Other Minds Festival:
OM 10, Concert 1: 03 “The Hear and Now” by Jon Raskin

Jon Raskin, born in 1954 in Heppner, Oregon, is a composer and performer with the ROVA Saxophone Quartet on baritone and alto saxophones. His musical training includes saxophone studies with Eddie Flenner, James Rotter and John Handy, and composition studies with Dr. Barney Childs and Allaudin Mathieu. Before ROVA, Raskin served as music director of the Tumbleweed Dance Company (1974"77) in San Francisco. He was a founding member of the Blue Dolphin and the Farm, two alternative art spaces in San Francisco. The ROVA Saxophone Quartet was formed in 1978 and incorporated in 1985. This allowed them to present artists from around the world, including the Ganelin Trio from the Soviet Union, the first Soviet jazz group to tour the US. Since then, ROVA has worked with John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Terry Riley, Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, Sam Rivers, SF Taiko Dojo, John Carter and many others; released over 20 recordings; and toured extensively in Europe, Japan and the US. Raskin's numerous grants and commissions include: composition grants from Chamber Music of America (2002) and Meet the Composer (2000), Berkeley Symphony commission (1995), Reader's Digest/Meet the Composer (1991), Gerbode Interdisciplinary Grant for Occupancy with Howard Martin (1990), NEA composer grant for Poison Hotel, and a theater production by Soon 3 (1988).