Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Performers Announced for OM Festival 26

I saw my first notification of the next Other Minds (OM) Festival in a “snail mail” letter that arrived this past April. According to my records, I ran my first article announcing OM Festival 25 almost exactly a year ago. Tickets were not yet available (possibly due to the fact that the prices had not yet been set); but the dates, venues, and performers had been finalized. As of this writing, conditions are about the same for OM Festival 26.

What is particularly interesting is the change of venue. This year OM Festival 26 will take place in the Great Star Theater. This is the historic Chinese opera house, first built in 1925 and now newly-renovated, located at 636 Jackson Street, between Grant Avenue and Kearny Street. As a result, the OM Festival is migrating from the Civic Center to Chinatown. Once again, there will be performances on consecutive evenings on Thursday through Saturday, October 13, 14, and 15. All concerts will begin at 8 p.m. preceded by a panel discussion at 7 p.m. (There will not be a Sunday afternoon performance this year.) Not all specifics have been finalized. However, those available are as follows:

Thursday, October 13: Theresa Wong, whom I last encountered as a Garden of Memory performer, will again merge her talents as both vocalist and cellist, performed with unconventional tunings and extended techniques. Raven Chacon and Guillermo Galindo will combine their skills in playing their own invented electronic gear. Mari Kimura will combine her virtuoso violin skills with live electronic music.

Friday, October 14: Hanna Hartman is a Swedish sound artist whose performances involve terra cotta planters, potato starch, and circular gurgling. Bassist Joëlle Léandre and vocalist Lauren Newton will present a set of duo improvisations. The final set will be the American premiere a work composed by OM Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian for the 2021 Spitalfields Festival in London entitled “Ratchet Attach It” and scored for ten percussionists and tape.

Saturday, October 15: Dominic Murcott will bring his half-ton double bell with him from London for a performance of “Harmonic Canon,” which will be executed by the Arx Duo percussionists based in Seattle. Kui Dong’s “Scattered Ladder” will be performed by four hocketing players on two full-sized mobile marimbas. The program will conclude with a premiere performance of a trio for violin, piano, and electronics composed by Lars Perter Hagen on a commission by Other Minds [added 9/7, 5:55 a.m.: and performed by violinist Kate Stenberg and pianist Sarah Cahill].

Those that follow the Bleeding Edge articles on this site would probably do will to save all three of these dates while waiting for further information about ticketing to emerge.

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