Project Title:  Violin Concertos by Paul Dresher and Alvin Curran for soloist David Abel
Recipient Organization:  Musical Traditions, Inc. Paul Dresher Ensemble
Lead Artist:   David Abel
Genre and Date Awarded:  Performing Arts, June 1995
To Be Presented:   March 29, 1997, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (Dresher premiere); May 30, 1997 Theater Artaud, San Francisco (Curran premiere)

The Paul Dresher Ensemble commissioned Paul Dresher and Alvin Curran each to compose a chamber violin concerto for acclaimed Bay Area violinist David Abel.  The two works were developed collaboratively by the composers, soloist, and members of The Ensemble. Both Dresher’s Concerto for Violin and Electro-Acoustic Band and Curran’s Pittura Fresca premiered in 1997.

The Paul Dresher Ensemble is a chamber music group that combines electronic with acoustic instrumentation.  In this project Dresher sought to address a problem faced by many performers, particularly virtuoso soloists: a resistance to contemporary works that extend the resources of their instruments beyond traditional 19th-century techniques:  “Some members of the chamber music community believe that the inclusion of electronics or amplification of any sort prohibits a work from being proper chamber music.”  The net result is that contemporary chamber music rarely uses any electronic media.

The ensemble and composers found an ideal partner for their chamber-music experiment in the project’s lead artist, violinist David Abel, who is one of the finest violinists dedicated to contemporary music:  His activities include chamber music and solo  performances, orchestral appearances, as well as violin instruction.  Though a committed advocate of contemporary music, Abel had not previously performed in an electronic environment.

The “Two Concertos” project required extensive interaction among the violinist, composers, and musicians of the Ensemble.  Paul Dresher noted, “Because working with electronic media in performance is in no way standardized, it is essential that the composers be thoroughly knowledgeable about what is technically possible given the specific resources of the Ensemble.  The composers had individual sessions with each of the seven Ensemble members to learn their personal techniques and technical set-ups.  Conversely, Mr. Abel learned how to work an amplified music context.” 

Although both composers had considerable experience with electronic as well as traditional media, their compositional styles are very different. Paul Dresher has composed and performed a wide range of works, including experimental opera and music theater, chamber and orchestral compositions, live instrumental and electronic  music, and electro-acoustic taped scores for theater, dance, video, radio, and film.

Paul Dresher writes:

I have always conceived of music as primarily a community activity, one in which all performers participate as equals.  Thus my music has mostly been contrapuntal with all musicians having relatively equal importance.  This is in strong contrast to the tradition of the concerto, which is characterized by a relationship of conflict or competition between the soloist and ensemble, whose members have sacrificed their individual identities to the ensemble whole.

I am challenged to conceive of original ways for the individual/soloist to express their freedom/virtuosity in a context which is not based primarily on conflict and competition but rather one which expresses my personal vision of the individual in relationship to the collective, one characterized by mutual inspiration and support….

Alvin Curran is internationally known for his compositions, solo performances, and large scale sound installations.  Inspired by the American experimentalist tradition, his nearly 100 works embrace all contradictions, drawing on diverse musical sources and electronic media, with a strong interest in improvisation, and exploiting his own pianistic virtuosity.  This was his first concerto. 

In the program notes for his premiere, Curran writes:

…today’s chamber music tradition is largely a form of mystical séance where one goes to call on the great ancestors and bring their traditions back to life.  Archaic as the Amish and equally stubborn, and not infrequently thrilling beyond description—this music will never go away, but will remain our sonic museums for eternal remembrance.

I love writing chamber music because (there is no need to) and because there are world-cup groups to write for—like the Rova, Kronos, Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, and the Dresher Ensemble, just to mention a few local stars….

I write no frills music.  No air-sickness bags, no seat belts, no insurance, no pilot.  It’s very democratic, and it usually gets you there.

The Paul Dresher Ensemble is a contemporary performing ensemble that produces and tours its own works of collaboratively-created opera and experimental theater, and also gives performances as an “electric chamber ensemble” of music by a wide range of composers, combining traditional acoustic with contemporary electronic instruments.  Since 1985, the Ensemble has created four evening-length music theater projects which have toured widely.  It has commissioned and/or premiered works by Bun Ching Lam, Carl Stone, Koji Ueno, Paul Dresher, John Adams, Ayuo Takahashi, and Anthony Davis.

David Abel
David Abel’s musical activities span a wide range, including chamber music, solo recitals, orchestra appearances, and teaching violin and chamber music.  Born in Wenatchee, Washington in 1935, he began his violin study at the age of three, and continued his work in San Francisco.  David Abel made his orchestral debut at the age of 14 with the San Francisco Symphony and has appeared with major orchestras throughout the United States.  At 18, Mr. Abel played his first New York recital and, following that debut, concertized in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Latin America.  He was a winner of the Leventritt International Violin Competition in 1964 and toured Europe under the auspices of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation.

David Abel has taught at San Jose State University, Grinnell College, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Stanford University.  He currently teaches at Mills College in Oakland, California.  He was violinist with the Francesco Chamber Trio, which won the 1974 Naumberg Chamber Music Award in New York.  He has been a participant in the Chamber Music West Festival in San Francisco; a member of the Crown Chamber Players at the University of California, Santa Cruz; and he has appeared at the Carmel Bach Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, Santa Cruz; the Library of Congress Summer Chamber Music Festival, Washington, D.C.; the Mozart Festival in San Luis Obispo; and the Mid-summer Mozart Festival in San Francisco.

David Abel frequently appears in duo recitals with pianist Julie Steinberg.  Together they have recorded two sonata programs on Wilson Audio.  Joined by percussionist William Winant, they established the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio which is dedicated to the performance of music from the Americas and the Pacific Rim.  The trio has received critical acclaim throughout the United States for its fine performances and unique programming, and for their recording of Lou Harrison’s music on New Albion Records.

Mr. Abel’s recordings include works by Lou Harrison, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Somei Satoh, Paul Dresher, Morton Feldman (viola), and Peter Garland on New Albion Records; Debussy, Satoh, Bartok, Brahms, Beethoven, Enescu, and Dvorak for Wilson Audio; with Phil Aaberg on Windham Hill; and viola in “Elegy for Jean Genet” by John Zorn, on Eva Records (Japan); and live performances of the Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, and Prokoffief No. 1 violin concerto on Three Treasure Recordings.

Alvin Curran (Composer)

Alvin Curran creates music that exhibits a striking versatility of means, function, and sound systems.  Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1938, he studied the piano, trombone, and all forms of popular music.  He began composing at Brown University under Ron Nelson and completed his studies at Yale with Elliot Carter in 1963.  Following  a year with Carter in Berlin, he moved to Rome, his adopted home.  With Rzewski and Teitlbaum in 1966 he co-founded the radical collective MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA, a group renowned for inciting free music as well as inspiring the breaking of new musical ground. 

In the 1970s, Curran created a series of solo performances for natural sounds, voice, keyboards, and found objects in a lyrical post minimalist style:  “Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden,” “Light Flowers/Dark Flowers,” and “Canti Illuminati.”  The 80s followed with large scale environmental works on lakes and rivers, and in ports, quarries, caverns, and public buildings:  “Maritime Rites,” “Waterworks,” Tufo Mufo,” and “Notes from Underground” (in collaboration with the artist Melissa Gould).  Using the radio as a geographical musical instrument, Curran created concerts with musicians spread all over Europe in “1985—A Piece for Peace,” and in the Holocaust commemoration, “Crystal Psalms.”  With “Erat Verbum” (1994), a WDR commission, the composer took this concept even further.

Curran’s past commissions include those from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Hessischer Rundfunk, Kronos Quartet, Relache, Group 180 (Budapest), Aki Takahashi, Ursula Oppens, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio.  Other commissions include works for The Ellen Webb Dance Company, The Cassatt String Quartet, The San Francisco Chamber Players, Ars Lludi, and New Radio and The Performing Arts, Inc.  He also created three scores for the Trisha Brown Dance Company and a new work for the performance artist Joan Jonas, which debuted in Berlin in July 1993.  His work also is included in the John Cage retrospective “Wholyrolyover,” which toured internationally.

Among Curran’s awards are those from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Public Radio, DAAD, and Arts Acoustica International.  He has taught at the Accademia Nazionale D’Arte Drammatica in Rome and is presently the Milhaud Professor of Music at Mills College.  Recordings of Curran’s works are available on New Albion, Catalyst (BMG), CRI, and Tzadik Records.

Paul Dresher (Composer)

Paul Dresher is a composer pursuing musical interests in many media, including experimental opera and music theater, chamber and orchestral compositions live instrumental electric music performances and electro-acoustic taped scores for theater, dance, video, radio, and film.  His performances use progressive contemporary music technology and the theatrical works use the resources of experimental theater to examine diverse issues in contemporary American culture.

As Artistic Director of the Paul Dresher Ensemble, he has guided the creation of the “American Trilogy,” a set of music theater works which address different facets of American culture, in collaboration with writer/performer Rinde Eckert.  The trilogy began with Slow Fire (1985-88), developed with Power Failure (1988-89), and was completed in 1990 with Pioneer, a collaboration which that includes visual artist Terry Allen, actress Jo Harvey Allen, tenor John Duykers, and director Robert Woodruff.  In 1996 he developed Ocho Rios, a new music theater work with playwright Eric Overmyer.

Since 1987, Dresher has created four works with choreographer Margaret Jenkins, including The Gates (Far Away Near), which premiered at Jacob’s Pillow in 1993 and opened the 1994 Serious Fun Festival at Lincoln Center.  In 1993, Dresher premiered his new “electric chamber band” on a five city tour of Japan as part of Festival Interlink.  This ensemble performs the works of a broad range of contemporary composers using an orchestration combining both acoustic and electronic instrumentation.

His commissions have included works for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival USA, Kronos String Quartet, the San Francisco Symphony, Walker Arts Center, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, University of Iowa, and the American Music Theater Festival.  He has collaborated with directors Robert Woodruff, George Coates, Richard E.T. White, and Tom O’Horgan.  He has performed or had his works performed at such venues as the Munich State Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Festival d’Automne in Paris, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, the Minnesota Opera, the Cal Arts Festival, and New Music America in 1981, ’83, ’85, ’88, and ’89.

Mr. Dresher has served as a panelist for many state and national arts agencies, including co-chairing the Composers Fellowship Panel for the Music Program at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  He also served on the Policy Overview panels for the Presenting and Commissioning and Advancement Programs at the NEA.  For many years he has been on the board of directors of New Langton Arts, a multidisciplinary presenter of contemporary arts in San Francisco.  In 1994, he was elected to the board of the American Music Center.