Join us in our Sanctuary for a concert featuring piano works, vocal canons, and other songs by the maverick composer Moondog performed by trimbist/vocalist Julian Calv, pianist Alex Stewart, and vocalist/percussionist Sarah Penna.
Louis Hardin AKA Moondog composed music creating an unexpected link between the resurgent science of counterpoint, Arapaho, Navajo, Blackfoot, and Sioux rhythms and song forms, the art of jazz improvisation, and the beginnings of a meditatively repetitive and minimalist aesthetic. The concert spans Moondog’s career with selections from The Last Concert, Moondog: Piano Trimba, A New Sound Of An Old Instrument, Moondog (1956), Moondog On The Streets of New York; and includes background about the music from Julian- who studied with Moondog’s only student, Stefan Lakatos.
ARTIST BIOS:
Louis T. Hardin AKA Moondog was an American composer, musician, performer, music theoretician, poet and inventor of musical instruments. Largely self-taught as a composer he composed music with an unexpected link between the resurgent science of counterpoint, Arapaho, Navajo, Blackfoot, and Sioux rhythms and song forms, the art of jazz improvisation, and the beginnings of a repetitive and minimalist aesthetic. His strongly rhythmic, contrapuntal pieces and arrangements were recognized by Igor Stravinsky and other contemporaries; and influenced American minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Due to an accident, Moondog was blind from the age of 16. He lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1974, during which time he was often found on Sixth Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, selling records, composing, and performing poetry. He briefly appeared in a cloak and horned helmet during the 1960s and was hence recognized as "the Viking of Sixth Avenue" by passersby and residents who were not aware of his musical career.
Julian Calv is an American composer, singer, and trimbist. Born February 18 1999 in New Brunswick, NJ, Julian grew up in Bethlehem Township, NJ. He graduated from Moravian University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Music focusing on composition, education, and classical piano. While there he studied piano with Barbara Thompson and Dan DeChellis. In 2021 he completed an independent study of 20th c. American composer Louis T. Hardin, AKA Moondog's, creative life. Throughout the course of this impactful project he established an apprenticeship with Stefan Lakatos. Self proclaimed as Moondog’s grand-student, Julian is the sole prodigy of Stefan Lakatos– who is “the leading [and only] exponent of the Moondog method of drumming.” Quote Moondog himself. Calv traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, in 2022 to meet Stefan and understand this tradition first hand. Through both this mentorship and dedicated study of Moondog's creative life, he upholds Louis’ dying wish to “please take care of my music.” Following Stefan's death in 2023, Julian continued through 2024 with projects featuring solely the music of Moondog and himself.
Alex Stewart is a musician, architect, and man about town. This year's musical projects include: Darkness to Light, a recital in January with violinist Charlotte Perkins. In April 2024, he led the Kearsarge Community Band in regional premieres of Carmen Fantasy for Symphonic Band (Bizet/Suzuki) and Howl's Moving Castle Fantasy (Hisaishi/Kojima). He’s played in “MOONDOG: On The Keys” since November 2024.
Sarah Penna is a dynamic artist who feels most at home deep in the intersection of education, the arts, and the natural world. She synergizes her love of Nature, Music, and Community in all corners of her life, professionally and personally. With her heart and eyes wide open, she savors every new experience, collecting them each like tiles in the game of Life. Sarah is many things; a New Englander, lover, daughter, poet, singer, park ranger, Girl Scout, forest bather, herbalist, gardener, and more, but above all she is unabashedly herself.
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