SF’s Only Int’l Festival of Avant-Garde Music: “Other Minds Festival 25” (Oct. 14-17)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Heralded by NPR as a “Who’s Who of the avant-garde” and The Wire as “a forum for forward-thinking composers and an opportunity to hear performances of a uniformly challenging and rigorous nature,” San Francisco’s only international festival of avant-garde music returns to celebrate its milestone 25th anniversary!

Other Minds Festival 25: “Moment’s Notice” will bring to the stage twenty-six of the greatest living artists working in the field of improvised music. Across four nights, OM 25 features a rare convergence of pioneering icons of free improvised music side-by-side with the emerging artists whose work is at once a continuance and an expansion of the jazz avant-garde.

Festival artists include MacArthur Genius Award winners Mary Halvorson and Tyshawn Sorey; Guggenheim Fellows Jen Shyu and Zeena Parkins; Doris Duke Performing Artist Award winners William Parker and Myra Melford; NEA Jazz Masters Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell; Berlin Prize Awardee Elliott Sharp; and several additional performers whose music is a vital expression of the traditions of improvisation.

Performances will cross disciplines to include dance, theater, and video including pianist/composer Myra Melford who will partner with Butoh dancer Oguri; William Parker’s dance/theater work, The Sky is Trembling featuring dancer Patricia Nicholson; and Jen Shyu’s luminous Nine Doors, a theatrical work heralded by the New York Times as a “dizzying,” “imaginative ritual” sung in multiple languages and performed by Shyu on a variety of instruments.

As concerns with the Delta Variant of COVID-19 persist, we have updated our requirements for the audience members planning on attending in person.

Based on the latest medical advice and patron feedback, we are now requiring proof of vaccination for all patrons ages 12 and up* to attend performances at the Wilsey Atrium Theater Center. We regret that we are unable to allow entry to patrons with only a negative COVID test.

We will require all patrons to wear masks at performances until further notice. To show proof of vaccination, we ask that you show either your physical vaccination card, a photo of your card, or a QR code vaccination record from ca.gov. We recommend keeping one of these records on your person at all times.

We hope that this change will give you confidence in returning safely to Other Minds events. If you have any questions, please call the Other Minds office: 415-934-8134.

We look forward to welcoming you back to Other Minds in the safest way possible!

*Masks with a valve, gaiters, scarves, etc. are not permitted.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.