Charles Amirkhanian
Illustration — Charles Amirkhanian 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.
Also recorded as Charles Benjamin Amirkhanian
Charles Amirkhanian
Canticle (talk) (Uploads) · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1945 · Fresno.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- composer · sound artist · journalist
- Education
- Fresno High School
- Languages
- English
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Charles Amirkhanian. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q5075109 · wikipedia · Charles Amirkhanian
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Career
Amirkhanian received his Master of Fine Arts from Mills College in 1980, where he studied electronic music and techniques of sound recording. He was music director of Pacifica Radio's KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California, from 1969 to 1992, where he initiated the long-running program dedicated to avant-garde music, Ode to Gravity. He was also a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Creative Arts Department at San Francisco State University from 1977 to 1980. He co-directed the Telluride Institute's Composer to Composer festival in Telluride, Colorado, 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 and George Antheil, 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 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. In 2017, the American Composers Forum honored him with its Champion of New Music award.
Documentary record
Charles Amirkhanian (born 19 January 1945) is recorded as a composer. The birth of Charles Amirkhanian is recorded on 19 January 1945 in Fresno, California.
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 (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.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Charles Amirkhanian, revision 1350822249 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Randel, Don Michael. The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press. 17. 2003.
- 2.Palmese, Michael. Ode to Gravity (1970–1995): Music, Experimentation, and Sound Sensitivity. Twentieth-Century Music. 1–34. 30 July 2025. 10.1017/S1478572225100029.
- 3.Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Oxford University Press, 2004)
- 4.American Music Center Awards.
- 5.ASCAP Award 2009
- 6.2017 Champion of New Music Charles Amirkhanian. 6 June 2017.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- Fresno High SchoolOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 02 September 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
44,023 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Charles A.E. HarrissPerson
- Charles Albert TindleyPerson
- Charles AlbrechtPerson
- Charles AmbrosePerson
- Charles AncliffePerson
- Charles Auguste de BériotPerson
- Charles AvisonPerson
- Charles AznavourPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Charles Amirkhanian?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.