JACK CURTIS DUBOWSKY ENSEMBLE at Meridian Gallery Composers in Performance Series September 9, 2009

The Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble, a groundbreaking new music ensemble led by classical and film composer Jack Curtis Dubowsky, combines acoustic instruments, electronic hardware, composed material and structured improvisation. The Ensemble treats analog synth as a rare and unpredictable performance instrument. The Ensemble’s contemporary electroacoustic music, abstract, calm, spacious, free form, and transcendental, is performed and recorded live with no overdubs or sequencing.

About Meridian Music: Composers in Performance, Curated by Tom Bickley

Founded in 1998 by Anne Trueblood Brodzky, Anthony Williams and Philip Gelb, the first curator of the series, Meridian Music: Composers in Performance seeks to present a wide range of art music from the vital Bay Area scene and beyond through monthly concerts by diverse composer/performers, both established and emerging. The series offers audiences music in a variety of idioms and created by a variety of compositional processes (from solo voice to sophisticated multimedia/software processing; from improvisation to "new complexity") in an intimate setting. The musicians themselves come from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds and the series embraces that diversity as well as sonic diversity.

Meridian Music: Composers in Performance is grateful to the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and Meet the Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program for their support. Concerts are re-broadcast online on Friday after concert at: http://www.luver.com

Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble Member Bios
Member Bios

Keyboardist and bassist Jack Curtis Dubowsky is an active composer, conductor, writer, educator, and filmmaker. Dubowsky has composed four chamber operas and scored five feature films including That Man Peter Berlin, Rock Haven, and Redwoods. The short film NYC Dilemma about this working composer premiered 2006 at BFI in London. Dubowsky's choral music has been performed internationally by groups including San Francisco Choral Artists, Desert Voices, Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and Mount Eden Chorus. His orchestral music has been performed by Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra. His chamber music has been performed by Classical Revolution, Snopea Chamber Ensemble, Organic Sound Experiment, Collaborata, and Paradigm Brass. Dubowsky has received grants from Meet the Composer, Zellerbach Family Fund, Friends of San Francisco Public Library, and American Composers Forum. Dubowsky produced recordings by The Winsome Griffles, Glen Meadmore, and the Virgin Whore Complex. Dubowsky’s award winning “Mr Jones” parody is a highlight of the Momus album Stars Forever. Dubowsky attended the Aspen School, and received his MM in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Dubowsky studied composition with David Conte, Conrad Susa, Elinor Armer, and Michael Czajkowski. Dubowsky recently received a 2009 Subito Grant from American Composers Forum for a choral opera, Halloween in the Castro, commissioned by the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, which will premiere in October 2009. Dubowsky will be resident composer at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in November 2009.

Erika Johnson has a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from Indiana University-Bloomington and a Master of Music in percussion from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has held the position of Principal Timpani in the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and has played for numerous professional ensembles. Ms. Johnson was a concerto competition winner, performing Deja vu by Michael Colgrass on timpani, with the Indiana University Concert Orchestra. She was a Founder's Day Honors Scholar from 1994 to 1998. She received the Indiana University Percussion Ensemble award, the Jorge Estebanez Scholarship, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music Departmental Awards for Percussion and New Music Ensemble. Her teachers have included Gerald Carlyss (Philadelphia Orchestra) and Jack Van Geem (San Francisco Symphony). Currently, Ms. Johnson freelances in the Bay Area and enjoys arranging popular music for percussion.
Percussionist Fred Morgan received his BM in percussion performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the study of Jack Van Geem and his MM from the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Will Hudgins. Fred currently studies timpani with San Francisco Timpanist David Herbert. Other teachers have included Andrew Lewis, James Lee Wyatt, and Alan Hall. Fred played William Kraft's first timpani concerto with the Oakland East Bay Symphony in 2003 as a winner of the orchestra's Young Artist Competition. Fred was a member of the San Francisco Youth Symphony from 1997-2002. Fred has performed as a timpanist and percussionist in the Hong Kong Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Kansas City Symphony. Fred performs with SF Symphony brass and boys choir at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and has subbed with the Midsummer Mozart Festival. Fred participated in festivals of Spoleto USA, Schleswig-holstein, Music Academy of the West, Jeunnesses Musicales, National Orchestral Institute, and the Aspen Music Festival. Contemporary engagements include work with the Sprocket Ensemble and performances and recordings of the music of Erling Wold. Locally Fred subs with the Oakland East bay Symphony and the Santa Rosa Symphony. Fred has received a percussion chair in the Stockton Symphony.
Trombonist Hall Goff received his BA from Oberlin College and MM from the Yale University School of Music, where his principal teacher was John Swallow. Other teachers include Tom Cramer, Douglas Edelman, Tyrone Breuninger, and Ned Meredith. Hall has been a member of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra since 1977, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players since 1979, and the Paradigm Brass since 2002. Hall has performed locally with orchestras in Santa Rosa, Monterey, Oakland, Napa, Marin, the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera, nationally with the Eastern Brass Quintet, the Wall Street Brass Quintet, Paul Lavalle’s Band Of America, the New York City Ballet, and internationally at the Spoleto Festival and the Macerata Opera of Italy. Raising his bell in the popular realm, Hall has performed with Frank Zappa, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Hope, Nelson Riddle, Diane Carroll, Linda Ronstadt, Vic Damone, John Pizzarelli, and The Manhattan Transfer. Recordings include Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Paul Chihara’s The Tempest, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with the San Francisco Ballet, music by Earle Brown and Morton Feldman with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and recordings for film and TV.

LINKS
http://www.destijlmusic.com/jcde.html
http://www.myspace.com/jcdensemble
http://www.cdbaby.com/jackcurtisdubowsky
http://www.meridiangallery.org/en/concerts.htm
http://www.meridiangallery.org/en/concert.htm

MEDIA CONTACT
Call (415) 398-7229 for more information.
[email protected]

ONLINE PRESSKIT + HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS

http://www.destijlmusic.com/jcde.html

Official Website: http://www.meridiangallery.org/en/concert.htm