David Rothenberg is a composer, clarinetist, philosopher, and author of several books on animal songs, including Why Birds Sing, which was turned into a documentary by the BBC in 2006. He has more than forty albums under his own name, and has worked with scientists to decode the mockingbird’s song and written stories on cicada music for the New York Times and whale music for National Geographic. Rothenberg will travel to the Bay Area to talk about playing music with animals at Other Minds’s The Nature of Music series on April 16, 2026 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. Rothenberg will also give the West Coast premiere of his work Eleven Paths to Animal Music, which features recordings of natural environments from his travels. On the podcast, we talked about what animal song tells us about animal cultures, which animals are the most musical, and making field recordings for his piece Eleven Paths to Animal Music.

Music: Sharawji Blues by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg (Terra Nova); Dreaming Slow by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg and Lembe Lokk (Terra Nova); On the Journey That Must Be by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg (Terra Nova); Magicicada Warm Springs by David Rothenberg, performed by David Rothenberg (Gruenrekorder/Terra Nova)

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Listen to David Rothenberg’s Soundwalker podcast.

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The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).

The “fresh, daring and incisive” (Fanfare) compositions of Amy Williams have been presented by leading international performers, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Bent Frequency, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Wet Ink, International Contemporary Ensemble, Junction Trio, Orpheus, pianist Ursula Oppens, soprano Tony Arnold, and bassist Robert Black. As a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, she has performed throughout Europe and the Americas and recorded six critically-acclaimed CDs for Wergo (works of Nancarrow, Stravinsky, Varèse/Feldman and Kurtág), as well as appearing on the Neos and Albany labels. She is a Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh and Artistic Director of the New Music On The Point Festival in Vermont.

On January 8, 2026, Williams will perform Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories for Other Minds at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California. She joins us to talk about her early impressions of Feldman in Buffalo, New York, his influence on 20th century music, and her upcoming performance in Oakland.

Music: Triadic Memories by Morton Feldman, performed by Amy Williams (Alan Wonneberger, engineer); Piece for Four Pianos by Morton Feldman, performed by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo (WERGO); Piano and String Quartet by Morton Feldman, performed by Amy Williams and the JACK Quartet (live at Black Mountain College)

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The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).

Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist working with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she processes her voice in real time to create dense, complex sonic layers. Her works combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, sampled sounds, and custom MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate sound and image with physical gestures. At this year’s Other Minds Festival, Z will perform her piece Simultaneous, an intermedia composition for voice, electronic processing, chamber ensemble, speech samples, gesture control, and projected video. In conjunction with the performance, Other Minds records will release a fixed media version of Simultaneous on LP and CD. In the interview, we talk about Z’s interest in simultaneous translation, finding music in speech, and her use of gesture control instruments.

Music: Simultaneous by Pamela Z, performed by Pamela Z, Kyle Bruckmann, Charlton Lee, Clara Kennedy, and Kjell Nordeson live at MoMA; Simultaneous by Pamela Z (Other Minds Records)

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otherminds.org

Contact us at otherminds@otherminds.org.

The Other Minds Podcast is hosted and edited by Joseph Bohigian. Outro music is “Kings: Atahualpa” by Brian Baumbusch (Other Minds Records).