Paul Dresher Ensemble

creating

New Performance Traditions

New Performance Traditions is a hub for incubating multi-disciplinary arts projects from conception and production through performance, recording, and broadcast. We are dedicated to the creation of risk-taking and challenging performing artworks and to supporting the artists that conceive them in order to engender a more equitable, inclusive, and creative community.

In order to support the current and incubate the next generation of creative performing artists we provide community access to:

• Rehearsal studio and artistic production space for both short- and long-term rental
• Professional sound, lighting, and projection equipment at below-market rental rates
• High definition Video recording and live streaming technologies
• Performances opportunities on our In Studio Performances and West Oakland Sessions
• We annually provide – through the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency Program – six early/mid-career artists with free multi-week studio residencies, production stipend, and technical assistance/mentorship.
• Fiscal sponsorship to Bay Area multidisciplinary artists with a commitment to taking risks in the creation of new performing artworks

Co-Productions

We offer co-production support for projects aligned with our mission.

Current projects include:

• Both Eyes Open (Philip Kan Gotanda & Max Giteck Duykers chamber opera)
• The Electronic Lover, a podcast opera by Lisa Mezzacappa
• MEKONG — The River Runs by Vân-Ánh Võ
• The Rebirth of Apsara by Charya Burt Cambodian Dance
• MIMI (Museum of Invented Musical Instruments and Interval Archive for Microtonal Research)
• Actors’ Reading Collective

We continue to work with Oakland Unified School District teachers:

• Awele Makeba (Skyline High School Theater program)
• Helena Moss-Jack (music program at Elmhurst Middle School and the all-district Oakland Eastside All-Stars Jazz Band).