|
Abhik Mukherjee
(Musicians)
Abhik Mukherjee (Musician) was born in Calcutta in a family with a rich musical and educational heritage. He was initiated to sitar at the age of six by his father Sri Tarit Kumar Mukherjee. His father took training of Vishnupur gharana from Sri Gaurhari Kabiraj ji. Simultaneously he was taught by Sri Bimal Chatterjee, a leading disciple of Pandit Kashinath Mukherjee-a doyen of Imdadkhani-Etawah gharana.
Abhik remained under his father’s affectionate guidance till the age of sixteen when finally he was taken to Pandit Kashinath Mukherjee. Panditji (a leading disciple of Legendary Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Amir Khan) took Abhik under his wings. He is also undergoing extensive training from Pandit Arvind Parikhji who is an internationally reputed artist and musicologist and senior most disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan.
Abhik received vocal training since his childhood from Pandit Kalyan Bose a disciple of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan- the legendary and inimitable vocal maestro. His first public performance was at the age of nine at the Governor House, Kolkata. Since then, he performed at various venues in India and abroad. He has collaborated with different genres of music and performed with Carnatic Classical musicians, Jazz musicians and other western genres of music in India and U.S. He was an active member of popular Kolkata based fusion band Layavinyas
Abhik is a gold –medalist from the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, with a Masters degree in Musicology. He is a visiting-faculty member at the famous Pandit Jasraj School of Music Foundation, Tampa florida. More at: AbhikMukherjee.com.
|
|
|
Barbara Aliprantis
(Director for Television)
Barbara Aliprantis (Director for Television) began listening to stories “in-utero”, was born with: the gift of gab, the ability to eavesdrop and integrate what she sees and hears into her stories, all with a natural wit and a love of laughter. These gifts have made her the eclectic woman she is today: storyteller/listener, actress, comic, mimic, gifted improviser, visual artist, sign language instructor, wordsmith, an award-winning Queens Public Television (QPTV) producer – a much sought out mentor – and finally, an impresario who loves to put on a show at the drop of a hat.
A nationally acclaimed, award-winning professional storyteller, Barbara brings all these gifts to the Slash Wednesday production team, as well as her extensive experience as a member of the Queensborough Community College (QCC) Professional Theatre Residency program, where she performed in many of their major productions, including “A My Name is Alice,” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” She studied comedy improvisation with Michael Player’s Shock of the Funny, and was a founding member of The Comedy Machine, that performed at QCC, and on Queens Public Television (QPTV).
Barbara is a high-energy trilingual (English/Greek/Sign Language) storyteller and calls herself a “spur of the moment improviser” and thus is able to tailor her stories “on the spot” to meet the needs of her audience. She has the unique ability to communicate with people of all ages – hearing and Deaf, and is the Founder/Artistic Director of The New York STORY Exchange (a.k.a. The American Center for Theatre and Storytelling, founded with Professor Bob Simons of QCC). More at: BarbaraAliprantis.com
|
|
|
George Tisdale
(Idea Guy)
George Tisdale (Idea Guy) is the principal and staff of Can’t Stop Writing LLC, provides creative direction and writing services to financial, industrial and educational clients, non-profits, communications firms, magazines, tabloids, and to creative friends with distinctive first names who rope him into their undertakings. He was previously a senior writer at an ad agency where he tried to answer the question “How many bank ads can one guy write?” and took Paxil. Like every other writer on the face of the earth,George blogs, tweets, and is writing a novel. To ensure his behind-the-scenes status at Slash Wednesday, he lives in Richmond, VA.
|
|
|
Gustavo Pace
(Talent)
Gustavo Pace (Talent) is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is an actor, writer, performer, singer. A graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC, he also studied in the Curso Profissionalizante de Ator – Casa de Artes de Laranjeiras (Professional Theater Course for Actors), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Neutral Mask, Clown and Lecoq workshops, at the Movement Theater Studio, NYC. Physical Comedy, Mime/ Clown and Commedia Dell’ Art at the Funny School of Good Acting.
Gustavo participated in a workshop with Drama Desk nominated group Parallel Exit in New York City. He developed "Naked Brazilian" with award-winning playwright/teacher Matt Hoverman. He also has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Law School at Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro. He performed in Waiting for Godot (Estragon) and King Lear (Clown) at Place of Arts, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He performed his original material at Whoa Variety Show at Triskelion Arts and Tinydangerounsfun at Sycamore, Gotham Comedy Club, Bindlestiff Family Circus at Dixon Place, All-Star Storytellers Night at The Gallery / LPR and acted in a off Broadway comedy show. He performed at Tribeca Performing Arts in ”Writers in Performance”.
|
|
|
Kumar Das
(Musical Director)
Kumar Das (Musical Director) started learning tabla shortly after his birth in Sylhet, Bangladesh. His studies began with his father, and when he reached school age he began training with Mahibur Rahman (Mahit). He went on to study with Milan Bhattacharya in Bangladesh. In 1995, Kumar Das immigrated to the United States and in 2001 he was initiated by his guru and world-renowned tabla maestro, Pandit Samir Chatterjee. Since then he has been going through the rigorous discipline of lessons and practice according to the ancient guru-shishya parampara (master-disciple tradition). Pt. Samir Chatterjee later became his paternal guardian who guides him musically and in every aspect in his life.
Kumar Das earned his Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in Music Performance from the University of Bridgeport (UB) in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He studied Western Classical music along with Indian music, Tabla as a major instrument besides Piano and Marimba, and other percussion instruments while attending UB.
Kumar Das now divides his time between his home in Virginia and his studio in New York. He has performed with Pt. Ramesh Mishra, Snehasish Mazumdar, Pt.Falguni Mitra, Steve Gorn, and many others. He plays Western and Indian Classical music including Jazz, Hip Hop, Bluegrass and other genres. Kumar Das has played numerous Jazz and Music festivals, such as the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) in Black Mountain, North Carolina. He has played international festivals at the Connecticut Mystic Seaport with his Bengali band. More at TablaGato.com.
|
|
|
Scary Kimbrell
(Associate Producer)
Scary Kimbrell (Associate Producer/ Celebrity Booker) is pretty sure that she is the love child of Andy Warhol and Betty Crocker and that she's living her life backwards, Scary is a native of Albuquerque, NM who was forced to move to Northern Virginia at the age of 5. She grew up raising rabbits and cutting her barbies hair off. Her father only wore Birkenstocks and her mother never dyed her hair.
Scary graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Art History. She regularly creates abstract thoughts, paintings, and postcards in her doubleWide art studio and enjoys all aspects of social media and pop culture.
Mostly she likes playing connect the dots with creatives. In addition to working as as a sign maker, she has the pleasure of being a mom to 3 kids and the wife of one husband.
|
|
|
Slash Coleman
(Host and Producer)
Slash Coleman (Host/Executive Producer) grew up with a grandfather who was a dancer at the Moulin Rouge, a grandmother who was a watercolorist and a father who continues to work as a prolific sculptor.
Growing up in his father's art studio and aboard the family art gallery which was a pirate ship in Richmond, VA, he got to see what worked and what didn't in terms of the business of art. He began his career as a creative entrepreneur at the age of 20 founding a successful jazz ensemble, a wellness clinic and later a commercial art agency. During the next fifteen years, he traveled all over the world, working on a fishing boat, running a massage college, developing a line of drinking teas, running his own Montessori school, operating a fight club, and working as an upholsterer - adventures that now comprise the very material of his popular stories.
Best known as a writer and performer for PBS, including the award-winning Off-Broadway stage show, "The Neon Man and Me," his creative work is often compared to that of author David Sedaris. The host of “Slash Wednesday”, author of the “The Bohemian Love Diaries” (Lyons Press 2013), a contributor to the anthology on art “Unstuck” (Voyageur Press, 2011) and a personal perspectives blogger for Psychology Today, Coleman shapes much of his work with clever word play and poetic observations related to: family, spirituality, romantic relationships, American icons like Evel Knievel, and struggles to find a sense of home common with Generation X artists.
Over the last decade, his storytelling work has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, American Theatre Magazine,Backstage Magazine and multiple times on NPR including the series, “How Artists Make Money.” As a storyteller, he’s been featured at: The International Storytelling Center, The National Storytelling Festival (Exchange Place), the Oral History Performance Conference at Columbia University, and Pete Seeger’s Clearwater Festival.
Currently at work on his 2nd PBS special about the re-birth of storytelling in America, Slash lives in New York City and splits his time between performing and writing new material for the stage, film, and television and maintaining his quest to discover how personal stories can be used to connect us more deeply in the digital age.
|
|
|
Steven Warrick
(Graphic Designer)
Steven Warrick (Graphic Designer) is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University where he earned a degree in illustration. He resides in Richmond, Virginia where he currently spends his off hours designing and illustrating for burlesque performers, sideshow freaks, and other unique and talented individuals when not creating his own odd visuals. More at steveart.site11.com
|
|
|
Valeriya Sholokhova
(Musicians)
Valeriya Sholokhova (Musician) was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School, where she was a full-scholarship student of Bonnie Hampton. Ms. Sholokhova began to study the cello at the age of nine.
In 2001, Valeriya’s family immigrated to New York, where she enrolled in the Special Music School for gifted children at the Kaufman Center, studying on a full scholarship. During her school years, she was a laureate in a number of international competitions, including the Liezen International Cello Competition in Austria and the Antonio Janigro Cello Competition for Juniors in Croatia.
She has participated in several summer music festivals, such as The Perlman Music Program, Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. A founding member of the EVI Trio, she has participated at The Juilliard School’s ChamberFest.
In the summer of 2009, she served on the faculty of the SummerTrios Music Festival in Chambersbourg, Pennsylvania. In December 2009, she participated in the chamber music program at the prestigious New York String Orchestra Seminar. Ms. Sholokhova plays on a cello loaned to her by the Carlsen Cello Foundation.
|