Stanford University News Service
425 Santa Teresa Street
Stanford, California 94306-2245
Tel: (650) 723-2558
Fax: 650) 725-0247
http://news.stanford.edu

Composer Paul Dresher returns to Stanford for the world premiere of Schick Machine, his one-man musical theater production for percussionist Steven Schick.

The performance is scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, March 7, in Dinkelspiel Auditorium.

Commissioned by Stanford Lively Arts and Meyer Sound Labs, the work synthesizes percussion sounds, performance aesthetics and original instruments to make every object and surface onstage sonically active. Large-scale musical instruments and mechanical sound sculptures move under computer control.

The production is about a percussionist who has an obsessive focus on sound. Facing eviction from his warehouse loft, he must choose just a few objects and sounds that he can take with him.

Dresher and Schick collaborated on Schick Machine with writer-director Rinde Eckert and instrument inventors Daniel Schmidt and Matt Heckert. Dresher has composed music for experimental opera and musical theater, chamber groups and orchestras, and scores for theater, dance and film. Dresher's composition of Schick Machine was supported by a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

For the past 30 years, Steven Schick has championed contemporary percussion music as a performer and teacher. He was the percussionist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars of New York City from 1992 to 2002, and was artistic director of the Centre International de Percussion de Genève, in Switzerland, from 2000 to 2004. Schick is founder and artistic director of the percussion group Red Fish Blue Fish, and in 2007 became music director and conductor of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus.

Rinde Eckert, a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in drama, is a writer, composer, performer and director.

Tickets range from $34 to $38 for adults and $17 to $19 for Stanford students. Half-price tickets are available for those ages 18 and under, and discounts are available for groups and students. Contact the Stanford Ticket Office at (650) 725-2787 or visit http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.

© Stanford University. All Rights Reserved. Stanford, CA 94305. (650) 723-2300. Terms of Use |  Copyright Complaints