Slow Fire

Artist Bios as of 1989

PAUL DRESHER ENSEMBLE/MUSICAL TRADITIONS INC.

The purpose of the Paul Dresher Ensemble is to create, develop and perform contemporary music and interdisciplinary music theater. Integral to this purpose is the exploration of new techniques of music performance utilizing new instrumental and vocal techniques, the employment of theatrical elements and staging, and the use of interactive music technology. Created through a collaborative process, the Ensemble's performances synthesize musical, visual and theatrical elements. In 1990 the group will premiere PIONEERS created by collaborators Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, John Duykers and Melissa Weaver along with Paul Dresher and Rinde Eckert. The work will be co-produced by the Spoleto Festival USA, the University of Iowa, Northeastern University, and Robin Kirck for Musical Traditions.

The Ensemble's history includes SLOW FIRE, which was co-produced by the Mark Taper Forum, the American Music Theater Festival, and New Music America '85 and collaborations with other performing organizations, most recently with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company on SHELF LIFE.

PAUL DRESHER (Artistic Director/Composer)

Dresher performs with live tape processing system and electronics and composes for chamber, orchestra and opera/musical theater ensembles. Recent commissions have included works for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, the San Francisco Symphony, a Nonesuch Commission Award from the American Music Center and the Olympic Arts Festival. He has worked with director Robert Woodruff on two productions at the La Jolla Playhouse and has twice collaborated with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and the Oberlin Dance Collective. Since 1979 he has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, including performances at the Munich State Opera, Festival d'Automne in Paris, San Francisco Symphony, Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, London International Festival of Theatre and the New York Philharmonic. He formed the Ensemble in 1984 and has been the Artistic Director and Composer for WAS ARE WILL BE, SLOW FIRE, and POWER FAILURE. Recordings of his works have been released on the Lovely Music and New Albion labels.

RINDE ECKERT (Writer/Performer)

Eckert is a writer, singer, director and actor whose music theater pieces have been performed throughout the United States and abroad. With composer Paul Dresher, he created SLOW FIRE, a musical monodrama for which he wrote text and developed the character. Rinde and Paul recently received an Isadora Duncan award for their score of SHELF LIFE, a collaborative work with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. NOT FOR REAL, a solo piece he created and directed with Leonard Pitt, was the recipient of two Bay Area Critics' Circle Awards. Rinde's sound and music scores have been used by Contraband, The Dance Brigade, Caravan and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. His solo radio musical SHOOT THE MOVING THINGS can be heard on the New American Radio series of National Public Radio. A new solo piece, DRY LAND DIVINE, was presented by CAL Performances in September, 1988 (along with SHOREBIRDS ATLANTIC, a duet he developed with Margaret Jenkins) and in November at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City.

RICHARD E. T. WHITE (Director)

White most recently directed Eric Overmyer's IN PERPETUITY THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE at Seattle's Empty Space Theatre. During his tenure as Artistic Director of Chicago's Wisdom Bridge Theater he directed, among others, Philip Gotanda's YANKEE DAWG YOU DIE and the world premiere of the musical TEN NOVEMBER by Steven Dietz and Eric Peltoniemi. His production of HARD TIMES, based on Charles Dickens' novel, originally produced at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, was selected for inclusion in the 1986 American Theatre Exchange festival of American regional theatre in New York. He has directed at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, the Berkeley Repertory Theater and the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival. His work has earned seven Bay Area Theatre Critic's Awards and four Drama-Logue Awards for Outstanding Direction for productions including COMEDIANS, MACBETH, OTHERWISE ENGAGED, HENRY IV PART ONE and MARY BARNES.

LARRY NEFF (Lighting Designer)

Recipient of two Bay Area Theatre Critic's Awards, Neff has designed lighting for many Bay Area companies including the George Coates Performance Works productions of RARE AREA and ACTUAL SHO, Paul Dresher's WAS ARE/WILL BE and SLOW FIRE, KRONOS ON STAGE with the Kronos Quartet, and Nightletter's AUSPICES OF BLACKBIRDS. He has also designed BEACH BLANKET BABYLON GOES AROUND THE WORLD with Steve Silver, Sando Counts' SIDESHOW and Rinde Eckert's NOMAD MAD with Ruth Zaporah.

JAY CLOIDT(Sound Designer/Audio Engineer)

Cloidt is a composer, performer and audio engineer. His works have been performed at the Venice Biennale, New Music America, and by the George Coates Performance Works. Cloidt has worked as sound designer and engineer for many Bay Area companies, including the Arch Ensemble, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Kronos Quartet and the Paul Dresher Ensemble's SLOW FIRE for which he won a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Sound Design. Cloidt created the sound design for the Robert Woodruff productions of THE TEMPEST and FIGARO GETS A DIVORCE at the La Jolla Playhouse. Most recently he completed a commission for the Gary Palmer Dance Company.

GENE REFFKIN (Percussion)

Reffkin received a B.A. in Music in 1968 from New York University, where he was principal percussionist with the NYU Orchestra. Since moving to the San Francisco area in 1969, he has played both jazz and rock and has been a member of various contemporary music ensembles. He has been performing with Paul Dresher since 1972, and in 1984 was the percussionist in the George Coates Performance Works production, SEEHEAR.

MELISSA WEAVER (Production Manager)

Ms. Weaver directed John Duykers in Henze's EL CIMARRON which received the L.A. Times Becknesser Award (1983) for best contemporary performance; Puccini's TOSCA with the Las Vegas Symphony; and most recently directed Rinde Eckert's solo performance, DRY LAND DIVINE, which premiered at Cal Performances and was presented at DTW in New York. She has stage managed numerous productions for Houston Music Theater, Tucson Opera Theater, San Diego's Old Globe Theater, BAM, and theaters in Europe. Prior to joining the Paul Dresher Ensemble as Production Manager for SLOW FIRE in 1987, Ms. Weaver collaborated on George Cotes Performance Works' THE WAY OF HOW, ARE/ARE, SEEHEAR and RARE AREA.

ROBIN KIRCK (Producer)

Ms. Kirck has been producing contemporary music and music theater since 1976. She has produced works by Anthony Davis, Peter Sellars, Jon Hassell and Charles Shere, among others. She also produced a contemporary music series at the Exploratorium Museum from 1976-1983 and produced New Music America '81 in San Francisco. She was formerly Associate Director of the American Music Center in NYC and Director of American Music Week. She is currently the Executive Director of Musical Traditions Inc.