I saw my first notification of this year’s Other Minds (OM) Festival about a month and a half ago, at which time tickets had not yet gone on sale. Now that City Box Office has created a Web page for both a Festival Pass to all four of the concerts and ticket sales for individual concerts, the time seems right to get out the word about the Festival itself. Most important is that, following up on the performance of OM Festival 26 at the Great Star Theater in Chinatown, the Festival will return to the Civic Center.
This year’s venue will be the Taube Atrium Theater. Furthermore, while Festival 26 consisted of three performances on consecutive evenings, Festival 27 will present four performances on Wednesday through Saturday, November 15, 16, 17, and 18. As in the past, all concerts will begin at 8 p.m. preceded by a panel discussion at 7 p.m. The Wednesday and Thursday programs will both present two sets, while the remaining two “weekend” programs will have three sets. Current information about the performances is as follows: [added 9/29, 4 p.m.: two programs have been added to the Festival, making it begin one day earlier and conclude one day later; the first program of the Festival is now as follows:
Tuesday, November 14: This will not be a performance. Instead, the Festival will begin with a screening of the “official bio-documentary” of composer Morton Subotnick. The film was directed by Robert Fantinatto. The screening will be followed by a discussion, which will include Subotnick and Other Minds Executive and Aritstic Director Charles Amirkhanian.˘]
Wednesday, November 15: The first set will be a duo performance by Swedish sound artist and composer Ellen Arkbro and Australian drummer Will Guthrie. They will present the United States premiere of a work scored for electronics, gongs, and tam-tams. The second set will be an improvisation by American pianist and composer Craig Taborn.
Thursday: November 16: For the first set Canadian-American composer Linda Bouchard will bring the international Ensemble TriOcular+ to San Francisco to perform music from her Live Structures project. The pieces themselves use real-time graphics to explore different ways of interpreting data into music notation. Electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick will then present his composition “As I Live and Breathe.” The performance will involve a live interaction with a hybrid Buchla 200e/Ableton synthesizer combined with electronic patches and analog recordings. He will be joined by German video artist Lillevan, who will provide live video animation.
Friday, November 17: Mary Kouyoumdjian will present the first live performance of “They Will Take My Island.” She will collaborate with Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan to present a musical documentary hybrid based on themes of family and immigration. The second set will be taken by the debut of Artur Avanesov, who is the leading composer of his generation in Armenia. He will present the world premiere of his solo piano composition “Tezeta,” followed by the American premiere of his piano quintet “Quasi Harena Maris.” The final set will be a performance of works by American composer Carl Stone. He will perform some of these, while others will be presented by Sarah Cahill, Paul Dresher, and Ned Rothenberg.
Saturday, November 18: The first set will be a performance of Neil Rolnick's monumental “Lockdown Fantasies,” a work for piano and electronics performed by Geoffrey Burleson. Bora Yoon will perform “( (( PHONATION )) ),” a multimedia set for live electronics, voice, and violin, with visual collaborator Joshue Ott. The Friction Quartet of violinists Otis Harriel and Kevin Rogers (sharing first chair), violist Mitso Floor, and cellist Doug Machiz will take the final set. They will present the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Norwegian composer Eivind Buene, along with another of his compositions, “Grid.” [added 9/29. 4:05 p.m.:
Sunday, November 19: This will be the world premiere performance of Re:gendo, an evening-length multimedia work by Carl Stone. The music involves both computer-based electronics and field recordings of the urban soundscape in Tokyo. The performance will include the Japanese singer Akaihirume.]
The prices for single tickets will be $50, $30, and $15. The prices for the Festival Pass will be $160, $100, and $50. The run time for each of the concerts is expected to be two and one-half hours. Seating will be general admission within the constraints of the specific ticket prices. All tickets may be purchased through the aforementioned City Box Office Web page. For those unfamiliar with the venue, it occupies the top floor of the Veterans Building, which is located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. This makes the venue convenient for both north-south and east-west Muni bus stations.
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