OTHER MINDS FESTIVAL 11: Panel Discussion + CONCERT 2

7:00 pm: Theatre
PANEL DISCUSSION
Maria de Alvear, Fred Frith, moderated by Charles Amirkhanian








8:00 pm
CONCERT

- Charles Amirkhanian (1945): Son of Metropolis San Francisco (1986;1997)
Hörspiel (tape)

OM11 presents a 60th birthday tribute to Other Minds founding artistic director Charles Amirkhanian (1945), featuring the San Francisco concert premiere of his radiophonic tape piece, Son of Metropolis San Francisco. The work is a part-abstract, part-representational audio snapshot of idiosyncratic Bay Area sounds, ranging from barking elephant seals at Año Nuevo Beach to a runaway overflow valve next to a hot tub at Harbin Hot Springs. In between, listeners hear Tongan gardeners, a Chinese sitcom, and conga drummers at Ocean Beach, manipulated on a Synclavier digital synthesizer and ultimately offset by a hypnotic and meditative organ chorale. Originally commissioned by Studio 3 Horspiel of the West German Radio in Cologne and New American Radio for the NPR satellite system, the work has been broadcast internationally. This condensed 26-minute version of the original 55-minute work (Metropolis San Francisco) was made in 1997.

- Fred Frith (1949): New works (world premieres, 2005)
Frith, guitar; Sudhu Tewari, homemade instruments

Legendary experimental guitarist Fred Frith (Heathfield,1949) performs improvisations at the 11th Other Minds Music Festival at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2005. Frith performed at the festival both as a soloist and as a member of the due Normal, alongside Sudhu Tewari, a Bay Area resident of Indian descent whose remarkable music is performed on homemade acoustic instruments. Since recording Guitar Solos in 1974, Frith has been regarded as one of a handful of radical innovators on the instrument. He has collaborated with such luminaries as guitarist Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell, Miya Masaoka, Hans Reichel, Heiner Goebbels, John Zorn, Han Bennick, and Christian Marclay. A co-founder of the English rock group Henry Cow, Frith also has composed a significant body of chamber music for such groups as the ASKO Ensemble, Rova Saxophone Quartet, and Ensemble Modern.

- María de Alvear (Madrid, 1960): Gran Sol (2005, world premiere)      
Alvear, vocals; Amelia Cuni, vocals; Joan Jeanrenaud, cello

Composer Maria de Alvear (Madrid, 1960) presents the world premiere of Gran Sol at the 11th Other Minds Music Festival at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2005. According to de Alvear, Gran Sol contemplates the gender of the brightest planet. Why is "el sol" a male noun in Spanish and "die Sonne" a female one in German? Find out as three outstanding female performers tackle the question. Alvear has been called by the Village Voice the most important emerging composer in Europe. She studied "new music theater" with Mauricio Kagel and also has worked extensively with musicians from Native American tribes in the Eastern U.S. and Canada. The composer has been hailed for intricately fashioned evening-length works such as Libertad, Sexo, Thinking, Vagina, and World. Though born in Madrid, she has lived for 17 years in Cologne. Alvear is joined by San Francisco cellist Joan Joanrenaud and classical Indian Dhrupad vocalist Amelia Cuni from Berlin.