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Hi folks, I'll be performing video improvisations at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge this coming Friday. Dennis is a fine, multifaceted young saxophonist and composer -- this promises to be a fun and enlightening evening, DENNIS SHAFER AND FRIENDS SAY, "YES WE CAN!" : FIVE WORLD PREMIERES Featuring The VOX 4 String Quartet, Shafer Saxophone Quartet, Sounds in Bloom, Dr. T, and more FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH AT 7:30PM-FREE ADMISSION JEWITT HALL, FIRST CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, HARVARD SQUARE T-STOP Dennis Shafer proudly presents composers Claudio Gabriele (Rome, Italy), Paul Klein (Yale University), David Krebs (Lawrence, Kansas), Julie Case (Vermont), and Anthony Solitro (Worcester) in a concert featuring some of the most original and innovative performing and visual artists of our time. This non-stop fringe performance brings together the most wonderful musical and artistic experiences Dennis Shafer has had in Boston since arriving from Paris in 2007. Cross-disciplinary experiences from poetry to video art, music inspired by sculpture and then turned to poetry, and work with composers exploring new performance techniques and sounds are Dennis Shafer and Friends hope to share with you! Collaborators: www.myspace.com/brexmusic David Krebs electronic music www.myspace.com/vox4stringquartet VOX4 String Quartet www.myspace.com/claudiogabriele Claudio Gabriele, composer www.julietcase.com Juliet Case, Composer www.myspace.com/tonysolitro Anthony Solitro, composer www.myspace.com/dnorma Diana Norma Szokolyai, Sounds in Bloom, performance artist www.foryourhead.com Emile "Dr. T" Tobenfeld, Spontaneous Video Art PERFORMERS AND BIOS Dennis Shafer, Saxophonist In 2008, Dennis Shafer was presented a Legacy Award by Meryl Streep from the Creativity Foundation. A native of Lawrence, Kansas, he recently lived in Paris, France where he studied with contemporary saxophonist Jean-Michel Goury. In Paris, Dennis worked with several great composers and saxophonists, including Francois Rosse, Etienne Rolin, Yosh'ko Seffer, Francois Coutinaud, and Rico Gubler. He also premiered works by Robert Lemay, Jacques Hetu, Yosh'ko Seffer, and toured with various ensembles across France, as well as Austria and Hungary. Dennis Shafer is the founder and co-founder of several groups, including Le Tapis Volant, Sounds in Bloom, the Skyline Quintet, the Back Bay Saxophone Quartet and the Opus Jazz Duo. He returned to Boston in 2007 where he has premiered works by Robert Morris, Michael Paull, and Larry Bell for an Artist Diploma at Longy School of Music, studying with Kenneth Radnofsky. He performs regularly in Boston and also has engagements in France, Thailand, and Austrailia. Diana Norma Szokolyai, Performance Artist, Writer Diana Norma Szokolyai is a Hungarian and American author, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Her book of poetry and photography, Roses in the Snow (Imaginary Cottage Press), was runner-up for best poetry book in the 2008 national DIY Book Festival. It may be previewed and purchased at http://www.lulu.com/content/2531439. Her poetry, articles, and visual art have been published in Polarity, Up the Staircase, The Dudley Review, Human Rights Institute: Human Rights News, and other publications. She is recipient of a Human Rights Art Award from the University of Connecticut's Human Rights Institute and scholarships from the University of Connecticut and Harvard for graduate study in French studies and Arts in Education respectively. She co-directs the Cambridge Writer's Workshop and is co-founder of Sounds in Bloom (www.myspace.com/dnorma), an internationally performing poetry-music-movement-art collaborative that performs in theaters, bookstores, concert halls, art galleries, educational institutions, and secret places. Together with saxophonist/composer Dennis Shafer (co-founder), they collaborate with artists across the U.S. and Europe, and give workshops to children and adults. With Sounds in Bloom, she has performed at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Zeitgeist Outpost Art Gallery (Cambridge), Mobius Center for Experimental Art (Boston), Tenri Cultural Institute (New York), The Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music (Cambridge), and in other venues including spoken word open-mics and artistic "salons" in Paris,Vienna, and Budapest. Composers that have either written music for her texts or commissioned poems for their music include David Krebs (U.S.), Jason Haye (UK), Peter James (UK), Claudio Gabriele (Italy), and Juliet Case (U.S.) Jennifer Bill, Saxophone Saxophonist, Dr. Jennifer Bill performs solo and chamber music with a variety of groups around southern New England, including the Back Bay Saxophone Quartet (www.backbayquartet.com). She has performed contemporary chamber music with a variety of artists including vocalists, clarinetists, cellists, flutists, taped media, percussionists and dancers. In December of 2005, Dr. Bill was a guest soloist with the Boston University Wind Ensemble, performing John Harbison's San Antonio. In the spring of 2006 she was a guest conductor with the Providence College concert band. She has premiered numerous pieces for saxophone including Reflection by Michael Kregler in 2007, The Miraculous Tale for saxophone and derabucca by Halim El-Dabh as part of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres in 2007, and works by Howard Frazin and Shih-Hui Chen as part of Worldwide Concurrent Premieres in 2005. She has participated in national and world conferences including the World Saxophone Congress in 2003, the North American Saxophone Alliance national conference in 2000 and the North American Saxophone Alliance regional conference in 2005. Dr. Bill is currently a Lecturer in Saxophone at Boston University, a Special Lecturer in Music at Providence College (theory, ear training, saxophone, and chamber music), and a Faculty member at The Boston Conservatory (liaison between Boston Conservatory and the Boston Arts Academy). She is also the Saxophone Instructor, Wind Ensemble Coordinator, and Saxophone Workshop assistant for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Dr. Bill also serves on the International Advisory Board for World-Wide Concurrent Premiers and Commissioning Funds, Inc. Dr. Bill received her education from Providence College (BA), The Boston Conservatory (MM) and Boston University (MusAD). Her teachers have included Kenneth Radnofsky, Christopher Kelton and Carrie Koffman. Along with her musical passions Dr. Bill is also an athlete and a coach. She captained her Division I ice hockey team during her undergraduate time at Providence College and was an assistant coach for Northeastern University's women's ice hockey team from 2001 to 2004. She also coached ice hockey camps and clinics for young players from 1997-2006. Jon Amon, Saxophone Jon Amon is a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education degree and studied saxophone with Michael Bazan, Robert Wilkerson, and Matthew Sintchak. He continued his studies with Jean-Michel Goury at the Conservatoire National de Region de Boulogne-Billancourt. He has appeared as a chamber musician around the Midwest and has performed as a soloist at NASA Region III and Region V conferences and at the most recent World Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Amon has also taught music in the school districts of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin and Arlington, Massachusetts. Currently he is a student of Ken Radnofsky at the New England Conservatory where he is pursuing a Master of Music degree in saxophone performance. Claudio Gabriele, Composer Claudio Gabriele was born in Rome in 1963, completed his studies at St Cecilia Conservatory and Istituto Pontificio di Musica Sacra in Rome where he obtained degrees with Emphasis in Composition, Electroacoustic Music, Conducting, Piano, Organ, Harpsichord and Gregorian Chant. Subsequently, he studied composition and conducting with George Benjamin at the National Academy of St Cecilia, with Klaus Huber in Avignon, and Ivan Fedele at the Strasbourg's National Regional Conservatory, where he achieved the Diplôme d'Etudes Musicales. From 1997 to 2004 he had many residencies in computer music at IRCAM (Paris) with Ferneyhough, Lindberg, Harvey, Rebotier, Levinas; afterwards studied electronic music with Risset, Roads, Terruggi and Di Giugno at the Centre for Musical Research in Rome. In 2003 Claudio Gabriele won the first prize of the International Electroacoustic Music Contest Musica Nova (Prague) with the acousmatic composition "Ombra nell'azzurro"; in 2006 he won an award at the International Composition Contest "Music in the Garden" (Krakow). To promote and expand interactive performances of music, dance, images and electroacoustic sounds he founded the Synthesis Ensemble in 1996. From 1994 to 2003, Claudio Gabriele had an intense collaboration as composer and guest lecturer with the New York University, consequently collaborated with the Juilliard School (New York), the Vanderbilt University (Nashville) and the Universities of Strasbourg and Montpellier(France).From 2005 to 2008 he was Composer in Residence at Conservatories of Aix-en-Provence, Nîmes and Paris (France), where he received numerous commissions for solo, duo, trio, ensemble, and large symphony orchestra. Since 2005 he has been involved in Musical Theatre, writing his own librettos, and now has three works in his catalogue of this genre, commissioned and performed by leading ensembles (S.I.C., Reflex, Les Jeunes Voix du Rhin, Musiques Nouvelles). Claudio Gabriele is at present professor on Composition, Analysis and Electroacoustic Music in the Department of Music and New Technologies at the State's Conservatory of Benevento (Italy). Gabriele's works are published by "Les Editions du Tourdion" (Strasbourg-France), "Musicare" (Nimes-France), "Grenzland-Verlag" (Aachen-Germany), and "Studio Musicale Arcangelo" (Roma-Italy). His music is released on CD by "Rivoalto" (Venezia), SMA (Roma), interpreted by celebrated artists and performed worldwide in prestigious places or on the occasion of important international festivals. Emile Tobenfeld, Video Artist Emile Tobenfeld, AKA "Dr T" is an improvising video artist who prefers to work with improvising musicians who can see my projected images. His video is derived from photographic and video sources (as a still photographer since 1970), sometimes processed beyond recognition using software including Boris Red, Boris Continuum, After Effects and Photoshop. He brings the images to shows on DVD's and run 4 or 5 DVD players, 3 switchers, and a percussion controller to trigger some of the switcher effects.He has also composed/improvised a great deal of electronic music over the years, though he has concentrated my artistic efforts exclusively on video during the last 3 years. He is known (in some circles) as the founder of Dr T's Music Software and the author of the uniquely powerful KCS Omega sequencer. His current day job is writing video effects code for Boris FX.His influences include free jazz, light shows and experimental films, the photography of Minor White, the paintings of Kandinsky, the music of John Coltrane and the Grateful Dead, and his education as a physicist. Juliet Case, Composer Juliet Case was passionate about music from an early age. She learned folk guitar and classical piano from her father, and began writing songs at age twelve. She began her formal compositional training at Bennington College, studying with Allen Shawn and Stephen Siegel. She received a master of music in composition in May 2008 from the Longy School of Music, where she studied composition with John Morrison. Juliet is co-founder of "Juddertone", an organization dedicated to supporting the collaboration of composers and choreographers by producing an annual show premiering all new work. Juliet is interested in taking risks in her compositions, and experiments with new sounds for traditional instruments, extended techniques, and electronic music. ========== Dennis Shafer www.dennisshafer.com 785-979-8675 7 Hearn Street Watertown, MA -- My photography can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22231918@N06/collections/72157603627170351/ My videos can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/Tobenfeld Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D. Video Producer Image Processing Specialist Video for your HEAD! Boris FX http://www.foryourhead.com http://www.borisfx.com " Practice makes perfect, imperfect is better." -- Paul Bley