“His epitaph might be that

he composed music
in others’ minds.”
–New Yorker, 1992, following the death of composer John Cage

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Founded in 1992, Other Minds Kent Nagano
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the most original, eccentric
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 Artistic Director’s Message

T onight Other Minds proudly presents the culmination

of a project three years in the making. When Amelia
Cuni first proposed to develop her own special realization
of John Cage’s “Solo for Voice 58,” we had only months
earlier presented the American Premiere of her piece
Ashtayama–Song of Hours at the 10th Other Minds Music
Festival (2004). Thanks to a positive experience at OM 10,
Cuni presented to Other Minds a very special opportunity to
pay tribute to a composer who has influenced so many other
minds: John Cage.
photo: Mark Estes
The realization of Cage’s deceptively simple score demanded
years of planning, composing and rehearsing. But when I heard the fully developed 18
Microtonal Ragas, I was taken aback. Here was a musical result whose guiding spirit
was Indian, and whose materials revealed something quite different: the all-embracing
ethic of Cage. It reminded me of his Musicircus, of which he’d said, “You won’t hear
a thing; you’ll hear everything.” The resulting aural polyglot seems a fitting tribute to
Cathy Berberian, to whom Song Books was dedicated: in Amelia Cuni we have again
found a vocalist with a commanding and protean talent.

Her achievement, though, has been more than just that of a conventional performer.
Cuni, with Werner Durand and percussionists Raymond Kaczynski and Federico
Sanesi, has developed a very personal realization of “Solo for Voice 58” whose rich
variety allows each raga to adopt its own style of expression. The resulting succession
of languages, instrumentation, and musical colors is something not only rare in Indian
music, but in music of any region, culture or continent.

Neither the studio recording nor the performance version of 18 Microtonal Ragas
would have reached maturity without the help of an entire community of supporters,
of which Other Minds was but one. The project’s long period of gestation was made
possible by the generous support and expertise of individuals such as Mariuccia
Rognoni Noé and Ulrich Krieger, foundations including The Aaron Copland Fund, and
faithful curators such as Matthias Osterwold of Maerzmusik.

I welcome you to tonight’s performance, and hope you’ll take home a copy of our
new CD release of 18 Microtonal Ragas. Having passed in September the 95th
anniversary of the birth of John Cage, we are very proud to present both the recording
and performance of Amelia Cuni’s “Solo for Voice 58,” as a tribute to one of the original
‘other minds.’

Charles Amirkhanian
Artistic Director
 Other Minds Presents

18 Microtona l R aga s
“Solo For Voice 58”
from Song Books (1970) by John Cage

Amelia Cuni: dhrupad vocals

Werner Dur and: drones & electronics
R aymond K aczynski & Federico Sanesi: percussion

Tonight’s program will feature:

The complete “Solo for Voice 58” consisting of 18 microtonal ragas, to be
improvised with pitches selected from Cage’s graphically notated score. The talas
are fixed in the score.

Selections from the following pieces from Song Books will also be superimposed:
Solos for Voice 6, 10, 19, 32, 57, 71, 76, 77, 78 (theatre)
Solos for Voice 41, 42, 51 (theatre using electronics)
Solos for Voice 3, 21, 72 (songs using electronics)

Texts have been selected from the following sources:

Original writings by Amelia Cuni; Poems by Alain Daniélou (Raga Dhyanas,
Microtones, Affinitá, Der Grundton, The Drone); Solos for Voice 3, 12, 21
(including texts by Henry David Throeau and Erik Satie); other works in Amelia’s
repertoire; Chautal text by Dilip Chandra Vedi; Brajbhasa from Surdas Holi Song;
Poems by Roberto Sanesi (Su fondamente invernali, La bottega del vetraio)

The performance will last approximately 90 minutes; there will be no intermission.

Amelia Cuni’s costume was designed by Petra Peters.

The development of this performance was supported by Other Minds in collaboration with Mariuccia
Rognoni Noè, Expozice nové hudby (Brno), Voix Nouvelles–Fondation Royaumont, Casa da Música
(Porto), Handelsbeurs (Ghent), Megaron (Athens), and Ultima (Oslo). The world premiere performance
was given March 19, 2006 at Maerzmusik/Berliner Festspiele.

This concert presentation of 18 Microtonal Ragas is presented in partnership with Goethe-Institut San
Francisco and the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, and is sponsored in part by The Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation.
 C age’s Song Book s
from

to 18 Microtona l R aga s

D uring the 1940s, John Cage came in contact with Indian music and philosophy
and started applying some of its principles to his own work. “Solo for Voice 58”
is an indeterminate work and consists of 18 separate and independent parts. In his
directions, Cage refers explicitly to traditional Indian music forms. The challenge
for the performer is to develop ragas and talas in a non-traditional context. This
challenge has been the driving force behind Amelia Cuni’s intensive engagement
and development of 18 Microtonal Ragas for the past few years.
In Cage’s score, he indicates a series of graphically notated microtones from which
the performer can select the raga pitches, leaving open a vast range of possibilities,
encouraging the interpreter to reflect, question, choose and create in an experimental
way.
Cuni first performed “Solo for Voice 58”
during a rendition of the complete Song
Books at the Theater Bielefeld (Germany)
in May 2001, featuring Christian Kesten,
Steffi Weissmann and the new music vocal
ensemble Die Maulwerker. She then went
on deepening her involvement with this
unusual work, feeling that this was a unique
opportunity to further her own understanding
of the relationship between tradition and
experimentation, confronting East and West
photo: Kai Bienert
in a process of de-conditioning perfectly
fitting her personal history as a European dhrupad singer.
Two basic concepts are embodied in Cuni’s realization of the complete “Solo for
Voice 58”: the meaning of raga—to color the mind—and chance operations, a typically
Cagean tool. Together, they inform the sonic and visual result. Following Cage’s
own instructions, other selections from Song Books have been integrated and
superimposed as part of the 18 Microtonal Ragas.
The overall outcome of Cuni’s interpretation of “Solo for Voice 58” is therefore some
kind of recognizable raga music, although it cannot be defined as exclusively Indian.
Infused also is the experimental nature of the performer’s relationship to the score, and
the sense that the concepts of raga and tala can be manifested in an endless variety
of ways. Cage has emancipated these concepts from their accumulated cultural
and historical bindings, projected them into a truly cross-cultural dimension and
evidenced their potential as ‘open musical forms.’ From that point of emancipation,
Amelia Cuni has developed and practiced Cage’s ragas and talas, discovering and
creating new musical beings, grown from seeds of joy and discipline.

This note adapted from Amelia Cuni’s essay, “Creating 18 Microtonal Ragas,” available in the CD
booklet of Solo for Voice 58: 18 Microtonal Ragas (Other Minds 1010).
 Other Minds 1010-2 CD

Solo for Voice 58: 18 Microtonal Ragas

The studio recording is now available!
Purchase in the lobby or at [Link]

This recording on the Other Minds label is accompanied by a 28-page booklet with essays
by Amelia Cuni, Indian music scholar and composer Sandeep Bhagwati, and Cage scholar
William Brooks. The following is an excerpt from Bhagwati’s essay:

W hen I first heard the premiere of [Amelia Cuni’s]

“Solo for Voice 58” at the Maerzmusik festival in
Berlin in 2006, I felt the stirrings of an unknown kind
of Indian music, a music that no longer belongs to
India, just as Cowell’s music did not any longer belong
to Europe. Although it uses all kinds of devices, ideas
and atmospheres–in short, chromosomes from Indian
music–Amelia Cuni’s interpretation of Cage creates
something profoundly different: An infant that still has Indian music scholar and composer
Sandeep Bhagwati
to learn how to walk, and yet is promising, enlightening
and fascinating enough to have found support, nourishment...and love. I experienced
a music that evoked so many things I remembered and delighted in from Indian
music, that melted in my mouth with never-before-tasted rasas I could relish–and yet
at the same time forced me to listen with a Western attitude, making sense of the
different roles of the players in a chamber music way, trying to analyze the complex
and original relationships of drone to tune (one of the many decisive contributions
of Amelia’s artistic partner Werner Durand to this project), attempting to follow texts
in Italian, English, French and German–texts I could actually understand, not yet
another medieval Brajbhasha or Sanskrit poem. Is this new or experimental music?
I do not know, and the question seems irrelevant...Amelia Cuni, in following Cage’s
instructions and intentions in a faithful, yet unexpected manner, achieves one thing
that is truly rare in all kinds of experimental music: Her straightforward and yet sensual
music makes you suddenly care about all the ideas, time and biographical material
she nourished this project with. She has, in more than one sense, composed her own
musical home; and we are all warmly invited to live in it and be her welcome guests.

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 Other Minds presents

Revelationary
New Music
interviews
concerts
documentaries
lectures
sound poetry
videos

In 2000, the Music Department of Berkeley’s pioneering radio station KPFA-FM

transferred thousands of reel-to-reel audio tapes, compiled from 1949 to 1993, to
Other Minds. [Link] is an Other Minds project to make globally available this
rare and underexposed content documenting the history of new and experimental
music. The growing archive consists of over 6,000 hours of audio, including
past Other Minds Festivals and special projects, as well as pounds of visual
documentation culled from the KPFA and OM collections and the private files of
Charles Amirkhanian. Thanks to a partnership with the Internet Archive, all materials
on radiOM are available for listening free of charge!

John Cage & Pat Woodbury, UC Davis, 1970 Anthony Braxton with Charles Amirkhanian, 1985
photo: Charles Amirkhanian photo: Esther Kutnick, from the Exploratorium’s “Speaking of Music” Series

w w w . r a d i O M . o r g
Tonight’s concert will be made available on [Link].
Visit today to discover thousands of hours of revelationary new music!
 Biogr a phies
Amelia Cuni is a singer and composer living in
Berlin. She has trained her voice and musical skills in
India where she studied dhrupad singing and kathak
dance for more than 10 years. Her main teachers
have been R. Fahimuddin Dagar, Bidur Mallik, Dilip
Chandra Vedi and Manjushri Chatterjee. Her present
work includes contemporary music and multimedia
collaborations with artists of international repute
as well as traditional raga music. With her own
productions, she has performed at major venues and
festivals all over the world; several composers have
written for her voice. [Link]

Werner Durand performs his own music on

saxophones, Iranian ney and self-made wind
instruments. Besides various projects with Amelia
Cuni, he plays with ArmchairTraveller. He was the
founder of The 13th Tribe and has collaborated with
numerous composers/performers. He has recorded
for X-tract, Rec/ No Man’s Land, Tzadik, Table of
the Elements, Staalplaat, Barooni, Amiata and many
others.

Raymond Kaczynski is a percussionist and

composer living in Germany. He studied at Central
Michigan University and at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. He learned mrdangam and
South Indian rhythm for 5 years with Ramnad V.
Raghavan. His work is based on dance, literature,
and music composition. He plays his own sound
sculptures, percussion and electronics and has
performed in Europe, Asia and America.
[Link]

Federico Sanesi is a percussionist and composer

living in Milan, Italy. He has done classical studies
at Milan Civic School of Music with D. Searcy and
at the IIMC in Venice. Since 1980, he has been
learning from tabla master Shankha Chatterjee; later
on, also South Indian drumming from Anil Kumar
at Kalakshetra. His work is focused on integrating
various musical languages and cultures through
poetry, dance, theatre, cinema and visual arts. He
has played with artists from many parts of the world
participating in innumerable international festivals
and CD productions.

Co-producer and music consultant Ulrich Krieger provided invaluable insights in the development of 18
Microtonal Ragas, through an intensive exchange with Amelia Cuni.

Ulrich Krieger is a composer, performer and improviser. He studied

classical/contemporary saxophone, composition and electronic music at
the University of Arts in Berlin and the Manhattan School of Music. His
recent activities include development of an approach to the saxophone he
calls “acoustic electronics,” and extend into the various fields of new and
experimental music, electronic music, noise and avant garde rock, working
with artists such as Lou Reed, Lee Ranaldo, Thomas Köner, La Monte
Young, Michiko Hirayama, Radu Malfatti, Ensemble Modern, California
E.A.R. Unit, Soldier String Quartet. He currently teaches composition at
California Institute of the Arts. [Link]
Other Minds gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and institutions for their generous
support of Other Minds programs (includes gifts and pledges received between July 1, 2006
and October 20, 2007). Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this listing; please
contact Other Minds about any errors or omissions.
MAXIMALIST ($5,000+) of Randy Hostetler Sandra Drissen
Peter Antheil Dina & Neil Jacobson Jeff & Susan Dunn
Canright Family Foundation Timothy Lynch Dr. Charles & Lois Epstein
Dennis T. DeDomenico Caren Meghreblian & Harry Janet Falk
Celeste Hutchins Bernstein J.B. Floyd & Pin-I Wu
Edward P. Hutchins Peter B. Newman Charles & Liz Fracchia
Fred Levin and Nancy Livingston, Earleen Overend & Wayne Palmer Ruth Freeman
The Shenson Foundation Tim Savinar & Patricia Unterman Wendy Garling
Greg & Liz Lutz Dan I. Slobin David Gladstein
James & Suzanne McElwee Thomas Steenland William & Elizabeth Golove
Jim Newman Lydia M. Titcomb Eve Haight
Trimpin & Cheryl Ball David & Joan Halperin
EXPRESSIONIST ($1,000-$4,999) Simone Wedell Meira Halpern
Agnes Bourne & James Leubbers Anna Halprin
Rena Bransten IMPRESSIONIST ($125-$249) Ron & Pamela Harrison
Thomas & Kamala Buckner Bob Abra Susan & Robert Hersey
Dennis Russell Davies Kimo Bailey Michael Hicks
Patti Noel Deuter, In Memory of Deirdre Bair John W. Hillyer
Michael S. Osborn Mary Jane Beddow & Stephen Andrew Hoyem
Margaret Dorfman B. Hahn Mr. & Mrs. Wayne Huber
Andrew Gold & Karen Cutler Sarah Cahill Jay Johnson
John & Marcia Goldman Antonio Celaya Nectar Kaiser
Eric Kuehnl Gloria Cheng Lorraine & Sylvia Kaprielian
Anita Mardikian & Pepo Pichler Catherine Coates Peggy Karp, In Memory of Vivian
Jim Melchert Clark & Susan Coolidge Fine
Curtis Smith & Sue Threlkeld Paul Dresher & Philippa Kelly Ron & Renate Kay
Roselyne C. Swig John Duffy Howard B. Kleckner, M.D.
Steve & Deborah Wolfe Irene Jacobson & Rick Shinozaki Andy Kopra
Mitchell & Kristen Yawitz Elmer & Gloria Kaprielian Jane S. Kumin
Wendy & Mike Kirst Elizabeth Lauer
POSTMODERNIST ($500-$999) Ellen Marquis Kate Lauer
Anonymous Ben & Armorel Ohannesian Jean-Louis & Jane Roos Le Roux
Steven & Barbara Burrall Jane & Larry Reed Anne LeBaron, In honor of James
Duo Huang & Kui Dong Allen Frances Santos, In honor Tenney
Russ Irwin of FRXX MOVIX Charlton Lee & Eva-Maria
Mr. & Mrs. E. Robert Newman Susan & Prescott Stone Zimmermann
Sharee & Murray Newman T.P.T. Gardener, Inc. Ken & Carol Lee
Winsor Soule & Marcia Tanner Alta Tingle Jim Long
Michael Tilson Thomas & Joshua Zucchini Toast Gareth Loy
Robison [Link] Donald & Rebecca Malm
Catherine & Ned Topham Fund Glenn H. Martin
MINIMALIST ($40-$124) Dan Max
NEOCLASSICIST ($250-$499) Anonymous (7) April McMahon
Ben & Eleanor Amirkhanian Janice & Samuel Abdulian Susan Miller
Charles Amirkhanian & Carol L. Law Craig Amerkhanian & Michelle William Miskovetz
Arthur Antheil McTighe, In memory Sinclair Kate Mitchell
of Justine Antheil McTighe Elinor Armer Eric Newman
David Aronow Foundation Larry Austin Ed Patuto
Tom Benet Thomas D. Bendon Albert Pietsch
Tina & Bill Bocheff Charles Boone & Josefa Vaughan, Robert Place
Martha Ann Davies In honor of Charles Amirkhanian John & Christine Poochigian
Simone Fattal Linda Bouchard & David Cole Tim R. Price
Richard Felciano Henry Brant & Kathy Wilkowski Shulamit Ran
Randall & Teresa Fong, In honor Keith Campbell Jane & Larry Reed
of Adam Fong Laura Carmichael Davis Reimer & Louise Rothman-
Daniel Greenhouse Carla Carpentier Reimer
Claude & Nina Gruen Scott Chamberlain & Larissa John Reinsch & Miriam Mott-Smith
Alfred E. Heller Printzian Carol Reitan & Richard Boyden
Victor & Lorraine Honig Martin Cohn Dorothy Renzi
Zona & Jim Hostetler, In Memory Beverly Dahlen Robert S. Rheem
Dawn Richardson Richard Wilson Marthanne Dorminy Fund
Judith Rosen Joanne Chow Winship The Netherland-America
Fred Rosenblum Earl & Angela Wood Foundation, Inc.
Vivienne Rowe Rachel P. Young Phaedrus Foundation
Gail Sansbury & Joseph Busch Electra Yourke, In Memory of The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation
Erika Scherer Nicolas Slonimsky Ross McKee Foundation
Stanley Shaff Douglas Zody Save America’s Treasures Fund
Dr. James Shapiro Sony Computer Entertainment
GRANTORS America, Inc.
Jen Shyu, In Memory of Sekou
Sundiata Anonymous Thendara Foundation
Gail Silva Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. Union Bank of California Foundation
Alan Snitow The American-Scandinavian WHH Foundation
Foundation William and Flora Hewlett
Laurie Kohn Steele
Amoeba Music Foundation
Mary Stofflet, In memory of
Charles R. Mills The Amphion Foundation, Inc. Zellerbach Family Foundation
Dean Suzuki The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Ann and Gordon Getty IN-KIND DONORS
Leslie Swaha & Scott Lewis
Foundation Norman P. Canright Family Trust
Lesley Tannahill-Oi
Argosy Foundation Andrew Gold & Karen Cutler
Marta Tobey
Argosy Foundation Contemporary Issues Shop
Eugene Turitz & Louise Rosenkrantz
Music Fund Peaberry’s Coffee & Tea
Karen Van Leuven & Robert
The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Geoffrey Smith
Bradsby
Foundation Young’s Market
Patricia Walters
The Bernard Osher Foundation
Robert & Martha Warnock SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Consulate-General of the
Bronwyn Warren & James Petrillo Netherlands Sarah Cahill
Jane Wattenberg Fleishhacker Foundation Paul Dresher
Marc Weinstein Foundation for Contemporary Arts Richard Friedman
Howard Wershil Goethe-Institut San Francisco Stephen Kent
Susan West & Michael Gold The Grammy Foundation KPFA 94.1 FM
Myra Wexlar, In honor of Margaret Grants for the Arts / SF Hotel Tax Jim Newman & Jane Ivory
Fisher Fund Curtis Smith & Susan Threlkeld
Dorothy & Geoff White

Season 07/08 Music for the Adventurous

Artistic Director Robert Geary

ADVENTURES IN LIFE, LOVE, AND LONGING

Life, Love, and Longing take each of us on a journey out of ourselves. Come explore the new
worlds created by Stacy Garrop, Howard Hersh, Richard Festinger, Alan Fletcher, Wayne
Peterson and Morten Lauridsen. With four world premieres in one concert, you are guaranteed
to find yourself in unexplored territory.

Ticket info at: [Link].

Sat 11/3/2007 8:00 PM

St. Mark's Episcopal Church,
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Sun 11/4/2007 4:00 PM

St. Mark's Lutheran Church,
1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco
This concert will be followed by an exciting
champagne reception & silent auction
 Other Minds 13
Festival of New Music

“A Who’s Who of the avant-garde.”

–Weekend Edition, National Public Radio

“Possibly the premier new music festival

on the West Coast.”
–Los Angeles Times

Frances-Marie Uitti

Michael Bach
Dan Becker
Elena Kats-Chernin
OM 13 Keeril Makan
Åke Parmerud
ARTISTS Dieter Schnebel
Wadada Leo Smith
Morton Subotnick
Frances-Marie Uitti

March 6—8, 2008

Kanbar Hall
Jewish Community Center
of San Francisco
Tickets are on sale now!
Visit [Link] for details.
Wadada Leo Smith

An annual assembly of nine maverick composers and performers, the

Other Minds Music Festival brings together brilliant, renowned musicians
from around the world for a four-day private retreat at the Djerassi Resident
Artists Program in Woodside, California, and three days of stimulating
panel discussions and richly varied concerts in San Francisco.

The Other Minds Music Festival is presented in cooperation with the Djerassi Resident
Artists Program and the Eugene and Elinor Friend Center For the Arts of the Jewish
Morton Subotnick Community Center of San Francisco.