ABOUT THE ARTISTS

An international performing and recording artists and one of the pioneers in the performance of Sephardic music, ISABELLE GANZ and her New York-based ensemble, ALHAMBRA, have produced three CDs of Judeo-Spanish music.  Her first recording, with THE BROKEN CONSORT, was recorded in 1980, one of the earliest recordings in the field.  In 1997 she received a Fulbright Grant to research Sephardic music at the Jewish Music Research Centre of Hebrew University and to teach Voice and Contemporary Music at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem.  She also received a Solo Recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the 1992-93 season.  She has appeared as vocal soloist with symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the world, including the Seattle Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Portland, Maine Symphony and the Slovak Radio Orchestra.  Ms. Ganz has premiered numerous works, including Ryoanji by John Cage, composed for her and percussionist Michael Pugliese and recorded by them for MODE RECORDS.

She has performed in Milan, Amsterdam, Paris, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and in England, Germany, Luxembourg, Canada and throughout the U.S.  She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice and Music Literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she was a student of the late Jan DeGaetani.  For 20 years she was a Cantorial Soloist in synagogues, both Reform and Conservative, in Munich, Amsterdam, Canada in the U.S. Currently she is a member of the Voice Faculty of Lamar University in Beaumont, TX., is the Director of the Congregation Brith Shalom Choir and the Houston HaZamir Chorale, a regular performer and workshop leader for Young Audiences of Houston, and conducts workshops and master classes for voice students and professional singers.  She has recorded for Mode, Leonarda, Master Musicians Collective, Spectrum, Opus One, Tecnosaga (Songs of the Gershwins), Prestige/International, Global Village Music and Aulos/Koch/Schwann.  Ms. Ganz is listed in the International Who's Who in Music.

Described by The New Yorker  as a “lively and engaging tenor”, DANIEL PINCUS has performed with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Washington Chamber Symphony, the New Jersey Baroque Ensemble, the Long Island Baroque Ensemble, the Berkshire Bach Society, the Westchester Chorale and the Monadnock Music Festival.  Most recently he sang in the opera recording The Trial of the Century  by Anthony Newman on Albany Records.  He can be heard on the soundtrack of the film Antisemitism currently showing at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.  He is a member of The Mantua Singers, conducted by Matthew Lazar, which performs the Jewish liturgical music of the 17th century composer, Salamone Rossi.  Cantor Pincus received his cantorial investiture from Hebrew Union College in May, 2000, where he received numerous academic and musical honors.  He is currently the cantor/chaplain at the Jewish Home and Hospital on W. 106th St. in New York and serves as a hospice chaplain for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

The baritone for the Western Wind Ensemble since its inception in 1969, ELLIOT Z. LEVINE has appeared as a soloist with such groups as Musica Sacra, The Rome Opera, La Fenice, The Mannes Camerata, Music at Ascension, The Ensemble for Early Music and the Folger Consort.  He received his M.M. degree from the Manhattan School of Music and has studied conducting with Robert Hickok and composition with Robert Starer at Brooklyn College.  He has been awarded five Meet-the-Composer Grants and has been composer-in-residence at the Church of St. Thomas More in New York.  For many year he has been a conductor and coach at Western Wind workshops at such institutions as Dartmouth College, Smith College, the University of Massachusetts, and at ACDA choral conferences throughout the U.S.  As a composer, Mr. Levine is published by Harold Flammer, Inc., Willis Music Co. and by Shadow Press.  He is a Cantorial Soloist at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck.

HAIG MANOUKIAN heard the earthy warmth of the oud as a child when his grandparents, Armenian immigrants from Anatolia, played 78 rpm recordings of Turkish sanaat music in their Virginia home.  He credits his eastern approach on the instrument to his early years, spent listening to the traditional music of Istanbul and Anatolia.  In his late teens he came to New York and began formal studies and a career as a performing artist.  Considered one of the world's finest oudists, he has worked with the top musicians of Turkey, Armenia, Egypt and Iran.  He has performed at Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Town Hall and Carnegie Hall, as well as at major cabarets in Istanbul, Europe and the U.S.  A member of Taksim, a group which combines the rhythms of the Middle East with American jazz, he regularly tours with it to Switzerland, Spain and Greece.  Control of classical form is evident in Mr. Manoukian's insightful and evocative improvisations.

A performer on violin, kanun (trapezoidal zither) nay (bamboo flute) and riq (tambourine), MICHAEL HESS has played violin and viola professionally for over 25 years.  He attended the Manhattan School of Music and later studied viola in Paris.  A former member of the Virginia State Symphony, he has appeared as both a classical and jazz soloist in Spain, France and Germany.  He studied kanun with the world-renowned Egyptian musician Mohammed Al Akkad, and has performed with many Middle Eastern, Greek and Klezmer music ensembles.  He has appeared in Town Hall, Bohemian Hall, the Triplex Theatre, the San Francisco De Young Museum and, with the ALHAMBRA ensemble in Canada, Turkey, Lithuania and Colombia.  Mr. Hess has recorded with Annaboubulal, a Greek folk-fusion ensemble, and with the Greek singer Sophia Billdes.  He can be heard playing kanun on recent film soundtracks including Town Apart, In the Comfort of Strangers, and Noah's Ark.

For the past 15 years, percussionist PETER BASIL BOGDANOS has been performing in Europe, Canada, Japan and throughout the U.S. with groups whose music ranges from pop to jazz, Middle-Eastern, Rhythm and Blues and Flamenco.  He presents lecture/workshops on the development of the percussion instrument, the Cajon, and its role in Flamenco music with the guitarist Tito Rubio. 

MAURICE CHEDID, a performer and instructor in Arabic singing and oud, was born in Lebanon and studied at the Beirut Conservatory for Music, where he earned degrees in Arabic music composition, Arabic singing and oud performance.  He has been featured on many recordings and television programs, and has appeared in clubs throughout the Middle East.  Since 1988 Mr. Chedid has been living in the U.S., where he performs in concert with diverse ensembles in concert halls and in clubs throughout the New York metropolitan area. 

JOE DENINZON is a multi-talented violinist who critics have called "The Jimi Hendrix of the Violin." The son of classical musicians from Russia, Joe spent his early years studying classical violin with his father, but soon developed a passion for rock, funk, and jazz. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Joe played with various bands and got his first chance to back a major artist on the violin when he performed with the Michael Stanley band at age 16 to rave reviews. Currently living in New York, Joe has recorded and performed with Ritchie Blackmore, Sheryl Crow, Everclear, Les Paul, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, The Mahavishnu Project, Project Object (with Zappa singer Ike Willis and Napoleon Murphy Brock), harmonica wiz Robert Bonfiglio, has been a soloist with the New York Chamber Ensemble, has appeared on MTV and played at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and has performed for President Clinton. He has also been featured in Jazziz and Downbeat Magazine. Joe and his band STRATOSPHEERIUS have performed throughout the United States and have developed a reputation for their explosive live performances. The band's latest CD, "Live Wires", is their first live CD, and combines the influences of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jean Luc Ponty, Jimi Hendrix, and Frank Zappa. The disc features Joe on electric violin and vocals.