Moondog Rising | Participants

Eupraxia Leadership Council Producers of Moondog Rising Stefan Lakatos Master of the Trimba Robert Scotto Authorized Biographer Eupraxia Players 20 classically trained instrumentalists, singers, composers, puppeteers, including Sospiro Winds Managarm Publishers and keepers of the Moondog Archive http://www.managarm.com/
EUPRAXIA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
	EUPRAXIA DIRECTOR, MOONDOG RISING CURATOR Robin Boomer is receiving her master's degree in arts administration from Columbia University where her studies have been focused on chamber music. Her forthcoming thesis addresses the experiential qualities unique to chamber music consumption, particularly from the perspective of musicians. Her undergraduate work was in cello performance and historical musicology at the University of Puget Sound. Robin spent most of her life in the Pacific Northwest where she was active as a freelance cellist, teacher, arts administrator and researcher. She was a member of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, taught through the U.P.S. Community music program, was the concert hall manager of the University, and research assistant to musicologist Geoffrey Block. She has also held positions with the Second City Chamber Series, the Tacoma Children's Museum, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Robin has produced numerous chamber music series, often in unconventional venues with innovative programming. Through the Simple Gifts program, which she founded in 2002, she brings ensembles to the ill, infirm, and underserved communities to perform free concerts. She has recorded and performed numerous new scores for silent films, including Sunrise, Diary of a Lost Girl, and Berlin, Symphony of a City with composer Timothy Brock. She has also recorded with northwest bands Sky Cries Mary, Some Velvet Sidewalk, and others. The MOONDOG RISING FESTIVAL marks the debut of the Eupraxia Music and Arts Collective. The festival was born from Robin's love of Moondog's music, and Eupraxia's interest in exploring and contextualizing this fascinating composer. Robin is a Moondog fan and, upon "discovering" him nearly twenty years ago, tried in vain to find his music for performance. In fall, 2006 she began serious research on Moondog through a historical musicology seminar at Columbia. She was shocked to learn that was no biography in existence, nor were there any Moondog materials from a musicological perspective. This festival participates in the reexamination of Moondog as a legitimate composer and to celebrate the first and only authorized biography written by Robert Scotto and just released.
	Marjorie "Marji" Gere is a recent graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Master's program in Arts in Education. At Harvard, Marji devoted her studies to examining the importance of fostering creativity in learners, and the benefits of forming artistic and intellectual partnership among students and teacher. This exploration led to her development of an approach to teaching instrumental music that encourages imaginative play and incorporates composition, interpretation, and improvisation. Between 2002-2005, Marji lived in the Eastern Mediterranean country of Cyprus and, as a Fellow of the Cyprus-America Scholarship Program, researched the role music and dance play in the ongoing peace process on the partitioned island. Her work in Cyprus culminated in the first Cyprus Apple Hill Chamber Music Retreat, an event that brought together musicians from the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities for a weekend of music making under the instruction of the renowned Apple Hill Chamber Players ( www.applehill.org <http://www.applehill.org> ). Primarily a violinist, scholar, and teacher, Marji is also an active puppeteer, composer, and writer. She and composers Dan Sedgwick and Jacob Barton have recently founded An Exciting Event, a puppetry, drama, and music ensemble that creates visually, aurally, and gastronomically delightful puppetry and music performances appropriate for snug settings such as living rooms, lobbies, tents, hospital rooms, classrooms, and barns.
	Originally from Miami, Florida, Adrian Morejon completed his studies at the Yale School of Music, receiving both a Master in Music and an Artist Diploma while studying with Frank Morelli. Prior to this, he was a student of bassoonist Bernard Garfield and harpsichordist Lionel Party at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music in Bassoon and a Diploma in Harpsichord. Adrian has been co-principal bassoonist of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra since 2002. Since 2004, Adrian has been a founding member of Sospiro Winds, an award-winning wind quintet who recently won the Silver Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Since moving to New York in 2006, he has become a member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, the Second Instrumental Unit, the Matrix Music Collaborators, and Eupraxia. Adrian has performed with such orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Haddonfield Symphony and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, he was a recipient of a Theodore Presser Foundation Grant and a prize-winner of the Fox-Gillet International Competition in Melbourne, Australia. During the past summers, Adrian has participated in many festivals including the Monadnock Music Festival, the NJO Academy in the Netherlands, the Chamber Music Institute, Spoleto USA, the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Banff Centre, National Orchestral Institute, Music Academy of the West, the Verbier Festival, and FOSJA in Puerto Rico.
	John Popham was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. The New York Times has described John's playing as "graceful but variegated" and "finely polished." John has performed as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra on numerous occasions, including performances of the Brahms Double Concerto with his sister, violinist Emily Popham. As an active performer of contemporary music, John has performed throughout the United States and Europe in such venues as the Great Hall of Cooper Union and the Hanns Eisler Hochschule fur Musik. John studied with David Geber at the Manhattan School of Music where he completed his undergraduate work and is currently studying with David Soyer as he pursues is Master's degree at the same institution. John is also a co-director of The New Project of Louisville, a collaborative arts program that produces experimental concerts in the city of Louisville.
	Known for her versatility of musical styles, violinist Ariana Rosen enjoys performing and teaching a wide-ranging repertoire. Ms. Rosen's classical ambitions began at the age of four after repeatedly asking her mother to play the violin. Throughout her secondary education years her studies expanded to other styles, including International Folk Music and Old-Time Fiddling. Since receiving her Bachelor of Music in Classical Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in May of 2005, Ariana has been freelancing and teaching in the greater New York City area. Her most recent endeavors include appearances with the Please Music Works, Kiara Duran, Shelly Bhushan, Silhouette Quartet Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Astoria Symphony, New Jersey City University Orchestra (associate concert master), American Idles Irish/Rock Band, Ambitious Orchestra Rock Ensemble (associate concert master), and Fiddling Fusion violin duo. She and her sister, Amberly were featured in the 2005 San Luis Obispo, California Mozart Festival where they performed Old-Time Fiddle, International Folk Dance music and their specialty; Fiddle-dancing. Along with her performing Ms. Rosen teaches privately in Manhattan and at the Huntington Suzuki Music School in Long Island.
MOONDOG SPECIALISTS
Photo credit: Burcu Yumrukcaglar	STEFAN LAKATOS "Stefan Lakatos is the leading exponent of the Moondog method of drum playing," wrote Louis Hardin, aka Moondog, on the liner notes to the first LP of the Bracelli string project (1986). "Stefan became a close friend of Moondog over 25 years ago, and has devoted his time since to his master's music, inheriting the unique percussion instrument known as the trimbas. By performing Moondog's music on Moondog's instrument as Moondog taught him, Stefan is recreating the original sound and the subtle characteristics of this challenging music, conducting the ensembles from the trimbas rather than the podium. Thus he is introducing each new generation to the work of Moondog as only he can do". - Robert Scotto. " In December 1980 Stefan brought Moondog to Sweden for the first time. He invited Moondog on his first trip to the land of the Vikings, and it was like a pilgrimage to him, visiting the old kings grave´s in Uppsala. They spent the x-mas night together, taking long walks in the snow, under a full moon. It was a very cold winter, 1980, and Moondog wore a special winter cap he had made himself from square pieces of white lamb wool. His beard was embellied with ice, and so was Stefan's. Later Moondog taught Stefan how to make the cap and also made him become the Moondog Managarm representative in Sweden, organizing concerts and gathering musicians together for recordings and other projects. He also taught him a lot about his music and how to play the trimbas, of course. Recently, Stefan brought Moondog's music back to New York , playing at Carnegie Hall together with the two American violinists Louis Nicolia and Keita Fukushima. At Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, he was performing the first concert composed entirely of Moondog music in USA in over 40 years. Visit: www.stefanlakatos.de
	ROBERT SCOTTO Robert Scotto first met Moondog on the streets of New York in the mid 60s, when he was a college student. He still has couplets he bought for 10 cents and the vivid memory of a person who was able to be both eccentric and traditional at the same time, a blind street performer who was also a classically trained, eclectic composer. When he discovered, in the early 70s, that Moondog was still alive and well and living in Germany, he visited him, interviewed him at great length, and started work on the biography which will be published in October by ProcessMedia: Moondog: The Viking of Sixth Avenue, a work that is a radical departure from his earlier publications. Dr. Scotto is a professor of English who has taught internationally and is presently on the faculty of Baruch College, CUNY. He has written scholarly articles and edited scholarly books on Pater, Joyce, Heller and Pynchon, among others. MOONDOG -The Viking of 6th Avenue is published by Process Media
EUPRAXIA PLAYERS FOR MOONDOG RISING MUSICAN ROSTER/PROFILES VOICE NAME: Benjamin Grow UNDERGRAD: Rice University, B.M. GRAD: McGill University NOW: Freelance Musician, NYC NAME: Anisa Romero UNDERGRAD: Fine Art University of Washington GRAD: Fine Art New York University OTHER: Architectural Interior Design Parsons NOW: Romero Studios, Sky Cries Mary INSTRUMENT: Roderick Romero UNDERGRAD: Fine Art University of Washington OTHER: Designer of Treehouses NOW: Romero Studios, Sky Cries Mary KEYBOARD NAME: Geoff Duce INSTRUMENT: piano UNDERGRAD: Piano Performance University of Manchester, Royal Northern College of Music GRAD: DMA, Piano Performance Manhattan School of Music OTHER: DAAD, Universitat der Kunstler, Berlin NOW: Freelancing, writing thesis. NAME: Dan Sedgwick INSTRUMENT: piano, clavichord UNDERGRAD: Harvard University GRAD: Music Composition OTHER: Composer-In-Residence, Apple Hill Summer Chamber Music Festivals (2006 & 2007) NOW: An Exciting Event NAME: Eric Sedgwick INSTRUMENT: piano UNDERGRAD: English Literature Brown University GRAD: Piano Performance Manhattan School of Music NOW: Freelancing in NYC STRINGS NAME: Ralph Allen INSTRUMENT: violin/viola UNDERGRAD: Philosophy Yale GRAD: Violin Performance Cleveland Institute for Music, SUNY Stony Brook OTHER: Apple Hill, Four years in Holland NOW: The Knights NAME: Cyrus Beroukhim INSTRUMENT: violin/viola UNDERGRAD: GRAD: Violin Performance Juilliard NAME: Robin Boomer INSTRUMENT: cello UNDERGRAD: Cello Performance, Musicology University of Puget Sound GRAD: Arts Administration Columbia University OTHER: Apple Hill NOW: Eupraxia Director, writing thesis NAME: Marjorie Gere INSTRUMENT: violin UNDERGRAD: Violin Performance, Literature University of Iowa GRAD: Arts Education Harvard U. OTHER: Apple Hill, Cyprus-America Scholarship Program NOW: Eupraxia Council, An Exciting Event, teaching NAME Keita Fukushima INSTRUMENT violin UNDERGRAD Juilliard GRAD Juilliard NOW Erie Philharmonic,Strada Duo. Hope this makes it easier thanks Louis Name: Chris Marolf Instrument: Bass Undergrad: Music Ed Wichita State University, Music Ed Now: Jann Klose, Alec Gross, Field Supervisor for Education Through Music www.etmonline.org NAME Louis Nicolia INSTRUMENT violin UNDERGRAD West Va. University NOW Erie Philharmonic,Erie chamber Orchestra,Strada Duo, Project Moondog,Weirdo Theatre Orchestra NAME: John Popham INSTRUMENT: cello UNDERGRAD: Indiana U., Cello Performance Manhattan School of Music GRAD: Cello Performance, Manhattan School of Music NOW: Eupraxia Council, New Project of Louisville, MSM INSTRUMENT: Ariana Rosen UNDERGRAD: Violin Performance Manhattan School of Music NOW: Eupraxia Council, Please Music Works, Ambitious Orchestra Rock Ensemble, teaching WINDS/BRASS NAME: Jacob Barton INSTRUMENT: udderbot, clarinet, bassoon UNDERGRAD: Music Composition Rice University GRAD: Music Composition School for Designing a Society NOW: An Exciting Event ENSEMBLE: SOSPIRO WINDS NAME: Kelli Kathman INSTRUMENT: Flute UNDERGRAD: Flute Performance Eastman School of Music GRAD: Flute Performance Yale University OTHER: DMA: CUNY NOW: Alarm Will Sound NAME: James Austin Smith INSTRUMENT: oboe UNDERGRAD: Oboe Performance Northwestern University GRAD: Oboe Performance Yale University OTHER: Fulbright Fellow NOW: currently finishing his masters at Yale NAME: Romie de Guise-Langlois INSTRUMENT: clarinet UNDERGRAD: Clarinet Performance McGill University GRAD: Clarinet Performance Yale University OTHER: Marlboro Music Festival, Orford Arts Center Prize NOW: The Academy: A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute, The Matrix Music Collaborators NAME: Adrian Morejon INSTRUMENT: bassoon UNDERGRAD: Bassoon Performance, Harpsichord Diploma Curtis Institute GRAD: Bassoon Performance Yale University OTHER: Theodore Presser Foundation Grant Recipient, Fox-Gillet Competition Prize NOW: Eupraxia Council, Matrix Music Collaborators, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, the Second Instrumental Unit, IRIS Chamber Orchestra NAME: Caia LaCour INSTRUMENT: horn UNDERGRAD: Horn Performance Eastman School of Music GRAD: Yale University OTHER: Austin Chamber Music Society, International Horn Workshop