David Sulzer

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David Sulzer is an American neuroscientist and Professor at Columbia University Medical Center in the Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Pharmacology. Sulzer's lab investigates the interaction between the synapses of the cerebral cortex and the basal ganglia, including the dopamine system, in habit formation, planning, decision making, and diseases of the system. His lab has developed the first means to optically measure neurotransmission, and has introduced new hypotheses of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease, and changes in synapses that produce autism and habit learning.

As Dave Soldier, he is known as a composer and musician in a variety of genres including avant-garde, classical, and jazz.

Video David Sulzer

Scientific contributions

Studies on synapses

Sulzer works on basal ganglia and dopamine neurons, brain cells of central importance in translating will to action. His team have introduced new methods to study synapses, including the first means to measure the fundamental "quantal" unit of neurotransmitter release from central synapses. They reported the first direct recordings of quantal neurotransmitter release from brain synapses using an electrochemistry technique known as amperometry, based on the method of Mark Wightman, a chemist at the University of North Carolina, to measure release of adrenaline from adrenal chromaffin cells. They showed that the quantal event at dopamine synapses consisted of the release of about 3,000 dopamine molecules in about 100 nanoseconds. They further showed that the quantal events could "flicker" due to extremely rapid opening and closing of the a synaptic vesicle fusion pore (at rates as high as 4,000 times a second) with the plasma membrane. This approach also demonstrated that the "size" of the quanta could be altered in numerous ways, for example by the drug L-DOPA, a drug so used to treat Parkinson's Disease.

Sulzer's lab, together with that of Dalibor Sames, a chemist at Columbia University, introduced "fluorescent false neurotransmitters", compounds that accumulated like genuine neurotransmitters into neurons and synaptic vesicles. This is used to observe neurotransmitter release and reuptake from individual synapses in video. Sulzer, along with his mentor Stephen Rayport, showed that the neurotransmitter glutamate is released from dopamine neurons, an important exception to the Dale's principle that a neuron releases the same transmitter from each of its synapses.

Addictive drugs

By introducing the "weak base hypothesis" of amphetamine action, for measuring amphetamine's effects on the quantal size of dopamine release, intracellular patch electrochemistry to measure dopamine levels in the cytosol, and providing real-time measurement of dopamine release by reverse transport, Sulzer's lab showed how amphetamine and methamphetamine release dopamine and other neurotransmitters and exert their synaptic and clinical effects.They showed how methamphetamine neurotoxicity occurs due to dopamine-derived oxidative stress in the cytosol followed by induction of autophagy, and with Nigel Bamford of the University of Washington, how these drugs activate long-term changes in the cortical synapses that project to the striatum. They call these "chronic postsynaptic depression" and "paradoxical presynaptic potentiation", which may explain drug dependence and addiction.

Sulzer explains in an interview on NOVA that his interest in understanding mechanisms of addiction stem from crashing a talk by William Burroughs at Naropa Institute in 1980, where Burroughs claimed that new synthetic opiates would be so powerful that users would become addicts with a single dose. In an interview in Nature Medicine on his lab's discovery of the mechanism by which nicotine filters synaptic noise and can focus attention to tasks, he recalls his father's early death due to smoking, saying "if some idiot or drug company is going to twist things around, the only thing that would come out of [this research] that I'd be horrified by is if people used it to advocate smoking. I think it would be a real travesty if that happened."

Neurological and psychiatric disease

Sulzer and his lab also studied nerve impulses in Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, schizophrenia, drug addiction, and autism. They helped to establish the role of autophagy by lysosomes in neuronal disease. They showed the role of neuromelanin, the pigment of the substantia nigra, in methamphetamine neurotoxicity, and Huntington's disease. With Ana Maria Cuervo of Albert Einstein College of Medicine they showed that a cause of Parkinson's disease could be due to an interference with a chaperone-mediated autophagy caused by the protein alpha-synuclein. His work indicates that a lack of normal pruning of synapses could underlie the development of autism, and that in turn may also my due to inhibited neuronal autophagy in patients, due to overactivation of the mTOR pathway during childhood and adolescence.

In 2017, his lab introduced the role of autoimmune response in Parkinson's disease patients, which answers a century-old mystery on the role of immune system activation in that disorder.

The Sulzer lab has published over 150 papers on this research. For his work, Sulzer has received awards from the McKnight Foundation, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and NARSAD. He runs the Basic Neuroscience NIH / NIDA (T32) training program for postdoctoral research in basic neuroscience at Columbia. He received a Ph.D. in Biology from Columbia University in 1988.

Entertaining Science series with Roald Hoffmann

Sulzer co-administers a long-running monthly Science & Art cafe series in Greenwich Village at the Cornelia Street Cafe, "Entertaining Science" with its founder, chemist and writer Roald Hoffmann.

Maps David Sulzer

Music

Music by animals

Many of Sulzer's works are collaborative, such as with the Thai Elephant Orchestra which he co-founded with conservationist Richard Lair, based on the observation that elephants are said to enjoy listening to music. This ensemble consists of up to 14 elephants at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center near Lampang, and is listed by Guinness as the world's largest animal orchestra, with a combined weight of approximately 23 tonnes (50,706 lb). He built giant musical instruments on which he trained the elephants to improvise: they eventually played on 22 instruments. The orchestra has released three CDs and play an abbreviated concert daily at the Conservation Center.

He also created specially designed instruments for music played by zebra finches and pygmy chimpanzees, the latter in collaborations with physicist Gordon Shaw, who researched classical music's effect on the brain and introduced the Mozart effect.

Music by children

Sulzer has made multiple recordings in which he coached child composers in different cultures. He and flutist Katie Down coached free improvisation with The Tangerine Awkestra featuring 2-10 year old Brooklyn schoolchildren. Da HipHop Raskalz featured rap and dub tracks performed (including the instrumental tracks) by 5-10 year old East Harlem children, who had no previous experience playing instruments. Sulzer and the santur player Alan Kushan produced Yol K'u with Mayan Indian children from the Seeds of Knowledge School in the high mountains of San Mateo Ixtatan, Guatemala, a collaboration using giant marimbas. He produced a CD, Les Enfants des Tyabala, by the jazz musician Sylvian Leroux who coached children in Conakry, Guinea to form an ensemble of the traditional Fula flute.

The Soldier String Quartet

In 1985 he founded the Soldier String Quartet, a punk chamber group that plays with amplification and a percussionist. As a leader, composer and violinist for the group, Soldier wrote and performed traditional pieces influenced by music styles ranging from serialism to Delta blues. With inspiration from Haydn and Beethoven quartets, he explored anachronisms stemming from a classical ensemble playing in contemporary popular idioms, particularly rhythm and blues and punk rock. With a drummer incorporated into the quartet, Soldier found that string instruments could play the blues in the hands of players who understood the contrasting styles, including violinists Regina Carter and Todd Reynolds. The Soldier String Quartet also premiered and recorded works by other composers such as Elliott Sharp, Iannis Xenakis, and Phill Niblock, as well as with jazz musicians including Tony Williams. They were the touring and recording group for the Velvet Underground's John Cale from 1992-1998.

Experimental music

With Komar & Melamid, and inspired by their art project, "The People's Choice", Soldier wrote "The People's Choice: Music", with lyrics by Nina Mankin. It was written according to answers from a survey of over 500 Americans, resulting in "The Most Wanted Song" and "The Most Unwanted Song". The latter is over 22 minutes in length and features an operatic soprano rapping cowboy songs, holiday songs with a children's choir screaming advertisements, and political rants backed by bagpipe, banjo, tuba, piccolo, and church organ.

Soldier collaborates with the computer musician Brad Garton for the Brainwave Music Project, creating music played by performer's brainwaves using electroencephalograms.

He has a body of compositions using math derivations including fractal manipulations, including a notorious 20 minute version of Chopin's Minute Waltz.

Concert music

Soldier's compositions with classical musicians include a socialist-realist opera, "Naked Revolution", based on paintings by the Russian conceptual artists Komar and Melamid, commissioned for the 25th anniversary of "The Kitchen".

The opera "The Eighth Hour of Amduat" uses as its text Italian translations of the ancient Egyptian of the book of Amduat and features Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra playing the part of Sun Ra.

Soldier wrote two chamber operas in collaboration with author Kurt Vonnegut, "The Soldier's Story" and "Ice-9 Ballads", both recorded with Vonnegut playing characters in the operas.

Many of his chamber and orchestra works were recorded by the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra under conductor Richard Auldon Clark and by the Composer's Concordance orchestra. These include a collection of early Latin homoerotic lyrics in "Smut", and settings of Frederick Douglass in "The Apotheosis of John Brown" and Mark Twain in "War Prayer". The orchestra fanfare, "Samul Nori Overture", was commissioned by Kristjan Järvi and the Absolute Ensemble.

Chamber works by Soldier have been recorded by violinists Regina Carter and Miranda Cuckson, cellist Erik Friedlander, pianists Steven Beck and Christopher O'Riley, accordionist William Schimmel, the PubliQuartet, singer Eliza Carthy and flutist Robert Dick.

Rock music

Soldier founded the Kropotkins in the 1990s, a punk/country blues band with the Memphis singer Lorette Velvette and the drummers drummer, Moe Tucker of the Velvet Underground, Charles Burnham of the James Blood Ulmer's Odyssey Band, and Jonathan Kane of Swans and La Monte Young's band; the Kropotkins recorded 4 albums and developed a cult following.

He continued collaborations with Jonathan Kane in a symphonic minimalist blues duo known as Soldier Kane.

In the early 1980s Soldier played guitar with Bo Diddley and various rock groups. He later worked as an arranger, violinist, or guitarist with John Cale, Guided by Voices, Van Dyke Parks, David Byrne, Ric Ocasek, Lee Ranaldo, Maureen Tucker, Jesse Harris, and Bob Neuwirth.

Soldier led the touring group for John Cale, consisting of the Soldier String Quartet and B.J. Cole from 1992-1996, writing the groups arrangements for tours and several CDs and films including for Cale's scores for the Andy Warhol films "Eat" and "Kiss": his metal violin playing is featured on "Heartbreak Hotel" on "Fragments From a Rainy Season". He also led an flamenco/Middle Eastern rock group, The Spinozas, featuring lyrics from Arabic and Hebrew poetry from medieval Andalusia.

Jazz

Soldier performs as a multi-instrumentalist with the William Hooker Trio, and has performed and recorded with Leroy Jenkins, Henry Threadgill, Sabir Mateen, Roy Campbell, the drummer Tony Williams, Jonas Hellborg, Butch Morris, Jason Hwang, Billy Bang, Marshall Allen, Karl Berger, Myra Melford and Amina Claudine Myers.

Production

Sulzer formed the Mulatta Records label in 2000, and since has produced a wide variety of recordings including contemporary flamenco music by Pedro Cortes, the 30 piece jazz string orchestra Spontaneous River by Jason Hwang, music from the group Wofa from Guninea with American R&B musicians; and released music by David First, an album of Fula flute music by Sylvain Leroux with children in Guinea, Alex Greene, William Hooker, Ursel Schlicht, and Twink.

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Personal life

Sulzer grew up in Carbondale in southern Illinois where he was exposed to music common to the area, particularly country and R&B. His earliest influences included James Brown and Isaac Hayes. He played viola, violin, piano, and eventually banjo and guitar. He moved with his family to Storrs, CT, at the age of 16, where he became enamoured with salsa music. He credits Eddie Palmieri's music as his inspiration to be a composer. He attended Michigan State University as an undergraduate and attempted a study of classical composition. He found that stultifying, however, and instead studied privately with the avant-garde jazz saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell.

He lived in Florida briefly, where he played guitar in Bo Diddley's band. He relocated to New York in 1981, and played in various salsa, classical, and rock-oriented bands in the early '80s. In New York he engaged in many collaborations with producer Giorgio Gomelsky, including running "The House Band" and the Russian conceptual artists Komar and Melamid. He studied composition with Otto Luening and formed his Soldier String Quartet in 1985. He co-founded Mulatta Records in 2000 to document his projects, including the elephant piece and the child improvisers. Soldier performed, recorded, composed, and arranged for television and film (Sesame Street, I Shot Andy Warhol), and pop and jazz acts ranging from Pete Seeger to David Byrne and Guided by Voices.

In a Dope Haze, Gary Johnson Sides With Swampy Senators Over ...

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Discography

Studio Albums as Leader

Collaborations

Recordings with the Soldier String Quartet

Sideman

Film Scores

Producer

Bluetector at the 5th Central Switzerland Economic Forum on Mount ...

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Compositions for Classical Musicians

String Quartet

String Quartet #1 "The Impossible" Op 3. 1987 for quartet and drums
String Quartet #2 "Bambaataa Variations" Op. 11 1992 for prepared quartet
String Quartet #3 "The Essential" Op. 21 2011 for quartet and electroencephalograms with Brad Garton
Sequence Girls Op. 1 1985 for quartet and drums
Three Delta Blues Op. 2 1986, arrangements of Robert Johnson, Skip James, Charlie Patton

Opera

"Naked Revolution" Op. 16 1997 with Komar and Melamid, libretto Maita di Niscemi
"The Eighth Hour of Amduat", Op. 32 2015 libretto from the book of Amduat, translated to Italian by Rita Lucarelli
"A Soldier's Story" radio opera, Op. 18 1992 libretto by Kurt Vonnegut

Oratorio

"The Apotheosis of John Brown", Op. 8 1990 text adapted from Frederick Douglass
"Ice-9 Ballads", Op. 14 1995 text by Kurt Vonnegut
"Smut" a.k.a. "Chorea Lascivia" Op. 10 1991, text adapted from medieval Latin homoerotic poetry
"Mark Twain's Wary Prayer" Op. 12 1993
"Dean Swift's Satyrs for the Very Very Young" Op. 22 2011 voice, flute, viola, harp

Chamber group

Duo Sonata Op. 4 1988 for violin and cello
To Spike Jones in Heaven Op. 5 1989 accordion and tape
Utah Dances Op. 6 1990 solo saxophone, clarinet, or flute
Sontag in Sarajevo Op. 13 1994 accordion, melody instrument, guitar
The People's Choice Music Op. 15 1997, the Most Wanted and The Most Unwanted Song
East St. Louis 1968 Op. 17 1999 for viola or string quartet and tape
Clever Hans Op. 19 2005 violin, cello harpsichord
The Complete Victrola Sessions Op. 20 2010 pieces for violin and piano
Lewitt Etudes Op. 33 2015 Architectural designs for musicians after Sol Lewitt

Organ

Hockets & Inventions Op. 6 1990
Organum Op. 23 2011

Piano

Fractals on the Names of Bach & Haydn Op. 24 2011
Letter to Gil Evans Op. 25, 2012
girl with hat in a car Op. 26 2012
Nocturnes
Phong's Solo Op. 28 2012 arranged from the Thai Elephant Orchestra
Hockets & Inventions

Orchestra

Thung Kwian Sunrise Op. 27 2012 arranged from the Thai Elephant Orchestra
SamulNori Overture Op. 31 2013
Bambaataa Variations Op. 30 2013 for string quartet and string orchestra
Stuff Smith's Unfinished Concerto Op. 34 2013 for violin, piano, and string orchestra
Jaelo Op. 35 2017 for piano and string orchestra

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References

Additional sources

Ratcliff, Carter. Komar and Melamid, New York: Abbeville Press, 1988. ISBN 0-89659-891-8
Wypijewski, JoAnn, ed. Painting by Numbers: Komar and Melamid's Scientific Guide to Art, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997. ISBN 9780520218611
Komar and Melamid. When Elephants Paint: The Quest of Two Russian Artists to Save the Elephants of Thailand, New York: HarperCollins, 2000. ISBN 0-06-095352-7
Weiss, Evelyn. Komar & Melamid: The Most Wanted and the Most Unwanted Painting, Museum Ludwig Koln, Ostfildern: Cantz, 1997.