April 18th ZALON Program

PARKER TRIO

Jon Ballantyne - piano
Gene Perla - bass
Adam Nussbaum - drums
Link: http://PMRecords.com/

Jon Ballantyne started playing piano at an early age in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He attended North Texas State University and has performed and/or recorded with Pepper Adams, Al Cohn, Roy Haynes, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Mingus Big Band, Clark Terry, and Phil Woods. He has conducted educational clinics at Sibelius Academy, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Northern Colorado, McGill University, University of Toronto, and Concordia University. He received Juno Awards for the albums Sky Dance and Avenue Standard.

Gene Perla was born and raised in New Jersey where he studied classical piano and trombone. After attending Berklee School of Music he moved to New York and began his musical career as a jazz bassist. He has performed and/or recorded with Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Elvin Jones, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Joni Mitchell, Buddy Rich, Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Stone Alliance, and Sarah Vaughan. In the early 1970's he formed music publishing and record companies, and his group “Stone Alliance” traveled to South America and Europe which gave him experience in management and booking. Other efforts include Broadway sound design (Tony Award for “City of Angels”), recording studio operations, and Webmaster for the Jazz Education Network. He is currently playing his basses, producing records, running an Internet design and hosting company, and teaching music business and other subjects at Lehigh University and The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School University. 

Adam Nussbaum was born in New York City, grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut and began playing drums at the age of four. After five years of piano lessons he studied music at the City College of New York. He has performed with David Liebman, John Scofield, Stan Getz, Gil Evans Orchestra, Gary Burton, and Toots Thielemans. He has kept active in a wide variety of groups and as a freelance musician. His recording debut as leader was with The Lead Belly Project issued by Sunnyside Records.

Valerie V. Gay

Valerie V. Gay is a recording/performing artist and thought leader. While a classically trained soprano, Val is an active performer across several genres, having performed in several small and large concert halls, including solo performances from churches across the country to Carnegie Hall. In 2021, Val began releasing singles from her first solo recording project “Re-Purposed + Re-Positioned” which is comprised of original music she’s written across a few musical genres. Val has been a serial entrepreneur since 2006, beginning with Fortress Arts Academy which provides arts and skill building lessons to children and adults, especially those in underserved communities. Other companies and organizations under Val’s leadership include, Syncopate Advisors co-founded with Steve Pappaterra, a firm that works with leaders and organizations to own and share their authentic stories, Davis Gay + Associates co-founded with Kelly Davis, a firm which provides targeted support for nonprofit and social venture organizations that seek to solve societal problems, the EVER Ensemble, a collective of women musicians who perform diverse musical genres, from classical to hip hop, Soul-Full Affirmations, which combines mindfulness practices with music to create a personalized product to assist clients in reaching their goals, and Fuse Vox, an apparel line which brings cultures together to create afresh take on traditional pieces. In 2019, Val received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from St. Joseph’s University, and has earned a Professional Studies Certificate and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of the Arts and completed degree course work at Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. 

Val’s YouTube Channel
Val’s Website
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valgaysings/

You can Support Val at (thanks in advance!):
Cash App: $ValGay215
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/valgay

Luiz Simas

Composer / singer / pianist Luiz Simas was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1948. He performed and recorded with some of the greatest Brazilian artists, and many of his original compositions were recorded in Brazil and abroad. He studied classical piano, and was a founding member of bossa-nova and rock groups in Brazil. He was the first musician in Rio to use a synthesizer. He composed and recorded the trademark signal for TV Globo, Brazil’s largest TV network. Luiz moved to New York in 1989, and has since then performed in venues such as the Birdland Jazz club, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Room and the Iridium in New York, the Gamle Logen Hall in Oslo, the Pheasantry in London, the Phillarmonia Hall in Odessa and Sala Cecilia Meirelles in Rio. He’s performed in Jazz Festivals in the US, Norway, Ukraine and Brazil. He has been touring Europe regularly since 2015. During the pandemic he has been doing online shows on Youtube Premiere. A prolific composer, many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, both in Brazil and in the US. Simas formed with brilliant Brazilian guitarist Wesley Amorim the Simas & Amorim Duo. Their new CD “Deuce” was released in 2019 with a concert at the Birdland Theater. His style is influenced by classical music, jazz, rock, choro, bossa-nova and other genres of popular Brazilian music.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/luizsimasmusic?sub_confirmation=1
Website: www.luizsimas.com
Donations: paypal.me/luizsimas
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0cC7HvFboyVk1gZJ3MY9DQ?si=ss1cSPZsRF25Z_7y-OW2sA

Aaron Larget-Caplan

Aaron Larget-Caplan is an international recording and touring guitarist, who has premiered over 80 compositions. He is the founder and director of ¡Con Fuego! – a Spanish classical music & flamenco dance trio, and the commissioning-performance endeavor the New Lullaby Project, which has premiered over 65 compositions from 10 countries. Aaron's groundbreaking arrangements and recordings of the music of John Cage are issued by Edition Peters and Stone Records (UK). Aaron has multiple critically acclaimed solo recordings: Tracing a wheel on water (2006), New Lullaby (2010), The Legend of Hagoromo (2015), John. Cage. Guitar. (2018), Nights Transfigured (2020), Drifting (June 2021), and he is featured as a soloist and chamber music on four other albums for Albany, Navona, and American Composers Alliance record labels. He is a Stone Records recording artists since 2015.

Aaron lectures regularly on writing for guitar and creating commissioning projects. An advocate for classical music in schools Aaron performs educational programs and directs multiple music series that aim to take classical music into communities.

Aaron is on faculty at University of Massachusetts Boston and formerly Boston Conservatory. He has received numerous awards and grants for his performances, commissions and for bringing music into communities from the American Composers Forum, Massachusetts Cultural Council, New England Foundation For the Arts, the D'Addario Foundation, and the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation. He was awarded as an I.D. LOTT – Identifying Future Leaders of Today and Tomorrow for his artistic and community work in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and he is an ACME Honoree for being a distinguished Artist and Educator by the international professional music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon. He received recognition for his groundbreaking work from the Société Académique Arts-Sciences-Lettres of Paris, France, and was Musician in Residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Tonight he will perform the Philadelphia Premiere of Tracing a wheel on water by Kevin Siegfried and Un Limosna Por El Amor De Dios by Agustín Barrios.

www.ALCGuitar.com • www.patreon.com/alcguitar • www.youtube.com/aaronlcguitar

Links:
Patreon: www.patreon.com/alcguitar
Bandcamp: https://alcguitar.bandcamp.com
Website: https://www.ALCGuitar.com

Video:
What’s On My Stand Episode 2– Kevin Siegfried’s Tracing a wheel on Water: https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-on-my-2-on-49769045?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare

Terry Eder

Pianist Terry Eder has performed to audience and critical acclaim in France, Italy, Germany, Canada, the U.S., China and Singapore, as well as major halls in NYC, including Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and Lincoln Center. The critics described her recital at Alice Tully Hall as a “fascinating performance full of life and risk.” She was further described as “a big pianist with big ideas and a warmly engaging rapport." She has given master classes and lecture/recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Oberlin Conservatory and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, among other places. She has released three CDs, including a Bartók disc that was featured in Gramophone Magazine and on David Dubal’s radio show: The Piano Matters. She is the founder and artistic director of Key Pianists, a concert series at Carnegie Hall, where she presents seasoned and inspiring performers. She and her husband commissioned and produced the opera Mila: Great Sorcerer, composed by Andrea Clearfield with libretto by Jean-Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden. At her website, you may listen to and purchase her CDs and find out more. Please visit www.terryeder.com.

Alex Shapiro

Alex Shapiro aligns note after note with the hope that at least a few of them will actually sound good next to each other. Her persistence at this activity, as well as non-fiction writing about the music business, public speaking, arts advocacy volunteerism, wildlife photography, and the shameless instigation of insufferable puns on social media, has led to a happy life. Drawing from a broad musical palette that giddily ignores genre, Alex's acoustic and electroacoustic works for small chamber groups and ridiculously large ensembles are performed and broadcast daily, and can be found on over thirty commercial released albums from record labels and artists around the world. Shapiro’s music, photography and essays can be experienced on her website, www.alexshapiro.org.

"Spark was the most challenging commission I’ve ever had, not because of the musical material, but because of its deeply emotional meaning. The piece is inspired by the life, love, energy and heart of Dale Mara Bershad, a gifted musician who often used her talents to share the joy of musical expression and wonder with young children. Mara was the profound love of the Chicago attorney who contacted me out of the blue to compose a piece in her honor. What I learned of Mara’s radiant nature led me to create not a slow elegiac piece, but one which reflects her spark of a life filled with passion and delight, burning brightly, intensely, and without end.”  - Alex Shapiro

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexshapiro
Twitter: @alex_shapiro
YouTube channel:http://www.youtube.com/ComposerAlexShapiro
Adam Marks, piano:  http://www.adammarks.com 

2020 released CD on Innova Recordings: ARCANA, the complete solo piano works of Alex Shapiro, performed by Adam Marks: https://www.alexshapiro.org/ArcanaAlbum.html 

SPARK:
https://www.alexshapiro.org/Sparkpg1.html

Weege & The Wondertwins

With wild live performances of original music, Weege & The Wondertwins channel the vintage vibes of The Kinks, Julie London, Bessie Smith, and more. Frontwoman Lexi Weege is a true vocal acrobat, leaping from dangerous, sultry growl to playful lilting in a single bound. You would be hard-pressed to find as transfixing a storyteller. Unapologetic, brazen, and boldfaced, Weege’s mastery of narrative is as thrilling as it is wrenching.

Backed by identical twins Tom and AJ DelNegro, drummer Kade Parkin, and guitarist Nick Ferrara, Weege is buoyant on the steady foundation of the self-taught Wonderboys, who lend perfect harmonies and rollicking shout choruses to originals and old favorites alike.

Their debut album “Marigold” arrived in 2017, followed by “Do I Seem Weird Lately?” in 2019, followed by what the band does best: tour. Performing hundreds of self-booked, self-promoted shows all over the country in just a few years, Weege & The Wondertwins are true seasoned professionals, and their work ethic shows.

Their albums and other info can be found at Lexiweege.com. Tips can be sent to our Venmo: lexi-wegiel or our PayPal lexiweege@yahoo.com. Our merchandise can be found at Lexiweege.bandcamp.com.

Paul Reisler

Paul Reisler has been writing songs, performing, composing, recording, and teaching songwriting for over 45 years as the leader of Trapezoid, the founder of Kid Pan Alley, Music Director for Ki Theatre, and the leader of his current groups: Paul Reisler & A Thousand Questions and Three Good Reasons. His discovery that kids make the best song co-writers led to the founding of the Kid Pan Alley. To date, he’s helped 70,000 children write close to 3,000 songs nationally and has produced 5 CDs featuring artists including Amy Grant, Sissy Spacek, Delbert McClinton, Cracker, Kix Brooks, Corey Harris and many others recording the songs he wrote with the children. The albums have received numerous awards including Parents Choice and NAPPA Gold Awards, a WAMMIE and a Grammy nomination. He’s co-written Aesop’s Fables for orchestra and Narrator as well as the script and music for two new musicals—Bouncin’ and The Talented Clementine.  Paul will be joined by vocalist Cheryl Toth, a former elementary school music teacher and Principal who works with him in Kid Pan Alley.

http://www.KidPanAlley.org, http://www.paulreisler.com

Paul has recorded many albums since his first album in 1975 as Trapezoid, Paul Reisler, and Kid Pan Alley. They are available through most music services such as Apple Music, Spotify, etc.

www.Facebook.com/KidPanAlley, www.YouTube.com/kidpan

Support Kid Pan Alley’s songwriting work with children: http://www.KidPanAlley.org/donate

Paul hosts a free Sunday night virtual concert series twice a month that has featured many well-known songwriters including Tom Paxton, Kathy Mattea, Jon Vezner, John McCutcheon, Darrell Scott, Ysaye Barnwell, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Howard Levy, and many  others.

Marion Halliday

Marion Halliday, a native Kentuckian now splitting her time between Louisville, Kentucky and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is proud purveyor of her own special blend of bluegrass and bourbon-infused, original, women-powered, Americana. While she has been a professional singer for many years, Marion only began focusing on her songwriting in the last 5 years. She released her debut solo album Rings Around Saturn on July 1, 2019 and in its first month, both the album and Marion (as artist) were ranked #3 on the US/International Folk DJ charts. Marion also had two songs in the top ten folk releases in her launch month. Even though released late year, the album also landed in the official listing of top-50 most played albums on Folk radio for 2019 at #41. Marion has appeared at venues and festivals throughout the northeast and other US locations, as well as Scotland and Mexico.

Links:  
Website
Facebook 
YouTube
Instagram
Spotify
iTunes
Soundcloud