PRESS RELEASE

The Paul Dresher Double Duo

 

Contact:

Paul Dresher paul@dresherensemble.org ph 510-593-9391

Lisa Moore pianomoore@gmail.com ph 917 213 0592

Sue Bernstein sue@bernsarts.com ph 718 623 1214

 

Photographs available upon request

 

Appearing for the first time in New York City, the Paul Dresher Double Duo will perform at (le) poisson rouge on Sunday September 8th 2013. They will present a wildly-diverse program of duos, trios and quartets composed by Paul Dresher and Martin Bresnick.  The Double Duo features the Bang on a Can All-Stars founding alumna Lisa Moore (piano) and Dresher Ensemble virtuoso members Karen Bentley Pollick (violin), Joel Davel (electronic percussion) and Paul Dresher (electric guitar and invented instruments). Recently back from a month touring in the US and Australia this quartet brings a repertory that combines traditional acoustic, electro-acoustic and invented instruments.  The inventions are the 16 foot-long Quadrachord – created by Paul Dresher and Daniel Schmidt – whose four strings (somewhat like a giant electric bass)  are plucked, bowed, prepared and beaten…and the  Marimba Lumina – an electronic mallet controller – created by Don Buchla – capable of producing a phenomenal range of live, electronic sound control.

Two New York premieres are featured on the program – Paul Dresher’s invented-instrument duo Glimpsed From Afar (a work that brought down the house when Dresher and Davel opened for the Los Angeles Philharmonic on their Disney Hall stage during the West Coast Left Coast Festival in December 2009) and Martin Bresnick’s Fantasia on a Theme By Willie Dixon  in his new quartet version. This work, (originally commissioned and premiered by the Paul Dresher Ensemble Electro-Acoustic Band in 2001) is a Brahms-meets-the-blues fantasy, inspired by the 60’s super-group Cream and their fantastical improvisations on the iconic blues riff Spoonful. Opening the program is Double Ikat Part 2, perhaps Dresher’s most lyrical work to date and one that is imbued with his long-time study of and passion for the music of North India and Indonesia. Pianist Moore and violinist Bentley Pollick will take on their duo role in a performance of Martin Bresnick’s ethereal Bird As Prophet – whose title refers to the Waldszenen piano miniature by Robert Schumann. Bird as Prophet combines simple programmatic suggestiveness and abstract patterning, recapturing the vivid, oracular, and finally enigmatic spirit and remarkable musical prophecies of Schumann (and Charlie “Bird” Parker) .

 

THE PERFORMERS:

Karen Bentley Pollick (violin), Joel Davel (Marimba Lumina and Quadrachord), Paul Dresher (electric guitar and Quadrachord) and Lisa Moore (piano).

 

THE PROGRAM:

Double Ikat – part 2 (1990) Paul Dresher

Bird as Prophet (1997) Martin Bresnick

Glimpsed rom Afar (2006) Paul Dresher

Fantasia on a Theme by Willie Dixon (2001/12) Martin Bresnick

 

THE CONCERT DETAILS:

Date: Sunday September 8th, 2013,

Time: doors 6.30, show 7.30 – 8.30pm

Tickets $15/20

Venue: (le) poisson rouge

Email: info@lprnyc.com

58 Bleecker St, New York City

Telephone: 1 (212) 505.FISH

LPR on sale ticket location link:

www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/paul-dresher-double-duo-september-8th-2013/

 

THE RECENT PRESS:

 

“All performers united at the end of the evening for a finale that was truly grand. The piece was Martin Bresnick’s Fantasia On A Theme by Willie Dixon,  whose tongue-in-cheek title evokes both Ralph Vaughan Williams’ fantasia based on a hymn by Thomas Tallis and Sixties Rock. Willie Dixon was a leading Chicago blues singer who influenced not only the origins of rock and roll but also the transformation of rock brought on by groups such as The Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The “theme” for Bresnick’s fantasia is Spoonful not so much in the way that Dixon sang it as in the way that Cream recorded it… Like Glimpsed From Afar  this was music to get the blood flowing and the limbs pulsing in rhythm, the perfect way to send the audience home with a bounce in their steps.” (Stephen Smoliar, April 13, 2013; San Francisco Examiner)

 

“Taken together [they] provided excellent (and complementary) examples of just how expressive (in semantics as appropriate to the nineteenth century as they are today) electronic technology can be in the service of music;  and this is probably the major reason why I continue to find Dresher one of the most interesting among the current scene of active composers.” (San Francisco Examiner 2010)

 

“Bentley Pollick’s violin playing was nothing short of astonishing, delivering absolute precision with double and triple stops, as well as accented bowed staccati. Lisa Moore demonstrated incredible stamina with her effortless presentation of the relentless piano part, particularly in the vigorous final movement…The final work of the evening was an unexpected pleasure for me – Paul Dresher’s semi-improvised Glimpsed from Afar for his invented instrument the Quadrachord, (a giant construction with long amplified strings) and a MIDI controller, the Marimba Lumina, played by Joel Davel….The poetic quality of the music soon expanded into thunderous percussive sonorities produced by mallets on Quadrachord strings.  A noise like huge helicopters was generated by pummeling the Quadrachord with fists and palms, building to cacophony, layer by layer. The audience threw concert tradition to the wind and showed their appreciation with cheers, whistles and stamping.” (Judith Crispin – Canberra City News – May 19, 2013)

“But did I like the music? Immensely. This was minimalism, repeated arpeggios and sequences that mutate over time, square structures of four with melody over, brilliant dissonance and consonance switching back and forth, stubborn contradictory polyrhythms, dense clouds of percussion that regularly float over, dull repetition and deep groove with obtuse melody and clashing harmony and splashes of colour from bell-like percussion… I tap my feet with this music and thrill with the incongruity of it all, the unexpectedness of melody and harmony, and especially the rhythms that clash and contradict but are sustained, wondering all along that it holds together and speaks to me… This was a great gig. I felt satisfied and excited and intellectually requited. There’s great tradition in “fine” music and I love it, but this is music for our time and I’m pleased to see it’s so well grounded. Great gig.”

(Eric Pozza – Canberra Jazz Blog, May 22, 2013)

 

THE VIDEO LINKS:

Youtube video of Glimpsed From Afar at ODC:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRzMolxjjXI

 

Youtube video of Double Ikat for ABC Radio National “The Music Show” recording session, Australia:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRve280AOSQ

 

THE ARTIST LINKS:

http://bernsarts.com/doubleduo/doubleduo.html

 

www.kbentley.com

www.martinbresnick.com

www.isproductions.com/joel/

www.dresherensemble.org

www.lisamoore.org

 

VISIT US ON FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/dresherdoubleduo

EVENT PAGE ON FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/events/170138116489323/

THE ARTIST INFORMATION: (in alphabetical order)

 

Karen Bentley Pollick joined the Paul Dresher Ensemble in 1999 and champions a wide range of solo repertoire and styles on violin, viola, piano and Norwegian hardangerfele.  She studied with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco and attended Indiana University where she received BM and MM degrees.  Her recordings on Ariel Ventures were honored at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards, including <amberwood> and Homage to Fiddlers with Russian pianist/composer Ivan Sokolov, with whom she has performed throughout the US and at the American Academy of Rome. Serving as concertmaster of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie Kammerorchester, Palo Alto Chamber and New York String Orchestras, Karen has performed at the June in Buffalo and Wellesley Composers Conferences, the Olympic Music, Tanglewood, Amelia Island, Next Generation, American Spring and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festivals, as well as guest artist with Opus Posthumous from Moscow, Seattle Chamber Players and Ensemble for the Romantic Century. Karen premiered Ole Saxe’s Dance Suite with Redwood Symphony, received a grant from the NEA for Solo Violin and Alternating Currents, and launched Violin, Viola & Video Virtuosity with New York video artist Sheri Wills.  She performs on a violin made by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in 1860.

 

Martin Bresnick was born in New York City. His compositions, ranging from chamber and symphonic music to film scores and computer music, are performed throughout the world. Bresnick delights in reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable, bringing together repetitive gestures derived from minimalism with a harmonic palette that encompasses both highly chromatic sounds and more open, consonant harmonies and a raw power reminiscent of rock. At times his musical ideas spring from hardscrabble sources, often with a very real political import. But his compositions never descend into agitprop; one gains their meaning by the way the music itself unfolds, and always on its own terms. Besides having received many prizes and commissions, the first Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Rome Prize, The Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Koussevitzky Commission, among many others, Martin Bresnick is also recognized as an influential teacher of composition. Students from every part of the globe and of virtually every musical inclination have been inspired by his critical encouragement. Martin Bresnick’s compositions are published by Carl Fischer Music Publishers, New York; Bote & Bock, Berlin; CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven; and have been recorded by Cantaloupe Records, New World Records, Albany Records, Bridge Records, Composers Recordings Incorporated, Centaur, and Artifact Music.

 

Joel Davel has been a key ally with Paul Dresher for over 15 years of performances as a member of the Electro-Acoustic Band and in quartets and duos for live accompaniment of dance companies including four Margaret Jenkins Dance Company productions. Davel’s percussion career also includes performance and recording credits with groups led by electronic-diva Amy X Neuburg, percussionist William Winant, violinist Kaila Flexer, guitarist Jack West and guitarist David Tanenbaum. As a composer, soloist and improvisor, Davel has arranged and performed on-stage solo accompaniment for The California Shakespeare Theater and several productions for choreographer Claudine Naganuma. Davel also plays the instrumentalist/actor role in Max Duyker’s recent two-character opera, “Apricots of Andujar.” As an instrument builder, Davel began work with synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla in 1993 and continues as a circuit board designer for Buchla’s innovative electronic music instruments such as the Marimba Lumina. When dropped as a Buchla product, Davel created his own venture for continued creation and support for Marimba Luminas.

 

Paul Dresher is an internationally active composer noted for his ability to integrate diverse musical influences into his own coherent and unique personal style. He pursues many forms of musical expression including experimental opera/music theater, chamber and orchestral composition, live instrumental electro-acoustic music, musical instrument invention, and scores for theater and dance. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2006-07, he has received commissions from the Library of Congress, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival USA, the Kronos Quartet, the San Francisco Symphony, California EAR Unit, Zeitgeist, San Francisco Ballet, Walker Arts Center, Seattle Chamber Players, Present Music, and Chamber Music America. He has performed or had his works performed throughout the world at venues including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Canberra International Music Festival, the Festival d’Automne in Paris, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, and the Minnesota Opera. Dresher’s most recent project was his Concerto for Quadrachord & Orchestra – a three-movement work for conductor Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony and featuring the Quadrachord, his large-scale invented instrument. The work was reprised by the La Jolla Symphony under Steven Schick in March of 2013.  Schick Machine, a music theater work from 2009 created in collaboration with writer/director Rinde Eckert and percussionist Steven Schick traveled to Hong Kong in 2012 and will be presented at UCLA and UCSD in 2014. In 2008, the San Francisco Ballet premiered Dresher orchestral score for Thread, his collaboration with choreographer Margaret Jenkins. Dresher’s chamber opera The Tyrant premiered at Opera Cleveland in 2006 and has since been produced a dozen cities in the US and Europe.

 

Lisa Moore has been described as “brilliant and searching” (The New York Times) and  “visionary”  (The New Yorker). This Australian-born pianist has performed with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists – the London Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, Bang on a Can, Steve Reich Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, So Percussion, Ensemble Signal, Barge Music, Australian Chamber Orchestra, TwoSense, Paul Dresher Double Duo, Grand Band and John Jasperse Dance. Her festival performances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Holland, Graz, Tanglewood, Huddersfield, Paris d’Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Barbican, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Israel and Warsaw in venues such as La Scala, Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein. Winner of the silver medal in the 1981 Rockefeller-Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition Moore has collaborated with composers ranging from Elliot Carter and Iannis Xenakis to Meredith Monk, Philip Glass and Ornette Coleman. As a concerto soloist she has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Wesleyan Orchestra and Sumarsam Gamelan, Albany, Sydney, Tasmania, Thai Symphony Orchestras and the Queensland Philharmonic – under the batons of Bradley Lubman, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jorge Mester, Angel Gil-Ordonez and Edo de Waart. From 1992-2008 Lisa Moore was the founding pianist for the electro-acoustic sextet The Bang On A Can All-Stars – winner of Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year Award. Lisa Moore has released 7 solo discs (Cantaloupe, Tall Poppies) and over 30 collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland). As an artistic curator Moore produced Australia’s Canberra International Music Festival Sounds Alive ‘08 series. Based in New York City since 1985 she enjoys dual Australian-American citizenship, holds B.Mus, M.Mus and DMA degrees  and teaches at the Yale-Norfolk Summer Festival and at Wesleyan University CT.