biographies

PAUL DRESHER

Paul Dresher is one of the foremost and most internationally active composers of his generation. Noted for his ability to integrate diverse musical influences and media into his own coherent and unique personal style, he is pursuing many musical forms including experimental opera and music theater, chamber and orchestral composition, and live instrumental electro-acoustic. He has received commissions from the Library of Congress, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival USA, the Kronos Quartet, the California EAR Unit, San Francisco Symphony, Walker Arts Center, Zeitgeist, and the American Music Theater Festival. He has performed or had his works performed at 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, Arts Summit Indonesia'95, Festival Interlink in Japan, and five New Music America Festivals. His evening-length collaboration with choreographer Margaret Jenkins, THE GATES, premiered at Jacob's Pillow and opened the 1994 Serious Fun Festival at Lincoln Center.

Since forming the Paul Dresher Ensemble in 1985, he has guided the creation of the "American Trilogy", a set of experimental operatic works comprised of SLOW FIRE (1985-88), POWER FAILURE (1988-89), and PIONEER. These works, created in collaboration with writer/performer Rinde Eckert, address different facets of American culture and have been performed hundreds of times in the US and Europe. In 1993, Dresher premiered his new "Electro-Acoustic Band," an ensemble that performs the work of a broad range of contemporary composers utilizing a hybrid orchestration which combines both acoustic and electronic instrumentation. The group has commissioned many works from some of the most innovative of today's composers and regularly tours internationally. The Ensemble has also premiered the music for dance and theater collaborations with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, ODC San Francisco, and the John Adams/June Jordan/Peter Sellars production "I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky."

Dresher has had a long involvement in world music, studying Ghanaian drumming with C.K. and Kobla Ladzekpo and North Indian classical music with Nikhil Banerjee as well as the music of Java and Bali. In 1996-97, Dresher was a Fellow in the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange at UCLA where he collaborated with director and singer Chen Shi-Zheng in the creation of an experimental opera/ dance theater work "The Myth of the Hero," which was performed by virtuoso artists from Indonesia, India, China, Korea and America.

RINDE ECKERT

Rinde Eckert is a writer,composer, singer, actor, and director whose music, music theater, and dance theater pieces have been performed throughout the United States and abroad. He has collaborated a great deal with composer Paul Dresher, having written and performed or directed ten pieces of theater or dance with Paul since 1980, including "Slow Fire", "Shelf Life" (with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company), and "Pioneer" (with Robert Woodruff, Terry Allen, and Jo Harvey Allen). Rinde has also worked extensively with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Co., first as a writer performer, and later as composer, creating seven works since1987 including "Shelf Life", "Shorebirds Atlantic", and "The Gates/Faraway Near" and most recently "Breathe Normally." In 1992 Rinde wrote, composed and performed "The Gardening of Thomas D." an evening length theatrical duet with dancer Ellie Klopp. 1992 also saw the release of Rinde's first recording "Finding My Way Home" (DIW Records, prod. Lee Townsend). Rinde has worked and collaborated with a wide variety of artists including Michael Palmer, John Sanborn, Joanne Akalaitis, Bruce Nauman, Jerry Granelli, Bill Frisell, Lynn Hershman, Sarah Shelton Mann and Contraband, ODC San Francisco, and Ohad Naharin. Romeo Sierra Tango, Rinde's one man "Romeo and Juliet"(commissioned by The New York Shakespeare Festival) was premiered at The Public Theater in New York on their New Works Festival in 1998.

"Ravenshead," a solo two act opera written in collaboration with composer Steven Mackey was also premiered in the fall of 98. In the summer of 99 Rinde finished a new children's opera called "Navigators;" that fall he directed students at the University of Iowa in a new play he wrote for them entitled "A Tale We Told The Queen on the Fourth Day of Our Journey to the East." Rinde's latest piece is entitled "And God Created Great Whales" - based on Moby Dick. Commissioned by the Foundry Theater in New York it has had two month-long runs, first at DTW and later at The Culture Project/45 Bleecker Theater. In the summer of 2000 Rinde represented the US at the Global Vocal Meeting produced by the Stimmen Festival. With Abdoulaye Diabate (Mali), Senge(Madagascar), Mitsou (Hungary), Sudha Ragunathan (India), and Corin Curschellas (Switzerland) he sang in festivals in Germany and Sweden.

ZEITGEIST

Dedicated to contemporary music, Zeitgeist enlivens today's music with performances that absorb, stimulate, and hearten.

Founded in 1977, Zeitgeist's mission is to enliven today's music and expand its public with performances that absorb, stimulate, and hearten. Through concerts, commissions, recordings, and dialogue with our audiences, we strive to forge new links between musicians and music lovers, present- ing works of substance with passion and authority.

Dedicated to contemporary music, in particular the music of the last twenty years, Zeitgeist has commissioned more than 70 works by both emerging composers and some of the finest established composers of our time, including John Cage, Frederic Rzewski, Terry Riley, Eric Stokes, Harold Budd, La Monte Young, Randall Davidson, Mark Applebaum, Eleanor Hovda, Arthur Kreiger, Mary Ellen Childs, Jerome Kitzke, Martin Bresnick, Paul Dresher, and Janika Vandervelde.

Zeitgeist has earned an international reputation for its superb craftsmanship and virtuosic performance of contemporary music. Our performing excellence and unique repertoire have led to invitations to perform at prestigious venues throughout the U.S.A. and Europe, including Merkin Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall and The Kitchen in New York; at the Los Angeles County Museum's contemporary music series; The Festival of New American Music at Sacramento; several appearances at New Music America (New York, Minneapolis and Miami); and in many other U.S. cities including Seattle, Phoenix, Cleveland, Phila-delphia, Durham, St. Louis, Des Moines and, in Minnesota, Ely, Northfield, New Ulm, Grand Rapids and Rochester, among others. The ensemble has conducted six European tours, performing in Lisbon, Bonn, London, Zagreb, Berlin, Cologne, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Finland.

We have released three compact discs, including She's a Phantom, music of Harold Budd (New Albion Records); Intuitive Leaps, music of Terry Riley (Work Music London and Sony Music Entertainment); and A Decade, music of Frederic Rzewski (O.O. Discs). Individual works we have recorded can also be heard on two other discs-Earthworks, featuring the music of Steve Heitzeg (Innova), and Opere Della Musica Povera, featuring the music of Martin Bresnick (CRI). In the near future, the ensemble will release a CD of the work of Eric Stokes (New World Records).

HEATHER BARRINGER

Percussionist/artistic co-director Heather Barringer joined Zeitgeist in 1990. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a B.Mus.Ed. From 1989-90, she attended the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory, studying with Allen Otte, founding member of the Cincinnati Percussion Group. In addition to performing and recording with Zeitgeist, she is a member of Mary Ellen Child's ensemble, Crash and has worked with many Twin Cities organizations, including Nautilus Music Theater Ensemble, The Dale Warland Singers, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, and Guthrie Theater.

TOM LINKER

Tom Linker, pianist for Zeitgeist, is interested in exploring through music. As a concert pianist, he has performed throughout the world playing standard repertoire as well as introducing audiences to new and little known music. He has worked with many composers performing, premiering and recording their works including William Bolcolm, Bill Harper, Meredith Monk, Terry Riley, and Frederic Rzewski. As Music Director/Conductor he has worked with many theaters including the Guthrie Theater, Minnesota Opera, Children's Theater Co. of Minneapolis and Nautilus Music-Theater premiering and remounting works for the stage. For the past 2 years he has been pursuing new solo concert forms that help connect audiences with music on many levels, creating one man shows using pianos (toy piano, fortepiano, player piano and grand pianos), narrative, improvisation, lighting, and movement to paint pictures in the minds of his audience.

PATRICK O'KEEFE

Woodwind player and artistic co-director, Patrick O'Keefe, is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and Indiana University. Pat is also finishing his doctoral studies in contemporary performance practices at the University of California, San Diego. In San Diego, he performed regularly with the new music ensembles SONOR and SIRIUS, as well as with the San Diego Symphony. He was also Principal Clarinetist with the Augusta Symphony in Augusta, Georgia from 1989-1994. Pat is actively involved in other musical endeavors as well, such as free improvisation and world music. He is a founding member of the improvisation group, Unbalancing Act, and has appeared in concert with such notable improvisors as George Lewis, Wadada Leo Smith, and J.D. Parran. In addition, he was also a percussionist with the Brazilian ensemble Sol e Mar in San Diego, and appears regularly with the groups Beira Mar Brazil and Brasamba in Minneapolis.

YURI MERZHEVSKY

Yuri Merzhevsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1984, he won a prize in the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany. He received his training in the Leningrad Conservatory of Music, and received his Ph.D. in 1988. Subsequently, he served as a professor of violin on the faculty there. Yuri has served as concertmaster in several orchestras, such as the Leningrad Conservatory Orchestra, and the Hermitage Orchestra. He was a frequent soloist with many orchestras in the Soviet Union, including the Leningrad Philharmonic. In 1989, Yuri immigrated to the United States, where he has played as a soloist with the Minnesota Sinfonia, Members of the Utah Symphony, Olympia Chamber Orchestra, Plymouth Music Series, and various chamber music groups. In addition to his involvement in contemporary music, Yuri also performs jazz, klezmer, and gypsy music. He has performed with Zeitgeist since 1997.

ALEX NICHOLS

Lighting and scenic designer Alex Nichols' design work spans from dance, opera and theater to sculpture and installation art. He has served as designer for The Paul Dresher Ensemble on Awed Behavior and Slow Fire, and is presently resident designer for Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and the Hartford Ballet. He has served as resident lighting designer for the Pennsylvania Ballet and American Ballet Theater, and he has also set designs on such companies and artists as National Theater of Taiwan, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Magic Theater, Rinde Eckert, the Joe Goode Performance Group and Nashville Ballet.