Daniel the Troubadour's Resume

Daniel Beck Zwickel McJean ben Avram
                of Hoss/Wicks &/o Winter/Zwickel
Pittsburg, Sacramento Delta Bio-region,
California
E-mail: Daniel@PeaceHost.net
Web site: Daniel ben Avram.com

      Began studying piano at age 3 in Tarzana, California; was reading music at age 4.
      Began studying classical violin at age 9 in Vista, California with Lloyd Von Hayden, San Diego Symphony violist and contra bassist.
      At the same age I was awarded honorable mention for a flute/piano composition entered in a San Diego Symphony competition.
      My second teacher was Alfiero Pierno, SD Symphony Concertmaster; my third was Vlado Kolitsch, a concert violinist and designer of the Kolitsch shoulder rest (since bought and manufactured by Berkeley violin maker, Ifshin.)
      In high school, placed second in a Riverside County talent show; at the 1964 Redlands University Music Festival my (violin) partner (in the "Bach Double" in D minor) and I were was the only violinists invited to perform at the post-competition recital and were awarded scholarships to a workshop there.
      Began guitar at age 16 at the University of Guadalajara; played violin in the San Diego State College Symphony; began performing in the San Diego area as a singer/guitarist; began songwriting at the same age; did some recording studio work as a violinist; performed in coffee houses throughout Southern California.
      At age 20, sat in regularly as a singer/guitarist at the Four Winds supper club at the gig of Joe Fos (himself, now, more than twenty-five years in the Eddie Duchin Room at the Sun Valley Lodge.)
      At same age, played at Florentino's supper club in La Jolla, California as a violinist accompanying an Italian tenor.
      First hired as a professional musician the morning (just past midnight – long story) that I turned 21 to play at the Staff NCO Club at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (while working days at San Diego's Mercy Hospital as a conscientious objector – another long story). Gig lasted six weeks – pretty good for my first time out.
      Second gig as strolling singer/guitarist at the Escondido Country Club for eight months. Performed in restaurants and clubs throughout the San Diego area until I moved to the Bay Area in 1971 at the age of 23.

Major Bay Area engagements:
      Elegant Bib, Alamo, 3½ years, 1971-75
      Panchito's/Arturo's, Walnut Creek, 3½ years, 1976-79
      Chatillon Restaurant, San Ramon, 18 years, 1982-2000
      Accompanist to Guillermo Muñiz since 1979
      (Choir) Bass section leader, First Unitarian Church, Berkeley, Kensington, for three years in mid-80s
      Cantor at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Berkeley since 1992
      Throughout my years in the Bay Area I have performed regularly for several years at Clairmont House (Oakland), Hillcrest Manor (Jamestown), Laurel Crest (Oakdale), Home for Jewish Parents (Oakland, now Blackhawk) retirement/convalescent/ nursing homes. Will be resuming several of them (interrupted by injury); am called regularly by Casa Sandoval (Hayward), Heritage House (Tracy) homes, and by the Unity Church of Light in Antioch as a soloist.
      Between weddings and funerals, I have played in churches too numerous to mention; between weddings and parties I have played at virtually every country club and wedding venue in Contra Costa County, and in other counties as well; singing in Hebrew (and as a Jew) I am popular with Jewish groups in the East Bay; not-quite-fluently Spanish-speaking, and singing close to two dozen songs in Spanish, I get along well in the Latino community as well. I also sing in French, (Neapolitan) Italian, German, Japanese, Hawaiian, (Brazilian) Portuguese and a couple of words of Russian (something of a language junkie, I speak some French and know phrases in the previously mentioned languages and in Tagalong, Samoan, Greek, Swedish and Russian and Gaelic.)
      My repertoire has consisted of more than eleven hundred songs; I have composed over a thousand pieces – songs, chants, rounds, piano compositions, classical and jazz choral and a capella works and symphonic jazz pieces a la Chuck Mangione. Many have been performed in self-produced concerts. I have also custom-composed songs, written musical arrangements and produced recording sessions as well as concerts (among which I co-arranged and co-produced a session with Linda Ronstadt's “Más Canciones” Mariachi group, Los Comperos de Nati Cano in L.A. for Guillermo doing an original version of the Star Spangled Banner.)
      As a social/political activist I have performed, provided and run sound and composed for numerous activities, marches, vigils and demonstrations around such issues as farm workers rights, nuclear disarmament, sanctions against Iraq, the death penalty, homelessness, Puerto Rican independence, the Central American wars, the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia, the environment, and others. For a resume of my social/political activities, you may go to my Web site (one of six domains I own), PeaceHost.net. And as you may see at my Pacifist Nation Web site I am a committed pacifist. I do not preach and I do not prostletize, but it is who I am and comes with the package.
      I can be E-mailed @: Troubadour@PeaceHost.net

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