The Team
Barbara and Keith met in January of 2004, and by November of that year their company was born, with a mission to present music, comedy, and story-theater to children and their families in venues of all sizes. Barbara goes on to say, "We take our big idea of introducing children to live performance and classical music and original song to any venue, large or small. With our mission firmly in place, we’ve vowed never to pass up an opportunity to enhance the lives of children. It’s been great – we perform over 200 programs a year in libraries, schools, theaters, museums, as well as large concert halls, and we’re expanding into creating flutes, books, CDs, video and even film. We’re starting to reach more and more children, and I think they have fun and laugh a lot! It feels like we are doing something about the future of classical music from the grass roots to the concert hall.”
Keith Torgan
Keith Torgan, singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor and storyteller, is a multi-talented artist with more than twenty years of experience in children’s music who has appeared at hundreds of theaters, cabarets, universities, museums, schools, and libraries throughout the United States. Torgan was composer at the Williamstown Theater Festival, founder and songwriter for “Morgan, Torgan and Teri,” guest performer and writer for BMG’s “Early Ears” series, and composer and lyricist for the Simply Elementary flagship program, There’s Always a Dragon to Slay. He has written a multitude of songs and is the creator of all the Green Golly Project stories.
Barbara Siesel
Barbara Siesel’s multi-faceted career includes performing, teaching and producing. Audiences around the world have heard her in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Great Hall in St. Petersburg, and Central Conservatory in Beijing, in addition to concert halls in Japan, Korea, Spain and Taiwan. Some of her upcoming activities include a China tour for concerts, master classes and the production of the Green Golly Flute and creating the book version of Green Golly and Her Golden Flute with writer Keith Torgan and illustrator Suzanne Lebeda. She received a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Samuel Baron. Additionally, she studied with Julius Baker, Thomas Nyfenger and Gerardo Levy and attended Master Classes with Jean Pierre Rampal and James Galway.
Randall Keith Horton, Album Producer is the man who made the Parents’ Choice Gold award winning album Green Golly & Her Golden Flute possible. Mr. Horton is the founder of the American Music Educational Television Project and the American Music Media independent label, organizations created to educate and remind Americans of their proud and varied musical heritage. Early in his career Horton was chosen by Duke Ellington to serve as his composing and conducting assistant, an experience that informed much of his musical career. Randall arranged music for the Jackson Five, Martha Reeves and Marvin Gaye. He holds degrees in television production and media management and has produced his American Music television shows from colleges in California, Illinois, Texas and New York. Randall and his amazing wife, Andrea, live in New York City, where they continue to develop Rakeiho Musical Offerings, a not-for-profit which serves as the parent corporation for their television and recording vision.
www.randallkeithhorton.com
Bob Bralove, Album Producer “Little Kids Little Songs” was the MIDI wizard, producer (Infrared Roses, Built to Last), and co-writer of Gold and Platinum selling songs including, Picasso Moon, Way to Go Home, Easy Answers, Parallelogram, Little Nemo in Nightland, Sparrow Hawk Row, with The Grateful Dead for the last eight years of the long strange trip. Bralove, who has a Masters Degree in composition, studied with Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Wayne Peterson, focusing on composing orchestral and chamber works. He perfected his skills in the digital manipulation of sound, as the sound designer and computer music director for Stevie Wonder (Woman in Red, In Square Circle). After eight-year tenure with Stevie, he began working with the Grateful Dead. His first project was to help score the CBS remake of the television series The Twilight Zone.
In addition to songwriting, producing and MIDI wizard activities for the band, Bralove is especially well known for his undeniable creative sound, performing and designing with the Grateful Dead, the mind-bending, avant-garde, Drums and Space segments of their live shows. Bralove also performs his art work and music live across the U.S. and in Japan in solo concerts, with Dose Hermanos and The Psychedelic Keyboard Trio. Bralove’s paintings and prints have been featured in a three gallery/installation at the Dogwood Center for Performing Arts in Fremont, MI and at Newago Council of the Arts Gallery. www.bobbralove.com
Jason Blank, Flute Designer and Director of Flute Sales: Mr. Jason Blank, musician and entrepreneur, a student of Jeffery Khaner and Jean Larson, has a Bachelor of Music from Southern Methodist University. He has performed concertos with the Delaware Symphony, the Texas A&M Orchestra, the Wilmington Orchestra, and was a finalist to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a soloist. He was one of only two students in Southern Methodist’s history to win the school concerto competition as a freshman. He has performed with Voices of Change, a new music society in Dallas, the Irving Symphony Orchestra, the Brazos Valley Symphony, and served a summer in Graz, Austria, playing in the orchestra for the Graz vocal festival. After his role as Flute Product Manager for the Haynes Flutes Company, then as Regional Sales Manager for the Eastman Music Company, he now runs his own firm, designing and distributing solution based products for musicians worldwide, as well as performing and educating students at all levels of ability.
Bruce Shippee, (photographer) grew up in the beautiful wine country of Northern California. Exposed to nature and camping at an early age, the camera became a way to record some wonderful experiences. A photography class in high school really began to fuel a serious interest. His next step was deciding to attend Brooks Institute of Photography where he graduated with a BA in Illustrative Photography. After Brooks he worked in a large commercial studio in the Midwest shooting product and fashion. Returning home in the 80’s he opened his own studio providing photography for a wide variety of clients. His expertise is fashion, product catalogues, wine and food, in recent years he has also been shooting for stock photography agencies. www.bruceshippee.com
Suzanne Langelier-Lebeda, illustrator is an award-winning graphic designer, artist and illustrator. As director of publications and graphic designer at State University New York Potsdam for 25 years, she produced admissions and development materials that earned her professional, state and national awards for publication design that often incorporated her illustrations. Her career has also included educational communications design for classroom and educational television at CUNY and SUNY Geneseo.
Ms. Langelier-Lebeda illustrated both the cover and chapter illustrations for the book The Reindeer Keeper, www.thereinderkeeper.com. Graduating with a B.S. in art education from Buffalo State that included study in Siena, Italy; she taught art K-12; earned a M.F.A. in graphic design and painting from Rochester Institute of Technology. Her career has included educational communications design for classroom and educational television at CUNY and SUNY institutions.
She established SnowLine Design to concentrate full time on freelance graphic design and illustration as well as on personal fine art work. She is an exhibiting member of the Adirondack Artists’ Guild in Saranac Lake, New York. She lives on the edge of the Adirondack Park on the Raquette River where she is presently working on the book version of Green Golly & Her Golden Flute.
James Coffey, Blue Vision Music, (Web Design): After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Music and a Master's in Science Education from Indiana University, Jim taught elementary public school for 12 years. During that time he developed a love and respect for the unique musical needs of children. In 1994, he turned all his attention to working full-time in children’s entertainment and formed his own music production company Blue Vision Music. Over the years he has earned a reputation for quality and craftsmanship that has made him one of the most sought after children’s producers, arrangers and songwriters in the business. His work has been featured on videos, CDs, television and toys all over the globe. From Jazz to Pop, Classical to Reggae, Jim brings his own award–winning talents, experience and creativity to every project. To date, Jim has personally won 5 consecutive national awards as well as being featured in such publications as the Chicago Sun–Times, LA Times & The Wall Street Journal. His own CDs have been critically acclaimed and chosen as “Editor’s Choice” from both Woman’s Day Magazine and Sesame Street Parent Magazine.
www.bluevisionmusic.com
Jaime Campbell Morton, Artspromo, Viral Marketing: Jaime is a Viral Marketing, Eco PR and Social Networking expert. She has over 10 years experience assisting musicians and businesses navigate the ever-evolving landscape of Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, as well as running successful, affordable internet campaigns. www.artspromo.org
Elizabeth Waldman, Waldmania PR: Through more than 30 years of experience in media relations, Elizabeth Waldman Frazier has developed a creative approach, which is born of the art as well as the craft of publicity. Along with solid industry knowledge and a vast network of contacts, she has learned to think outside the box, arriving at solutions based on a delicate interplay of the intuitive and the tried and true. She works "from the heart," and the heart of this highly personalized approach is her skill as a good listener and her artistic vision.
Ms. Waldman Frazier initially trained as an actress, studied in Ireland, took part in many postgraduate theatre classes/workshops, and appeared frequently in Off-Loop theatre productions in Chicago. She also acted in a number of nationally syndicated radio dramas produced by National Radio Theatre of Chicago. While at National Radio Theatre, she moved into production work, research, script writing, grant writing, editing, and publicity. Believing that it is never too late to continue learning, she returned to Ireland, earning a certificate at the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo. She considers her accomplishments as an artist the foundation of her approach to working with others.
Waldmania Public Relations today represents a natural and happy evolution from Elizabeth Waldman Frazier’s previous activities and experiences, which also included positions in media relations at WFMT-FM (Chicago's fine arts radio station) and the station's sister company, Chicago magazine, the Ravinia Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, and the Chamber Music Series at the University of Oregon. For a period of time, she presided over her own concert artists' management, with a roster of classical and jazz musicians. Because she knows the business from all three perspectives: performer, publicist, and manager, Elizabeth Waldman Frazier is uniquely qualified to chart a plan for success that is based on each client’s distinctive qualities and a healthy dose of common sense! www.waldmaniapr.com
Emily Clare Thompson Schweer: Writer and Consultant
Bruce Lazarus, Arranger Green Golly Project: Composer and pianist (Music Coordinator for Mark Morris Dance Center) is currently completing The Messier Project, a full-evening dance-music-video work based on the work of French astronomer Charles Messier, in collaboration with Mary Seidman and Dancers featuring projected 3D visual projections of nebulae, galaxies, and time travel by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization for the American Museum of Natural History and Rose Space Center (Hayden Planetarium). The Messier Project has been performed in excerpts at the Ellen Stewart Theater at La Mama and at the 2011 World Science Festival. Other 2010-11 compositions include Carrolling, musical settings of Lewis Carroll poems; Telstar: A Tower in Space for Cambridge Family Opera Chorus; and November Sonata for flute and piano (performance at the 2011 National Flute Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina). He studied composition at Juilliard with Vincent Persichetti and Andrew Thomas, earned his B.M. and M.M. in music composition, studied piano and composition privately with Donald Waxman, and later earned his Ph.D in music theory at Rutgers University.
www.brucelazarus.com