Friday, December 5, 2014, 8pm Saturday, December 6, 2014, 8pm Zellerbach Playhouse

Paul Dresher Ensemble Electro-Acoustic Band with Amy X Neuburg

They Will Have Been So Beautiful: Songs and Images of Now

(World Première )

PROGRAM

Pamela Z 17 Reasons Why (2014) Text by Photograph by Donald Swearingen

Lisa Bielawa Ego Sum (2014) Text overheard in transient public spaces Photographs by Ourit Ben-Haim

Conrad Cummings At the Window (2014) Text and photo by Conrad Cummings

Paul Dresher A Picture Screen Stands in Solitude (2014) Text by Michael Nelson, with special thanks to Nigel Poor Photographs: Richard Misrach, Drive-In Theater, Las Vegas, 1987 Hiroshi Sugimoto, La Paloma, Encinitas, 1993

Jay Cloidt What Is Missing? (2014) Text by Melody Sumner Carnahan Please see program notes for full photo credits

INTERMISSION

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM

Fred Frith If I Could (2014) Text by Leila Attatoi Photograph by Heike Liss

Guillermo Galindo Blood Bolero (2014) Text by Juvenal Acosta, based on photographs by Maya Goded

Carla Kihlstedt Gathering Storm (2014) Text and photograph by

Ken Ueno Secret Meridian (2014) Text and photograph by Ken Ueno

Amy X Neuburg Is It Conflict-Free and Were Any Animals Harmed in the Making of It? (2014) 1. Brownies 2. English bobby toilet paper holder 3. Fourth day of wimpy non-period period 4. Mountain Text and photographs by Amy X Neuburg

THE ELECTRO -ACOUSTIC BAND

Jeff Anderle clarinet, bass clarinet Joel Davel Marimba Lumina, audio programming Paul Dresher electric guitar, electric bass Marja Mutru keyboard Karen Bentley Pollick violin, viola Gene Reffkin electronic drums John Schott electric guitar

Brendan Aanes sound engineer The Norman Conquest sound recorder Mark Palmer video engineer

SPECIAL GUEST ARTIST

Amy X Neuburg voice, electronics

Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

OR NEARLY A DECADE , on the summer sol - Tonight, we finally have the opportunity to Fstice, Amy X Neuburg and I (along with share these ten works with you. Each com - my Invented Instrument Duo partner Joel poser has taken their own unique approach to Davel) have shared the Small Chapel in the the commissioning task. The marvelously di - Chapel Of the Chimes Columbarium at the verse approaches to the commission’s artistic remarkable Garden of Memory event (con - parameters and the wide range of musical re - ceived and curated by Sarah Cahill). During sults are exactly what we had hoped for in the those years, we developed a deep mutual re - largest sense when we commenced on this gard for each other’s compositional and per - journey. In addition to the composers and formance artistry. At some point we started to photographers who have generously given discuss how we could collaborate on an permission to use their works, we also want evening-length project. In exploring ideas, I to thank the many individual and institutional shared with Amy a text that I was considering supporters who made the project possible and setting i n a composition—photographer to Cal Performances for presenting a project Diane Arbus’s 1962 application for a fellow - about which almost nothing specific could be ship from the Guggenheim Foundation. In defined in advance of their decision to present this single typewritten page she eloquently the world première. and poetically defines her then-revolutionary Paul Dresher, November O, JHIL aesthetic, that the commonplace habits, ritu - als and social spaces of everyday life hold a I have admired the work of Paul Dresher ever meaning and importance that will only be un - since I moved to the Bay Area in the late derstood in the future, because “they will have 1980s. The kinship was obvious: our interests been so beautiful.” in the theatrical elements of music and in the While it was not possible to obtain the nec - use of the vernacular in text, instrumentation, essary permission to set this text (something and musical style. It has been an honor and a I still hope to do), both Amy and I felt that pleasure to develop this project with Paul, Arbus’s writing and the aesthetics of her ex - to get to know him as a friend and a very traordinary body of work would be a com - generous colleague, and to work with his ter - pelling organizing principle for our project. rific ensemble. We decided to commission a stylistically di - Before I myself became a composer, I began verse set of eight composers, who would each my career in new music as the only vocalist at compose a song-length work for Amy and the Oberlin Conservatory who was not afraid to Electro-Acoustic Band, which would soon tackle the unconventional works of the com - celebrate its 20th anniversary. The works position students, and through this I fell in would be in some way inspired by Arbus’s cel - love with the process of bringing new songs ebration of the commonplace and of the “cer - by fellow musicians to life. These days I rarely emonious and curious.” Each composer was get to do so, so when Paul and I discussed a asked to select or create one or more photo - collaboration this was what I requested. I graphic images and find or create a text con - could not be more pleased with the results; nected in some way to the image, and to use tonight’s commissioned songs are every bit as these as the basis for their composition. Amy strange and wonderful and challenging as I and I would each write a new piece with the had imagined. I hope the audience enjoys same guidelines, to make it an even ten. them as much as I do. Amy X Neuburg, November O, JHIL

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES

Pamela Z based on overheard fragments of speech that 7: Reasons Why (8679) I collected all over the world over the course of 14 months. Even after creating the 35-minute IO Reasons Why was inspired by Donald Chance Encounter for soprano and orchestra Swearingen’s photograph of a treasured San (for performance in transient public spaces) Francisco landmark—the enormo us “17 rea - and several other small works using these sons” sign that once loomed large over the overheard texts, I have nowhere near ex - corner of 17th and Mission streets atop what hausted the poetic charms of this library. In is now the Thrift Town building. The sign, Ego Sum , I have selected phrases from it based which was erected in 1935 on the roof of simply on their use of the first-person subject Redlick’s Furniture to display their slogan, was “I” at the beginning of the sentence (and fur - a spectacular example of classic Depression- ther refined the list based on the inherent era lighted metal signage. The store closed in charms of each phrase). On discovering Ourit 1975, but the sign remained for decades— Ben-Haim’s gentle yet gritty images of various slowly becoming tarnished, covered with graf - “I”s assembled in public space, mostly in the fiti, and eventually losing the word “why.” subway system, where so many Like many residents of the Mission District, of these texts were collected, I knew I had a I was extremely fond of that elegant and new context for these restless egos to which grandly peculiar sign, and was saddened when we are both drawn, over and over again, in our the inevitable happened—the sign was dis - work. Ms. Ben-Haim says, “Lisa knows the mantled and covered in vinyl for advertising. world I found in street photography…. It’s Donald had shot several photographs of the such a wonderful vibrational match.” building in spring 2002, just a few months be - fore the sign was taken down. Aware of my sad - ness at the sign’s disappearance, he made me a Conrad Cummings gift of a framed print of one of t he photos. At the Window (8679)

Walking in Diane Arbus’s footsteps, as Paul Lisa Bielawa and Amy asked, is quite a challenge: Find an Ego Sum (8679) image, a ceremony of the every day, then write the song it inspires. Where should I start? I The title “Ego Sum” oscillates between its guess from where I always do, right after meanings in Latin—“I am”—and in English— breakfast. Write some, stop, write some more, loosely, the aggregate of conscious beings. An stop. Wonder if it will be brilliant; dread that incurably urban sort, I tend to find inspira - it will be stupid. Then remember that it will tion, solace, and even radiant joy in transient be neither. Just work ahead like any other day. public spaces, where I can feel the sum of so And feel so lucky that there’s someone in my many egos around me. I become aware of my - life who can remind me of that. A huge thank self as just one consciousness among many, you to Paul and Amy for bringing this wildly flowing shoulder to shoulder through our variegated collection into being. I’m so proud modern world. It is no accident, then, that, to be part of it. I hope Arbus would be pleased. long before the invitation from Amy X Neuburg and the Paul Dresher Ensemble to create a short work for inclusion in their set of Paul Dresher pieces inspired by Diane Arbus, providing lit - A Picture Screen Stands in Solitude (8679) eral and musical snapshots of “intimate re - flections on contemporary American life,” I About three years ago, my friend and photog - had already written an entire body of work rapher Richard Misrach shared a text that had

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES been written by a 28-year-old man incarcer - Jay Cloidt ated at San Quentin for a murder committed What Is Missing? (8679) when he was a teenager. The text, by inmate Michael Nelson, was written as a homework What Is Missing? has given me a chance to assignment in a prison course, “Contemporary work with a text by Melody Sumner Issues in Photography,” taught by the artist Carnahan, a friend of many years and a writer Nigel Poor and Doug Dertinger. The assign - of fearless experimentalism. I believe that my ment was a compare-and-contrast composi - teacher, Robert Ashley, was a great influence tion in response to two images: Richard on her work. Ashley’s influence on me was, I Misrach’s Drive-In Theater, Las Vegas, IQPO , think, more indirect and subversive. I still find and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s La Paloma, Encinitas, myself thinking about gnomic comments he IQQK . Ms. Poor was so impressed by tossed off in class, some of which were im - Mr. Nelson’s response that she forwarded a penetrable at the time but revealed great in - copy of it to the Fraenkel Gallery, who repre - sight years later. What Is Missing? is dedicated sents Richard’s work. They in turn forwarded to his memory. Melody’s piece, which I would it to Richard, who, equally impressed, shared describe as “an angry critique of late-stage the text with various friends and colleagues. capitalism in the form of an infomercial,” was When Richard shared the text and images inspirational and timely. I’m also very happy and the context of the text’s creation, Amy and to be getting a chance to write for the enor - I had just decided on the overall artistic goals mously talented Amy X Neuburg. I have of this project. Thus I was looking for the im - known Amy for years, and I have always ages that would inspire my contribution. I ex - wanted to write something for her, as I feel our plained the overall project and my desire to aesthetics have a lot in common. And, of set the text to Richard and he enthusiastically course, after having started working with Paul gave permission to use his image, and he in 1984, the Dresher group is like family for helped to obtain permission to use the me. It has been a joy to work on such an in - Sugimoto. And through Nigel Poor, permis - teresting and challenging project with such a sion was granted to use Michael Nelson’s text. bunch of talented musicians—who also hap - Thus, I am deeply in debt to Richard, Nigel, pen to be old friends. and Michael, as well as Hiroshi Sugimoto, for their generosity and efforts to make this com - PHOTOGRAPHS position possible. Nara Dreamland , Hashima Island and Six Flags New Orleans by Chris Luckhardt; used by permission. All the things we once thought ordinary , and Garmand PHOTOGRAPHS Theater by Matthew Christopher; used by permission. Richard Misrach Drive-In Theater, Las Vegas, IQPO © Crashed Connie at Pegasus by Michael J. Willis; used by Richard Misrach, Courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San permission. Francisco; Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York; and Marc These images are used under Creative Commons licensing: Selwyn Fine Art, UFO House in Sanjhih 1 and J by cypherone Hiroshi Sugimoto, La Paloma, Encinitas, IQQK . © Hiroshi Kowloon Walled City by Forgemind Archimedia Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, Japanese clock melted by WWII nuclear bomb by maebmij Beelitz-Heilsatten Operating Theatre by James C. Farmer Palace Theater by Joey Lax-Salinas El Matadero (Lago Epecuén) by Pablo Gonzalez Grand Piano O (Pripyat) by Timm Suess Eye Above the Pyramid on the Back of a JHHQ U.S. One- Dollar Bill by Macroscopic Solutions

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES

Fred Frith Ken Ueno If I Could (8679) Secret Meridian (8679)

If I Could is a strange kind of love song, or at When I lived in Rome, I became acquainted least it feels that way. The text came to me un - with meridian lines in two churches: Santa expectedly and at the right moment, and Maria degli Angeli in Rome and the San everything kind of grew from there. Heike’s Petronio Basilica in Bologna. Along these picture, Push , one of my favorites from an ex - meridian lines, the date of the calendar is traced traordinary series of photographs of Oakland, by the light of the sun. Back home in , suddenly took on a whole new meaning! I started to notice flowers lit by sunlight from behind, like a spotlight through a lantern. Guillermo Galindo These happy moments, almost epiphanic, Blood Bolero (8679) when a ray of sunlight specifically lights a flower that happens to be blooming and I hap - Blood Bolero is a song that praises the untold pen to be nearby and observing this effect, I call love stories of forgotten lovers. The piece “secret meridians.” I have come to think of peo - celebrates the amorous and erotic joy of the ple in my life as “secret meridians” too. disadvantaged from the inner-city neighbor - My text builds words out of resonance—like hoods of , where photographer a light in nature gradually coming into focus. Maya Goded has documented the long-term As the physical traces of vocal sounds begin to relationships between prostitutes and their trace words, references to the past emerge clients, elderly people and the friends that help (personal, biblical, historical), and, just as they them make life bearable. Blood Bolero sings to begin to come into focus, it dissipates into an infatuation, desire, and the intensity of last electric guitar and drum kit solo, the words passion in the dark nights of Mexico City, falling away into resonant harmonies. where its creators are from. Amy X Neuburg Carla Kihlstedt Is It Conflict-Free and Were Any Animals Gathering Storm (8679) Harmed in the Making of It? (8679)

This is a photograph of my daughter, Tallulah. One of the things I love about being an artist She’s five. She’s absorbing stories, gestures, is that nothing is ever what it sets out to be. identities, and ideas at an alarming rate. She’s You start with a vision, and as you work, life incredibly fluid in some ways, and stubborn interferes in the most fascinating and discovery- as a boulder in others. She has a capacity for making ways. So it was with this unex pectedly make-believe and transformation that I can’t sprawling little song-cycle, which was sup - even begin to keep up with. She’s playful, cre - posed to be a poetic lament on the disappear - ative, curious, generous, furious, lovely, funny, ing beauty of our snowy mountaintops, some jealous, etc. Watching her is like watching of which I captured in a series of photos at the weather patterns in fast motion from above. I Ucross artist residency in Wyoming. But then have tried, with this song, to capture a small the very vernacular banalities of an absurd corner of the swirling storm that is Tallulah. conve rsation (song 1), some random thoughts in the bath (song 2), and a page from my diary (song 3) all urgent ly made their way into my song-brain, and this is what happened as all of the above collided.

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

COMPOSERS “Like a latter-day Virgil Thomson, Conrad Cummings writes a deceptively plain kind of Composer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a 2009 music that reveals the unexpected joys and Rome Prize-winner in musical composition. shadowy depths of the American experience” She takes inspiration for her work from liter - (The New Yorker ). His operas include The ature and artistic collaborations. She began Golden Gate (an Opera News “Best New Operas touring with the Ensemble in of the 21st Century” selection), Positions IQMN , 1992, and in 1997 co-founded the MATA Photo-Op , Tonkin , and Eros and Psyche . Festival. Ms. Bielawa was appointed Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus in Paul Dresher (composer, electric guitar, elec - 2013. Her music is frequently performed tric, bass ) is an internationally active com - throughout the and , poser noted for his ability to integrate diverse with recent highlights including a residency at musical influences into his own coherent and The Stone, a Radio commission, and unique personal style. He pursues many forms world premières of Rondolette by Brooklyn of musical expression including experimental Rider and Bruce Levingston; Graffiti dell’- opera and music theater, chamber and or - amante by the Chamber Musicians; chestral composition, live instrumental elec - Double by the Modern tro-acoustic music, musical instrument Orchestra Project; The Right Weather by invention, and scores for theater and dance. American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for Hall; The Lay of Love and Death at Lincoln 2006–2007, he has received commissions from Center; Chance Encounter by Susan Narucki the Library of Congress, the , and the Knights; and Airfield Broadcasts , a the San Francisco Symphony, Zeitgeist, San work for hundreds of musicians, premièred at Francisco Ballet, Walker Arts Center, and the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin and Chamber Music America. at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Mr. Dresher’s most recent large-scale com - position was his Concerto for Quadrachord Jay Cloidt is a composer and sound designer and Orchestra —a three-movement work for based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has conductor Joana Carneiro and Berkeley collaborated with many groups, beginning Symphony featuring the Quadrachord, one of with the late Ed Mock’s group and including his large-scale invented instruments. The La the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Margaret Jolla Symphony under Steven Schick reprised Jenkins Dance Company, Joe Goode the work in March 2013. Performance Group, ODC/San Francisco, His other recent projects include Family California EAR Unit, and the Kronos Quartet. Matters —a duo for TwoSense, featuring Bang His works have been performed extensively by on a Can cellist Ashley Bathgate and pianist these groups and others in the United States, Lisa Moore, the score for the Margaret Jenkins Europe, and Asia. A CD of the music from the Dance Company’s Times Bones , and a solo theater work D’Arc: Woman on Fire , with vo - piano work, Elapsed Time , commissioned by calist Amanda Moody, is available on MinMax pianist Sarah Cahill and premièred at the Records. A CD of two of his string quartets, Spoleto Festival in 2011. eleven windows and Spectral Evidence , per - formed by the Cypress String Quartet, is also Fred Frith is a songwriter, composer, impro - available on MinMax. A CD of his electronic viser, and multi-instrumentalist best known music, Dark Matter , is available on Phthalo, for the reinvention of the electric guitar that and a recording of his chamber music and began with Guitar Solos in 1974. He learned electronic works, Kole Kat Krush , is available his craft as both improviser and composer on Records. playing in rock bands, notably Henry Cow,

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS and creating music in the recording studio. for Brooklyn Rider, an impressionistic audio Much of his compositional output has been travelogue for Causing a Tiger, a song-cycle commissioned by choreographers and film - with poet Rafael Osés called Necessary makers, but his work has also been performed Monsters, based on Jorge Luis Borges’s Book by , Hieronymus Firebrain, of Imaginary Beings , and a score for the Folger Arditti Quartet, Robert Wyatt, Concerto Shakespeare Library’s production of Romeo Köln, and quite a few others. Mr. Frith records and Juliet , for which she was nominated for a and performs all over the place with all kinds Helen Hayes Award. On the first day of every of people. He also leads the Gravity Band, tells month, Rabbit Rabbit—her duo with Matthias stories with , and improvises with Bossi—releases a new song along with other the FF Trio. Mr. Frith teaches at relevant goodies. She teaches in the in Oakland and at the Musik Akademie in Contemporary Improvisation Department of , . He is the subject of Nicolas the New England Conservatory. Humbert and Werner Penzel’s award-winning documentary film . Amy X Neuburg (composer, voice, electronics ) has been developing her own brand of irrev - Redefining the conventional limits that define erently genre-crossing works for voice, elec - “music” and the art of “music composition” are tronics, and chamber ensembles for more key factors in Guillermo Galindo ’s artistic than 25 years. She is known for her innova - work. His interpretation of concepts such as tive use of live performance technology, her musical form, time perception, music notation, four-octave vocal range, and her colorful— sonic archetypes, and sound-generating devices often humorous—lyrics. One of the earliest span through a wide spectrum of artistic works performers to work with live digital looping, performed and shown at major festivals, con - Ms. Neuburg has presented her electronic cert halls, and art exhibits throughout the “avant-cabaret” songs at such diverse venues United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. as the Other Minds and festi - His creation of instruments made from immi - vals, the Berlin International Poetry Festival, grant personal objects found along the U.S.– the Wellington and Christchurch Jazz Mexico border will be interacting with Richard Festivals, and the Philharmonic Hall. Misrach’s photographs at an exhibition planned She has received composing commissions for the San Jose Museum of Art in spri ng 2016. from the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, This exhibition will tour the country through Present Music, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, and 2018, and Aperture will publish a book docu - the Del Sol String Quartet, among others. Her menting the collaboration. Mr. Galindo is acclaimed song-cycle The Secret Language of presently a visiting professor at Mills College in Subways , for voice and cellos, has played at composition and a senior adjunct professor at YBCA, San Francisco Symphony After Hours, the California College of the Arts. and the ’s Left Coast Festival. A classically trained singer Composer, violinist, and vocalist Carla who loves bringing new vocal works to life, Kihlstedt is a founding member of Sleepytime Ms. Neuburg has been featured in contempo - Gorilla Museum, , Minamo, rary operas and recordings by Robert Ashley, and . She has written a song-cycle for Culture Clash, and Guillermo Galindo, the International Contemporary Ensemble among many others. Her grants and honors about dreams, a musical/radio piece for the include Arts International, the Gerbode ROVA Saxophone Quartet, a piece about the Foundation, the East Bay Fund for Artists, the advent of communications technology for the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, a reflection of the pho - Alpert/Ucross Prize. tography of Shana and Robert ParkeHarrison

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

A recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin PERFORMERS Prize, Ken Ueno is a composer, vocalist, im - proviser, and cross-disciplinary artist, and is For over 30 years, the Paul Dresher Ensemble currently an Associate Professor at UC has been a creative force in the San Francisco Berkeley. As a vocalist, he specializes in Bay Area and across the nation. Its overarch - extended techniques (throat singing, multi - ing goal is to produce innovative and engaging phonics, circular breathing). Kim performances that reach for the highest artis - Kashkashian, the Boston Modern Orchestra tic standards. The Ensemble creates, produces, Project, the Del Sol String Quartet, Alarm and tours works of new opera and music the - Will Sound, and Frances-Marie Uitti have ater; commissions and performs new cham - championed his music, which has been per - ber music; collaborates creatively with other formed at such venues and festivals as ar tists and arts organizations; and, through its MaerzMusik in Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, Artists Residency Program, provides multi - MusikTriennale Köln Festival, the week studio residencies to Northern California Muziekgebouw, Spoleto USA, and Lincoln artists working in the time-based arts. Center. The Hilliard Ensemble featured Each year the Ensemble performs con - Dr. Ueno’s Shiroi Ishi in their repertoire for temporary chamber music for audiences over a decade. Eighth Blackbird toured na - across the United States. Our annual home tionally with his Pharmakon during their season concerts are held in San Francisco, typ - 2001–2003 seasons. Over the past six years, he ically at Z Space or ODC Theater, but have has performed his vocal concerto as a soloist also been performed in other northern with orchestras in Boston, New York, Poland, California venues, including the Jewish Lithuania, and Thailand. He holds a Ph.D. Community Center San Francisco, YBCA’s from Harvard University. Novellus Theater, Old First Church, Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes, UC Berkeley’s Cal Pamela Z is a composer, performer, and Performances and Art Museum, and UC media artist who makes solo works combin - Davis’s Mondavi Center for the Arts. ing a wide range of vocal techniques with elec - In 1993 , Paul Dresher formed the Electro- tronic processing, samples, gesture-activated Acoustic Band in order to fulfill the techno - MIDI controllers, and video. She has toured logical and expressive needs of contemporary extensively throughout the United States, composers. Combining six instrumentalists Europe, and Japan. Her work has been pre - and a sound engineer, the Band commissions sented at festivals and exhibitions including new chamber music for its annual home sea - Bang on a Can, the Japan Interlink Festival, son concerts in San Francisco. It also tours Other Minds, the Venice Biennale, and the across the United States, having made its Dakar Biennale. She has created sound and Carnegie début in Octobe r 2004 at Zankel media installation works and has composed Hall. In close collaboration with noted soloists commissioned scores for dance, film, and new such as pianist-composer , cellist music chamber ensembles, including the Joan Jeanrenaud, violinist David Abel, pianist Kronos Quartet and the San Francisco Lisa Moor, and tenor Rinde Eckert, the Band Contemporary Music Players. Her numerous premières new work by a diverse group of in - awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the ternational composers that has included John Creative Capital Fund, the CalArts Alpert Adams, John Luther Adams, Cindy Cox, Alvin Award, the MAP Fund, the ASCAP Plus Curran, Anthony Davis, Bun Ching Lam, Award, an Ars Electronica honorable men - , Terry Riley, Ingram Marshall, tion, the NEA/Japan U.S. Friendship , David Lang, and Ayuo Fellowship, and a Djerrassi Resident Artist Takahashi, among many others. To celebrate Program residency. its 20th anniversary last season, the Band per -

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS formed two works commissioned by He earned a B.M. from Northern Illinois Chamber Music America: Sebastian Currier’s University and an M.F.A. from Mills College. Artificial Memories (2014) and James Mobberly’s ecstatic Fusebox (2006 ). Marja Mutru (keyboard ) received her master’s degree in piano performance from the Sibelius Jeff Anderle (clarinet, bass clarinet ) enjoys an Academy in her native . In 1995, she extremely diverse musical life. He is a pioneer participated in the European première of John in the world of low reeds, from Sqwonk’s Adams’s opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling tongue-in-cheek ferocity to Edmund Welles’s and Then I Saw the Sky , which toured exten - “heavy chamber music” to the complex sively in Europe, and also recorded the piece buzzings of the reed quintet Splinter. An ex - for with Finnish ensemble ponent of contemporary classical music, Avanti! Since settling in the San Francisco Bay Mr. Anderle is a member of the San Francisco Area, Ms. Mutru has worked with such local Contemporary Music Players, Paul Dresher chamber music ensembles as Earplay, the San Electro/Acoustic Band, and the bicoastal en - Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and semble Reshift. In addition, he is a founding co- the Kronos Quartet. She has also performed director of Switchboard Music, which presents solo piano repertoire by local composers, in - an annual marathon concert featuring music cluding , Richard Felciano, Paul that fuses different genres and styles. Dresher, , and Erling Wold, and has Mr. Anderle is on the faculty of the San recorded Wold’s two chamber operas, as well Francisco Conservatory of Music where he as his Albrecht’s Flügel for solo piano. She teaches clarinet, chamber music, and music joined the Paul Dresher Ensemble in 1998. I n business. He holds a M.M. from the San addition, Ms. Mutru has worked as a vocal Francisco Conservatory and a B.A. from UCLA. repertory coach at San Jose State University and the California Institute of the Arts, and With a focus on original music and creative most recently participated in the world pre - collaboration, percussionist Joel Davel mière of Sheli Nan’s chamber opera, Saga of (Marimba Lumina, audio programming ) has the JIst Century Girl . collaborated with Paul Dresher for 16 years as part of his Electro-Acoustic Band and Karen Bentley Pollick (violin, viola ) joined Davel/Dresher Duo, with several dance pro - the Paul Dresher Ensemble in 1999 and cham - ductions, and with the touring “Double Duo” pions a wide range of solo repertoire and qua rtet. Mr. Davel’s percussion career includes styles on violin, viola, piano, and Norwegian performance and recording credits with groups hardangerfele . She studied with Camilla Wicks led by electronic diva Amy X Neuburg, percus - in San Francisco and attended Indiana sionist William Winant, violinist Kaila Flexer, University, where she received B.M. and M.M. guitarist Jack West, guitarist David Tanenbaum, degrees and studied with Yuval Yaron and and tenor John Duykers. A composer, soloist, . Her recordings on Ariel and improviser, Mr. Davel has performed on - Ventures were honored at the Just Plain Folks stage accompaniment for numerous produc - Music Awards. With Russian pianist and com - tions, including for the California Shakespeare poser Ivan Sokolov she has recorded amber - Theater, South Coast Repertory, and choreog - wood , Homage to Fiddlers , and Russian rapher Claudine Naganuma. His intimate Soulscapes , and performed throughout the knowledge of his instruments United States and Czech Republic and at the comes out of 20 years of technica l work with American Academy of Rome. Ms. Pollick pre - pioneer , the original mièred Ole Saxe’s Dance Suite with Redwood designer of the Marimba Lumina—an instru - Symphony, received a grant from the NEA for ment Mr. Davel continues to build and develop. Solo Violin and Alternating Currents, and

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS launched Violin, Viola & Video Virtuosity with Artist Residency, and was a featured composer New York video artist Sheri W ills. She per - in the 19th Other Minds Festival (2014). He forms on a violin made by Jean-Baptiste live s in Berkeley and is currently writing a Vuillaume in 1860 and a viola made in 1987 book on the late music of John Coltrane. by William Whedbee. Ms. Polli ck and resides in Evergreen, Colorado, and Vilnius, Brendan Aanes (sound engineer ) previously Lithuania, where she débuted Resonances from worked with the Paul Dresher Ensemble on Vilna with pianist Jascha Nemtsov. their 2012 tour of Light Moves. His other re - cent credits include the U.S. tour of Kneehigh Gene Reffkin (electronic drums ) has per - Theatre’s Tristan and Yseult , Stuck Elevator formed with contemporary and classical music (American Conservatory Theatre), the San ensembles in New England, New York, and Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and California. After receiving a B.A. in music sound design for theatrical productions, in - from New York University, he moved to the cluding The Hundred Flowers Project San Francisco Bay Area, where he has played (Crowded Fire, winner of the Will Glickman with new music groups as well as numerous Award for best new play), The Rebirth of blues, rock, jazz, and country bands. He played Apsara (Shadowlight), Warrior Class, Wild with Philip Glass in the Aid and Comfort ben - with Happy, GG Variations (Theatreworks), efit concert at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre. He Urge For Going (Golden Thread), Bloody has been a core member of the Paul Dresher Bloody Andrew Jackson, Honey Brown Eyes Ensemble since its inception. This includes (San Francisco Playhouse), and more. work with George Coates, Rinde Eckert, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, ODC/San The Paul Dresher Ensemble and Amy X Neuburg Francisco, Wendy Rogers, and others. He is al - gratefully acknowledge the generous support for ways on the lookout for different kinds of They Will Have Been So Beautiful from the East music that groove and currently is working Bay Community Foundation, the Fleishhacker with nationally known Big Lou’s Polka Foundation, Meyer Sound, and from the following Casserole and the Peter Mintun Orchestra. individuals: Larry Ackerman, Charles Amirkhanian, Mark Applebaum, Pedro Arce, John Schott (electric guitar ) is a guitarist with Lorna Baird, Dan Becker, Mary Jane Beddow, T. J. Kirk, Junk Genius, the Baguette Quartette, Judith Bloom, Denah Bookstein, Andrew Boyd, and His Actual Trio. He appears on recordings Jeff Brody, Tod Brody, Daniel Buckley, John and Susan Chalik, Naya Chang, Sharyn Charnas, John with , , Rova, Henry Chowning, Barry Cleveland, Anastacia Corse, Kaiser, and Ben Goldberg. Mr. Schott has John Cotrufo, Robert Cowart, Katherine taught guitar for 30 years and taught courses Creighton, Allan Cronin, Jose daLuz, James Davis, on Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk at Cole Dresher, John Duykers, Dina Emerson, Andy UC Berke ley (2002), and in band at Black Pine and Claire Felong, Shoshana Finacom, Annmarie Elementary School (2008–2010). His major Fineral, Lara Friedenfelds, Nancy Friedman, Craig compositions include: Shuffle Play: Elegies for Fry, Susan Fry, Gordon Garb, Andrew Gilbert, the Recording Angel , recorded on New World Charles Goldstein, Mark Goudy, Marion Gray, Records; In These Great Times , on Tzadik; Elizabeth Greene, Nina Haft, Stephen Hahn, Nigel Together at Last , commissioned by the Paul Hall, Harry Hartzell Jr., Pam Hemphill, David and Hijin Hodge, Matilda Hofman, Allen Holub, Tom Dresher Ensemble; Among/Of… , commis - Holub, Dna Hoover, Zona Hostetler, Mark sioned and recorded by the Left Coast Jackson, Joan Jeanrenaud, Christina Johnson, Ensemble; and incidental music for Mac Nancy Jones, Tobey Kaplan, Ralph and Nora Wellman’s play Girl Gone , for American Kaywin, Kathryn Ketman, Denise Kidder, Tyko Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Kihlstedt, Ted Killian, Joel Krutt, Andre Lafosse, Mr. Schott was in residence twice at Djerassi Jerry Landis, Robert Lauriston, Peggy Lee Scott,

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Lisette Lehman, David Littlejohn, Penny Roth, Joanna Sacks, Alex Sadowsky, Jennifer Saito, Lockhart, Liz and Greg Lutz, Cynthia Marchesani, Katherine Sanstad, Tim Savinar, Isobel Schneider, Charles Martin, Bob Martinengo, Dinko Jean Schram, Julia Schwartz, Lisa Scola-Prosek, Matkovic, Kai Matthews, Lucy Mattingly, Ron Seff, Robert Sharf, Sharon Simpson, Warren Katherine Mattson, Peter McDowell, Michael Sirota, Elaine Smith Dunlap, Debbie Sommer, McKinstry, Mark Medress, Robert Meehan, Alex Stahl, Moe! Staiano, Cassis Birgit Staudt, Rafael Menezes, Themistocles and Dare Michos, Tom Steenland, Anna Maria Stjarnell, Elizabeth Mo Miner, Richard and Myriam Misrach, Jim Stuart, Dean Suzuki, Naomi Teplow, Victoria Mobberley, Julianne Moscovitz, Lance and Dalia Theodore, Anne Thomson Busse, Sue Nagel, Russell Nelson, Lee Neuwirth, Paul Trowbridge, Takato Umeda and Pia Lodberg, Nicholson, Claire Oldani, Alberto Oliveira, Steven Wayne Vitale, Tim Walters, Haoyang Wang, Mark Oliver, Penny Olson, Valentina Osinski, TJ Weisman, Elizabeth Willson, Nina Wise, Donn Owens, Julie Queen, Susan Raffanti, Missy Logan and Marcy Wong, Sandra Woodall, Bonnie Robach, Dave Roehr, Wendy Rogers, Michael Wright, Karyn Yandow, and Isabel Yrigoyen.

PLAYBILL