MUSIC & FILM FESTIVAL 2014

OPENING NIGHT
FEBRUARY 26

Schnitter Jazz Quintet — The Mothers of Nature with vocalist, Marti Mabin

DAVID SCHNITTER
According to Samuel Chell, well-known jazz reviewer, David Schnitter had the longest tenure of any tenor saxophonist in Art Blakely’s Jazz Messengers. Schnitter was always present on the most exciting and memorable of Bu’s sets. Schnitter’s return to music and recording after a sabbatical of over 20 years is at once cheering and disturbing. Chell felt that Schnitter brought to a performance a huge “unconstructed” tone so disproportionate to the player’s diminuitive size, a determination to let emotion control technique instead of vice versa, and finally a passion for playing that precluded virtually any “hip” posturing …”

MARTI MABIN was born in St. Joseph Missouri, and later moved to Nebraska. Her first musical experiences were singing Gospel in the churches of St. Joseph and Omaha and Lincoln Nebraska. She moved to San Francisco where she started performing with African Highlife bands and the jazz trio Aisha. In 1979 she moved to New York. She has also toured Europe with saxophonist David Schnitter and led her own groups in Spain.

FROM THE HEART OF THE WORLD
FEBRUARY 27

ALAN EREIRA — alunathemovie@aol.com
Ereira, now an independent film-maker, worked at the BBC on television and radio from 1965 to 1996.  He contributed documentaries to the Timewatch strand amongst others. He has won a number of awards including the Japan Prize for his 1978 documentary on the Battle of the Somme, and the Royal Television Society Best Documentary Series award for his 1988 documentary on the Armada, as well as Best Script at the Missoula International Wildlife Festival for Spirit of the Jaguar (1996)
 
In 1990 he made the film From The Heart of The World: Elder Brothers’ Warning for the BBC.  This film documented his unique visits to the secretive Kogi people of Colombia, an indigenous ethnic group which survived attempts by the Spanish conquerors to destroy them by retreating high up in the mountainous area of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta where they live. These meetings were requested by the Kogi Mamas (elders, judges) in order to convey their message to the world.
 
Aluna is the sequel to that film, designed for theatric release.  It was made at the Kogis’ request, and with Kogi working in the film crew. The Kogi Mamas are even more frightened by our destruction of nature than they were in 1990.  It is apparent to them that the world did not heed their original warning in the first documentary. This, they believe, may well be our last chance.
 
Ereira produced and directed Terry Jones’ documentary series Crusades (1995), Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004) and Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006), with whom he also co-authored the respective companion books.
 
In 2004 he also presented, wrote and produced a 6-part documentary series on the Kings and Queens of England for UKTV History.  He is currently writing an account of the life of a 17th century dancing master, poet and cosmographer, John Ogilby.

JOE CROSS, SAG/AFTRA
Caddo Nation of Oklahoma
Joe's television includes SNL, CBS Sunday Morning, David Letterman, Cosby, Spin City, One Life to Live, Chris Rock, The Whitest Kids I Know, LA Law, and webisodes yet to be found.

Film: Creating Karma, The Storyteller, BuzzKill, The War That Made America, The Story of the Pequot War, Royal Tanenbaum, Kinsey, A Thousand Roads (NMAI, Smithsonian), Natives (NYU), Smoke Break (NYU).

Theater: The History of Asking the Wrong Question (North Fourth St Theatre), God Steeling, White Woman Street (Daelaus), Inktomi (Public), Harvest Ceremony (Smithsonian), Earth, Sun & Moon (Lincoln Center), and Broadway Melody 1492 (Ohio Theater).

Awards: SAG Cultural Award, Fort Monmouth Heritage Award, Bergen CC Historic Award, WTC-Wiping Away the Tears-Four Year Blessing.

Thank you Encompass and Nancy.  May no obstacles be placed in your path.

DONNA COUTEAU BROOKS
Sac and Fox Nation, recently portrayed The Woman Warrior in "Violence the 2nd Generation" for Spiderwoman at LaMama.   She toured for seven months in Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers at Penumbra and Trinity Rep. Donna starred as the elder "Te Ata" in the World Premiere at USAO. She appeared with the Rehearsal Club at the York Theater in "Union Women at Work", as well as the Leafarrow Storytellers at Symphony Space, Wave Hill and the Central Park Conservancy.
Donna also serves on the Board of Directors for American Indian Community House.

Thank you Nancy and all at Encompass for this wonderful opportunity! 

REGGIE HERB DANCER CEASER
Sagamore, Matinnecock Tribal Nation of Long Island Medicine Chief of the Turkey Clan

Reggie is Native American, African American, Dutch, And English. He and his family are active members of the Native American community in New York. Reggie is a member of the World Flute Society and teaches Native American flute, drumming, and music.  For the last three years, Chief Reggie has been the resident medicine man at the Paumanauke Pow Wow in Long Island. It takes place in August. He has studied Native American music with Louis Mofsie and the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers as well as with the Four Winds drum group (Grace Gathering Flowers and Arnold Greenberg. 

Reggie has studied Native American flute with Gerra Clark and John Sarantos who were NAMA nomomies and has performed in concert with John Sarantos.  Reggie Herb Dancer has played flute, drummed told stories and shared his culture with schools, museums colleges and at events. Reggie has danced at a number of pow wows in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Washington D.C. and has been awarded 2nd and 3rd place at the Mohegan Wigwam Festival 2011and 2012 in Connecticut.

Films include A Documentary Feature -The Lost Spirits by Meryea Media Productions, and Massage, An Inside Story by Vision Keeper Films. He has also been featured in two books: Native Americans Today by Hirschielder/Beamer, and Our Common Ground: Portaits of Blacks Changing the Faces of America by Bruce Canies
 
Walk In Balance
Chief Reggie Herb Dancer

THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM
FEBRUARY 28

Jenny Stein Director  jenny@tribeofheart.org
Stein shoots, directs, edits and scores the films she co-creates with her producing partner James LaVeck. In 2000, they founded Tribe of Heart, an Ithaca, New York-based non-profit production company inspired by the idea that "one person's change of heart can change the world. Stein is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters Degree from UCLA's Independent Film and Television Producers Program, but she credits her musical training and her alternative school education as a child with influencing how and why she chooses to express herself through documentary filmmaking.

James LaVeckProducer graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University with a major in cross cultural studies. During his 20's, he spent six months traveling across India, earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, counseled inmates in the county jail, tutored pregnant teens, and wrote a novel about the generational impact of family violence. While he didn't realize it at the time, he was getting the education he needed to produce documentary films on the subjects of conscience and compassion.

LaVeck interviews all the subjects who appear in Tribe of Heart's documentaries, using a unique interactive style that recreates the experience of an extended late-night conversation with a trusted friend, the kind of one-to-one sharing that can lead to emotional and intellectual breakthroughs. "My role models as a producer are those who successfully merge the creative arts with the healing arts," says LaVeck. "Documentary subjects know when you respect them, when you are listening not only with a sincere interest in understanding who they really are, but also with faith in the person who they are trying to become. Likewise, audiences intuitively know what you think of them and what you hope for them, and they make choices accordingly about how deeply to participate in the viewing experience."

Tribe of Heart films directed by Stein and produced by LaVeck have appeared in 77 festivals around the world, where they have won 18 awards, including 4 for Best of Festival and 13 for Best Documentary. Her work with LaVeck has appeared on PBS, LinkTV and FreeSpeech TV. Stein's first film, The Witness (2000), was nominated for the Pare Lorentz award by the International Documentary Association and received CineWomen New York's Outstanding Breakthrough Documentary Award. Telling the story of a construction contractor from a violent Brooklyn neighborhood whose life is transformed by the unexpected love of a kitten, The Witness was described by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Howard Rosenberg as "One man's truth that cries out for mass exposure... may be the most important and persuasive film about animals ever made." (Los Angeles Times).

Stein's and LaVeck's films are recognized beyond the independent film community for their contribution to the public's understanding of the ethics of the human-animal relationship. Their work has been endorsed by Dr. Jane Goodall, The United Federation of Teachers, and the California Teachers Association. They received a Distinguished Guardian Award from In Defense of Animals, the Outstanding National Activist Award from the Culture and Animals Foundation, and the Search for Excellence Award from the Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education.

Naho Parrini Violinist, a native of Japan, has given numerous solo and chamber music recitals in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and Bulgaria. She received her BM from North Carolina School of the Arts, and her MM and DMA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her principal teachers include Kevin Lawrence, Mitchell Stern, Philip Setzer, and Pamela Frank. Ms. Parrini is a resident teaching artist at the Bloomingdale School of Music in New York City, and spends her summers as a violin faculty at the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont.

Richard Pearson ThomasComposer, has had works performed by the Boston Pops, Covent Garden Festival, Houston Grand Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Portland Opera, Banff Centre, Skylight Opera Theatre, and Riverside Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.  His songs have been sung in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Joe’s Pub, and the U.S. Congress. Mr. Thomas is on faculty at Teachers College/Columbia University and has taught at Yale. www.richardpearsonthomas.com

A Cow Named Cow
Presented by Rabbit Hole Theatricks
MARCH 1, 2, 8 & 9

A Cow Named Cow is a hilarious new children’s musical filled with hummable songs and catchy lyrics that teach us the importance of friends and family. When Cow is separated from his herd he meets both friend and foe and has to use teamwork to come up with a plan to stop a villain from taking over the world. This comedy is aimed to please both parents and children of all ages.

It has book and lyrics by Michael MacKenzie Wills (creator/writer/director of the MAC Award winning Operation Opera and the New York Times recommended kid’s show The Adventures of Superbunny), music by C. Colby Sachs (composer of the notorious Amy Fisher: The Musical), and is based on the “You Color It” storybook series A Cow Named Cow by award winning author Amber L. Spradlin.

A Cow Named Cow is presented by Rabbit Hole Theatricks in association with Encompass New Opera Theatre as part of the Encompass Music & Film Festival.

C. COLBY SACHS (Composer / Music Director) has music directed/re-orchestrated A Dash Of Rosemary, Evita, The Robber Bridegroom, Man Of La Mancha and Sweeney Todd for Bristol Valley Theater. Productions elsewhere include: Les Miserables, Disney's - Beauty And The Beast, High School Musical 1, Grease, Footloose, and the revue The Sweetest Sounds: American Broadway Musicals From The 1960's To The 1990's which he co-created for Old Westbury Garden Picnic Pops. As a composer he's written the scores for over twenty musicals including the notorious Amy Fisher: The Musical. He is proud to be a member of The Dramatists Guild and an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop.

MICHAEL MACKENZIE WILLS (Book & Lyrics / Director) Other children’s musicals include: The Adventures of Superbunny, Udderly Opera, and The Christmas Star Caper. Michael has also written several successful adult shows including Operation Opera, the MAC Award winning super hit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that played Off-Broadway at The York, Symphony Space, and will be making its début at Lincoln Center in April 2014. His musical Lovesick is currently in development. Non-musical plays include POE: An Introduction to Edgar Allan and Stormy Weather. His film Grinch, won honors at FILMEX, the International Film Festival in Los Angeles. He has been a member of The Actors Studio since 1992 and belongs to SDC (Society of Directors and Choreographers). Education: American Academy of Dramatic Arts, UCLA, Gordon Hunt, and Playwrights Horizons Professional Theatre Program.

AMBER L. SPRADLIN (Producer) is the author of the storybook A Cow Named Cow and the award winning Thumperino Superbunny children’s book series. She is a founding Partner with G&W Entertainment, a member of Grammy (NARAS – National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences), a graduate of the University of Washington School of Drama in Seattle, and was nominated for the Kennedy Center's Irene Ryan Acting Award.

BIDDER 70
MARCH 1

BETH AND GEORGE GAGE — Since 1993 Beth and George Gage, as Gage & Gage Productions, have created award-winning documentaries that educate, entertain, inspire and motivate viewers to become actively involved in humanitarian and environmental issues. Concentrating on the environment and social justice, Gage & Gage Productions creates compelling personal films on issues underrepresented in the current media. Together they choose the film’s subject. Beth creates the stories and writes the narration. George is responsible for the films’ stunning cinematography.

Gage & Gage Productions has completed seven long form documentaries.  These films have been distributed theatrically, on television, educationally, and for consumer DVD. They have screened in national and international markets, have won dozens of awards at national and international film festivals and have been highly acclaimed by film reviewers.

DEBORAH CIPOLLA-DENNIS — is a resident of the Town of Dryden in Upstate New York and a founding member of the Dryden Resources Awareness Coalition (DRAC). Cipolla-Dennis and other DRAC leaders successfully petitioned their small town to enact a fracking ban in 2011. Dryden’s ban was challenged by the industry in court and has been upheld twice and is awaiting review by New York State’s highest court.  Cipolla-Dennis has participated in many anti-fracking rallies, workshops, and lobbying events at the local, state, and national levels.

LA VITA DUO
JEANAI La VITA
GIACOMO La VITA
La Vita Duo is a classical guitar and soprano duo based in New York City. Founded in 2007, Jeanai and her husband Giacomo La Vita have performed in concert throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 2010, they had the honor of being invited by the United Nations in Geneva to give a concert at the Palais des Nations.  In addition to their work together in the La Vita Duo, Jeanai and Giacomo both have active careers as soloists. Individually, they have performed with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Opera New Jersey, Boston Lyric Opera, the Ravinia Festival, and Encompass New Opera Theatre. They have also both won top prizes in several national and international competitions.
 
The La Vita Duo won a 2012 Creative Grant from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance to assist in the production of the La Vita Duo’s new album, Nightfall.   Visit their website.

BAG IT
MARCH 2

Suzan BerazaDirector
Born in Jamaica and raised in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, social and environmental issues pervade Suzan's work. Her films have appeared on National Public Television and on the Documentary Channel, at Lincoln Center, and at many festivals. BAG IT, was honored as a finalist at the Puma Creative Impact Awards in Berlin, and has been televised in over thirty countries. Her current project, URANIUM DRIVE-IN, examines a proposed uranium mill in southwestern Colorado that holds the promise of jobs for some residents and the threat of widespread environmental harm for others. This film is a recipient of Sundance Institute and Chicken and Egg funding and was featured at Good Pitch and at Hot Docs Pitch Forum. It was also recently awarded the Big Sky Award (Big Sky Film Festival) and was awarded for documentary excellence by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Jeb BerrierTalent
Jeb Berrier is the host for a morning television show on Plum TV. Working for Plum, Berrier won an Emmy® Award for his coverage of the 2008 Democratic Convention. Berrier also works as an actor and director in theater, film, and television commercials and was a member of the National Shakespeare Company in New York City in the mid-1990s. He also produces the annual Telluride Comedy Festival. The popularity of BAG IT has made Jeb one of the most famous figures in environmental documentary films.

Michelle HillProducer
Michelle has only recently discovered the art of film production. She is an artist, small business owner and environmentalist. She believes that one of the most important things anyone can do to make the world a better place is to constantly gain new perspectives on life. Documentary film production has been a perfect way to integrate her many skills and talents. BAG IT is her first film.

TAKING ROOT: THE VISION OF WANGARI MAATHAI
MARCH 5

ALAN DATER
Alan Dater graduated from Goddard College in 1965 with a B.A. in Philosophy. He began his film career in New York City shortly thereafter working on documentaries as a freelance soundman and later as a director/cameraman. Many of these productions were broadcast on the major U.S. networks and include: SPAN, an Emmy Award-winning medical documentary series for NBC; The Body Human, an Emmy Award-winning medical series for CBS; and National Geographic Specials.

He has gained extensive experience in film and video from working on many productions on the arts, social issues, and education as well as for the corporate world. These productions include the feature film Hi Mom directed by Brian De Palma starring Robert De Niro; and a documentary about the country singer Johnny Cash entitled Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music. After moving to Vermont he continued his freelance career and began producing independent films. Often these films focused on the arts. They include: The Stuff of Dreams, the story of a community theater group’s creation of an elaborate, original production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, shown at INPUT in Milan; and Blanche, a portrait of the conductor, Blanche Honegger Moyse, one of the founders of the Marlboro (Vermont) Music Festival.

LISA MERTON
Lisa Merton started out her career as a weaver. She studied textile design and weaving in Scandinavia and, after returning to the U.S., worked professionally as a weaver for ten years. While studying in Norway she was inspired by a series of tapestries that depicted the occupation of Norway by the Nazis. Her intent was to weave tapestry and use it as an art form for social change but instead she ended up as a production weaver. It was not until she started making films in 1989 that she fulfilled her intent to weave images that could inspire social change. She has a Masters in Teaching English and has taught English as a second language in multi-cultural classrooms. She brings her interest in education, cultural diversity, and social change, as well as her skill as a craftsman, to the filmmaking process.

ONI BROWNDancer
A dancer and choreographer living in Brooklyn, NY. She was and Artist in residence at The Field, through the Emerging Artist Residency Program in 2012. Her current project: Orisa, is a sponsored project of Artspire, a Program of New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

LAUREN BERGERGreen Belt USA
Lauren Berger is the Communications and Operations Coordinator for the U.S. Office of the Green Belt Movement (GBM).  She joined GBM in 2012, and is responsible for donor and volunteer communication and implementing operational tasks. She is also responsible for GBM U.S.'s communication materials and processes and helps streamline GBM's global communications.  

In addition to her work at the Green Belt Movement, she is a Program Associate at Brighter Green, a non-profit action tank that works to raise awareness of and policy action on issues that span the environment, animals, and sustainability.  Prior to her work at Brighter Green and the Green Belt Movement she taught at Shanti Bhavan Children's Project in Tamil Nadu, India and at the International Rescue Committee.  She is passionate about the intersection of human rights and the environment, particularly in the developing world.  She graduated with distinction from Barnard College, Columbia University with a BA in English.

The Green Belt Movement
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) is an environmental organization that empowers communities, particularly women, to conserve the environment and improve livelihoods. GBM was founded by Professor Wangari Maathai in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK) to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing. GBM encouraged the women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store rainwater, provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their work. 

Since its founding in 1977, the Green Belt Movement has planted more than 51 million trees in Kenya while supporting women and communities throughout the country to appreciate the critical links between the health of their environment, poverty and peace.

Today, GBM's dedicated staff and volunteers are providing critical environmental leadership in Kenya through a unique watershed protection program designed to restore degraded farmlands and forests. GBM is empowering communities and strengthening civil society engagement to improve the country’s governance systems. GBM is also promoting women’s leadership in tackling the immense climate change and energy access challenges in Africa through a new U.S. Department of State-funded program, the Partnership on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Renewables -- “wPOWER” for short.

wPOWER” aims to empower more than 7,000 women clean energy entrepreneurs across East Africa, as well as Nigeria and India, to launch small businesses around technologies such as clean cookstoves and solar lighting. The Green Belt Movement’s distinctive, internationally renowned approach to grassroots engagement is improving the quality of life of rural communities by conserving local biodiversity and promoting new technologies.

THE CITY DARK
MARCH 6

IAN CHENEYDirector, Producer, Co-cinematographer, Co-editor
Ian Cheney is a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker. He grew up in New England and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Yale University. He co-created and starred in the Peabody Award-winning theatrical and PBS documentary King Corn (2007); directed the feature documentary The Greening of Southie (Sundance Channel, 2008); co-produced the Planet Green documentary Big River (2009); and directed the whimsical 2011 documentary Truck Farm, starring the farm Cheney planted in the back of his '86 Dodge pickup. He has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Men's Journal, as well as on CNN, MSNBC and ABC's Good Morning America.

Cheney is a co-founder of FoodCorps, a national service program launched in 2011 that places young people in communities of need to plant and tend school gardens, teach nutrition education and source healthful foods for school cafeterias. In 2011, Cheney and longtime collaborator Curt Ellis received the Heinz Award for their innovative approach to environmental advocacy.
An avid astrophotographer, Cheney travels frequently to show his films, lead discussions and give talks about sustainability, agriculture and the human relationship to the natural world. He is currently working on two projects: The Search for General Tso, a documentary about the cultural history of Chinese food in America, and BLUESPACE, a feature documentary about the degradation and renewal of urban waterways and the search for water in outer space.

LINDSAY RIDER Soprano
Lindsay is honored to be a part of this extraordinary evening.  An active performer and teacher, Ms. Rider was most recently seen at The Triad Theater in NYC, where she premiered her one-woman show "Uncharted".   Other roles include Petra in Stephen Sondheim's “A Little Night Music” with the Michigan Opera Theatre (debut); Adele in Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”; Valentina Scarcella in John Musto’s New York Premier of “Later the Same Evening”; Greta Fiorentino in Kurt Weill’s “Street Scene”; Season 11 of "American Idol" on Fox; and as a soloist for the Philadelphia Phillies.  Ms. Rider has worked with Marianne Barrett, Christiana Stancescu, Glenn Morton, Victoria Clark, Leslie Uggams, Lisa Vroman, Ron Raines, Dona Vaughn, and Carolyn Marlow, to name a few.

Ms. Rider has served as Assistant Director for the Manhattan School of Music’s Musical Theatre Program; has taught at the Broadway Dance Center; teaches privately and is on the Board of Directors for NYSTA. Originally from just outside Philadelphia, Ms. Rider is an alumna of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music (MM) under the tutelage of Arthur Levy. 
Member AGMA/AEA.  Visit her website.

MARA WALDMAN —Pianist
holds a Master’s from Manhattan School of Music, won the New York Chopin Foundation Council International Auditions and the International Piano Recording Competition. She has conducted for the Bel Canto Opera Company, NY City Opera’s national tours, and conducted/taught with the New Opera Festival de Roma. She has served as president of Joy in Singing, the Leschetizky Association and the NY Singing Teachers’ Association. She is Chorus Master/Associate Conductor of the New Jersey Verismo Opera, recently conducting Gianni Schicci for them last April, MD/Conductor for the Bellayre Music Festival Opera, as well as on the Voice Faculty of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

SHELLSHOCKED
MARCH 7

EMILY DRISCOLLProducer
Emily V. Driscoll produces science, history and art documentaries. Her recent film SHELLSHOCKED: Saving Oysters to Save Ourselves (40 minutes) won "Best Short Feature" at the 2012 Princeton Environmental Film Festival. This film explores the importance and fragility of wild oysters in cleaning water and building ecosystems for other marine life. SHELLSHOCKED has been screened at major museums, aquariums, film festivals, conferences, universities and schools in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia, including the American Museum of Natural History, New York (March 2013), Aquarium of the Bay, San Francisco (April 2012), The Harvard Museum of Natural History (July 2012) and The SEAFOOD SUMMIT, Hong Kong (September 2012). Driscoll’s previous film BUGGED: The Race to Eradicate the Asian Longhorned Beetle aired on PBS stations and screened at the Department of the Interior, Washington D.C., as well as at museums, libraries, universities and conferences in the U.S. and Canada.

In addition to producing her own documentaries, Driscoll has produced videos about The Franklin Institute Awards Laureates, a science news series for NBC Mobile, and 40-minute educational video about particle physics.

She has written articles for TIME.com, Scientific American Mind and LiveScience.com, and won a New American Media Award in ethnic reporting for an article about East Indians who play badminton in the U.S.

Driscoll has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from George Washington University and a Master’s Degree in Science Journalism from New York University. Her thesis for a second master’s degree, also from New York University, explores the application of social documentary techniques to the American science documentary. Driscoll has spoken about fostering our planet’s health at conferences, natural history museums, theaters and universities in the U.S. and Canada.

SAMUEL JANISHarbor School
Billion Oyster Project
New York Harbor Foundation
Urban Assembly New York Harbor School

Samuel Janis, Restoration Program Manager for the New York Harbor Foundation. By nature, Sam would rather be in nature almost all the time, walking, climbing and sailing his way across the world. But a penchant for tinkering and addiction to humanity causes him to keep coming back to New York City for work. Sam began his career teaching history in New York City public schools for six years, two of which were at Harbor School when it was in Bushwick.

After earning a master’s degree in public policy and working on water and development issues in South Asia and the Middle East for five years, Sam came back to run Harbor Foundation's environmental restoration programs. In this capacity he develops and manages the Billion Oyster Project, a large-scale oyster restoration and education initiative in partnership with New York City public school students and teachers, local universities and science organizations, environmentally focused businesses, and city, state, and federal agencies. Three out of four seasons Sam can be found kayaking to work across the Buttermilk Channel. In between dodging high speed ferries he spends this time thinking about rebuilding reefs and other practical ways our city can restore its relationship to the water.

MUSICLA VITA DUO (SEE BIO ON MARCH 1ST)

ALUNA - The American Premiere
MARCH 8

ALAN EREIRAFilm Maker - see Bio on 2/27

JOE CROSSMusician - see bio 2/27

GLORIA MIGUELMusician
Gloria studied drama at Oberlin College and is a founding member of Spiderwoman Theater. She has worked extensively in film and television, most recently in the Spanish film Caotica Ana in Madrid, Spain. She toured the United States in Grandma, a one woman show, toured Canada as Pelaija Patchnose in the original Native Earth production of Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters and performed in Native Earth’s Son of Ayash in Toronto. She performed as Coyote/Ritalinc in Jessica, a Northern Lights Production in Edmonton, Canada and was nominated for a Sterling Award for best supporting actress.

She was a drama consultant for the Minnesota Native American AIDS Task Force to develop a play on AIDS, taught drama at the Eastern District YMCA in Brooklyn, NY and was a visiting professor of Drama at Brandon University in Canada. She taught drama workshops at the Native American Writer’s and Artist Forum in Red Mesa, Grey Hills and Rough Rock, Navajo Nation Reservation. With Spiderwoman Theater, she has toured throughout Europe, Australia and New Zealand. She performed in Beijing, China at the 4th World Woman’s Conference.

She is the recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Miami University in Ohio and with other members of Spiderwoman Theater received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art. She and Lisa Mayo received a Rockefeller Grant and funding from the Jerome Foundation to create Nis Bundor: Daughters from the Stars and has also created a one woman show A Kuna Grows in Brooklyn. She is a lifetime member at the Lee Strasberg Institute. She has presented Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, her new one woman show, at The Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC; at Story-ing the Human Being: Two Generations of Native Women on Stage at the University of Toronto; with AMERINDA at NYTW Annex and most recently at Ohio Northern University’s 9th International Theatre Festival.

FELT, FEELING AND DREAMS
MARCH 9

ANDREA ODEZYNSKADirector
Andrea Odezynska shot her latest film FELT, FEELINGS AND DREAMS on location in Kyrgyzia. This film celebrates women artisans taking control of their lives through the ancient craft of felt making. The project has received support from the Yara Arts Group and The New York State Council on the Arts. FELT, FEELINGS AND DREAMS won Best Short Feature Award at Princeton Environmental Film Festival 2013.

Former projects include, THE WHISPERER, a personal film about Andrea's life changing encounter with a woman healer in the Carpathian Mountain's of Western Ukraine. THE WHISPERER received international distribution and played at twelve film festivals, most notably, Through Women's Eyes International Film Festival" in Sarasota, Florida.

THE WHISPERER also played at the Spirit Film Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel. Cinewomen NY selected THE WHISPERER for the 13th Annual Film Fest Kansas City (2006). It has played with a collection of films focussed on motherhood and been shown to women around the world through a grant from the United Nations “UNIFEM” fund. Andrea has created close to 20 short films for Yara Arts Group, an experimental theater company. In Variety’s review of Yara’s show CIRCLE, Odesynska’s work is praised as “beautiful iconic video images”.

For more information, please check out odezynska.com

Duo Baval (Wind)
"We call our duo Baval, which means the "Wind" in Roma (Gypsy) language, because just like a wind folklore music has no boundaries to travel from place to place, and like a wind this music gathers something of essence from each place as it passes through." This duo is a collaborative effort between pianist Elena Panova and violinist Milena Dawidowicz. This collaboration allows them to express their love and fascination with the diverse folklore music and culture of Roma (Gypsy) people from the different parts of the world.

MILENA DAWIDOWICZ Violin
Milena Dawidowicz was born in Odessa, Ukraine. By the age of seven she began playing violin. As student with Kiev Academy of Music, Milena started to collect and perform folk music as a soloist with Jewish Theatre Neshume (Soul). In 1990 she immigrated to Israel and completed her undergraduate musical education with University of Tel-Aviv. In Israel Mrs. Dawidowicz continued to perform folk music. Her repertoire included Yiddish, Gypsy, Romanian, Hungarian and Israeli music. While in Israel, Mrs. Dawidowicz participated in numerous folklore festivals and concerts including Israeli Yiddish Theatre.

In 1994 Milena won a scholarship with Montclair State University, New Jersey, where she continued her graduate studies in the classical violin. Despite training as a classical musician, folklore remains a significant part of her repertoire.

For several years Mrs. Dawidowicz performs with Garden State Philharmonic, Haddonfield Symphony Orchestra, Monmouth Symphony and Symfonietta Nova. In January 2007 Mrs. Dawidowicz was feature soloist with Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, performing world premier of Gypsy Rhapsody that was specially arranged for her by New Jersey composer Ed Prince.
Currently, Mrs. Dawidowicz is employed with South Brunswick School District as String Orchestra Director.

ELENA PANOVAPiano
Elena Panova was born in Moscow, Russia. She studied at the Tchaikovsky College of Music and the Sverdlovsk University. Following her graduation, Mrs. Panova performed actively as a chamber musician and an accompanist throughout the St. Petersburg region.

In 1997 Elena and her family immigrated to United States. She continues to perform and teaches in Princeton area. Mrs. Panova is an artist piano faculty with Peddie School and Westminster Choir College since 1998.

SYDNEY GREENLEY-KOISFashion Designer
Sydney is a sustainable fashion designer and graduate from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she got her BFA in Fashion Design. She is interested in sustainable material development, and her garments incorporate the use of organic textiles and plant dyes. Sydney is also an Environmental Activist who has done work with several organizations including 350MA and The Environmental Education Fund.

For more information, please check out sydneygreenleykois.com

MODELS
Janelle Krone, Allison Jenner, Bridget O'Haire, Tia Byington, Alex Beddall

FESTIVAL STAFF

NANCY RHODES — Festival Artistic Director
Nancy Rhodes has championed American opera since founding Encompass New Opera Theatre with an award-winning production of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s opera The Mother of Us All. She staged Copland’s The Tender Land, Thomson’s Lord Bryon, Blitzstein’s Regina, John Harbison’s A Full Moon in March, an acclaimed production of Grigori Frid’s The Diary of Anne Frank, and numerous opera productions in Europe and Asia, including Death in Venice in Stockholm, Carmen in Norway, and A Century of American Opera for the Holland Festival in Amsterdam. She staged the world premieres of Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe for San Francisco Opera and Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera, Only Heaven.

In recent seasons she directed the 75th Anniversary production of Thomson and Stein’s Four Saints in Three Acts and Evan Mack’s Angel of the Amazon. She is the librettist for The Theory of Everything, a new opera exploring science and alternate universes with music by John David Earnest.

LINDSEY KAYMANFestival Co-Director
is an environmental health and safety professional with a Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers in Chemistry and a Master’s degree from Harvard School of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences and Air Pollution Control.   Lindsey is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and an Accredited Professional in Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) for Existing Buildings.   Lindsey has been President of Environmental Education Fund (EEF) since 2012 and a trustee of the New Jersey Environmental Lobby since 2010.  She is currently the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, one of the City University of NY (CUNY) colleges.

Lindsey has been on the planning committee of the Princeton Environmental Film Festival since 2008.  Participation in a film festival planning committee is a powerful, life enhancing experience. Lindsey saw firsthand how environmental films significantly raise awareness on vital issues that are under-reported in the media and encourage collaborations from which creative projects emerge that improve sustainability and environmental practices.  This experience led her to create the EEF flagship program called “Take This Festival and Run it” which helps individuals and other organizations educate and empower their stakeholders by showing a film or planning an environmental festival for their community that reflects their own passions and goals.

NOEMI DE LA PUENTEProgram Director, EEF
Noemi is a board member of the New Jersey Environmental Lobby, and an activist with the Sierra Club. She has a MSE in Civil Engineering from Princeton University, and an MFA in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa. She is a founding member of the playwright driven Dramatic Question Theatre (DQT). Her own musical comedy about illegal immigration (Manuel versus the Statue of Liberty) will be part of the NYMF Developmental Reading series in July 2014.

CHARLES C. SACHSFestival Associate Director/Development was Assistant Manager of Accounts Receivable for Budget RAC of the Tri-State area for 5 years, sales/event manager for Transcontinental Music Publications/UAHC for 10 years, and Cantorial Assistant/Music Contractor for both Temple Israel of Lawrence and North Shore Synagogue of Syosset. He has been instrumental in the creation and marketing of two theater companies: Playful Theater Company, which workshopped/produced new works for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that were subsequently produced Off-Broadway, and Music In a Box, a musical developmental/production collective based in New York City, that both created new works and assisted well known writers in revisiting/rewriting their works for new productions. 

As a composer he's written the scores for over twenty five musicals including the notorious Amy Fisher: The Musical and music directed/re-orchestrated over 150 productions including: Evita, The Robber Bridegroom, Sweeney ToddLes Miserables, and the revue The Sweetest Sounds: American Broadway Musicals From The 1960's To The 1990's which he co-created for Old Westbury Garden Picnic Pops.  He is a member of The Dramatists Guild and an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop.

THE ACTORS FUND ARTS CENTER is a state-of-the-art performance venue and rehearsal space operated by The Actors Fund. Its mission is to serve as a resource for Brooklyn-based artists to aid in the development and sharing of their work, as well as a venue for integrating the residents of The Schermerhorn with the surrounding community through the arts.
Contactartscenter@actorsfund.org.

ELLIOT MEYERSStage Manager last worked for Encompass New Opera Theatre for their 2013 Gala honoring Sheldon Harnick. Elliot also worked on the original Off-Broadway, Los Angles Premiere and recent 10 Year Anniversary Productions of Rinde Ekert’s AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES, and is part of the original team of the Broadway bound grrl-rock musical, CHIX 6. Other shows include IT JUST CATCHES (Cherry Lane); BROADWAY STARS ON CHRITOPHER STREET (Lucille Lortel);VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM (Provincetown Playhouse); COFFEE ONCE A YEAR (Harold Clurman) and the Touring European Premiere of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

MARA WALDMANMusic Director/Pianist holds the Masters' Degree in piano from Manhattan School of Music and made her Carnegie Recital Hall debut to critical acclaim.  She was a winner in the New York Chopin Foundation Council International Auditions, the International Piano Recording Competition, and recorded solo piano music by Vittorio Rieti for Columbia Records. She made her conducting debut with the Bel Canto Opera Company, Ms Waldman is Music Director/Conductor of the Encompass New Opera Theatre, Chorus Master/Associate Conductor with the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera, and Music Director/Conductor for the Belleayre Music Festival Opera. She was cover conductor for New York City Opera national tours of Il Barbiere di Siviglia and La Traviata, and prepared the chorus for several operas in the New York Grand Opera’s Viva Verdi! Festival. She is particularly proud of being on the voice faculty of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.


GAIL SCOTT WHITE Projection Designer is a new media scenographer and animator who collaboratively makes “Live Movies,” a hybrid art form that interactively synthesizes cinematic art, and theatrical and musical elements with built environments and live performance.

She has created new media designs for B3W’s Confined, Dixon Place (NYC) and Irondale Center (Brooklyn); Maryland Opera Studio’s premiere of Shadowboxer (on the life of Joe Louis), Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts (College Park MD); The Heidi Chronicles, Arena Stage (Washington DC); and more. She is thrilled to be working on a project that combines the live arts with inspirational environmental films.

DANIEL WINTERS is a Drama Desk Award nominated lighting designer who holds an MFA from Ohio University.  With Curtain Call: Our Son’s Wedding, Miracle On South Division St., and One Slight Hitch. Off Broadway: Mayday Mayday (St. Ann's Warehouse/Spoleto Festival), Adaptations For The Stage (The Director’s Company), The Monkey Show (Labyrinth Theatre Company). Off-Off BroadwayThe Man Who Laughs (Stolen Chair Theater Company), Tick Parade (Dixon Place), King JohnIsland and Othello (NY Shakespeare Exchange), 8 Track: B-sides And Mash-ups (Creative Destruction), Waiting For Lefty (Portmanteau Theatre Company), Impossible Country (Mud/Bone Collective). 

Regional: (Three Man) Tempest, To Kill A Mockingbird, Enron, Jude The Obscure and Twelfth Night (Burning Coal Theatre Company) Sleeping Beauty, Bald Soprano, and Seussical (Garage Theatre Company). 

OperaRusalka (Opera Slavica).   Educational: Sverginata (Sarah Lawrence College).   Resident Designer 2010-2012 (York College NY).  Daniel is co-founder of Burnside Design Studio. 

Encompass New Opera Theatre
One of the nation’s leaders in championing new and classic American opera, Encompass is dedicated to creating, developing, and producing adventurous productions of contemporary opera and new music theatre. Striving to discover and nurture emerging composers, librettists, singers, and musicians; premiere groundbreaking new productions; and revive important twentieth-century musical works by American and international composers, Encompass has produced over 58 full-scale opera productions with orchestra and staged readings of more than 159 new works.

Founded by Nancy Rhodes and Roger Cunningham in 1975, Encompass productions have been performed at Alice Tully Hall (Un Racconto Fiorentino, 2000); the Baryshnikov Arts Center (world premiere of Evan Mack’s Angel of the Amazon, 2011), Elebash Recital Hall (Four Saints in Three Acts, 2009); Symphony Space (Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters and Capital Capitals, 2012; John David Earnest and Nancy Rhodes’ concert reading, The Theory of Everything, 2010; Philip Hagemann’s Shaw Sings, 2008), and at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater (Louis Gioia’s opera I tre compagni, 2009), as well as regional tours at the Cleveland Opera (Grigori Frid’s The Diary of Anne Frank, 2005). International productions include the Holland Festival (Amsterdam) and Ricky Ian Gordon’s Only Heaven at the 5th International Music Theatre Workshop (Munich).

Encompass New Opera Theatre’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and from ASCAP, Cornelius N. Bliss Memorial Fund; Bloomsburg Carpet Industries, Inc, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., Envelopes.com, the Richard J. Fasenmyer Foundation; the Friars Foundation Art Grant; Logos Associates, Ltd., Somat Publishing, LTD; Stone Source.com, The Virgil Thomson Foundation, and our generous patrons.