Paul Dresher News

We have Lift-Off! Napa Valley Museum launches its A-MAZE-ING Summer on May 12, with a Mother's Day weekend packed with family-friendly, inspiring programs and exhibitions. The fun kicks off at 11 amon Friday, May 12 with the opening of our star attraction in the Main Gallery: Paul Dresher's “SOUND MAZE,” a hands-on interactive exhibit featuring wildly inventive oversized musical instruments creating a cacophony of sound – including a pendulum 17 feet high! Meanwhile in our Spotlight Gallery, stellar mother and son artists Geoff and Phoebe Ellsworth's show “Like Mother Like Son” begins a one-month exhibition and art sale to benefit the Museum's education programs. And on the Museum Terrace on the starry evening of Friday May 12, the Museum hosts a conversation with one of NASA's first female astronauts and “First Mom in Space” Anna Lee Fisher, with her daughter, Emmy-award winning Washington, DC news correspondent Kristin Fisher, sharing stories of the trailblazing women and their families in the space program.

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts is honored to partner with Carnegie Hall's La Serenissima Festival, the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, and NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo in presenting the third annual New York performance of From Ghetto to Cappella, conceived to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the creation of the Venetian Ghetto. This will take place at The Chapel of Emanu-el, Today, February 16.

Next year Nancy Karp + Dancers returns to ODC with the world premiere of MEMORY/PLACE. Inspired by the current era of human mass migration, Artistic Director Nancy Karp has made a work in three parts, the first two movements set to newly commissioned scores by Kui Dong and Robert Honstein, respectively, and the third to the late Lou Harrison's almost 30-year-old Grand Duo for piano and violin.

The Old Globe presents a revival of Steve Martin's clever and crowd-pleasing comedy hit Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for its revival of Steve Martin's clever and crowd-pleasing comedy hit Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

ODC/Dance, San Francisco's internationally acclaimed contemporary dance company, announces programming for its 46th annual home season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. This season includes one world premiere by Brenda Way, one world premiere by KT Nelson, the return of Kate Weare's critically acclaimed work, Giant, and Way's enthralling 2016 work, Walk Back the Cat.

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts is honored to partner with Carnegie Hall's La Serenissima Festival, the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, and NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo in presenting the third annual New York performance of From Ghetto to Cappella, conceived to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the creation of the Venetian Ghetto. This will take place at The Chapel of Emanu-el, Thursday, February 16.

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for its revival of Steve Martin's clever and crowd-pleasing comedy hit Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is poised between two Empires - The Sceptered Isle and La Serenissima. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare and the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Venetian ghetto, The Floor of Heaven interweaves moments from Shakespeare's complex and revolutionary text with the play's original music and songs from the English-Venetian soundscape that Shakespeare's characters would have played and heard.

Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony open their 2016-17 season, their eighth together, on Today, October 13 at 7 pm with the world premiere of a commission by the Orchestra of a new work by Paul Dresher, Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries; Stravinsky's Petrushka; and violinist Philippe Quint performing Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.

The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis announces its 15th season of performing arts, filled with the leading artists in music, dance, theater and speakers.

Next year Nancy Karp + Dancers returns to ODC with the world premiere of MEMORY/PLACE. Inspired by the current era of human mass migration, Artistic Director Nancy Karp has made a work in three parts, the first two movements set to newly commissioned scores by Kui Dong and Robert Honstein, respectively, and the third to the late Lou Harrison's almost 30-year-old Grand Duo for piano and violin.

The Paul Dresher Ensemble Presents the music theater production Schick Machine September 23-25 on San Francisco's Z Space Main Stage prior to tour. Directed by Rinde Eckert virtuoso percussionist Steven Schick inhabits a fantastical stage filled with huge invented instruments and sound sculptures - including the Hurdy Grande, the Tumbler, the Field of Flowers and the Peacock (a deconstructed pipe organ). After the performance, the audience is invited onstage to engage and explore a kind of audio "maker" sound and visual domain. The production was described at its debut as 'fresh and surprising...often mind-blowing' LA Times

Music Director Joana Carneiro and Berkeley Symphony open their 2016-17 season, their eighth together, on Thursday, October 13 at 7 pm with the world premiere of a commission by the Orchestra of a new work by Paul Dresher, Crazy Eights & Fractured Symmetries; Stravinsky's Petrushka; and violinist Philippe Quint performing Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team of the West Coast premiere of OCTOBER SKY, which will blast off the Globe's 2016-2017 Season with a tale of boys, rockets, and big dreams.

The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis announces its 15th season of performing arts, filled with the leading artists in music, dance, theater and speakers.

Jennifer Schwartz is the new Managing Director for PCPA as of January 2016. Schwartz comes to PCPA having worked for over 15 years as a non-profit arts manager. She was the Finance and Administration Director at the San Jose Repertory Theatre, held finance positions at SFJAZZ, The San Francisco Film Society and The Paul Dresher Ensemble, and was the Associate Managing Director at the Yale Repertory Theatre where she produced The Special Events Series that included artists Don Byron, Meredith Monk and Guillermo Gomez-Pena. She also has worked in Los Angeles for New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures and as a consultant for Bay Area non-profits including The Magnes Museum, Southern Exposure, Prison Law Office, Glide Community Housing, Root Division, We Care, World Savvy and Youth Speaks.

ODC/Dance, San Francisco's internationally acclaimed contemporary dance company, announces programming for its 45th annual home season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The anniversary season boasts three world premieres, live music and the return of 2015's critically acclaimed Dead Reckoning.

Word for Word closes the 2015 Season with Word for Word's HOLIDAY HIGH JINX -- Bums, Broads and Broadway: Stories by Damon Runyon, Joseph Mitchell, and E.B. White, opening tonight Saturday Nov. 28, 8pm (Press opening) and run through December 24, 2015 at Z Below in San Francisco's Mission/SOMA district.