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Other Minds is dedicated to the encouragement and propagation of contemporary music in all its forms through concerts, recordings, broadcasts, audio preservation, and public discussions that bring together artists and audiences of diverse traditions, generations, and cultural backgrounds.
RECENT UPDATES
New on OM Records: Piwal by Balinese composer and gamelan musician Putu Septa and his ensemble Nata Swara. Septa represents a new generation of maverick Indonesian composers, “evident,” as ethnomusicologist Oscar Murakami-Smith writes in his liner notes, “from the title of the multi-movement piece presented on this album—Piwal, a Balinese word which may be defined as ‘rebellion,’ ‘resistance,’ ‘disobedience,’ ‘denial,’ or ‘deviation.’”
Blue + Bob: Music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Robert Ashley
Other Minds welcomed pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera to present a two piano recital of the music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny (1945–2020) and Robert Ashley (1930–2014) on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland. This concert was part of Other Minds’s PastForward series, presented in cooperation with the Center for Contemporary Music, Northeastern University and Mills Performing Arts.
Scenes from I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment
Other Minds presented scenes in workshop from the work-in-progress, I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment, by composer Joseph Bohigian, vocalist Khatchadour Khatchadourian, and the music-technology group Ensemble Decipher. I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment is an evening-length multimedia work for solo voice, electronics ensemble, and video projection about the life of Georgian-born Soviet-Armenian film director Sergei Parajanov. The free workshop performance took place on Friday, July 25, 2025, at the Paul Dresher Ensemble Studio in Oakland, CA.
New in the Other Minds Archives: the Dorothy Renzi Collection. Soprano Dorothy Ohannesian Renzi (1924–2014) pursued a burgeoning career in New York City during the late 1950s, recording many premieres of music by contemporary composers for MGM Records. In the early 1960s, she moved to her hometown of Fresno, California, where she became a professor of voice in the Music Department at California State University, Fresno. This personal collection of her tapes, discs, and other ephemera documents her long career and includes many live performance recordings otherwise unavailable.
A bevy of composers convened for the 28th Other Minds Festival at San Francisco’s Brava Theater. The highlight was the world premiere performance of The Cello Quartet by the visionary Seattle-based media artist Trimpin, featuring three autonomous cellos, human cellist Lori Goldston, and a trio of circus artists, choreographed by Margaret Fisher.
Music from Other Minds is a weekly two-hour radio program of new and unusual music by innovative composers and performers around the world. Produced and presented by Other Minds staff members and associates Liam Herb, Joseph Bohigian, Ed Herrmann, and Charles Amirkhanian. Air time is 8pm Sunday evenings on KALW 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area.