Sept. 27 and 29

Other Minds Rudhyar in Retrospect

Other Minds
By Michael Zwiebach

Other Minds and Sarah Cahill are curating this festival to a man who was the inspiration and example for many other American “maverick” composers, including Henry Cowell, Carl Ruggles, John Cage, and Lou Harrison. Here's a composer who was an author, artist, and astrologer as well. Not quite a Renaissance man, more of a West Coast man, Dane Rhudyar was originally Parisian (born Daniel Chennevière in 1895). When he got into Theosophy and the occult, via Zen Buddhism, it was only a matter of time before he made his way to San Francisco. By the late 1960s he had become attracted by New Age ideas, of course. He's definitely an original, someone whose music will open your ears — and not in a trivial way. At both concerts, a selection of his art, writings, and letters will be on display, and the composer's widow and his biographer will both appear in a preconcert discussion.

Michael Zwiebach is the senior editor/ content manager for SFCV. He assigns all articles and content, manages the writing staff and does editing. A member of SFCV from the beginning, Michael holds a Ph.D. in music history from the University of California, Berkeley.

Event Information

Chamber Music, New Music, Talks & Classes, Other
Rudhyar in Retrospect

    Rudhyar in Retrospect

    Additional Dates:
    Wed September 29, 2010 7:30pm
    Valley Presbyterian Church

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    Comments

    Charles Amirkhanian says:
    September 22, 2010
    Sacher Foundation Director from Basel flying in for 2 concerts

    I'm pleased to share the information that Dr. Felix Meyer, director of the greatest music library for 20th Century music in the world, the Sacher Stiftung of Basel, will be flying in for both Dane Rudhyar concerts. As personal assistant to the late Paul Sacher, Dr. Meyer helped curate an enormous collection of scores and memorabilia by such luminaries as Boulez, Lutosloawski, Varèse and Nancarrow, to go along with Dr. Sacher's initial purchase of the entire archive of Igor Stravinsky. The full collection, housed in a beautiful multi-story state of the art library, now contains the original scores of 80+ composers, including Feldman, Reich, Webern, Gubaidulina, Kagel, Lutoslawski, Brant, and one of the Other Minds Festival's upcoming guests in March, Louis Andriessen. Dr. Meyer recently has read the new biography of Dane Rudhyar written by the English musicologist Deniz Ertan, whom I'll be interviewing at a panel discussion preceding the Monday concert in San Francisco. There is a pre-concert reception at 6:30pm, the panel at 7pm and concert at 8pm.

    A wonderful exhibit of Rudhyar memorabilia and paintings, curated by Adam Fong in collaboration with the composer's widow, Leyla Rudhyar Hill, will be on view, and a program booklet with reproductions of highlights from the estate's collection will be available shortly for online viewing at www.otherminds.org.

    If tickets to the San Francisco event are sold out, come to the Portola Valley concert, 7:30pm Wednesday evening, where many more seats are available.