For Immediate Release October 2014

Further Info: Blaine Todd Director of Communications (415) 934-8134 ext. 301 office (760) 712-8041 mobile

Other Minds 20 Festival of New Music March 6, 7and 8, 2015 SFJAZZ Center 201 Franklin Street (at Fell) , CA 94102

Other Minds to Celebrate 20th Anniversary Festival with Unprecedented Retrospective Cast

U.S. Premiere of Symphony No. 2 World Premiere of ’ Twins Peeking at Koto Tributes to Australian Composer and American Maverick Centennial Commemoration of

Other Minds (OM) in San Francisco announces its 20th anniversary festival of avant- garde music, taking place in San Francisco on Friday March 6th, 7th and 8th, 2015 at the historically distinguished SFJAZZ Center. This annual event is presented in cooperation with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.

For 20 years Other Minds has searched the world over for the most unconventional and inspiring composers of our time. This March, the Other Minds Festival celebrates its 20th edition, and to mark this occasion, for the first time in its history, will present a retrospective cast from festivals past. Among the many highlights this year are the U.S. premiere of Michael Nyman's Symphony No. 2, featuring the San Francisco School of the Arts Youth Orchestra (SOTA) and accompanied by historical clips from Mexican cinema of the 20th Century; the world-premiere performance of Pauline Oliveros' Twins Peeking at Koto, featuring Oliveros and Norwegian accordion virtuoso Frode Haltli and recent Doris Duke Award recipient Miya Masaoka on koto; Masaoka presents her own world premiere, No. 2 “Tilt” composed for San Francisco's ; Del Sol will perform a tribute to the late Australian master Peter Sculthorpe, of his String Quartet No. 14 "Quamby" (1998), with Stephen Kent on Didjeridu, and a centenary commemoration of the Armenian Genocide with composer and ECM artist 's Canti Parelleli on Armenian folks songs, featuring Viennese soprano accompanied by the SOTA Orchestra directed by Matthew Cmiel.

Other Minds Executive & Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian explains Other Minds' 20th anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on two decades’ worth of prescient programming. "As we look back at the nearly 200 composers we've brought to San Francisco for these gatherings,” say Amirkhanian, “it seemed a good time to tip our hat to some of our most surprising discoveries who have gone on to make signal contributions to international concert life. We'll also pay tribute to the late Peter Sculthorpe, who had accepted an invitation to be with us as our elder statesman, and the legendary Lou Harrison, whose last work was composed for our 2002 festival and our American steel guitar soloist David Tanenbaum, and will be reprised on our opening night."

Following its recent success with OM 19, Other Minds returns for its second year to the incomparable SFJAZZ Center, a landmark venue ideally suited for a landmark event. OM’s featured artists will have their works brought to life in the superlative hall of the SFJAZZ Center. Other Minds 20 featured artists include: Peter Sculthorpe (AU.), Lou Harrison, Miya Masaoka, Maja S.K. Ratkje (NO.), Errollyn Wallen (BZ/U.K.), Pauline Oliveros, Don Byron, Tigran Mansurian (AM, 75th birthday year), Michael Nyman (U.K., 70th birthday year), and Charles Amirkhanian, (70th birthday year), David Tanenbaum, and Frode Haltli (NO).

This year’s artists will have their works performed by an exceptional cast of musicians including: Soprano Hasmik Papian (AT), violinist Moves Pagossian, the Del Sol String Quartet, multidisciplinary artist Kathy Hinde (U.K.), didjeridu player Stephen Kent, pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist , drummer John Betsch, and a special appearance by the San Francisco School of the Arts Youth Orchestra and String Quartet.

Prior to taking the stage in San Francisco for three days of concerts and panels, the Other Minds composers will assemble privately and share their work and ideas with one another in a pre- festival residency hosted by the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, located in the scenic forested hills of Woodside, CA. Prior to each concert, they’ll discuss their work with Amirkhanian in a 7 pm panel discussion on Friday and Saturday, and 3 pm on Sunday. Each composer also will donate a signed original page of his or her music for exhibition and auction in the SFJAZZ lobby. These framed works of art offer yet another level of insight into the language of the creators, as audiences will be able to see the artist’s work up close and in their own respective musical fingerprints. This year, as a special benefit to Other Minds and to celebrate our 20th anniversary, a number of past OM composers will be donating original handwritten score pages for exhibition and auction at the OM 20 festival.

Full Program Information Other Minds 20th Anniversary Festival

CONCERT ONE Friday, March 6th, 2015 7 pm Panel Discussion | 8 pm Concert

PETER SCULTHORPE From Kakadu (1993) 10 min. David Tanenbaum, classical guitar

LOU HARRISON Scenes from Nek Chand (2001-02) 10 min. David Tanenbaum, National Steel just-intonation guitar

CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN Rippling the Lamp (2007) 8 min. Kate Stenberg, violin; tape

MIYA MASAOKA String Quartet No. 2, “Tilt” (2014-15, world premiere) 25 min. Del Sol String Quartet

—INTERMISSION—

MAJA S.K. RATKJE Traces II (2014-15, U.S. premiere) 25 min. Maja S.K. Ratkje, voice and electronics; Frode Haltli, accordion; Kathy Hinde, staging

PETER SCULTHORPE Quartet No. 14 “Quamby” (1998) 20 min. Del Sol String Quartet, Stephen Kent, didjeridu

CONCERT TWO Saturday, March 7th, 2015 7 pm Panel Discussion | 8 pm Concert

CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN Dumbek Bookache IV (1986) 2 min. Ka Himeni Hehena (1997) 3 min. Marathon (1997) 3 min. Charles Amirkhanian, voice with tape

ERROLLYN WALLEN ’s Burning & Other Songs 35 min. Errollyn Wallen, voice and ; SOTA Jazz String Quartet

—INTERMISSION—

PAULINE OLIVEROS Twins Peeking at Koto (2015, world premiere) 23 min. Pauline Oliveros, accordion; Frode Haltli, accordion; Miya Masaoka, koto

DON BYRON Don Byron Quartet 27 min. Don Byron, clarinet; Aruán Ortiz, piano; Cameron Brown, bass; John Betsch, drums

CONCERT THREE Sunday, March 8th, 2015 3 pm Panel Discussion | 4 pm Concert

CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN Miatsoom (Reunion, 1994-97) 27 min. Tape work

TIGRAN MANSURIAN Canti Paralleli (2007-08) for soprano and string orchestra 28 min. (texts by Paghtasar Dpir, , ) Hasmik Papian, soprano; SOTA Orchestra; Matthew Cmiel, conductor

—INTERMISSION—

TIGRAN MANSURIAN Romance for Violin and Strings (2011) 10 min. Movses Pagossian, violin; SOTA Orchestra; Matthew Cmiel, conductor

MICHAEL NYMAN Symphony No. 2 (2014) 30 min. SOTA Orchestra; Matthew Cmiel, conductor

Artist Bios

COMPOSERS

Miya Masaoka – OM 3

Miya Masaoka resides in New York City and is a classically trained musician, composer and sound/installation artist. She has created works for solo koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video, sculpture installations and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestra and mixed choirs. She has a large body of work for solo koto, live electronics and video. She often works with the sonification of data, and maps the behavior of brain activity, plants and insect movement to sound. Her work has been performed at the Venice Biennale 2004, the Miller Theater, NYC, Ircam, Paris and V2, Rotterdam. Awards and commissions include the Alpert Arts Award, , Engine 27/Harvestworks, and Gerbode Foundation.

Don Byron – OM 2

For over two decades, Don Byron, a recipient of the first Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, has been a singular voice in an astounding range of musical contexts, exploring widely divergent traditions while continually striving for what he calls "a sound above genre."

As clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic, he redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical, salsa, hip-hop, funk, rhythm & blues, klezmer, or any jazz style from swing and bop to cutting-edge downtown improvisation. He has been consistently voted best clarinetist by critics and readers alike in leading international music journals since being named “Jazz Artist of the Year” by Down Beat in 1992. Acclaimed as much for his restless creativity as for his unsurpassed virtuosity as a player, Byron has presented a multitude of projects at major music festivals around the world.

Pauline Oliveros – OM 8

Pauline Oliveros is a senior figure in contemporary American music. Her career spans fifty years of boundary dissolving music making. In the '50s she was part of a circle of iconoclastic composers, artists, poets gathered together in San Francisco. Recently awarded the John Cage award for 2012 from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, Oliveros is Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and Darius Milhaud Artist-in-Residence at . Oliveros has been as interested in finding new sounds as in finding new uses for old ones --her primary instrument is the accordion, an unexpected visitor perhaps to musical cutting edge, but one which she approaches in much the same way that a Zen musician might approach the Japanese shakuhachi. Pauline Oliveros' life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' sensibilities to the universe and facets of sounds. Since the 1960's she has influenced American music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Pauline Oliveros is the founder of "Deep Listening," which comes from her childhood fascination with sounds and from her works in concert music with composition, improvisation and electro-acoustics. Pauline Oliveros describes Deep Listening as a way of listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, of one's own thoughts as well as musical sounds. Deep Listening is my life practice," she explains, simply. Oliveros is founder of Deep Listening Institute, formerly Pauline Oliveros Foundation, now the Center For Deep Listening at Rensselaer.

Tigran Mansurian – OM 10

Tigran Mansurian was born in Beirut in 1939. In 1947 his family moved to , finally settling in the capital Yerevan in 1956. Mansurian studied at the Yerevan Music Academy and completed his PhD at the State Conservatory where he later taught contemporary music analysis. In a short time he became one of Armenia's leading composers, establishing strong creative relationships with international performers and composers such as Valentin Silvestrov, Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, André Volkonsky and Edison Denisov as well as , , and the . Mansurian was the director of the Komitas Conservatory in the 1990s. He has recently retired as an administrator and teacher, and concentrates exclusively on composition. Mansurian's musical style is characterized mainly by the organic synthesis of ancient Armenian musical traditions and contemporary European composition methods. His oeuvre comprises orchestral works, seven concerti for strings and orchestra, sonatas for cello and piano, three string quartets, madrigals, chamber music and works for solo instruments.

Michael Nyman – OM 11

Michael Nyman is a composer, pianist, librettist, writer, musicologist, photographer and filmmaker whose work encompasses opera, concert music and film soundtracks of which The Draughtsman's Contract and are the best-known. Since founding the Michael Nyman Band in 1977, which tours the world, he has worked with leading film directors and has collaborated with artists such as Mary Kelly, Damon Albarn, Carsten Nicolai and the recent Oscar winning Man on Wire star Phillippe Petit. An exhibition of his photographs and video-works was recently shown at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill and more exhibitions are planned. His music is available via an extensive range of recordings on his own label, MN Records.

Maja S.K. Ratkje – OM 12

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, composer and performer (born Dec. 29th 1973 in Trondheim, Norway), studied at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo. Her music is performed worldwide.

Widely considered Norway’s most exciting musical export, Ratkje is most critically acclaimed for her idiosyncratic vocal techniques. One is equally likely to find her composed work for, say, a string orchestras in a renowned hall as they are to witnessing one of her notorious solo noise improvs in a small club. Her work runs an impressive and dizzying gamut. Ratkje often performs her own music for films, dance and theatre, installations, and numerous other projects. She creates large art installations with SPUNK and often incorporates visual arts in her work. She has made music for a radio play by Elfriede Jelinek, and in 2003, she played a part in her own opera, based on the texts from the Nag Hammadi Library. She has been soloist in her work with orchestras such as The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Her scores are found at the Norwegian Music Information Centre and her records are released on Tzadik, Rune Grammofon, ECM and many other labels. Errollyn Wallen – OM 5

Born in Belize, Errollyn Wallen gave up her training at the Dance Theater of Harlem, New York to study composition at the universities of London and Cambridge. She founded her own Ensemble X, and its motto “We don’t break down barriers in music… we don’t see any” reflects her genuine, free-spirited approach and eclectic musicianship. She has been commissioned by outstanding music institutions from the BBC to the Royal Opera House and performed her songs internationally.

A prolific composer, Wallen’s music spans styles from avant-garde classical to jazz tinged songwriting. Her numerous works include the song Daedalus appears which alongside songs by Björk, , and Meredith Monk on the Brodsky Quartet’s CD Moodswings. Her multi- media show Jordan Town, a modern day song cycle with dance and film, was a sell-out hit at the Edinburgh Festival. Are You Worried About the Rising Cost of Funerals is a song cycle for soprano and string quartet commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Other chamber works include a quintet for flute and string quartet All the Blues I See premièred by Emily Beynon and the Brodsky Quartet, Romeo Turn for viola, cello and double bass, Dervish for cello and piano, and a series of piano duets and piano solo pieces, Errollyn Wallen’s very own instrument. The Schubert Ensemble commissioned and premièred Music for Tigers, a piano quintet, in October 2006. Current projects include a collaboration with David Pountney and a new work for Welsh National Opera to be premiered in 2014.

Lou Harrison – OM 8

Lou Harrison lived his first nine years in Portland, Oregon, where he was born in May 14, 1917. Residences since then include Central California, Los Angeles, New York City (ten years), North Carolina, the San Francisco Bay region, Oaxaca, New Zealand, and the Monterey Bay region. His studies were with Howard Cooper, Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and Virgil Thomson. He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships. Lou Harrison has established himself as one of the most original and important American composers of the 20th century.

As Harrison likes to point out, American composers must often do other things to support themselves. Among these he has been a record salesman, an animal nurse, a journalist, a florist, a forestry firefighter, and dance accompanist. He was a poet, painter, calligrapher, and typeface designer in addition to being a composer. He helped to introduce the Indonesian gamelan to the United States and, with William Colvig, constructed two large gamelans now in use at San Jose State University and Mills College.

Ned Rorem has said, "Lou Harrison's compositions demonstrate a variety of means and techniques. In general he is a melodist. Rhythm has a significant place in his work, too. Harmony is unimportant, although tonality is. He is one of the first American composers to successfully create a workable marriage between Eastern and Western forms."

He passed away February 2nd, 2003, on his way to attend a festival of his music at Ohio State University at Columbus.

Peter Sculthorpe – OM 12

The recipient of Australia’s highest honors, Sculthorpe inspired a whole generation of composers whose music is now internationally known. His most defining quality has been his ability to somehow create the feeling of the Australian landscape in his music. This was achieved in part by his study of Aboriginal music, as well as his deep love of landscape and his concern with issues of conservation.

Born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1929, Sculthorpe was educated at Launceston Church Grammar School, the University of Melbourne, and Wadham College, Oxford. He was Emeritus Professor at the University of , where he began teaching in 1964, a Harkness Fellow at , USA, and a visiting professor at Sussex University, UK, in 1971-72. Sculthorpe’s rich and varied compositions (including an astonishing eighteen string quartets) are regularly performed and recorded throughout the world. His preoccupation with Australian landscape, environmental issues and the frailty of the human condition can be heard in works such as Earth Cry (1986) and (2003). The latter grew from his concern about women and children killed in the war in Iraq. While his String Quartet No. 16 (2006) addressed the plight of asylum- seekers in Australia detention centers, his String Quartet No. 18 (2010) was devoted to climate change. His output relates closely to the unique social and physical characteristics of Australia, and to the cultures of its Pacific Basin neighbors. Influences include much of the music of Asia - especially that of Japan and Indonesia – and, in recent years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island music and culture.

Sculthorpe was elected one of Australia’s Living National Treasures in 1998 and was recipient of a Silver Jubilee Medal. An Honorary Foreign Life Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he held honorary doctorates from the universities of Tasmania, Melbourne, Sussex, Griffith and Sydney and in 2011 was awarded the Encomienda de la Orden de Isabel la Católica by Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Peter Sculthorpe recently passed away on August 8th, 2014.

Charles Amirkhanian – OM 11

Born January 19, 1945, in Fresno, California, composer, percussionist, sound poet and radio producer Charles Amirkhanian is a leading practitioner of and text-sound composition and has been instrumental in the dissemination of contemporary music through his work as Music Director of KPFA/Berkeley from 1969 to 1992; as Director of the Speaking of Music series at the Exploratorium in San Francisco (1983-1992); and founding Co-Director (with John Lifton) of the Composer-to-Composer Festival in Telluride, Colorado (1988-1991). From 1993 to 1997 Amirkhanian was Executive Director of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California. From 1993 he has been Artistic Director of Other Minds. In May of 1998 Amirkhanian was appointed Executive Director.

In his recent works, produced with the Synclavier digital synthesizer, Amirkhanian incorporates sampled acoustic environmental sounds (which he calls "representational sounds") and traditional musical pitched sounds ("abstract sounds") to develop dreamscapes which act as disjunct narratives, evoking a world of memory-triggers which induce a trance like listening state. Sounds are chosen both for purposes of reference to a subject and for their sculptural and gestural beauty. His Walking Tune (A Room-Music for Percy Grainger) is perhaps the most important example of this genre, combining natural sounds recorded in Grainger's native Australia with haunting violin melodies and fragments of a J. C. Bach aria.

PERFORMERS

FRODE HALTLI

In his early years, Frode Haltli he won numerous national contests, raising interest in and appreciation of the accordion to unprecedented heights. Haltli studied at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, then at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, graduating in 2000. In 2001 the Norwegian Concert Institute named him Young Soloist Of The Year, he was also placed second in the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition 1999 in the Netherlands. Concerts throughout Europe as well as several other parts of the world, including the USA, Canada and Asia, raised awareness still further. Directing his career into explorations of new music, he became associated with like-minded musicians mainly in Europe where the development of adventurous forms has grown throughout recent years. Haltli has established links with several composers, notably Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje who is one of several who have written especially for him; others include Bent Sørensen, Rolf Wallin, Atli Ingólfsson, Hans Abrahamsen, Jo Kondo and Sam Hayden.

Frode Haltli teaches accordion at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

KATHY HINDE

Kathy Hinde’s interdisciplinary approach combines different art forms frequently through collaborations with other practitioners, partnerships with scientists, and input from audiences. She has made work for concert halls, theatres, and galleries alongside site-specific work for outdoor locations and unusual indoor spaces. She has shown work across Europe, Scandinavia, China, Pakistan, USA, Colombia and Brazil.

Kathy’s music and visual art grows from a partnership between nature and technology. Often using adapted, or self-made instruments, she works with open scores, graphic scores and chance procedures to create a framework within which the work evolves. Her video work frequently moves away from the screen, including site-specific public projections. She has created a number of works combining kinetic sculpture with musical automata, online participatory sound-mapping pieces and site-specific installations.

HASMIK PAPIAN

Hasmik Papian was born in Yerevan, Armenia (then part of the ) on September 2nd, 1961. Papian graduated from Komitas High Academy in Yerevan first as a violinist, then as a singer. After her debut at the Armenian National Opera, she was invited as a soloist by Opera Bonn and Deutsche Oper am Rhein among others. She has since appeared at numerous theaters, including The and Carnegie Hall in New York, , Washington National Opera, of Milan, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Gran Theatre del Barcelona, Madrid, London Wigmore Hall, and many more.

MOVSES POGOSSIAN

Movses Pogossian made his American debut performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall in 1990, about which Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote: “There is freedom in his playing, but also taste and discipline. It was a fiery, centered, and highly musical performance…” Movses Pogossian has since performed with orchestras such as the Brandenburger Symphoniker and the Halle Philharmonic in Germany, the Sudety Philharmonic in Poland, the Tucson Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York, and the Toronto Sinfonia.

Movses Pogossian has premiered over 50 works, and works closely with many renowned composers. Pogossian is the recipient of the 2011 Forte Award from Jacaranda, given for outstanding contributions to the promotion of new music and modern music.

DEL SOL STRING QUARTET

Del Sol’s members are violinists Kate Stenberg and Rick Shinozaki, violist Charlton Lee, and cellist Kathryn Bates. Since its inception in 1992 at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Quartet has worked its magic performing on prominent concert series worldwide, including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Museum and National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; Symphony Space in New York City; Other Minds Festival of New Music in San Francisco; Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Santa Cruz, CA; Davos and Hirzenberg Music Festivals in Switzerland; Chengdu Festival of Contemporary Music in China; and Santa Fe Opera in NM among many others. Del Sol most recently completed an expansive 3-CD set of the Peter Sculthorpe’s complete string quartets with didjeridu.

KATE STENBERG

Kate Stenberg is first violinist with Del Sol String Quartet. Her devotion to working with living composers has remained for nearly 25 years, culminating in solo and quartet performances in many countries including Europe, Canada, China and South Korea. She performed in the first two Other Minds Festivals in works by Julia Wolfe (OM 1, 1993) and Frances White (OM 2, 1995).

With Eva-Maria Zimmermann, she recorded "Scenes from a New Music Séance" on Other Minds Records in 2012 with several world premieres including Amirkhanian's "Rippling the Lamp." Other composers on the CD include Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, , Ruth Crawford, and Henry Cowell. A San Francisco Chronicle review of the selections on the CD reports "the excellent duo . . . plays all of them with tenderness and high spirits."

Stenberg's passion lies with the string quartet repertoire that she fostered as a co-founder of Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and Real Vocal String Quartet before her success with Del Sol String Quartet.

STEPHEN KENT

With beginnings in Uganda, and the seed sown there of a lifetime of interest in global cultures, it is no surprise that Stephen Kent has traveled the world, living at various times in Africa, England, Spain, Australia and, for the last 15 years, The San Francisco Bay Area. In Australia, in 1981, as Music Director of Circus Oz he first connected with Australian Aboriginal culture and the didjeridu.

Inspired by the power of the land, and the support the group gave to Aboriginal issues, he learnt circular breathing and wrote music for brass instruments, sounding unmistakably like the didjeridu. While he has always had great respect for Aboriginal people and their culture Stephen has never tried to imitate traditional styles on the didjeridu. Instead he has pioneered his own unique style, with the didj at the center of his many compositions in contemporary music. Most recently, Stephen Kent played as the soloist on the Del Sol String Quartets recording of the complete string quartets of Peter Sculthorpe.

DAVID TANENBAUM

Recognized internationally as an outstanding performing and recording artist, a charismatic educator, and a transcriber and editor of both taste and intelligence, David Tanenbaum is one of the most admired classical guitarists of his generation. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union and Asia, and in 1988 he became the first American guitarist to be invited to perform in China by the Chinese government. He has been soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Oakland Symphony, Vienna’s ORF orchestra, with such eminent conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano and John Adams.

While his repertoire encompasses diverse styles, David Tanenbaum is recognized as one of today’s most eloquent proponents of new guitar repertoire. Among the many works written for him is Hans Werner Henze’s guitar concerto An Eine Aolsharfe, Terry Riley’s first guitar piece, Ascención, four works by 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis, two pieces by Roberto Sierra, and a suite by Lou Harrison. He is currently working with Terry Riley on a series of 24 guitar pieces.

David Tanenbaum is currently Chair of the Guitar Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received the 1995 Oustanding Professor Award, and he has been Artist-In-Residence at the Manhattan School of Music.

ARUÁN ORTIZ

Aruán Ortiz is a critically acclaimed Cuban pianist, award- winning composer, and a solid producer and educator, not only on the New York City scene, but internationally as well.

Named “the latest Cuban wunderkind to arrive in the United States” by BET Jazz, this classically trained violist and pianist from Santiago de Cuba, considers himself “a curious person who loves music”, and portrays his music as an architectural structure of sounds, incorporating contemporary , Afro-Cuban rhythms, and improvisation as primary material for his compositions. He has received a number of awards such as Latin Jazz Corner’s Arranger of the Year (2011) for his contribution on the album, “El Cumbanchero” (Jazzheads 2011) by flutist Mark Weinstein; Best Jazz Interpretation, Festival de Jazz in Vic, Spain (2000); and Semifinalist, Jas Hennessy Piano Solo Competition, Montreux, Switzerland (2001).

CAMERON BROWN

Although he spent some years studying piano, Brown switched to bass while still at school and later, while studying at university, attracted attention for his playing in a jazz quartet. In the mid-60s he spent some time in Europe, playing with the likes of George Russell, Don Cherry and Donald Byrd. On his return to the USA he taught for a few years before becoming a member of the house band at a New York nightclub. In this capacity he accompanied many leading jazz musicians and also recorded with Sheila Jordan before returning to Europe, to tour with Archie Shepp in the mid-70s. During this period he also visited Japan with Art Blakey and three years later recorded with Beaver Harris, with whom he had first played in New York some years earlier. In 1979 Brown joined the newly formed quartet co- led by George Adams and . He recorded with them on Live At The Village Vanguard (1983) and Decisions (1984). During the 80s he was active with bands led by , Cherry and Shepp.

JOHN BETSCH

John Betsch was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1945 and presently lives in Paris. His mother was a church organist and pianist and his sister a dramatic soprano singer. John began playing drums at age nine and started playing professionally at 18 while a student at Fisk University. He continued his studies at the Berklee School of Music and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst under Max Roach and Archie Shepp; John also taught at U. Mass. and in state prison education programs.

Silent Score Auction

Once again, all of our composers have donated a page of music manuscript that will be on display in the SFJAZZ Center and auctioned to the highest bidder to support the festival. Seeing the musical fingerprints of our participants has long been an integral part of Other Minds’ festivals. Not only are these framed pages works of art—they give us a special insight into the musical language of each creator.

About Other Minds

Founded in 1993, Other Minds (www.otherminds.org) 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." Since its inception, Other Minds has featured nearly 200 composers from all over the world.

Other Minds, in addition to its annual new music festival, maintains a weekly radio program on KALW-FM (“Music from Other Minds,” Friday, 11pm-12 Midnight, (www.kalw.org), a massive online archive of new music radio broadcasts and concert (www.radiOM.org), an internationally-recognized CD label (http://webstore.otherminds.org/collections/other- minds-records), and occasional special concerts such as its November 17th West Coast premiere of A Secret Rose by Rhys Chatham for 100 electric guitars (http://otherminds.org/shtml/Sp- Ev-G100.shtml).

Information and Tickets

When: Friday, March 6 & Saturday, March 7, 2015 7 pm Panel Discussion / 8 pm Performances Sunday, March 8, 2015 3 pm Panel Discussion / 8 pm Performances

Where: SFJAZZ Center 201 Franklin Street (at Fell Street) San Francisco, CA 94102

Tickets: Available Tuesday, October 28th, 2015 on Brown Paper Tickets: otherminds20.brownpapertickets.com

Section A - $80 Section B - $50 Section C - $30 Section D - $15

* * Purchase before December 31st to receive 15% off individual concert tickets and 20% when purchasing a three-day “festival bundle package” of any of the four seating sections.

Support for Other Minds 20

The Robert D. Bielecki Foundation BMI Foundation (Don Byron Quartet) The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation The Norway House Foundation (Maja S.K. Ratkje) (Maja S. K. Ratkje) The Bernard Osher Foundation Grants for the Arts Hotel Kabuki The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation Studio1500 The Antonia & Vladimir Kulaev Fund Peter Kirkeby Fine Art & Framing The Aaron Copland Fund for Music In cooperation with the Djerassi Resident National Endowment for the Arts Artists Program

The Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation

Further Information Please contact Blaine Todd, Communications Director [email protected] (415) 934-8134

Visit us at www.otherminds.org www.radiom.org

Visit SFJAZZ at www.sfjazz.org

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