USA Projects

Daniel Plonsey is a composer of new music for (in his words) "mostly unprocessed real instruments, played by real people I know who happen to be around." He received an MA in 1988 from Mills College. Highly prolific, Plonsey began composing in 1978 at Yale, studying with Martin Bresnick and David Lewin, and has completed several hundred pieces. Most of these works have been for Daniel Popsicle, his 10- to 20-person ensemble of varying instrumentation. He collaborated with Harvey Pekar on the opera "Leave Me Alone!", and has written compositions for Bang on a Can, Fred Frith & Toychestra. He has recorded as a saxophonist and clarinetist with Anthony Braxton, Tom Waits, Eugene Chadbourne, and others. Plonsey teaches math at Berkeley High School, and is beginning to work on an opera about this frequently humbling situation.

Portrait photo courtesy Mantra Plonsey

Members of Daniel Popsicle in performance at the Ivy Room, Albany, CA, pictured left to right: Daniel Plonsey, Cory Wright, and Michael Zelner; photo courtesy Myles Boisen