New Performance Traditions
For General Operating Support
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Amount$135,000
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Program
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Date Awarded3/1/2018
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Term36 Months
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Type of SupportGeneral Support/Organization
Strategies
Overview
Based in San Francisco, with warehouse space in West Oakland, Musical Traditions–better known as the Paul Dresher Ensemble–is a music performing group, instrument builder, and community space resource. The Ensemble engages 9,000 audience members annually with free and ticketed electro-acoustic performances, and hosts 15 smaller artistic operations — including theaters, dance companies, and composers in its expanded West Oakland warehouse space. In addition to collaborating across genres, the organization founder and director, Paul Dresher, composes commissioned work nationwide and presents 50 shows annually. A renewal grant will help the organization continue to collaborate with and support local organizations, tour locally and nationally, commission new work, and develop its business model.
About the Grantee
Grantee Website
www.dresherensemble.org
Address
55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102-3916, United States
Grants to this Grantee
for general operating support
The Paul Dresher Ensemble is a contemporary music organization dedicated to today’s most innovative and irreverent composers. Engaging more than 3,000 audience members each year through productions and tours of opera works and experimental music theater, the group performs contemporary compositions with a combination of traditional acoustic and contemporary electronic instruments. During the grant period, the organization plans to continue performing locally and nationally, to formalize its technical and production support services for local artists into an artist residency program, and to increase individual donations through increased board involvement in fundraising.
for the 2021 50 Arts Commissions for folk and traditional arts
In recognition of the Hewlett Foundation’s 50th anniversary, the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions initiative supports the creation and premiere of 50 exceptional works of performing arts. This grant will support Musical Traditions in commissioning, developing, and presenting “The Rebirth of Aspara: Artistic Lineage, Cultural Resilience, and the resurrection of Cambodian Arts from the Ashes of Genocide.” The lead artist is classical Cambodian dancer, choreographer, and singer Charya Burt. The work will combine re-imagined traditional dance, as well as music and poetry, to explore how Khmer arts have embodied the essence of Cambodian culture from ancient mythology to its post-genocide revitalization.
