Paul Dresher Ensemble presents:
Schick Machine
December 15 - 17, 2023 on Z Space’s Steindler Stage
Photo by Chi Wang
Schick Machine features percussionist Steven Schick exploring a visually compelling world of mechanical devices, invented instruments, and seemingly infinite sonic possibilities.
At the end of every performance, the entire audience is invited on stage to explore and play the inventions for themselves.
A giant motorized hurdy-gurdy, a deconstructed pipe organ, and an array of spinning and thrashing metal machines that seem almost to be alive—these devices and more fill the basement workshop of our possibly mad and possibly genius inventor as he nears the completion of his giant instrument that he believes can reconcile the past and the future. He thinks: “Theoretically, it’s sound. It’s sound, theoretically, it’s sound.”
The sound of a summer storm’s distant thunder and the rain on the roof—the memory of the late-night sound of his mother’s typewriter down the hall—compel the sound collector and sonic inventor Lazlo Klangfarben to attempt the creation of the Schick Machine, a wondrous mechanical device that consumes his every waking and dreaming moment.
Collaboratively created by:
Paul Dresher: Composer, Instrument Inventor
Rinde Eckert: Director, Writer
Steven Schick: Performer, Percussionist
Daniel Schmidt: Instrument Inventor
Matt Heckert: Mechanical Sound Artist
Tom Ontiveros: Lighting and Visual Designer
Show Schedule
Friday, December 15, 2023, 8 PM
Family Matinee Saturday, December 16, 2023, 3 PM
Saturday, December 16, 2023, 8 PM
Family Matinee - Sunday, December 17, 2023, 3 PM
Photos by Chi Wang
This concert is funded in parts by Grants for the Arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, New Performance Traditions’ Board of Directors, and individual donors.
For press inquiries for Schick Machine, please contact David Hyry at daldenh@aol.com.
