
Charles Benjamin Amirkhanian (born January 19, 1945;
Fresno, California
Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...
) is an American
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
. He is a percussionist, sound poet, and radio producer of
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
origin. He is mostly known for his
electroacoustic and
text-sound music.
Career
Amirkhanian received his
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...
from
Mills College
Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...
in 1980, where he studied electronic music and techniques of sound recording.
He was music director of
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica may refer to:
Art
* ''Pacifica'' (statue), a 1938 statue by Ralph Stackpole for the Golden Gate International Exposition
Places
* Pacifica, California, a city in the United States
** Pacifica Pier, a fishing pier
* Pacifica, a conce ...
's
KPFA
KPFA (94.1 FM) is a public, listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed o ...
-FM in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, from 1969 to 1992, and he was a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Creative Arts Department at
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
from 1977 to 1980.
He co-directed the
Telluride Institute's Composer to Composer festival in
Telluride, Colorado
Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County, Colorado, San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River (Colorado), San M ...
, between 1988 and 1991. Amirkhanian is the executive director and artistic director of the
Other Minds Music Festival in San Francisco, which he co-founded with
Jim Newman in 1992. He has played a key role in recording and championing the work of
Conlon Nancarrow
Samuel Conlon Nancarrow (; October 27, 1912 – August 10, 1997) was an American-Mexican composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. Nancarrow is best remembered for his ''Studies for Player Piano'', being one of the first ...
and
George Antheil
George Johann Carl Antheil ( ; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of the ear ...
, among others.
In 1984, the
American Music Center awarded him its Letter of Distinction for service to American composers through his work at KPFA FM in Berkeley, California. This was followed in 2005 by another for his co-founding and directing the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco. From
ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...
in 1989 he received the Deems Taylor Award, also for service to American composers. Amirkhanian received a 1997
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...
Grants to Artists Award. In 2009,
Chamber Music America and ASCAP honored him for his Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music with Other Minds.
In 2017, the
American Composers Forum honored him with its Champion of New Music award.
Discography
* ''10+2: 12 American Text-Sound Pieces'' (1975). 1750 Arch Records S-1752 (LP) reissued in 2003 on Other Minds/CD 1006-2 compilation which includes Amirkhanian's 'Just (1972)' and 'Heavy Aspirations (1973)
* ''Lexical Music'' (1979). 1750 Arch Records S-1779 (LP), reissued in 2017 on Other Minds Records OM 1023-2 (CD).
* ''Polipoetry Issues Numero 3: American Sound Poetry'' (1983). 3Vitre – EM 00383 (limited edition 7" LP) Compilation containing Amirkhanian's 'The Putts'
* ''Mental Radio: Nine Text-Sound Compositions'' (1985). CRI-SD 523 (LP); reissued in 2009 on New World Records NWCRL 523 (CD)
* ''
Perspectives of New Music
''Perspectives of New Music'' (PNM) is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory
Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Musi ...
'' (1988). Compilation CD accompanying volume 26 issue. Contains: Pas de Voix (Portrait of Samuel Beckett)
* Charles Amirkhanian and
Noah Creshevsky: ''Auxesis: Electroacoustic Music'',
Centaur Records (1995) – CRC 2194
* ''Walking Tune'' (1998). Starkland ST-206. "One of the Year's 20 best CDs," according to the
Electronic Music Foundation.
* ''Charles Amirkhanian: Loudspeakers'' (2019). New World Records 80817 (2-CD set).
* ''Miatsoom'' (2021). Other Minds Records OM 1029-2 Contains: Dzarin Bess Ga Khorim, Roussier (not Rouffier), Three Armenians, & Miatsoom
* ''Charles Amirkhanian & Carol Law Hypothetical Moments—Collaborative Works 1975-1985'' (2022). Other Minds Records OM 4001 DVD. Video works by Carol Law, music by Amirkhanian.
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amirkhanian, Charles
American public radio personalities
American radio producers
American sound artists
Sound poets
1945 births
Living people
American male classical composers
American people of Armenian descent
Pacifica Foundation people
Musicians from Fresno, California
20th-century American classical composers
21st-century American classical composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
Centaur Records artists
Sound collage artists