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Other Minds 12 started it's weekend at Kanbar Hall in San Francisco last night with a concert that included Elohim by composer Daniel David Feinsmith. But about one-third into this 50 minute, 8 movement piece for piano, guitar, cello, and electric bass guitar, the hall's fire alarm went off, requiring the evacuation of the entire audience, performers, and the rest of the building.
There was a bit of chaos, but as the fire engines started appearing the event was declared a false alarm, and everyone, or nearly everyone, filed back into the hall.
Which makes one wonder what to expect when you name a piece of music after one of the names of God used in the Talmud, and you give each movement of the piece a name from one of the verbs used by God during the creation of the world.
After locating all the performers and getting things back together, the performers picked up where they left off. Which is a testament to the power of Feinsmith's piece and the extraordinary abilities of the performers, in that most people did return to their seats after this interruption, mainly to hear how it would all come out. It's a very driving and exciting piece, and received a standing ovation.
We try to prepare for all possibilities, like composers or performers getting sick, or missing their flights, or instruments in need of emergency repair. But this was the first time anything like this had ever happened at an OM concert. One usually doesn't expect the performance to be so hot as to set off alarms evacuating the audience!
Earlier in the evening we heard music by Peter Sculthorpe, Per Norgard, and Maja Ratkje, all wonderfully performed by members of the Del Sol quartet. And it was a great audience. We'll see what's in store for the second concert tonight.
