francisco roots are deep. “San Francisco is very special to me, especially growing up in Fresno; I came up here a lot,” he says. “I discovered the [Mills College] Tape Music Center when I was very young and went to concerts of Ramon Sender and Pauline Oliveros. My first gig when I arrived here to go to graduate school was with choreographer Anna Halprin. She hired me sight unseen…because she had just lost her composer. I worked for free—gladly—and I discovered that [San Francisco] was my real home.” Amirkhanian became an on-air personality for KPFA in Berkeley and quickly established himself as the public voice of new music in the Bay Area.
“The Ojai concerts and the famous Monday Evening Concerts at LACMA in Southern California had been historically focused on the blue chip avant-garde, which invariably meant East Coast ‘uptown’ music,” he explains of how the San Francisco new music scene fit into what is known worldwide as the West Coast style. “Up in Northern California we didn’t pay so much attention to Pierre Boulez and some of his followers as we did to the founders of minimalism: Lamonte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich. They were at Mills or at Berkeley, where it all started in the mid-’60s. Steve and Lamont went to New York, and Terry of course stayed here. It is as if live electronic music got its start here and then moved to New York and Europe to make its mark. This provided the foundation for the second wave of minimalists—John Adams, Paul Dresher and me, among many others. … it seems to me that developing as a composer in this environment has opened people’s minds in a unique and identifiable way.”
Other Minds is not a festival in the sense that Coachella is. Amirkhanian selects approximately eight festival performers who have interpersonal
as well as musical synergy. A key part of the event is a series of four private days at the Djerassi Ranch, where the creative participants share their music, thoughts and plans. Those who have attended these rarified sessions speak of them with reverence.
“We bring unknown people—old people, young people, people with a background in avant-garde jazz, composers who do not write for traditional ensembles, some of whom are composer- performers, who can’t be featured by the Symphony but are not well-known enough to produce a concert on their own,” says Amirkhanian.
Other Minds has traditionally featured
new performer/composers for each of its 19 previous incarnations. With the sole exception of the protean Pauline Oliveros, who has appeared twice over the years, every festival has offered a fresh slate. To celebrate the 20th anniversary, however Amirkhanian has taken the opposite course—each of the featured artists is an Other Minds veteran. This
allows this year’s incarnation to be as valedictory as a festival devoted to new music can be.
Among the offerings are the first performance of Lou Harrison’s "Scenes from Nek Chand" with the instrumentation Harrison envisioned, an ultra-rare National Steel just intonation guitar, to be played by the virtuosic David Tanenbaum; the U.S. premiere of Maja S.K. Ratkje’s "Traces II," which features accordion by Frode Haltli and staging, involving digital projections of origami birds, by Kathy Hinde; Australian Peter Sculthorpe’s "Quartet #14" for string quartet and didjeridu—a long-time friend of Amirkhanian’s and Other Minds, Sculthorpe was to be a guest of honor at these performances, but sadly, he passed away last August.
Also among the performers are the talented clarinetist Donald Byron with his quartet, and Errollyn Wallen, who has been described as a cross between Laurie Anderson and Joni Mitchell, performing new songs.
The March 8 concert is a remembrance of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Amirkhanian, of Armenian heritage, vividly remembers his grandmother Aznive Kaprielian’s glass eye, a consequence of her being shot. Highlights of this concert include Amirkhanian’s "Miatsoom," a tape work based on conversations he and his father had on a trip through Armenia; two works by the Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian, both of which feature the School of the Arts Orchestra; and a performance of Michael Nyman’s new "Symphony No. 2" (2014), also featuring the School of the Arts Orchestra.
Back when new music was establishing itself here, at least once a year a local music critic would write (referring to Other Minds) that “the avant-garde is dead.” As the festival celebrates it 20th anniversary, Amirkhanian can look back on those pronouncements with amusement.
Other Minds
March 6 → 8
SFJazz Center
201 Franklin St., 866/920-5299
www.otherminds.org
Also of interest:
http://www.radiom.org, which contains archives encompassing the the whole recorded history of Other Minds and its affiliated projects.
webstore.otherminds.org, the source for new Other Minds recordings