Charles Amirkhanian Collection ➔ Robert Shumaker and Charles Amirkhanian, full length portrait, sitting, in Nancarrow’s studio, Mexico City, (1977)
Still image
Identifier
IM.CA.PC.0051.012Dates
1977 | createdWork Type
Photographic printImage Class
KPFA Staff & StudiosImage Series
A Visit with Conlon Nancarrow in Mexico (1977)Description
Robert Shumaker and Charles Amirkhanian (l to r) sitting in Conlon Nancarrow’s Mexico City home studio in 1977. Nancarrow was an American born composer and dedicated Socialist who fought for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. Upon returning to the United States he was denied a passport due to his political leanings, so he left the country to live in self-imposed exile in Mexico, where he began composing a number of remarkable works for player piano. Despite occasional contact with interested avant-garde composers such as John Cage, Nancarrow and his work was relatively unknown in his native land until Charles Amirkhanian tracked him down and paid him a visit in 1977. Their association eventually lead to a number of concerts of Nancarrow’s works in the United States, the release of recordings of his “Piano Studies,” and his gradual recognition as one of the most important and adventurous composers of the last half of the 20th Century.Genres & Subjects
Group portraits--1970-1980Men
Studios
Magnetic recorders and recording