spuytenduyvil

Always in Allan Graubard’s work there is the dreamer dreaming that he is dreamed by the dreamer, eyes wide open, seeing, yes, but also stripping through the layers that make up our existence, here and now, dark and luminous, dreamt and waking. Graubard’s gaze is piercing, it cuts through to the core, as the beings and things, both historical and experienced, that constitute his cosmology acquire movement, rhythm, sound and light, in anticipation of le grand jeu: Through these pages, at once lucid and enigmatic, Graubard ensures that his is a performance in which we are engaged participants and dazzled spectators.

     Beatriz Hausner, author of Sew Him Up

 

As conductor-composer, I have sought to encompass my worldview as much musically as with a textual lyric and libretto. There is challenge here, certainly. There is also enjoyment and critical dialog with who I am and what and where I perform. In the thirty-plus years that I’ve known Allan Graubard, I have found no better collaborator in the literary arts. His poetic imagery has inspired and fostered much of my work in constructing new areas of investigation in the evolution of a maximal musical experience that challenges the mind and spirit to “create” on the highest levels of artistry.   When I am in need of a “sound,” Allan brings a “word,” and it is done.

     Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris