Dan Erkkila, noted composer and flautist, worked in theatre in New York for twenty years and was a leading member of the world music community. A virtuoso on classical flute, he was also a master on shakuhachi, Asian flutes, and a host of other unusual wind instruments such as the Tibetan thighbone trumpet. He attributed his distinctive understanding of world music to his early childhood training by Japanese-American musicians and entertainers in the detention camp his father oversaw during World War II.

Erkkila attended Yankton College in South Dakota and served in the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s. In 1962 he moved to San Francisco where he played flute with West Coast orchestras and chamber groups including the Contemporary Woodwind Quintet, Renaissance Trio, and San Francisco Street Trio; recorded with two folk rock groups, Sunshine and Lamb; and performed at such clubs as The Coffee Gallery, The Drinking Gourd, Avalon Ballroom, The Fillmore West, and The Family Dog. He created scores for San Francisco Dance Spectrum and Xoregos Dance Company, and for productions of Edward Albee's The Sandbox, Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival, and a production of A Thurber Carnival.

Erkkila also appeared as an actor at the San Francisco Playhouse, The Interplayers, and the International Repertory Theater, and performed the role of The Mute in the San Francisco production of The Fantasticks. Between 1967 and 1970 he studied classical flute with Paul Renzi, Merrill Jordan, and Alain Marion. He left San Francisco in 1970 to work in New York.

There he became a founding member of the Theatre of the Open Eye, created by Jean Erdman and Joseph Campbell. For the Open Eye Erkkila created two productions, An Event in the Time of Moulting Swans and Sundoor, and collaborated with composer Teiji Ito on the score for Fire and Ice. Also with Ito he performed Jerome Robbins' Watermill for the New York City Ballet. He collaborated and performed in Ito's Axis Mundi with Genji Ito, and in Ito's score for Savages, a play by Christopher Hampton at Center Stage Baltimore, puppets by Julie Taymor. Erkkila composed scores for Julie Taymor's Way of Snow and Tirai, Linda Mussman's Danton's Death, for which he won an ASCAP Award, and A Yeats Trio for the Open Space Theater, which won a Villager Award for outstanding score. He also composed scores for Oscar Wilde's Salome at Judson Memorial Church and Garcia Lorca's The Love of Don Perlimplin and Belissa in Their Garden and the songs for a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Hamlet. He worked with Elizabeth Swados as musical director and performer in Alice (with Meryl Streep), Alladin and Jerusalem, and also performed Swados' music for Dispatches and Agamemnon.

Erkkila provided original scores for Ralph Lee's Metawee River Company, LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Sachiyo Ito, Ruby Shang, Carolyn Carlson, Ruth Barnes, Edward Henkel, Jeanette Stoner, Pat Catterson, Peggy Harrer, Carlos Caravjal, Maureen Williams and Chris Odo, and composed concert pieces for many new music ensembles including Relāche, First Avenue Ensemble, Downtown Ensemble, Far Wind, and the Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble. With this last group he was principal soloist from 1985 to 1989.

He held a two-month residency with the Lakota Sioux Nation in 1976 and a Rockefeller/La Mama E.T.C. cultural residency with the Bambinga Pygmies of Central Africa for several months in 1984, and toured Japan in 1987 with the Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble, performing in commemoration of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Erkkila's work in the visual arts included many ink drawings, watercolor paintings, images made from typings and xerox manipulations (including an exhibition entitled Hieroglyphics for the Year 2000), and works of cut and folded paper. He also wrote poetry.

Dan Erkkila died of AIDS in New York at the age of 51 on November 1, 1992.

—Nurit Tilles

WORKS:

DANCE AND THEATRE

Arthur (1979) for choreographer Pat Catterson as part of Please Just Take It One Life At A Time
performed: Pat Catterson, Dance Theater Workshop, New York (1979); numerous repertory performances in U.S. and abroad

Bi-Form (1977) (6:25) for choreographer Michael Rivera (music by Dan Erkkila and Stefen Reilly)
performed: Sebastian Ellison

Brother Spider and Brother Raccoon (1973)
Eric Bass' Puppet Folktheater
Original music by Teiji Ito and Dan Erkkila

Chieko
[undated tape]

The Cobra and the Crows (1973)
Eric Bass' Puppet Folktheater
Music by Dan Erkkila

Danton's Death (1981)
Written by Georg Buchner
A new translation by Hedwig Rappolt
Directed by Linda Mussman
Music composition and direction by Dan Erkkila
Orchestration by Guy Klucevsek, Michael Sirotta and Paul Galasso
La MaMa E.T.C. and Time & Space Limited in association with Goethe House, New York (1981)

E.J. (1976) for choreographer Pat Catterson as part of Please Just Take It One Life At A Time
performed: Pat Catterson, Dance Theater Workshop, New York (1976); numerous repertory performances in U.S. and abroad

An Event in the Time of Moulting Swans (1974)
Based on Eskimo songs and poems
Composed and directed by Dan Erkkila
Choreography by John Killacky
Presented at Theatre of the Open Eye, New York (1974) as part of Primordial Voices (with Teiji Ito's Haitian Suite)

Fred (1980) for choreographer Pat Catterson as part of Please Just Take It One Life At A Time
performed: Doug Spirduso, Westbeth Theater Center, New York (1980)
Fibonacci Field (197?) for choreographer Edward Henkel

Fire and Ice (1973)
Based on poems by Robert Frost
Arranged and directed by John Genke
Songs composed and sung by Wendy Erdman
Music by Teiji Ito and Dan Erkkila
Produced by Theater of the Open Eye
Presented by Matinee Theatre Series at Theatre De Lys, New York and The Library of Congress (as part of the Robert Frost Centenary Celebration), Washington, DC (1974)

Hamlet
Songs by Dan Erkkila
for New York Shakespeare Festival production
Delacorte Theater, New York (1975)

Hexagrams for Helen (1978?) for choreographer Peggy Harrer
performed: Theater at St. Clements, New York (1978)

Improvisation and Legend (1971) for choreographer Jeanette Stoner
performed: Henry Street Playhouse, New York (1971)

In Search of the Bull (1973)
Eric Bass' Puppet Folktheater
Music by Teiji Ito and Dan Erkkila
Presented at Theater of the Open Eye, New York (1973)

King of the Great Clock Tower/Dreaming of the Bones (1983)
performed: Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Landscapes (1976) for choreographer Ruth Barnes (composed with Stefen Reilly)
performed: Merce Cunningham Studio, New York (1976)

Miss Julie (1983)
By August Strindberg
performed: Theatre Emory, Atlanta, GA

Moments in the Life of the Prodigal Son (1978)
Written by Alex Karmel
Directed by Marianne Marcelin
Music composed and performed by Dan Erkkila
La MaMa E.T.C., New York

Night Dance (The Night) (1977) for choreographer Sachiyo Ito
performed: Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium, Japan House, New York (1977)

Out of the Dark (1984)
From a Bantu story
By George Sand
Directed and designed by Ralph Lee
Costumes by Casey Compton
Music composed and performed by Dan Erkkila

Onni Kembai (date unknown) "for Sachiyo"

Papyrus (1986)
From an Egyptian folk tale
By Dave Hunsaker
Directed and designed by Ralph Lee
Costumes by Casey Compton
Music composed and performed by Dan Erkkila

Raven and the Whale (1975?)
[tape dated December 31, 1975]

Running (197?) for choreographer Carolyn Carlson

Sun Door: A Journey (1976)
Conceived with music by Dan Erkkila
Artistic Director, Jean Erdman
Directed by John Genke & Andrea Stark
Choreography by Andrea Stark
Presented by Theater of the Open Eye, New York (1976)

Tirai (The Curtain) (1980)
Conceived by Julie Taymor and created in collaboration with Jon Lipsky
Music composed and directed by Dan Erkkila
Work-in-progress presented at La MaMa E.T.C., New York (1980)

Tir-Na-Nog (1984)
Choreography by Maureen Williams and Chris Odo
Presented by Riverside Church, New York (1984)

Voyage Interdit and Love Round (197?) for choreographer Carlos Carvajal

Way of Snow (1976)
Written, directed and designed by Julie Taymor
Music by Dan Erkkila and Michael Sirotta
Produced in Java and Bali (1974-75)
New version produced at The Ark Theater, New York International Puppetry Festival, Washington, DC (1980)

When We Dead Awaken (1981)
Produced by Open Space Theater Experiment, New York

A Yeats Trio (197?)
Produced at Open Space Theater, New York
Villager Award for Outstanding Score

CONCERT

Cannonade
date: 1985
duration: 5:00
note: composed for Downtown Ensemble
source: Stefen Reilly; Judith Michael

Dance: Prayer and Greeting
for: flute
date: 1973
note: "for Bruce"

Duo Concertante
for: flute and keyboard
date: 1979
note: "arranged June 1979"
source: Stefen Reilly; Judith Michael
From A Distant Spring
date: ?
note: composed for Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble

Future Autumn
date: 1986
duration: 9:05

Hexagrams
date: 1984
for: indeterminate (any instruments, any number, using any pitches, etc.)
duration: 12:25
note: There is an arrangement for Relāche (voice, flute, accordion, clarinet, soprano sax, bariton sax, marimba, harp and bassoon).
performed: Downtown Ensemble, La Mama's Galleria, New York
source: Stefen Reilly; Judith Michael; Alan Zimmerman has a complete set of source materials and the Relāche score

Invocation and Dance
for: flute
date: 1986
note: "for Rebecca Cormier"
source: Stefen Reilly; Judith Michael

Last Notes
date: 1990
duration: 0:35

Red Cloud Passing
date: 1988
duration: 11:25
note: "In the spring of 1987 I created a triptych of accordion-pleated screens which seemed to suggest the possibility of musicalization. The original screens are 10 inches high by 11 inches wide but for this performance have been recreated on a much larger scale in order that both performers and audience may read the score at the same time. Each performer has been assigned a single horizontal line to read according to the melodic and modal material provided. The play of light and shadow has been given as an alternative to the assigned horizontal line." Composed for First Avenue Ensemble.
performed: First Avenue (William Kannar, double bass, C. Bryan Rulon, synthesizers, Matthew Sullivan, oboe/English horn, William Trigg, percussion) with Dan Erkkila, Chinese flutes/shakuhachi, Middle Collegiate Church, New York 3/28/88

3 Dances for Miss Julie
     Schottische I
     Schottische II
     Waltz
date: 1983
duration: 6:00
note: composed for Relāche

Third World Lady
for: voices, flute/piccolo, Moog synthesizer
date: 1971
duration: 9:15

Tintinnabulum
date: 198?
note: composed for New Music Ensemble

When We Dead Awaken
     Overture
     The Brook
     White Lady

Duet (cello and violin)
     White Lady and Children
     Apotheosis
date: 1981
duration: 8:40

FILM AND TELEVISION

The Unexplained (197?), score for NBC television special.

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Unknown

WRITINGS:
Unpublished poetry. Short prose pieces including "Landscapes with Birds," "Sleep," "Two Brothers" and "The Fat Family at the Zoo."

DISCOGRAPHY:

AS COMPOSER

Dan Erkkila 1941-1992, an independently produced cassette of selected works, was distributed at his memorial service.
     Last Notes (1990)
     Tir-Na-Nog (1984)
     Red Cloud Passing (1988)—First Avenue Ensemble
     Hexagrams (1984)—Relāche
     3 Dances for Miss Julie (1983)
     Cannonade (1985)—Downtown Ensemble
     Future Autumn (1986)
     When We Dead Awaken (1981)
     Third World Lady (1971)
     Koku (traditional Japanese shakuhachi solo) (1990)

AS PERFORMER

"Axis Mundi" by Teiji Ito (32:50), Genji Ito and Dan Erkkila, rattles, didjeridus, whistles, ratchets, drums, flutes, bells, conch shells, berimbau (Brazilian monochord), shakers, kazoos & duck calls, mbira (African thumb piano), voices, Meshes, What Next? Recordings WN0020 (1997); O.O. Discs 0020 (1999). Axis Mundi was composed for a theatre work by Christopher Hampton. The other works on the recording, Meshes of the Afternoon and Very Eye of Night, were composed by Ito for films by Maya Deren.

"Jacob's Ladder" by Raphael Mostel (37:29), Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble with soloists Dan Erkkila, John Charles Thomas and Mieczyslaw Litwinski, Nightsongs (compositions by Raphael Mostel), Scarlet/Infinity Series CD 88801 (1991); re-release: Digital Fossils CD 10008-2 (1992). Dan played: Aztec double clay flute, wooden double ocarinas, didjeridu, percussion, jaw harp, Tibetan thighbone trumpet, fue (Japanese side-blown flute), shofar (ram's horn).

"Swiftly, How Swiftly…" by Raphael Mostel, Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble with soloists Dan Erkkila, Geoffrey Gordon and John Charles Thomas, Blood on the Moon, Digital Fossils CD 10009-2 (1992). Dan played: shakuhachi, tube and Tibetan thighbone trumpet, shofar (ram's horn). Music composed by Mostel and performed by Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble at commemoration ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (1987), dedicated to victims of the bombs. Recording of live WNYC performance.

"Ceremonial for the Equinox" by Raphael Mostel, Dan Erkkila, solo shakuhachi and flute, Ceremonial for the Equinox (62:20), Digital Fossils 10011-2 (1995). Premiere of concert-length work recorded live at Cathedral of St. John The Divine, New York (1985).

"Prologues, Secrets, Hymn of the Sun" (22:51) and "Music for the October Moon" (23:30) by Raphael Mostel, Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble, Dan Erkkila, shofar (ram's horn) and Tibetan thighbone trumpet, Digital Fossils CD 10010-2 (in preparation).

"Ascent to the Lullwater" by Raphael Mostel (1988), Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble, Dan Erkkila, frame drum, bow, Aztec double clay flute (in preparation).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Obituary, New York Times, November 7, 1992.
• Obituary, Washington Post, November 11, 1992.
• Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire, Eileen Blumenthal and Julie Taymor (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.: New York, 1999) (revised edition). See description of Way of Snow.
• "1994: The Faces of AIDS," Entertainment Weekly, December 2, 1994.
• "Sun Door: A Journey," review by Rea Jacobs, Show Business, May 13, 1976.
• "Eskimos, Voodoo and Indian Corn," review by Joan Pikula of An Event in the Time of Moulting Swans, Dance Magazine, January 1975.
• "Double Bill is Offered at the Open Eye," review by David Sears of Primordial Voices (An Event in the Time of Moulting Swans), The Villager, November 7, 1974.
• "'Primordial Voices' at the Open Eye," review by Sy Syna, SoHo Weekly News, November 21, 1974.

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
ASCAP

RESOURCES:
Unknown

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
Stefen Reilly (former partner)
P.O. Box 546
Joshua Tree, CA 92252
Tel: (760) 228-2917
Cell: (760) 401-1965
info@salandstef.com
www.salandstef.com

OTHER CONTACTS:
Judith Michael (publishing colleague and friend; Dan's care-partner in last years)
382 Central Park West #7P
New York, NY 10025
(212) 865-4971
jmichael3@nyc.rr.com

Barbara Pollitt (theater colleague and friend)
290 Quaker Road
Pomona, NY 10970
(845) 354-4005
bapollitt@aol.com

Alan Zimmerman (percussionist and friend; involved with Dan's music)
245 East 40th Street #6B
New York, NY 10016
(212) 867-3101
azmarimba@aol.com

Phil Lee (recording engineer and friend)
Full House Productions Inc.
123 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 645-2228