Charles Benjamin Amirkhanian (born January 19, 1945;
Fresno, California) is an American
composer. He is a percussionist, sound poet, and radio producer of
Armenian origin. He is mostly known for his
electroacoustic and
text-sound music. Performance artist
Laurie Anderson praises his work: "The art of audio
collage has been reinvented here... A brilliant sense of imaginary space."[1]
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.[4] From
ASCAP in 1989 he received the Deems Taylor Award, also for service to American composers. Amirkhanian received a 1997
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. In 2009,
Chamber Music America and ASCAP honored him for his Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music with Other Minds.[5]
In 2017, the
American Composers Forum honored him with its Champion of New Music award.[6]
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)
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 (1988). Compilation CD accompanying volume 26 issue. Contains: Pas de Voix (Portrait of Samuel Beckett)
Charles Amirkhanian: Loudspeakers (2019). New World Records 80817 (2-CD set). "What links all these pieces is a creative ambiguity of genre, a delight in shifting back and forth between elements whose sources can be recognized and those whose can’t." –
Kyle Gann[full citation needed]
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. Contains: History of Collage, Audience, Tremolo Bank, Dog of Stravinsky, Maria, The Real Perpetual Mobile, Mahogany Ballpark, Hypothetical Moments (in the intellectual life of Southern California), Awe, And as, Dreams Freud Dreamed, Too True. 81 Minutes. All regions NTSC. “Though they fracture almost all of the rules, there remains a refined, classical undertone and motivation to their work. The resultant combination of voice and visual image was magical . . . Amirkhanian and Law presented a new approach to using the most classic instruments of all—the voice, the eyes and the ears . . . a fitting tribute to the brilliant potential of New Music.” —
Jack Kolkmeyer, The Santa Fe Reporter, 1983.
Partial list of works
Tape works unless otherwise noted; † indicates optional live voice(s).
Symphony I (for 13 players, 1965)
Words (1969)
Oratora Konkurso Rezulto: Autoro de la Jaro (Portrait of
Lou Harrison, 1970)