Dresher, Paul (Joseph)
- Joshua Kosman
Extract
(Joseph)
(b Los Angeles, Jan 8, 1951). American composer and performer. As a teenager he played the rock guitar and wrote songs. He studied at the University of California, first at Berkeley (BA 1977) and then at San Diego (MA 1979), where his teachers included Robert Erickson, Oliveros, Roger Reynolds and Rands. During his Berkeley years he came in contact with Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Lou Harrison; he also studied African drumming, Balinese gamelan and Indian sitār music, interests that were furthered by a trip to India and Indonesia (1979–80) funded by an NEA grant. He has built Javanese gamelans in Berkeley, San Diego and Seattle, where he taught at the Cornish Institute (1980–82). In 1984 he formed the Berkeley-based Paul Dresher Ensemble, which performs his own works and those of other composers (including the opera Ravenshead commissioned by the ensemble from Steven Mackey)....
