Peter William Dizozza (born 5 September 1958) is an American music composer who also produces supplemental material as a writer, pianist, performer, photographer, and filmmaker. Since 2000 he has been the director of the WAH Theater at the
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center.
Life and career
Peter William Dizozza was born on September 5, 1958, in
Forest Hills (
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
), New York. He and his sister, Monica, are the two children of an attorney, Nicholas Frederick Dizozza, who came from a large family in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and a teacher, Madeleine, the only child of Margaret and Anthony Carillo who settled in Forest Hills. Although a fourth-generation New Yorker through both his grandmothers' lineages, Dizozza's ancestry is Italian. His paternal grandfather, Peter Dizozza, was born in Ginosa (
Bari
Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...
), and his maternal grandfather was born in
San Giuseppe (Naples)
San Giuseppe (Italian: "St. Joseph") is a quartiere or neighbourhood of Naples, southern Italy, which includes many of the points of interest on the western side of the historic centre of the city, including the square and church of Gesù Nuovo, t ...
. Dizozza had a conservative and strongly Catholic upbringing. He attended
Our Lady Queen of Martyrs grammar school and Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, New York, and then went to
Queens College
Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...
, graduating with a Humanities Degree in Music, English, and Philosophy. After a series of summer jobs with the City of New York obtained through his maternal grandmother's friendship with a Brooklyn political leader,
Meade Esposito
Amadeo Henry "Meade" Esposito (1907 – September 3, 1993) was an American politician who was a Brooklyn Democratic leader and political boss. Esposito served as chairman of the Kings County Democratic Committee from 1969 to 1984. As a leader, h ...
, in 1981, at the age of 23, Dizozza joined the City Comptroller's Office and worked as an assistant, financial analyst, and court representative under
Harrison J. Goldin
Harrison Jay Goldin (born February 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and former politician.
He was born on February 23, 1936, in the Bronx, New York City. He graduated as Science Valedictorian from the Bronx High School of Science in 1953, and r ...
and
Elizabeth Holtzman
Elizabeth Holtzman (born August 11, 1941) is an American attorney and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from New York's 16th congressional district as a member of the Democratic Party from 1973 to 1981. She then ...
until 1991. It was while working at the Comptroller's Office by day and attending St. John's Law School at night that Dizozza began directing music at the Bronx community theatre and became enamored with it. He graduated from Law School in 1986 and in 1988, moved to the
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street on the north and Houston Street on the south. The East Villag ...
, and began performing his own material. In 1991 he was admitted into the
BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a performance rights organization in the United States. It collects blanket license fees from businesses that use music, entitling those businesses to play or sync any songs from BMI's repertoire of over 20.6 milli ...
as a composer and began legal employment as an associate with The Law Office of Jerald D. Werlin, a firm specializing in personal injury in Long Island City. His monthly piano/singer/songwriter shows began in November 1995 at—and because of—an open-stage
anti-folk
Anti-folk (sometimes referred to as unfolk) is a music genre that emerged in the 1980s in response to the remnants of the 1960s folk music scene. Anti-folk music was made to mock the perceived seriousness of the time's mainstream music scene, a ...
anti-hoot organized and hosted by
Lach at SideWalk Bar-Restaurant.
Dizozza's family vacationed at
Candlewood Lake
Candlewood Lake is a manmade lake located in Fairfield and Litchfield counties of Western Connecticut, in the northeastern United States. At , it is the largest lake in Connecticut and the largest lake within a 60 mile radius of New York City. ...
in Connecticut. That led to some acting in children's commercials of DuRona studios and a brief appearance in a wedding scene as an extra in the
Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...
vehicle
The Lords of Flatbush
''The Lords of Flatbush'' (stylized on-screen as ''The Lord's of Flatbush'') is a 1974 American drama film directed by Martin Davidson and Stephen F. Verona. The film stars Perry King, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Mace and Henry Winkler. Stallone w ...
.
Since 1964 Dizozza has produced a steady output of primarily musical original material. To contain and administer his creative catalogue, he registered in 1996 a D/B/A and started a website under the name Cinema VII, reviving a collective founded in 1972 by a high school friend, Mike Lindsay.
Plays and productions
* ''
Prepare to meet your maker'' – Musical mystery play with 30 performances and a soundtrack recorded by Alex Abrash and David Baker at
Electric Lady Studio
Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten ...
in September 2001.
* ''The Golf Wars'' – First reading at
La MaMa, E.T.C.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
on April 5, 2002. Soundtrack, ''Songs of The Golf Wars'', produced by
Major Matt Mason USA
Major Matt Mason USA is the recording project of Matt Roth, an American musician and record producer active in the anti-folk and DIY music scene of New York's East Village.(May 28, 2004). "Matt at front of 'anti-folk'", ''Coventry Evening Teleg ...
for Olive Juice Music. Produced at The WAH Theatre in conjunction with World Peace Exhibit, 2002, directed by Tom Nondorf. Revived as a band performance at Joe's Pub at The
Joseph Papp Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...
and in a revised staging by Tom Nondorf at La Mama, in time for the November elections in 2006.
* ''The Marriage at the Statue of Liberty'' (2003) – Wrote and produced for the
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center Brave Destiny Exhibition, a modern ballet with dialogue after Cocteau (inspired by ''
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel
''Les mariés de la tour Eiffel'' (''The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower'') is a ballet to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Jean Börlin, set by , costumes by Jean Hugo, and music by five members of Les Six: Georges Auric, Arthur Hone ...
'', the surrealist ballet with dialogue by the French Poet/Filmmaker
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...
). Features the Emiaj Dance Troupe.
* Contributed short plays to the
Manhattan Theatre Source 48 Hour Spontaneous Combustion Production (''Gala & Ligeti''), March 24–26, 2002, and to the Confronting Chekhov festival, 2009 (''Not the Ravine'') and Dramatizing Dante festival, 2010 (''The Afterdeath,'' a Francesca and Paolo mini-opera) produced by The Brooklyn Playwrights Collective.
* ''The Last Dodo'' – Premiered at the
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, playing from February through April 2001, at Baby Jupiter, 170 Stanton Street at Orchard Street, New York, NY. Soundtrack produced by Aashish Pathak. A film sketch was completed in 2003.
* ''A Question of Solitude'', ''TentagatneT'', ''The Last Dodo'', ''The Peace Mission'', ''Witchfinders'', ''Coppélia'', and ''The Eleventh Hour'' originated at
La MaMa, E.T.C.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
's Experiments concert reading series, curated by
George Ferencz (1998–2009).
* Marilyn Majeski directed ''
Coppélia
''Coppélia'' (sometimes subtitled: ''La Fille aux Yeux d'Émail'' (The Girl with the Enamel Eyes)) is a comic ballet from 1870 originally choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon to the music of Léo Delibes, with libretto by Charles-Louis-Éti ...
'' for La Mama then subsequently produced the show through Wing and a Prayer Productions at the
Gene Frankel
Eugene V. Frankel (December 23, 1919 – April 20, 2005) was an American actor, theater director, and acting teacher especially notable in the founding of the off-Broadway scene. Frankel served in the Army during World War II in entertainment and ...
Theatre Workshop in 1998.
* Produced staged readings of ''
The Eleventh Hour'' (1999) at the La Tea Theatre in the
Clemente Soto Vélez
Clemente Soto Vélez (1905 – April 15, 1993) was a Puerto Rican nationalist, poet, journalist and activist who mentored many generations of artists in Puerto Rico and New York City. Upon his death in 1993, he left a rich legacy that contri ...
Cultural and Educational Center. John Seroff revised and directed a sold-out production of ''The Eleventh Hour'' at the
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center. Cast members included
Jeffrey Lewis
Jeffrey Lewis (born November 20, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter and comic book artist.
Early life
Lewis was born in New York City and grew up on the Lower East Side. He attended State University of New York at Purchase, graduating in ...
, Cheryl LaRosa,
Kimya Dawson
Kimya Dawson (born November 17, 1972) is an American folk singer-songwriter, one half of the anti-folk duo the Moldy Peaches. Dawson's work with the Moldy Peaches earned them a cult following and critical acclaim, with their 2001 song "Anyone El ...
, Abbey Valdez, Daniel Bernstein and
Toby Goodshank
Toby Goodshank is a musician and visual artist based out of New York City. In addition to his solo work, he performs regularly with New York City-based bands Double Deuce, the Tri-Lambs, and the Christian Pirate Puppets.
Biography
Toby Goodshank ...
.
* ''The Sea Heiress'' (2004) – For two voices, piano, clarinet and baritone sax, produced at the
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center.
* ''Tentagatnet'' (2005) – For five actors, cello, clarinet, guitar and flute (
La MaMa, E.T.C.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
's Experiments '05) revived for a full production in
La MaMa, E.T.C.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
's 2007 Experimenta! Festival, directed by
George Ferencz.
* ''O'' (2006) – A recovered memory play (
La MaMa, E.T.C.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
's Experiments '06). Its sequel is ''Cow City'' (2008).
* ''2.2.2'' (2007) – Also known as "Hermaphroditism Through the Ages," produced in "Oh Happy Three" as part of the Straight from the Source Summer Series at
Manhattan Theatre Source)
* ''Cow City'' (2008) – produced in "Oh Happy Three 2008" as part of the Playground Summer Series at
Manhattan Theatre Source)
* ''Paradise Found'' (2008) – produced in conjunction with Milton's 400th Birthday Art Exhibition by the
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center.
* ''The Woman Artist's Journey'' (2009) – a program of 5 plays by Maria Micheles, C.J. Ehrlich, Alaina Hammond, Phil Kaplan and Allan Lefcowitz, produced with the Brooklyn Playwrights Collective to celebrate the Woman Forward Art Exhibition at the
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center.
* Music Composer for ''155 First Avenue (The Epic Adventures of the Theater for the New Syzygy)'' (2012) and its sequel, ''155 Through the Roof'' (2014) by Toby Armour produced by Theater for the New City
* As music director for Forest Hills Gardens Women's Club, provided scores for ''The Great Enchanted Forest'' (2000, revived in 2015 as "Out of the Forest") and for ''Murder by Music'' (a detectives musical, 2001)
* Composed music for ''Convertible'' by Elizabeth West Versalie, produced at
La MaMa, E.T.C.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
's main stage in 1997. Soundtrack featured the voice of Catherine Russell.
* Performs monthly piano set at the Sidewalk Bar-Restaurant (94 Ave A at E6th St, NY) where he originated the monologues/song cycles ''Pro-Choice on Mental Health'', ''Exploring a Fascination with Things that Spin'', ''When the Kangaroos Come Out'', ''The Blood of a Poet'', ''The Secret to Good Sex (Abstinence)'', and ''The Philosopher's Stone'', and the short play, ''Shipping the Satellite''. The audio recordings of the ''Pro-Choice on Mental Health'' songs and text are produced by
Joe Bendik
Joseph T. Bendik (born April 25, 1989) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer.
Club career Clemson
Bendik grew up in Marietta, Georgia and attended Clemson Un ...
; this was Dizozza's first solo album and combined 7 songs with dialog from the play.
* Wrote over 200 unique songs and numerous works for solo piano
* Composed song settings for poems of
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
and
T. S. Eliot, and
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''As You Like It'' and ''
The Tempest'', which toured city parks during the summer of 1991
* Composed a choral score for Neil Ericksen's musical play based on the myth of Atalanta, entitled ''Legs Like These'' (QWIRK's Actor's Equity Showcase, One Dream Theatre, 1992).
* In the cabaret field (Don’t Tell Mama, Trocadero, Duplex) he collaborated with Margaret O'Hanlon (1987–1988) on ''Infidelity'', ''Infidelity Reformed'', ''Tropical Depression'', and ''The Hoagy and Peter Show'', and with Lisa Dery and Tyr Throne on ''A Nite of Love'' and ''Possession'' (1996–1997).
* Wrote and performed a calypso theatre piece, ''A Trip to Bermuda'' for
Charles Strouse
Charles Strouse (born June 7, 1928) is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to such Broadway musicals as ''Bye Bye Birdie (musical), Bye Bye Birdie'', ''Applause (musical), Applause'', and ''Annie (musical), Annie''. ...
's
A. R. Gurney Project as part of the ASCAP Music Theatre Workshop.
* Assistant Conductor on ''We Are Innocent'', an album of
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...
letters set by the composer,
Leonard Lehrman
Leonard Jordan Lehrman is an American composer who was born in Kansas, on August 20, 1949, and grew up in Roslyn, New York. Since August 3, 1999, he has resided in Valley Stream, New York.
His teachers included Lenore Anhalt, Elie Siegmeister, Ol ...
.
* Helped, with
Leonard Lehrman
Leonard Jordan Lehrman is an American composer who was born in Kansas, on August 20, 1949, and grew up in Roslyn, New York. Since August 3, 1999, he has resided in Valley Stream, New York.
His teachers included Lenore Anhalt, Elie Siegmeister, Ol ...
, to reconstruct the score and present a backers' audition for
Maggie Da Silva's production of
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Wo ...
's labor opera, ''
No For An Answer
No For an Answer was a Californian hardcore punk band active primarily between 1987 and 1989. The band has also done a couple of reunion shows, most notably the Revelation 25th anniversary shows in California.
Members
* Casey Jones (1987–19 ...
''.
* For reading series produced for The
Neighborhood Playhouse
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
by Patricia Watt, he began writing introductory songs for play collections, particularly
Bruce Jay Friedman
The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...
's 4-Play directed by Steve Ditmyer. With Mr. Friedman, he presented 4-Play as part of the 2006 75th Anniversary Season of the
John Drew Theatre in East Hampton's Guild Hall.
* Author of three novels, ''Storm Cloud'' (1981), ''The Resurrection'' (1974 revised 1985), and ''Mark of the Librarian'' (1998).
* Graduate of the Humanities Program and Aaron Copland School of Music (Queens College, 1981), St. John's Law School (1986), the
BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a performance rights organization in the United States. It collects blanket license fees from businesses that use music, entitling those businesses to play or sync any songs from BMI's repertoire of over 20.6 milli ...
(1994), and even, in 1997, the
Landmark Education
Landmark Worldwide (known as Landmark Education before 2013), or simply Landmark, is a company, headquartered in San Francisco, that offers personal-development programs.
Landmark Education started in 1991 with the licensing of rights to use i ...
Self Expression and Leadership Program, the offspring of
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training (marketed as est, though often encountered as EST or Est) was an organization, founded by Werner Erhard in 1971, that offered a two-weekend (6-day, 60-hour) course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The semi ...
or EST.
* Artist and in-house counsel for Cinema VII, an entertainment collective that administers his creative catalogue
* Early movies, ''The Ruins'' (1971) and ''Angels: Tour of the Vultures'' (1977) received screenings in 2000 at film festivals, including a silent film/live music event at
Manhattan Theatre Source.
* Helped organize permits and act as NYC Liaison for
Anti-folk
Anti-folk (sometimes referred to as unfolk) is a music genre that emerged in the 1980s in response to the remnants of the 1960s folk music scene. Anti-folk music was made to mock the perceived seriousness of the time's mainstream music scene, a ...
Fests in
Tompkins Square
Tompkins Square Park is a public park in the Alphabet City portion of East Village, Manhattan, New York City. The square-shaped park, bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on ...
and Central Park since 1999
* Participant in the XXXIV Congress of the
Union Internationale des Avocats
The Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) or International Association of Lawyers is an international non-governmental organisation, created in 1927, that brings together more than 2,200 legal professionals from all over the world.
Historical ...
, Strasbourg
* Practicing attorney
National Lawyers Guild. 2008 Summer Newsletter
/ref>
Memberships
* The Entertainment Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York
The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...
. Chair, 2006–2009 & 2012–2015
* The Lambs
The Lambs, Inc. (also known as The Lambs Club) is a social club in New York City for actors, songwriters, and others involved in the theatre. It is America's oldest theatrical organization. "The Lambs" is a registered trademark of The Lambs, Inc ...
Club
* The Dramatists Guild
The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists working in the U.S. theatre market.
Membership as an Associate Member is open to any person having written at least one stage play. Active Mem ...
* Bar of the State of New York
References
External links
Cinema VII
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dizozza, Peter
1958 births
Living people
American male composers
21st-century American composers
American male writers
American theatre directors
21st-century American male musicians
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
People from Forest Hills, Queens
Musicians from Queens, New York
Queens College, City University of New York alumni