In Quotes

"Paul Dunkel conducted all these performances splendidly, and his orchestra -- well, it is to be cherished and preserved."

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"The American Composers Orchestra is an indispensable part of the city's musical life. Where else could such a work receive a sympathetic, well-prepared performance before an enthusiastic audience in a program that help it to make sense? Mr. Dunkel drew out all the surprises well."

THE NEW YORKER

"The conductor Paul Lustig Dunkel partnered with unerring shrewdness. It is rare indeed to hear such intelligent artists at work on such an intelligent piece of music."

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

"Dunkel conducted brilliantly."

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"The finale, Bartok's Concerto forr Orchestra, deserves a page of praises alone, or at least enough ink to catalog the infinite variety of colors conjured by maestro Dunkel and his consummate ensemble of soloists."

THE JOURNAL NEWS

"He was altogether impressive, leading the complex scores with command, sensitivity and precision."

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Music director Paul Dunkel somehow made the DCO sound as sumptuous as a 100-piece orchestra. … What was made abundantly clear is that, under music director Paul Lustig Dunkel, the Denver Chamber Orchestra has a sense of style second to none."

THE DENVER POST

"The orchestra played with real zest, Dunkel bringing out the very best in these musicians."

RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH

"Dunkel and the orchestra offered sympathetic, focused, polished support in this towering example of 20^th-century composition and musical outpouring of human grief.( Berg's Violin Concerto with Sarah Chang for post 9-11 concert)."

THE JOURNAL NEWS

"Conductor Paul Lustig Dunkel drew often exquisite playing from the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra [in The Postman Always Rings Twice by Stephen Paulus at the Washington Opera]."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"Paul Lustig Dunkel kept the score's varying demands under a flexible control."

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"Special praise must be given to soloist Dunkel (as flutist in Melinda Wagner's Concerto for Flute, Strings & Percussion) who took advantage of the composer's desire to show the player's technical ability and the warmth of his lower register. Dunkel played marvelously throughout, especially in the stunningly virtuosic finale. In addition, he gave his all as conductor in other works on the program. The afternoon thus gave him a chance to show us his artistic stamina along with the artistry he has so regularly demonstrated with the ACO.

NEW MUSIC CONNOISSEUR

The Saints Come Marching In

"Special accolades should go to conductor Paul Dunkel, who made Thomson's piquant score come joyously alive in every measure."

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Conductor Dunkel led an expertly prepared DCO in a witty, intelligent performance. [Cowell's] exotic timbres and feeling for thematic material converge in ravishing tones superbly delivered by Dunkel and the DCO… The DCO was its luminous, expressive best in this affecting music."

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"Dunkel is a conductor of obvious gifts."

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"This program by the Westchester Philharmonic was a concert for the connoisseur."

GANNETT NEWSPAPERS

Two Electrifying Concerts offered at SUNY

"MusicAmerica II was the innocent enough title for an explosive, riveting performance of Hannibal Peterson's African Portraits (1990). Paul Lustig Dunkel deserves credit for controlling it all and bring it off with panache. I have witnessed few performances where the performance energy reached this level and enveloped the entire hall."

GANNETT NEWSPAPERS

"Paul Dunkel led a particularly attractive concert in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center with the superb American Composers Orchestra. It included a stunning performance of Elliott Carter's early First Symphony and the premiere of Tobias Picker's Violin Concerto … Dunkel led a big warm performance and one that will happily be preserved by Composers Recordings, Inc. Few premieres could have been better performed."

NEWHOUSE NEWSPAPERS

"Performances of well-known pieces carry with them the advantage of crowd-pleasing familiarity and the burden of comparison with the memory of numerous performances by the world's best performers. Conductor Paul Lustig Dunkel and the Westchester Philharmonic made you forget all that and listen to [Dvorak's From the New World] anew. In addition to the fireworks, the dimensions of tonal and rhythmic precision and faithful attention to details of interpretation were all rendered with taste. There was the lovely rhythmic lift in the strings . . . and the feeling that the musicians had gone beyond the notes and found ways to make their instruments evoke the spirit and sounds of nature."

GANNETT NEWSPAPERS

"A fresh musical breeze blew through Symphony Hall in Springfield last Saturday night. I found this initial performance revealing an orchestra with a depth and quality of musicianship well beyond anything I have heard from it before. After only four rehearsals with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Dunkel opened our ears to hitherto untapped resources within the minds and hearts and technical capabilities of our talented instrumentalists. It was a piece never played by this orchestra, but it came to us as polished work, clearly the result of intensive and effective preparation."

DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE

American Composers' stand-in is a stand out

"The American Composers Orchestra's Carnegie Hall concert Sunday was scheduled to be led by Soviet conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, but he was ill and replaced by Resident Conductor Paul Lustig Dunkel. It is to the credit of the orchestra -- and certainly to Dunkel -- that the difficult program was performed so well."

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

The playing was prevailingly crisp, alive and possessing a rich-hued cohesiveness that bespoke a high ensemble level, and Dunkel's conducting had great flair and incisiveness."

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Dunkel is a solid musician, carrying impressive credentials, both as a knowledgeable presence on the podium and -- judging from his scintillating account of C.P.E. Bach's Flute Concerto -- a heck of an instrumentalist. For his part, Dunkel lured shimmering playing from the DCO, exploring the gentle nuances of the slower variations and kicking the jams in the extroverted ones. Here is a personable, likable guy who knows his way around an orchestra. His remarks to the audience were brief and witty, serving to brush away any sense of intimidation or nervousness handing in the air. He has a strong command of his musicians, and they responded."

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"The (Westchester Philharmonic) celebrated the beginning of its season in the spirit of commitment and adventure that has marked many of its programs over the past decade. . . . [It is risky] challenging an audience's artistic convictions . . . by following a vision of the obligation performers owe to their contemporaries' art. Paul Lustig Dunkel, music director and conductor, has accepted the challenge and held to his convictions. He has refused to go on as if there were no worthwhile music being written today. . .Let us credit him for programming not just token short pieces or those that masquerade as modern, but large-scale works by composers seeking a musical voice… Dunkel has the confidence and the orchestra to carry if off and the resulting program was most satisfying."

GANNETT NEWSPAPERS

"Dunkel is a thorough musician, has excellent stage presence and is full of ideas. He is an artist."

MUSIC JOURNAL

 

RECORDINGS

THORNE: CONCERTO NO. 3 (Oppens);
SESSIONS: CONCERTO (Taub);
Westchester Philharmonic. New World.]
"Altogether one of the best 20th Century concerto discs of the year."

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

"Fine discoveries both, and neither work could have had more effective advocacy. . . . Dunkel has his fine-honed orchestra engaged with them (the soloists) on a chamber music level of give-and-take, and New World has come through with absolutely first-rate sound.."

STEREO REVIEW

"Conductor Dunkel is renowned for his performances of modern American music with the American Composers Orchestra."

FANFARE

EARLY WORKS BY ELLIOTT CARTER:
Symphony No. 1, Holiday Overture Pocahontas Suite.
American Composers Orchestra. CRI
"It's hard to imagine better performances...and the recording is excellent."

OVATION

The Year's Best Listening: Classical ­ ELLIOTT CARTER: THE EARLY MUSIC, ACO/Dunkel.

NEWSWEEK

The Best of 1982: Classical ­ ELLIOT CARTER: THE EARLY MUSIC, ACO/Dunkel (CRI).

TIME

BISCARDI: AT THE STILL POINT; PICKER: VIOLIN CONCERTO. (Schulte)American Composers Orchestra (CRI-SD-474)].
"Rolf Schulte is a splendid exponent of the score, and Paul Dunkel is again a convincing director.

H. ROYER SMITH COMPANY