Daniel John Plonsey
Biography
(brief)
Born September 1, 1958 (Labor Day)
Cleveland, Ohio
Presently living in
El
Cerrito, California
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Daniel John Plonsey (brief) |
Dan Plonsey was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Cleveland Heights. He has lived in California for 24 years, and in El Cerrito for 14.
Most of Plonsey's work has been written without commission, deadline, or any significant outside influence for Daniel Popsicle, his 10-20 person ensemble of unfixed instrumentation. Plonsey terms this work "Music of El Cerrito," as it is impossible to identify by genre. Some pieces are short, such as the 99 pieces of "Color Music" and the 155 "New Monsters;" others are an hour or longer in length, including the Kingdoms Diptych, and the five "Seasons" pieces. Plonsey has also written many pieces for ensembles of multiple (3-13) saxophones; and for chamber opera. He recently began a series of concerti for "guitar and strange ensemble," the first of which being What Leave Behind for Fred Frith and Toychestra.
On a much larger scale, Plonsey is focussed on a series of evening-long music/dance/theater pieces. The first of these was the opera "Leave Me Alone!" with libretto by Harvey Pekar (of American Splendor fame), which was premiered at Oberlin College, January, 2009. This was followed by "Dan Plonsey's Bar Mitzvah," a collaboration with Eric Kupers and Dandelion Dancetheater, which was performed at the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco in July, 2010. Next in this cycle will be "The Geometry Teacher" which is about the many connections between math and music, the Pythagoreans, and about the agonizing everyday complexity of teaching.
Much of Plonsey's music has been documented on CD; see: Dan Plonsey Discography for full details.
Plonsey is one of eight musicians profiled in Tim Perkis's documentary film, Noisy People.
Plonsey performs his own music and music of others frequently in the Bay Area and beyond in a wide variety of contexts, including, most recently, Anthony Braxton's tentet (a DVD of 6 hours of music to be released in 2005); John Shiurba's 5x5; TriAxium West (a cooperative group devoted to the music of Anthony Braxton); John Schott's Diglossia ensemble; Ben Goldberg's Brainchild; and Eugene Chadbourne's Insect & Western ensembles.
In the previous decade, Plonsey was known as the co-founder of three composers' collectives (New Haven's "Sheep's Clothing," Stamford's "AMP," and the Bay Area's Composers' Cafeteria); the co-founder and occasional editor of the experimental music journal "Freeway;" the bass player in the art-rock band Dreamland; and as founder and curator of the weekly Beanbender's Creative Music Concert Series in Berkeley (weekly from March, 1995-1999, ongoing occasionally).
Plonsey teaches math at Berkeley High School, and lives in El Cerrito with his wife, Mantra, and their two sons, Cleveland and Mischa.