Credit: SZALON logo by Mia Bosna
October 24th HALLOWEEN-ESQUE SZALON Program!
1. Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy will perform two original compositions on bass flute, bamboo flute, Ngoni (West African bass harp) and Rav hand pan drum from their home studio in Santa Fe, NM
2. Tamir Hargana will perform traditional Mongolian music with a fusion mix, using a loop pedal to perform throat singing and multi Mongolian instruments from his home/studio in Chicago
3. Film artist Rodney Evans will present from his home in Brooklyn, NY an excerpt from his short drama, BILLY AND AARON about gay African-American composer/pianist Billy Strayhorn
4. Pianist Paul Fejko will play a mysterious and creepy improvisation inspired Zombies, Dragons and Vampires, from Andrea’s Salon
5. The Auger Trio featuring Adah Kaplan, violin/composer, Caroline Kratz, viola and Sean Liu, cello will perform Adah’s “Sh’veekeen, Sh’veeteen” from Andrea’s Salon in Philadelphia
6. Violinist Mitchell Newman will perform Eugene Ysaye’s 4th Sonata (I) and Touch of the Master’s Hand by Lucas Richman from Andrea’s Salon
7. Sammy Shuster (vocals/piano) and Lexie Diallo (viola) will perform 2 pieces from their love-song medley entitled “Sparks” from Andrea’s Salon
8. Fahad Siadat, solo voice/electronics will perform “The Wild Oaks”, from My House Is Not My House with librettist Renée Reynolds from Fahad’s home in Los Angeles
9. Composer/Sound artist Paul Schuette will perform a solo free improvisation on electric guitar from his home in Philadelphia
10. Carol Morgan-Eagle and Daniel Pretends Eagle will perform 2 original ghost songs from their home high in the mountains of Northern New Mexico
Performer Bios, Program Information, and Link for Donations
Below you will find links that some of the performers have included where you can buy music and other merchandise, find additional content, or make a donation. Please consider supporting these musicians for donating their time and artistry this evening!
During these trying times for performers, your contributions are greatly appreciated.
For donations please click here, where you could contribute to the most current performance. To donate to specific performers, please see the links under their bios for the SZALON in which they performed.
Donations for the current SZALON will be collected on behalf of all performers by our fiscal sponsor, Crossroads Music. For questions about donations, please contact Gerardo Razumney at Zalon.Donations@AOL.com.
The SZALON is a labor of love. All team members are volunteering their time, including Andrea, who is also covering expenses. You may contribute to cover part of the SZALON expenses, by indicating this on the PayPal donation form.
Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy
Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy are married musical partners who create original instrumental music that is ethereal and exotic, soulful and healing and “sensual and serene,” as described by Billboard Magazine. They have released six critically acclaimed albums that have garnered them numerous prestigious international awards such as the Independent Music Awards (twice), International Acoustic Music Awards, Los Angeles Music Awards, New Mexico Music Awards, Akademia Music Awards, Global Music Awards, Peace Song Awards and most recently the Native American Style Flute Awards (album of the year). Their recordings have been licensed for hundreds of film, television, commercial and video productions and was featured on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. Appreciated for its sacred, relaxing and heart opening qualities, their works can be heard on numerous healing soundtracks and was chosen by the pharmaceutical company Genentech who created a CD with a compilation of their pieces that was distributed to over 50,000 cancer patients to aid in their recovery. Suzanne and Gilbert live in Santa Fe where they raise their teenage son Miles, two cats and a coop of chickens.
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MysticJourneyMusic/about/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1fI91xqYyNyyq1DeYfFRAS
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCW23w6odIMI-KsfBKPratQ/videos
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/suzanne-teng/4584499
Recent virtual concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeMeoqMaNDQ&t=824s
Tamir Hargana
Tamir Hargana, now based in Chicago, IL, was born in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia and is a world-class performer of Mongolian and Tuvan music. He received his M.A. in World Music Performance from Northern Illinois University in 2017 and received his undergraduate degree from Inner Mongolia University Arts College with a specialty in throat singing (khöömii). He one of the only active performers of khöömii in the United States and is also a multi-instrumentalist, accompanying himself on traditional instruments from Mongolia and Tuva, such as the morin khuur (Mongolian horse-head fiddle), tovshuur (Mongolian plucked lute), doshpuluur (Tuvan plucked lute) and igil (Tuvan fiddle). Tamir has won numerous awards and prizes at throat singing competitions held in Mongolia, Tuva, and in Shilingol, Inner Mongolia, and Manzhouli, China. He has presented concerts, presentations, and workshops across the U.S., Mongolia, Russia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and China.
Website: tamirhargana.com
Venmo: @Tamir-Hargana
Video:
Rodney Evans
Rodney Evans is an award-winning fiction and documentary film writer, director and producer with over two decades of experience in the field. His debut fiction feature Brother To Brother won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize in Drama. It premiered internationally at the Berlinale and garnered four Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best First Film, Best First Screenplay, Best Debut Performance for Anthony Mackie and Best Supporting Actor for Roger Robinson. Evans has received funding from The Guggenheim Fellowship Program, The Ford Foundation’s JustFilms Program, The Creative Capital Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The NY State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Black Public Media (BPM). His latest feature documentary, Vision Portraits, celebrated its World Premiere at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival and won the Award for Best Documentary at Frameline-The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival in 2019 and the Award for Artistic Achievement at Outfest 2019. It played theatrically in major U.S. cities from August to October 2019. It aired nationally on America ReFramed and screened virtually for a week at the Whitney Museum in July 2020. Other directing credits include The Happy Sad, Billy and Aaron, The Unveiling, Close To Home and Two Encounters. Rodney was recently honored with the 2019 Frameline Award for Career Achievement and was a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow. He is a Ford/Mellon Disability Futures Fellow for 2021.
https://www.rodneyevansfilm.com
Frameline Award Presentation Video 2019:
BROTHER TO BROTHER trailer:
VISION PORTRAITS trailer: https://www.newday.com/film/vision-portraits
Fully tax deductible donations to support production of DAY DREAM, the feature length version of BILLY AND AARON: https://my.filmforum.org/donate/i/21
(then go to Evans under A through I). Cast- BILLY-O-T Fagbenle (THE HANDMAID'S TALE), AARON-Charlie Barnett (RUSSIAN DOLL)
Paul Fejko
Composer/Conductor/Keyboardist Paul Fejko lives locally at his performance space in Chester, PA known as The André Café Acoustique from where he has been giving regular 1/2 hour FaceBook LIVE (facebook.com/paul.fejko) Covid Sequestration and Semisequestration MiniConzerts every Friday at 9pm EST since this Covid Voyage began in March. He is music director of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church, a musician with the Muhlenberg College school of Theatre and Dance, and founder of the Chester Performing Arts Project. His specialty is provoking and challenging audiences with an unpredictable, eclectic and capricious approach to both classical repertoire and improvisation.
Information can be found at www.fejko.com and www.ande-cafe.com where also donation (enormously appreciated!!) links can be found. A lot more of his work can be found at soundcloud.com/paulfejko, youtube.com/paulfejko and youtube.com/andrecafeacoustique.
Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=UQF7EPPDUT83S
The Ben and Carol Auger Contemporary Music Ensemble
The Ben and Carol Auger Contemporary Music Ensemble, a Settlement Music School advanced studies ensemble, is dedicated to the exploration, rehearsal and performance of music by living composers.
Sean Liu, cellist:
A passionate cellist since 8 years old, Sean Liu is currently a senior at Montgomery High School in Skillman, NJ. Outside of exploring classical and contemporary cello works, he enjoys playing the piano, going on park strolls with his family, and investigating the natural sciences.
Caroline Kratz, viola:
Caroline Kratz, a senior at Penncrest High School, has been playing the viola for 6 years, and is currently studying with Che-Hung Chen. She is also principle violist with the Philadelphia Sinfonia Orchestra.
Adah Kaplan, violin/composer:
Inspired by all of the music present in everyday life, Adah Kaplan is an avid composer-violinist from the Philadelphia suburbs and is in tenth grade at Germantown Academy. She is primarily fueled through artistic collaboration and conversation of all sorts, but also participates in several science fairs, holds the News Desk Editor position for her school newspaper, and loves coffee, food, fashion, and independently roaming Philadelphia.
Description of "Sh'veekeen, Sh'veeteen"; Adah Kaplan, composer: -- specifically written for the Auger Trio -- tells the heart-wrenching yet powerful story of Kol Nidre, as well as reflects on why we continue to observe the holy night in synagogues today, incorporating aspects of Western classical music, prayer, and contemporary and ancient Jewish music.
6-minute clip of the Auger Trio performing Tom Whitman's "The Storm": The clip begins at 55'.55''
Mitchell Newman
Violinist Mitchell Newman retired from the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2020. During his 34-year career, he worked with many of the world’s great conductors including music directors Andre Previn, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel, and guest conductors Simon Rattle, Kurt Sanderling, Herbert Blomstedt, Thomas Wilkins, Eric Leinsdorf, Zubin Mehta, Emmanuelle Haim, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Simone Young, and Valery Gergiev. A passionate advocate for bringing music to underserved communities, Mr. Newman founded “Harmony: Music for Mental Health”, a chamber music/fundraising concert for Mental Health America Long Beach. In 2010 he was named a mental health hero by the California State Senate. In 2015 he started “Coming Home to Music” which brings concerts of classical chamber music and jazz concerts to people who were experiencing homelessness, now living in apartment complexes built by People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Through his close friendship with MacArthur Grant Awardee and Street Symphony founder Vijay Gupta, Mr. Newman has played many concerts for people living in Los Angeles’ Skid Row and those in incarcerated communities. Also a dedicated teacher, Mr. Newman was deeply involved in the LA Phil’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program providing its students private lessons, master classes, and conducting string sectionals. For more than a decade he planned, curated, conducted, and hosted, in English and Spanish, an annual concert featuring YOLA students and LA Philharmonic members playing side-by-side. Mr. Newman is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. Currently, he resides in Philadelphia, teaching an orchestra repertoire class for violinists at the Curtis Institute of Music and working for Play On Philly and the Settlement Music School. He looks forward to playing chamber music and teaching in the diverse communities of the city.
Sammy Shuster and Lexie Diallo
Sammy Shuster is a social worker, musician, and organizer that was born and raised in Philadelphia. She performs in several quirky music projects and has organized and curated many art shows. She is the mother of a beautiful little boy.
Lexie Diallo started playing the violin when she was five, and picked up the viola sometime after that. She has played in casual string quartets and less casual orchestras in such places as Oregon, Boston, France, and Mt. Airy, and currently resides in West Philadelphia with her five-year-old son and a growing collection of Transformers action figures.
Fahad Siadat
Fahad Siadat creates interdisciplinary storytelling works, folding together words, sound, and movement into ritualistic narratives. His work is described by the press as “Exceptional” (LA Times), “hypnotic” (Backstage) and having “a sophisticated harmonic vocabulary” (San Diego Story) with “characteristic vivaciousness” (Theatre Scene). His music has been performed in Europe, China, and across the United States. Fahad is the artistic director of The Resonance Collective, a multi-disciplinary organization exploring the intersection of artistic and spiritual practice.
To hear his work visit www.fahadsiadat.com
To follow/support Fahad:
Join his newsletter: http://eepurl.com/guxL1H
Support his new oratorio the conference of the birds by making a donation to The Resonance Collective: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/resonance-collective-productions
Paul Schuette
Paul Schuette is a composer, sound artist, and improviser living and working in Philadelphia, PA. According to Citybeat Cincinnati, he creates “works of art that address multiple senses simultaneously and thoughtfully, no matter the context.” Working in a variety of media, Paul’s music has been performed by the Network for New Music, loadbang ensemble, CCM Wind Ensemble, Percussion Group Cincinnati, Brianna Matzke, and Eric Derr. As an artist in residence, Paul has worked at the Willapa Bay AiR, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, UCross Foundation, Experimental Sound Studio, Signal Culture and the Avaloch Farm Music Institute. He actively performs as a member of llama/lama, a modular synthesis duo with composer Quinn Collins, and Vaster Than Empires, an electroacoustic trio with Erica Dicker, violin, and Allen Otte, percussion. Paul’s collaborative, The Warp Whistle Project, with painter Mary Laube has been exhibited in Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, Knoxville, Bloomington-Normal, Detroit, Hong Kong, and Daejon, Korea. As an Assistant Professor at The University of the Arts, Paul curates a concert series, ‘Out of the Box’, which showcases visiting artists working in experimental, electronic, and improvised mediums. www.paulschuette.com
Sign up for his newsletter 'The Rackett' - https://paulschuette.substack.com/
Network for New Music performance:
Carol Morgan-Eagle and Daniel Pretends Eagle
Husband and wife duo, Carol Morgan-Eagle and Daniel Pretends Eagle have been writing and performing music together for over 20 years. After meeting in the music scene of Los Angeles in the 80’s, they moved to Taos, New Mexico where the inspiring beauty of the vast landscape and rich history of the Southwest have found their way into their music. Performing both nationally and internationally, they have also composed music for the Albuquerque Museum exhibit “Only In Albuquerque “ and appeared in the movie starring Paul Rudd, "Ideal Home". From Gabe Gomez of The Santa Fe New Mexican - "One of New Mexico's most exciting acts....Bone Orchard symbolizes the romantized spirit of the west...and finds the hidden beauty amongst the sand and the stones, redefining Americana".
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