Full Hudson Valley Performances of Elizabeth Clark’s “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” August 27 & 28, September 23, 24, 25 Multi-Hyphenate World & Sacred Music Composer AKA Mamalama

The first performances of "Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera," in its entirety, takes place this summer and early fall in New York State's beautiful Hudson Valley.   

 

Confirmed performance dates are

August 27 & 28 at the Widow Jane Mine Theater, Rosendale, NY 

September 23, 24, 25 at the Byrdcliff Theater, Woodstock, NY  

"Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera" shows stories of rebirth in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. The theme centers on “finding light and beauty in the darkest times, and remembering how connected we all are to each other,” says Elizabeth Clark, composer/producer/performer of this immersive theater/performance art. 

Using world and modern sacred music, “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter” offers sounds and visions of otherworldly realms that unfold in a non-linear and timeless path similar to the way we dream.  Ms. Clark's 'Earth Opera' combines an immersive experience from many creative disciplines including music, performance art, and movement, as well as experiments with light and audience interaction. 

The 'Earth Opera' includes an ensemble of 25 incredibly diverse Hudson Valley musicians, dancers, choreographers, actors, visual and performance artists.  Elizabeth orchestrated the Earth Opera's score for a world music 'pit' orchestra of harps, piano, ethereal choral voices, Native American/Andean flutes and traditional instruments, Indonesian gamelan, chamber strings, droning harmoniums, hammered dulcimer, French horn, wind chimes, and frame drums. 
 

Over 500 people came to the two 2021 performances of excerpts from “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” at Rosendale, NY’s Widow Jane Mine Theater. Ms. Clark describes that venue like “an earth womb.” Audiences praised: ”So beautiful, and healing" and “Sacred moments of pain and hope for the light....a celebration of our universal humanity. You took us on a journey." 

 

Elizabeth Clark is a composer, harpist, pianist, vocalist, poet, performing artist, and humanitarian, native to the Hudson Valley region. Her ever-evolving sacred and world music project is called “Mamalama” and manifests itself with interdisciplinary art forms in performance. “I see my exploration of music as a form of sung prayer and a way of healing,” she says. 

 

She has performed a variety of solo and group performances and special presentations at many theaters, festivals, retreat centers, listening rooms, and sanctuaries throughout the Northeast including The Omega Institute, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, Kripalu Center for Yoga, Deep Listening Space Dream Festival, Bearsville Theater, The Colony, Levon Helm Studios (with Elizabeth Mitchell and Friends), at the United Nations, and others. She has spent many years offering live harp/vocal music at the bedside for those on hospice care. Elizabeth is also a composer/songwriter with the Hudson Valley non-profit organization Sagearts, collaborating on many original, life-reflective songs with local elders. Her work is part of the 2022 documentary PBS Special “We Remember: Songs of Survivors.”   

 

August 27 & 28 at the Widow Jane Mine Theater, 668 Route 213, Rosendale, NY, 3 pm,  845-658-9900  CenturyHouse.org

September 23, 24, 25 at the Byrdcliffe Theater, 34 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY   845-679-2079  WoodstockGuild.org

The We Remembers – Songwriters from PBS Documentary, “We Remember: Songs of Survivors” to Share Stories and Sing On the Road

Learn the stories of Holocaust survivors through original songs written in collaboration with singer-songwriters.

 

“When Holocaust Memories Result in Deep Friendships and Beautiful Music”

 

The We Remembers, who are the Singer-Songwriters from the PBS Special “We Remember: Songs of Survivors” will be sharing songs and telling stories of writing with Holocaust Survivors at two performances this September.

 

On September 18, the group will be at The Cutting Room,44 E 32nd St., in New York, NY 10016.

 

On September 22 they’ll be at Caffe Lena is at 47 Phila Street, in Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.  That performance can, also, be viewed online during the show and a week afterwards.  Get your ticket in advance for the online event at caffelena.tv/programs/live-songs-of-survivors. (All donations go straight to our singer-songwriters.)

 

“We Remember: Songs of Survivors,” is a recent PBS Documentary that shares the stories of Holocaust survivors through songs written in collaboration with singer-songwriters. These songs, filled with joy and healing, celebrate the extraordinary lives of this resilient generation.

 

The We Remembers are four musicians who participated in this project to the stage to perform their original music along with the music from the film. Featuring Elizabeth Clark, Jude Roberts, Kelleigh McKenzie, and Michael Veitch, performances will include clips and stories from their life-changing collaborations with the Holocaust Survivors.

 

About The We Remembers:

Composer, harpist/pianist, vocalist, and performance artist Elizabeth Clark’s major works include her interdisciplinary project "Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera" which premiered in 2021, and the 2015 live-recorded album “Live at the Old Dutch Church.” She has performed with her world music ensemble 'Mamalama' at retreat centers and sanctuaries including the Omega Institute, Kripalu, and Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.

 

Jude Roberts has combined contemporary music with roots of English, Irish and Appalachian folk music and touches of baroque and Romantic-era classical pieces and European folk/pop. He’s performed at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and has toured throughout Europe.

 

Kelleigh McKenzie is a winner of NPR’s Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, her song "Gin" won the Independent Music Award for Best Americana Song in 2009 and was featured on her critically acclaimed album "Chances."

 

Michael Veitch’s song “Veteran’s Day” has been covered by Judy Collins. His latest album, “Wachtraum” (“wake dream” in German) broke the top 20 on the Folk Radio Charts with “Valentine’s Day” hitting number one. Previously his song, “Pledging Allegiance” reached #10 on the 2017 Folk/Americana charts. He’s played the Newport Folk Music Festival and Kerrville.

 

 

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(We Are) The Rakes of Mallow

Hank Wedel’s Summer Single, “(We Are) The Rakes of Mallow is available on all streaming platforms. The song is produced by Declan Sinnott (co-founder Horslips, Christy Moore, Mary Black, Moving Hearts). 

"(We Are) The Rakes of Mallow" is based on an 18th Century Irish folk song, by Edward “Pleasant Ned” Lysaght (1763-1809).  The original version is about the debauchery, bad behaviour and fun reported in Mallow during the latter half of the 18th Century when the local warm water spa became a major attraction to the town. 

 

Hank Wedel's version is updated, and features Declan Sinnott (producing, guitar), Greenshine’s Mary Greene and his niece—actress/dancer/singer Clodagh Mai both on vocals. The single is an updated version of the old song.  Hank says, “Mallow had a hot springs spa supplying warm water bathhouses. It was something of an Irish ‘Sin City’ for a while with all kinds of carrying on…” Mallow is also the Irish hometown of Hank’s mother. “In her time, the 1950s, Mallow was a bustling rural town, the railroad crossroads of Southern Ireland with a sugar factory, a chocolate factory and other agricultural manufacturing industries.”

 

Hank and friends dressed as 1750's Rakes when they made the video in September 2021. The project made national headlines in Ireland, as the video features performers from several performing County Cork towns--Doneraile's Art for The Heart Performance Troupe, dancers from Mallow's renowned "Centre Stage" performance school, the Cork City-based Aatma Indian Dance Troupe, well known Irish actor Martin Lucey, and members of Hank's circle of family and friends. In addition, Clodagh Mai singing and dancing and representing the youth of Mallow in the second verse, Hank’s wife Eileen (who was born and reared in Mallow) walks down the street with Hank at end of the video.

 

The video and song tie together all of Mallow’s history from the 1750s to his mother’s time, and then his years growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s. “The video looks towards a hopeful future, like a ghostly vision I had of where my life had brought me.”

 

Hank is planning a multi-part podcast later this year to explore the song’s travels through time and space, which includes the music in a famous fight scene in John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara classic “The Quiet Man,” the theme song of the University of Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish (U.S.) Football Team, in Indian culture—Krishna as a mischievous youth….. 

 

“(We Are) The Rakes of Mallow” launched this year’s Mallow Arts Festival, July 20-24, with a concert at Mallow’s Hibernian Hotel Ballroom.   

 

Hank plans to release a new ten-song album produced by Declan Sinnott, which will include “(We Are) The Rakes of Mallow,” and his 2021 singles “Poe Park 2am” and “The Time We Share.”  Stay tuned for more information.

 

Hank Wedel was born in Dayton, Ohio, USA 1963, raised in New York City and Mallow County Cork, Ireland.  Now based in Cork City, this guitarist/vocalist/songwriter/recording artist/band leader has performed thousands of gigs from The North Pole to Lanzarote from Oklahoma to Azerbaijan, solo or with bands Princes Street, Open Kitchen, Small Town Talk.  Hank has a 28-year Monday night residency at "Charlies," in Cork City with mandolin maestro Ray Barron... Hank has performed onstage with Shane McGowan, Mary Black, Christy Moore, Kila, Philomena Begley and Bono.
 

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Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius FYC Rock Performance, Rock Song

Game Of Chicken

Rock Performance and Rock Song

Stratospheerius is: Joe Deninzon-lead vocals, electric 7-string ”Viper” violin Michelangelo Quirinale-guitar, vocals Paul Ranieri-bass, vocals Jason Gianni-drums, vocals 

Backdrop videos edited by Joe Deninzon & David P. Levin www.brainstorm-inc.com

Live audio mixed by Matt Vanacoro  

 Live video edited by Joe Deninzon with assistance from David P. Levin 

Filmed by Matt Urban Backdrop video projection (2019): David P. Levin Backdrop video projection (2021): Brando Jenkins Sound engineer: Joel Simches Stage monitor engineer: Robert Frazza Livestream filmed by Erik Nielsen

 Filmed on October 13th, 2019 at ProgStock Festival Union County Performing Arts Center, Rahway, NJ www.progstock.com 

ProgStock Festival Volunteer Team: • Robert Pashman • Rob Rutz • Tracy Rutz • Marty Dorfman • Jim Robinson • Andrew Colyer • Rita Kay Drew • Asad Rahman • Scott Mays • Michelle Mays • Alan Benjamin • Amy Benjamin • Jason Rubenstein • Joel Barrios • Scott Corcoran • Kurt Matson • Katherine Hinton-Matson • Donna O’Donnell • Robert Richardson • Ross Beiler • Ed Unitsky (logos and artwork

Joe Deninzon uses Mark Wood electric violins, D’Addario strings, Fender amps, Coda bows. 

Paul Ranieri uses Trace Elliott Amps, Alembic Basses, Zoom electronics, Gator Cases, Gig Gloves Accessories 

Jason Gianni uses Yamaha drums, Vic Firth drum sticks, Remo drum heads, Paiste symbols, Humes and Berg drum cases, Prologix Percussion, kickport percussion and Hudson music

All songs music & lyrics by Joe Deninzon © 2022 Fiddlefunk Music. All rights reserved
 

All About Love

One of the songs I'm plugging this week. John Roy Zat's "All About Love"