Other Minds

Other Minds
For the epistemological challenge, see Problem of other minds.
Alt text
Official Other Minds logo

Other Minds is a San Francisco based private 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization, founded in 1992 by Charles Amirkhanian (who serves as Executive and Artistic Director)and Jim Newman (President Emeritus). According to their mission statement: Other Minds, Inc., is dedicated to the encouragement and propagation of contemporary music in all its forms through concerts, workshops and conferences that bring together artists and audiences of diverse traditions, generations and cultural backgrounds. By fostering cross-cultural exchange and creative dialogue, and by encouraging exploration of areas in new music seldom touched upon by mainstream music institutions, Other Minds is committed to expanding and reshaping the definition of what constitutes "serious music."[1]. Local musician/composer Adam Fong has been the organization's Associate Director since 2006.
The name "Other Minds" has been attributed by Jim Newman to an anonymous obituary that ran in the New Yorker in 1992 which stated that John Cage "...composed music in other people's minds."[2]
Other Minds has achieved wide recognition and acclaim including the ASCAP award in 2009 for adventurous programming[3] and the American Music Center's 2005 letter of distinction for service to American composeers.[4]

Alt text
Executive Director Charles Amirkhanian in his office with ASCAP award in background

Contents

Concerts

Since 1993 they have presented an annual concert series featuring a wide range of composers from every part of the world, some well-known, some rising stars who reflect the aesthetic of Other Minds. These concerts are produced in conjunction with an artist residency retreat held at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California just south of San Francisco[5] in which that year's artists have an opportunity to share their work with each other prior to the festival performances.
In addition Other Minds organizes occasional concerts and events known as "New Music Seances" in various venues in the Bay Area throughout the year featuring live performances with local artists of music by undeservedly lesser known past masters such as Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford, Dane Rudhyar, Alan Hovhaness and Lester Bowie.
The annual concert series usually occurs in early March and is held at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center's Kanbar Hall[6]

Composers represented in the annual festival have included such artists as Meredith Monk, Muhal Richard Abrams, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Frederic Rzewski, Margaret Leng Tan, Henry Brant, Conlon Nancarrow, Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, Lou Harrison, Laurie Anderson, LaMonte Young, Leroy Jenkins, Janice Giteck, Kyle Gann, Olly Wilson, William Parker, Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, Brian Eno and many others.
Henry Brant's Pulitzer Prize winning Ice Field from 2001 was an Other Minds commission. Grawemeyer Award winner Louis Andriessen was recently featured as was Mac Arthur Fellow Jason Moran.

Alt text
Associate Director Adam Fong

Sound Archives

Alt text
radiOM logo

In 2002 Other Minds inaugurated a free internet webradio service called radiOM[7], where users can access hundreds of hours of archival recorded audio material including interviews with prominent composers of our time, past OM festival performances, examples of sound poetry, and much more.

Weekly Radio Program

Music from Other Minds[8] is a weekly program produced and usually hosted by Other Minds board member Richard Friedman. It is broadcast on San Francisco radio station KALW and features a wide variety of international new music common to the mission of Other Minds. Weekly programs are also accessible as an mp3 stream from the program website at the time of broadcast and for at least a week thereafter.


Record Label

Alt text
Original vinyl release of 10+2:12, an anthology of contemporary sound poetry.
Alt text
Original vinyl release of Nancarrow's Player Piano Studies autographed by the composer. From the collection of Charles Amirkhanian.
Alt text
World Premiere recordings of music by Marc Blitzstein.

Other Minds also has a record label, with a continually expanding catalog of CDs and DVDs. Some of the releases are of recordings from the now defunct 1750 Arch Records such as '10+2:12 American Text Sound Pieces' and the first complete recording (and the only recording done on his own instruments in his Mexico City studio) of Conlon Nancarrow's Player Piano Studies. Other releases include new recordings like 'FIRST LIFE The Rare Early Works' (world premieres of music by Marc Blitzstein).
Current efforts are being made to release some long out of print recordings of American music by pianist Maro Ajemian and violinist Anahid Ajemian. They also stock a selection of contemporary music CDs and related books and scores from other publishers.

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Website for Other Minds
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ [4]
  6. ^ [5]
  7. ^ radiOM.org
  8. ^ Music From Other Minds

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • other minds — Since Descartes it has been common, but arguably misdirected, to think of knowledge of my own mind as particularly certain, and even as the basis of my knowledge of other things. Once this orientation is adopted, other things become relatively… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • other minds, problem of — In epistemology, the problem of explaining how it is possible for one person to know anything about the quality of another person s inner experience, or even that other people have inner experiences at all. According to a standard example,… …   Universalium

  • God and Other Minds — is the name of a 1967 book by Alvin Plantinga which re kindled serious philosophical debate on the Existence of God in Anglophone philosophical circles [see eg The Rationality of Theism quoting Quentin Smith God is not dead in academia; he… …   Wikipedia

  • Problem of other minds — For the contemporary music organization, see Other Minds. The problem of other minds has traditionally been regarded as an epistemological challenge raised by the skeptic. The challenge may be expressed as follows: given that I can only observe… …   Wikipedia

  • Context as Other Minds — subtitled The Pragmatics of Sociality, Cognition and Communication is a book by Talmy Givón published by John Benjamins in 2005. The book presents a model of human linguistic communication based on the idea that language is an evolutionary… …   Wikipedia

  • Jim Newman (Dilexi Gallery, Other Minds) — Jim Newman (born Omaha, Nebraska, 1933) is a film and television producer, contemporary art curator, gallerist and musician.Musical career and festival managementDiscovering bebop as a teenager and trained as a saxophonist, Newman attended… …   Wikipedia

  • Other dimensions of the Discworld — Discworld, the fictional planet of a fantasy series by Terry Pratchett exists at a point near the very edge of universe s reality spectrum. From here, the fabric of the fictional universe s reality is gossamer and thin, and excessive pushing can… …   Wikipedia

  • Simple Minds — performing in Oslo, Norway in February 2006 Background information Origin Glasgow, Scotland …   Wikipedia

  • Meeting of the minds — For the talk show, see Meeting of Minds. Meeting of the minds (also referred to as mutual agreement, mutual assent or consensus ad idem) is a phrase in contract law used to describe the intentions of the parties forming the contract. In… …   Wikipedia

  • Many-minds interpretation — The many minds interpretation of quantum mechanics extends the many worlds interpretation by proposing that the distinction between worlds should be made at the level of the mind of an individual observer. The concept was first introduced in 1970 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”