Paul Dresher Ensemble

Welcome to the Paul Dresher Ensemble

The Paul Dresher Ensemble

The Paul Dresher Ensemble believes deeply in the transformative power of artistic expression. Like the best of American culture, our work is grounded in experimentation and exploration, and embodies a distinctly entrepreneurial spirit. For over 30 years the Ensemble has been a creative force and active member of the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the national arts community. Our overarching goal is to produce innovative and engaging performances that reach for the highest artistic standards.

What We Do

  • We create and produce acclaimed music theater and contemporary opera by Paul Dresher, Rinde Eckert, Erling Wold, and other artists associated with the Paul Dresher Ensemble: Pioneer, Slow Fire, Sound Stage, The Tyrant, Schick Machine, Ravenshead, Horizon, Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, and others.
  • We commission new concert music for electronic and acoustic Instruments
    from John Adams, John Luther Adams, Samuel Adams, Mark Applebaum, Dan Becker, Eve Beglarian, Lisa Bielawa, Martin Bresnick, Ryan Brown, Cindy Cox, Sebastian Currier, Anthony Davis, Fred Frith, Guillermo Galindo, Carla Kihlstedt, David Lang, Steve Mackey, James Mobberley, Amy X Neuburg, Jack Perla, Roger Reynolds, Terry Riley, Ken Ueno, and Pamela Z, among others.
  • We collaborate with other artists who include Amy X Neuburg, They Will Have Been So Beautiful; Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, A Slipping Glimpse, Light Moves, Times Bones; Berkeley Repertory Theater, To the Lighthouse; Naomie Kremer, Paint Moves (video installation); Erling Wold, Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, Certitude and Joy; Jay Cloidt, D’Arc – Woman on Fire; Berkeley Symphony, Concerto for Quadrachord and Orchestra; ODC Dance, Walk Back the Cat; and others.
  • We perform new work across the San Francisco Bay Area at Stanford Lively Arts, Cal Performances, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Chapel of the Chimes, Berkeley Art Museum, Z Space, ODC Theater, Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, Mondavi Center for the Arts.
  • We tour across the US and Internationally to Hong Kong (Paul Dresher, Rinde Eckert, Matt Heckert & Steven Schick, Schick Machine); Canberra International Music Festival, Canberra, Australia (Double Duo); Avery Fisher Hall, New York Philharmonic (Dresher & Eckert, Slow Fire; (Dresher/Davel, Glimpsed from Afar); Bolzano, Italy (Dresher, The Tyrant), Carnegie/Zankel Hall (Music by Paul Dresher), Minneapolis, Walker Art Center (Dresher, Sound Stage) , Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art (Dresher, The Tyrant).
  • We provide free studio residencies to Northern California artists working in the time-based arts. Through the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency program (D.E.A.R.), we award free and full-time access to our large rehearsal studio, fabrication shop, sound, lighting, projection, and recording equipment.

Institutional Funders


Foundations

Corporations

  • Meyer Sound
  • Schwab Charitable Gift Fund
  • Keith McMillen Instruments
  • Amazon Smile Fund

Government

Paul Dresher Ensemble

1446 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 558-9540