I'm forwarding this message at the request of Hugh Witemeyer

OTHER MINDS FESTIVAL VII TO PRESENT SONG SETTINGS BY EZRA POUND
OF THE POETRY OF GUIDO CAVALCANTI AND SORDELLO
* * *
Pound Musical Program on Friday, March 9 at 8pm
Panel Discussion "Ezra Pound & Music" on Saturday, March 10 at 11am

(San Francisco, CA, 28 January 2001) - Other Minds, in association with
the
Djerassi Resident Artists Program, presents Other Minds Festival VII.
The
annual new music festival offers a rare opportunity to hear works by
great
musical innovators who are shaping the sounds of the 21st century, as
well
as musical individualists of the past century. The festival includes a
concert of rarely heard musical works by American poet Ezra Pound, on
Friday, March 9 at 8pm, and a free panel discussion on "Ezra Pound &
Music"
on Saturday, March 10 at 11am.

Composer of chamber music and operas, London music critic, producer of
concerts which revived the reputation and music of Antonio Vivaldi, and
author of a treatise on harmony, Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was actively
involved in music in the 1920s and '30s. He composed two operas, Le
Testament and Cavalcanti, whose song settings take their rhythmic
patterns,
cadences and tonal inflections directly from the poetry of
(respectively)
Villon and Cavalcanti. For the second opera, Pound also set two poems
written in Provençal by the Italian troubadour Sordello.  He composed a
third opera to the poetry of Catullus, and close to a dozen violin
works.

Four decades of research on the music of Ezra Pound is brought to Other
Minds by conductor, composer and bassoonist Robert Hughes. Editor of the
score for Pound's opera Cavalcanti, and author of Ezra Pound's
Cavalcanti:
A Perspective (2001), Hughes visited Pound in 1958 at St. Elizabeths and
began a lifelong study of the poet's music. Hughes will conduct a
selection
of this work, including the world premiere of a violin suite composed by
Pound for his lifelong companion, Olga Rudge, which premieres by special
permission of the poet's daughter.


* 9 March 2001, Friday, 8pm Concert, Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, San
Francisco

Friday's concert presents the world premiere of Pound's "Fiddle Music
First
Suite" in six movements (1923-24), performed by distinguished virtuoso
Nathan Rubin. The concert continues with selections from the opera
Cavalcanti (1931-33), based on poems by Guido Cavalcanti (c.1250-1300)
in
Italian: "Poi che di doglia," "Quando di morte," and "Perch'io non
spero";
and by Sordello (1180-1255) in Provençal: "Tos temps serai" and "Ailas."
Rubin also performs solo in the opera's Overture, and in "Frottola."
Also
appearing on the program are bass-baritone David Cox, soprano Tammy
Jenkins, boy soprano Michael Bannett, and the Other Minds Ensemble.

One of the most creative minds in Bay Area musicology, Nathan Rubin was
concertmaster with the San Francisco Opera's Western Opera Theater for
the
1971 world stage premiere of Pound's first opera Le Testament (1923),
arranged by George Antheil. Rubin produced the Fantasy LP recording of
that
opera in 1972. He performed the American premieres of Pound's violin
works,
"Al poco giorno," "Faidit," and "Frottola," and was concertmaster with
The
Arch Ensemble for the historic 1983 world premiere of Pound's second
opera
Cavalcanti in San Francisco. Those noted Cavalcanti and Le Testament
programs were conducted by Robert Hughes.

* 10 March 2001, Saturday, 11:00am, George Coates Performance Works, 110
McAllister (at Leavenworth), San Francisco

A free artist forum on "Ezra Pound & Music," moderated by Other Minds
Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian, features discussants Robert
Hughes;
Margaret Fisher, author of the forthcoming Ezra Pound's Radio Operas
(MIT
Press, 2002); Michael André Bernstein of the UC Berkeley English
Department, author of The Tale of the Tribe: Ezra Pound and the Modern
Verse Epic (Princeton University Press, 1980); Nathan Rubin, violinist
and
author of John Cage and the 26 Pianos of Mills College (Sarah's Books);
and
Hugh Witemeyer, author of The Poetry of Ezra Pound: Forms and Renewal
1908-1930 (UC Press, 1969).

A CD of "The Music of Ezra Pound"  will be issued by Other Minds later
this
spring.

TICKETS

Other Minds Festival VII, March 8-10, 2001, includes three evenings of
concerts at Cowell Theater, and free artist forums. Concert tickets are
$26
for Premium seating, $18 General, and $15 for Students and Seniors.  A
3-Concert Pass is available for $70 Premium, $45 General, and $40 for
Students and Seniors.  A 20% discount is offered for groups of ten or
more
persons.  Tickets are available through the Cowell Theater Box Office,
(415) 441-3687.  Box Office hours are 10am to 3pm Tuesday through
Saturday.
Tickets are also on sale at the Box Office one hour prior to each
concert.
Tickets will also be available through TIX/Union Square and online at
www.ticketweb.com.  (For Group reservations, contact Amy Provenzano at
the
Other Minds office, (415) 934-8134, [log in to unmask])

For further information, call 415/978-0952 or visit www.otherminds.org