David Dramm

David Dramm (b.1961) was born in Illinois, growing up in San Diego, California. His composition studies began with Robert Erickson at University of California, San Diego and, later, at Yale University with Louis Andriessen and Earle Brown. The Dutch Volkskrant described his music as "the ground-breaking terrain between Charles Ives, Jimi Hendrix and Lou Reed." As a composer, singer, guitarist and lyricist Dramm “moves effortlessly between the worlds of classical music, improvisation, rock music, theater and dance.” His music is performed regularly in concert halls and rock clubs as well as being used by choreographers and theater makers throughout Europe. Major festivals commissioning and programming his music include Holland Festival, November Music , Freunde Guter Musik in Berlin, Woch Der Niederländischen Musik in Leipzig, Moers Festival, EXPO in Biel, New Music Days in Tallinn, Estonia and the Finnish 'Time of Music' Festival and Dutch Music Days. Recent commissions have included works for ASKO Ensemble, Frances-Marie Uitti, Orkest de Volharding, Albany Symphony, Steamboat Switzerland, Marcel Worms, Amsterdam Guitar Trio, Esther Apituley, Tomoko Mukaiyama, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, de ereprijs, Scapino Ballet and theatergroup Orkater. His ‘Master Bop Blaster’ (1992) for rapper and saxophone quartet has become a unlikely standard work, performed on nearly every saxophone festival in the world. The prestigous Warsaw Autumn Festival recently commissioned his electric guitar concerto ’Zero Roll’. His compositions and arrangements for the Netherlands Wind Ensemble are broadcast live on television and radio on New Year’s Day from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Among his large works, the instrumental ‘Orange Slice’ features a top line-up of players from Switzerland, Holland and England and is regularly performed in prominent modern music and jazz festivals. His chamber opera, “The Doubled-backed Monster” with a libretto by acclaimed Hafid Bouazza is moving into its third season while their second collaboration, the Cordobian poem cycle ‘Ibn Zaydun and Wallada’ toured in 2004. Other premierés include “Baton Rouge Massacre” for Electra in Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the electric oratorio “My Visions of Madme Blavatsky.” Featuring the composer himself singing along with Swiss vocalist Simone Vollenweider, with support from Orkest de Volharding and Steamboat Switzerland, ‘Madame Blavatsky’ has first performances in Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands. 2005 saw new works for H.K. Gruber and ASKO Ensemble, a percussion concerto for Tatiana Koleva and a flute concerto for Anne La Berge, with whom he regularly collaborates. Among the other artists with whom Dramm has long standing relationships are choreographer Bianca van Dillen, filmmaker David Lammers and New York guitarist/producer Robert Poss. A number of forays into rock music have produced cd’s by the now defunct avant-rock trio, Analecta, multiple guitar music for the Dutch ensemble Kleg and projects around Burt Bacharach and recently unearthed music of Western Swing legend Bobby Hill. Dramm’s daringly unconventional arrangements for artists such as John Cale and Junkie XL have been widely broadcast and recorded. As Cale said, “I have blind faith in David’s ideas, even before I’ve heard them.” 2006 featured a typically far-ranging array of new works, including music for the new feature film, ‘Langer Licht' by David Lammers, a music theater piece for trumpetist André Heuvelman with Schoenberg Ensemble and a new addition to Dramm’s ongoing opera project, ‘Splitting’ around the life and work of artist Gordon Matta-Clark for LOOS Ensemble with film.David Dramm’s music is published by Donemus and voLsap Music.I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4