A few months ago, I got an email from William Bolcom, telling me to run, not walk, to Amsterdam to hear a new opera composed by one of his former students. This marionette opera, based on a lost futurist libretto, was a technical and artistic tour-de-force, and was composed by Dan Moses Schreier.
This summer, I interviewed Dan in New York about his work on and off Broadway.
AMERICAN HIGHWAYS #99: COMPOSER DAN MOSES SCHREIER
PLAYLIST
Theme Music:
Jan Jeroen (J.J.) Spijkervet & Immersive Sound
“American Highways” Jingle
Sounds About Right
composed for Concertzender
Dan Moses Schreier, text by William Shakespeare
“LOVE NOTHING BUT LOVE” from Troilus and Cressida (Delacorte Theater production)
Dan moses schreier, electronics; greg jarrett, keyboard; Victoria Houston-Elem, vocals
Bandcamp released April 28, 2017
Dan Moses Schreier, text by Fortunato Depero
Demolishing Everything With Amazing Speed
Atonal Playground percussion
Abandon 2
Backwards Fields played (Snippet)
Dan Moses Schreier, electronics
unreleased
text by William Shakespeare
“Sigh No More” from Much Ado About Nothing
JESSICA VOSK, vocal; PAUL GEMIGNANI, music director; JUSTIN SMITH, violin; GUY KLUCEVSEK, accordion; ERIC B. DAVIS, guitar; MICHAEL LONG, bass.
https://danmosesschreier.bandcamp.com/track/sigh-no-more
text by William Shakespeare
Baptism, from The Merchant of Venice
Dan Moses Schreier, electronics
Unreleased
a scene from “Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed” at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam
text by Sally Oswald
DISFARMER Suite
Accordion- GUY KLUCEVSEK Violin- JUSTIN SMITH Banjo/Guitar- ERIC B. DAVIS recorded by JOHN KILOGORE at John Kilgore Recording
https://danmosesschreier.bandcamp.com/album/disfarmer-suite
Dan Moses Schreier
the great vowel shift
Jennifer Hough, harpist; William Hayes and Dan Moses Schreier, percussion
Recorded at the McDowell Colony, unreleased
Demolishing Everything With Amazing Speed
Snippet
The Fighting Couple
Buzzheads
Dan Moses Schreier, electronics
Unreleased
Dan Moses Schreier
Busoni Takes Acid – Piano Sonata
Charlie Berigan, pianist
Unreleased (broadcast world première)
David King
Super America
The Bad Plus
E1 Records: EOM-CD-2112
BIO
Dan Moses Schreier is a composer and sound designer, best known for his work in the theater. Mr. Schreier was born in Detroit, Michigan and has made New York City his home since 1976. During his freshman year at the University of Michigan, he studied composition with William Bolcom – and was then hired by Stanley Silverman to work as his assistant on a musical Silverman was composing with playwright Arthur Miller in New York City.
Mr. Schreier continued his studies at Columbia University while continuing to work in the theater. He has received commissions to compose scores for the Broadway productions of The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino (2011), the world premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf (2007), Julius Caesar starring Denzel Washington (2005), The Glass Menagerie starring Jessica Lange (2005). Dance of Death starring Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren (2001), and The Tempest starring Patrick Stewart (1995). For the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, he has been commissioned to compose scores for Troilus and Cressida (2016), King Lear starring John Lithgow (2014) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2007). With performing artist and puppeteer, Dan Hurlin, Mr. Schreier has collaborated with and composed the scores for Quintland-The Musical for DTW (1989), the chamber opera The Shoulder which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop (1999) then was performed at The Walker Art Center, The Lied Center, The Flynn Theater and a month run at The Long Wharf Theater (2000), Disfarmer (2009) for St. Ann’s Warehouse/MassMoca, and most recently Demolishing Everything With Amazing Speed (2016) commissioned by Bard’s Summerscape and presented by The Holland Festival (summer 2017).
Mr. Schreier has received four Tony Award nominations, four Drama Desk Awards, ten Drama Desk nominations, an Obie Award for sustained excellence and was a Jean and Louis Dreyfus Fellow at the MacDowell Colony.
LINK
futurist puppets in action – Holland Festival, Amsterdam