David Weinstein (musician)
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July 21, 1954
David Weinstein | |
|---|---|
 David Weinstein, 2018, courtesy Roulette. Photo by Janet Raczak. | |
| Born | David Allen Weinstein July 21, 1954 Chicago, IL |
| Education | University of Illinois B.M. and M.M. in Music Composition 1976, 1978 |
| Known for | Composer, electronic keyboardist, co-founder of Roulette, arts administrator, curator, archivist, producer of independent radio |
| Movement | Experimental music |
| Spouse | Laurie Szujewska 1974–1992 |
| Awards | Emerging Artist Award, Monument Show; National Endowment for the Arts; Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Commission; Prix Ars Electronica; Grammy Museum; Prix Futura |
David Weinstein is an American musician, composer, electronic keyboardist, sound designer, audio engineer, curator, producer, and archivist. In 1978, with Jim Staley, Dan Senn, and Laurie Szujewska, Weinstein cofounded the avant-garde music series Roulette Intermedium.[1] Weinstein was MoMA/PS1 Director of Public Programs and Managing Director of its radio station, Art Radio WPS1.org, from 2004–2008. He was a Board member and Program Director of the Manhattan alternative space, Clocktower Gallery, and its radio station, Art International Radio, from 2009–15.[2] Since 2016, he has hosted several radio programs and a podcast exploring historic and emerging trends in experimental music. In 2019, he became the archivist and Director of Special Projects for Roulette.[3] As a composer, performer, and collaborator, Weinstein has worked with his own group, Impossible Music,[4] as well as Doris Vila, Butch Morris, Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, Shelley Hirsch, Ned Rothenberg, Paul Dresher, Rhys Chatham, and many others from New York’s downtown experimental music scene.[5] He is known for his traveling installation Illuminated Man (1981)[6] and the albums Haiku Lingo (Review Records/No Man’s Land, 1990)[7] and Perfume (Avant, 1998).[8] In 1992, Weinstein and Shelley Hirsch were awarded the Prix Futura for their collaboration on Hirsch’s “docu-musical” O Little Town of East New York.[9] In 2002, he and Doris Vila won the Jury Prix Ars Electronica for the interactive multimedia installation, The Story Machine, in Bonn, Germany.[2]
Born in Chicago in 1954, David Weinstein attended Evanston Township High School 1968–72. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1972–76), he studied piano, as well as violin, contrabass, and voice, with a focus on composition rather than performance. In graduate school, also at University of Illinois, he concentrated on composition with Ben Johnston (1972–76)—a colleague of the pioneering American composer and music theorist Harry Partch—who introduced Weinstein to microtonal music along with deep dives into structure, and Sal Martirano (1976–78), an electronic musician and composer. He worked regularly in their legendary electronic music studios.[2]
From 1976–78, Weinstein taught basic music theory and electronic music techniques at the University of Illinois. From 1978–79, he taught piano and theory at Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago.[10]
In 1978, Weinstein got together with four friends who had also graduated from the University of Illinois—including trombonist Jim Staley, sound-artist Dan Senn,[11] graphic artist Laurie Szujewska,[12] and composer David Means[13]—to form the non-profit Roulette Intermedium Inc., an artists’ collective for the presentation of music, dance, and intermedia.[14][15] Their first concert was performed at the Old Town School of Folk Music on November 12, 1978.[16]
Roulette
After graduating from the University of Illinois with Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Music, Weinstein joined Szujewska in Chicago in 1978. There, he continued to perform on piano and homemade acoustic instruments at venues including N.A.M.E Gallery,[17] Old Town School and MoMing Dance Center.[18] The following year, Weinstein and Szujewska moved to New York, where they collaborated on developing Roulette into a performance venue in Staley’s TriBeCa loft. Weinstein served as Roulette’s Director of Development (among other positions) from 1979 to 1994, a period when Roulette emerged as one of New York’s most important venues for improvised, experimental music.[19]
During the early years in New York, 1980–1982, Weinstein apprenticed with the master craftsman George Sell, who taught him carpentry, model-making, and stained glass techniques. He also worked as a studio assistant for artists Red Grooms and Judy Pfaff; worked behind the scenes on Sesame Street and The Muppets; and worked as a sound technician for composer Steve Reich.
In 1980, while continuing his work for Roulette, Weinstein began composition and fabrication of a large-scale, floor-based, graphical score called Illuminated Man,[20][21] which would travel to the West Coast, Canada, and the New Music America Festival in Hartford, CT, in 1984. Afterward, it traveled throughout Europe, including to the Serpentine Gallery in London.[22] Then in 1986, Weinstein acquired an Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard, which allowed him to work independently at home, developing arrangements and composing.[23] The instrument could play the sounds of flutes, violins, or pure noise, allowing him to imagine composition in new ways. He collaborated with major performers, including Shelley Hirsch,[24] Ellen Fulman, and Elliott Sharp, and traveled to Europe to perform with John Zorn, Bill Frisell, and others.
As an integral part of the Downtown NYC music scene, Weinstein composed and performed original music,[25][26] and continued to install site specific works from 1978 to 1994.[27][28][29][30] In 1988, he formed Impossible Music with Tim Spelios, Nicolas Collins, David Shea,[31] and Ted Greenwald.[32][33] Rather than traditional instruments, the group exclusively used portable CD players, looping and layering sound effects and music.
[34] Together they were featured on MTV News. Spelios and Weinstein have occasionally reconstituted the project with updated tech.[35][36]
At this time, Weinstein traveled extensively throughout the US and Europe, performing with a variety of ensembles at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, the Portland Art Museum, Canada’s Victoriaville Festival, the Stuttgart Opera, the Munich State Opera, the Berlin Jazz Festival, Amsterdam’s Shaffy Theatre, LOD Festival in Belgium, the Taktlos Festival in Zurich,[37] and in many other museums, galleries, and concert halls, large and small. His technical skills were also in demand for audio engineering projects and production for concerts, recordings, theater, film, video, and dance.
