Doctor T w Dennis Shafer @Longy School of Music, 03.13.09

["Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T)" <emile@foryourhead.com>]

Hi folks,

I'll be performing video improvisations at the 
Longy School of Music in Cambridge this coming 
Friday. Dennis is a fine, multifaceted young 
saxophonist and composer -- this promises to be a 
fun and enlightening evening,


DENNIS SHAFER AND FRIENDS SAY, "YES WE CAN!" : FIVE WORLD PREMIERES



Featuring The VOX 4 String Quartet, Shafer 
Saxophone Quartet, Sounds in Bloom, Dr. T, and 
more

FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH AT 7:30PM-FREE ADMISSION

JEWITT HALL, FIRST CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE

11 Garden Street, Cambridge, HARVARD SQUARE T-STOP



Dennis Shafer proudly presents composers Claudio 
Gabriele (Rome, Italy), Paul Klein (Yale 
University), David Krebs (Lawrence, Kansas), 
Julie Case (Vermont), and Anthony Solitro 
(Worcester) in a concert featuring some of the 
most original and innovative performing and 
visual artists of our time.



This non-stop fringe performance brings together 
the most wonderful musical and artistic 
experiences Dennis Shafer has had in Boston since 
arriving from Paris in 2007.  Cross-disciplinary 
experiences from poetry to video art, music 
inspired by sculpture and then turned to poetry, 
and work with composers exploring new performance 
techniques and sounds are Dennis Shafer and 
Friends hope to share with you!



Collaborators:

www.myspace.com/brexmusic David Krebs electronic music

www.myspace.com/vox4stringquartet VOX4 String Quartet

www.myspace.com/claudiogabriele Claudio Gabriele, composer

www.julietcase.com Juliet Case, Composer

www.myspace.com/tonysolitro Anthony Solitro, composer

www.myspace.com/dnorma Diana Norma Szokolyai, 
Sounds in Bloom, performance artist

www.foryourhead.com Emile "Dr. T" Tobenfeld, Spontaneous Video Art



PERFORMERS AND BIOS



Dennis Shafer, Saxophonist



In 2008, Dennis Shafer was presented a Legacy 
Award by Meryl Streep from the Creativity 
Foundation. A native of Lawrence, Kansas, he 
recently lived in Paris, France where he studied 
with contemporary saxophonist Jean-Michel Goury. 
In Paris, Dennis worked with several great 
composers and saxophonists, including Francois 
Rosse, Etienne Rolin, Yosh'ko Seffer, Francois 
Coutinaud, and Rico Gubler. He also premiered 
works by Robert Lemay, Jacques Hetu, Yosh'ko 
Seffer, and toured with various ensembles across 
France, as well as Austria and Hungary. Dennis 
Shafer is the founder and co-founder of several 
groups, including Le Tapis Volant, Sounds in 
Bloom, the Skyline Quintet, the Back Bay 
Saxophone Quartet and the Opus Jazz Duo. He 
returned to Boston in 2007 where he has premiered 
works by Robert Morris, Michael Paull, and Larry 
Bell for an Artist Diploma at Longy School of 
Music, studying with Kenneth Radnofsky. He 
performs regularly in Boston and also has 
engagements in France, Thailand, and Austrailia.



Diana Norma Szokolyai, Performance Artist, Writer



Diana Norma Szokolyai is a Hungarian and American 
author, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. 
Her book of poetry and photography, Roses in the 
Snow (Imaginary Cottage Press), was runner-up for 
best poetry book in the 2008 national DIY Book 
Festival. It may be previewed and purchased at 
http://www.lulu.com/content/2531439. Her poetry, 
articles, and visual art have been published in 
Polarity, Up the Staircase, The Dudley Review, 
Human Rights Institute: Human Rights News, and 
other publications. She is recipient of a Human 
Rights Art Award from the University of 
Connecticut's Human Rights Institute and 
scholarships from the University of Connecticut 
and Harvard for graduate study in French studies 
and Arts in Education respectively.



She co-directs the Cambridge Writer's Workshop 
and is co-founder of Sounds in Bloom 
(www.myspace.com/dnorma), an internationally 
performing poetry-music-movement-art 
collaborative that performs in theaters, 
bookstores, concert halls, art galleries, 
educational institutions, and secret places.



Together with saxophonist/composer Dennis Shafer 
(co-founder), they collaborate with artists 
across the U.S. and Europe, and give workshops to 
children and adults. With Sounds in Bloom, she 
has performed at Cité Internationale des Arts 
(Paris), Zeitgeist Outpost Art Gallery 
(Cambridge), Mobius Center for Experimental Art 
(Boston), Tenri Cultural Institute (New York), 
The Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music 
(Cambridge), and in other venues including spoken 
word open-mics and artistic "salons" in 
Paris,Vienna, and Budapest. Composers that have 
either written music for her texts or 
commissioned poems for their music include David 
Krebs (U.S.), Jason Haye (UK), Peter James (UK), 
Claudio Gabriele (Italy), and Juliet Case (U.S.)



Jennifer Bill, Saxophone

Saxophonist, Dr. Jennifer Bill performs solo and 
chamber music with a variety of groups around 
southern New England, including the Back Bay 
Saxophone Quartet (www.backbayquartet.com).  She 
has performed contemporary chamber music with a 
variety of artists including vocalists, 
clarinetists, cellists, flutists, taped media, 
percussionists and dancers.  In December of 2005, 
Dr. Bill was a guest soloist with the Boston 
University Wind Ensemble, performing John 
Harbison's San Antonio. In the spring of 2006 she 
was a guest conductor with the Providence College 
concert band. She has premiered numerous pieces 
for saxophone including Reflection by Michael 
Kregler in 2007, The Miraculous Tale for 
saxophone and derabucca by Halim El-Dabh as part 
of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres in 2007, and 
works by Howard Frazin and Shih-Hui Chen as part 
of Worldwide Concurrent Premieres in 2005.  She 
has participated in national and world 
conferences including the World Saxophone 
Congress in 2003, the North American Saxophone 
Alliance national conference in 2000 and the 
North American Saxophone Alliance regional 
conference in 2005.

Dr. Bill is currently a Lecturer in Saxophone at 
Boston University, a Special Lecturer in Music at 
Providence College (theory, ear training, 
saxophone, and chamber music), and a Faculty 
member at The Boston Conservatory (liaison 
between Boston Conservatory and the Boston Arts 
Academy).  She is also the Saxophone Instructor, 
Wind Ensemble Coordinator, and Saxophone Workshop 
assistant for the Boston University Tanglewood 
Institute.  Dr. Bill also serves on the 
International Advisory Board for World-Wide 
Concurrent Premiers and Commissioning Funds, Inc.

Dr. Bill received her education from Providence 
College (BA), The Boston Conservatory (MM) and 
Boston University (MusAD).  Her teachers have 
included Kenneth Radnofsky, Christopher Kelton 
and Carrie Koffman.

Along with her musical passions Dr. Bill is also 
an athlete and a coach.  She captained her 
Division I ice hockey team during her 
undergraduate time at Providence College and was 
an assistant coach for Northeastern University's 
women's ice hockey team from 2001 to 2004.  She 
also coached ice hockey camps and clinics for 
young players from 1997-2006.

Jon Amon, Saxophone



Jon Amon is a Wisconsin native and a graduate of 
the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  He 
graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education 
degree and studied saxophone with Michael Bazan, 
Robert Wilkerson, and Matthew Sintchak.  He 
continued his studies with Jean-Michel Goury at 
the Conservatoire National de Region de 
Boulogne-Billancourt.  He has appeared as a 
chamber musician around the Midwest and has 
performed as a soloist at NASA Region III and 
Region V conferences and at the most recent World 
Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Amon 
has also taught music in the school districts of 
St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin and Arlington, 
Massachusetts.  Currently he is a student of Ken 
Radnofsky at the New England Conservatory where 
he is pursuing a Master of Music degree in 
saxophone performance.



Claudio Gabriele, Composer

Claudio Gabriele was born in Rome in 1963, 
completed his studies at St Cecilia Conservatory 
and Istituto Pontificio di Musica Sacra in Rome 
where he obtained degrees with Emphasis in 
Composition, Electroacoustic Music, Conducting, 
Piano, Organ, Harpsichord and Gregorian Chant. 
Subsequently, he studied composition and 
conducting with George Benjamin at the National 
Academy of St Cecilia, with Klaus Huber in 
Avignon, and Ivan Fedele at the Strasbourg's 
National Regional Conservatory, where he achieved 
the Diplôme d'Etudes Musicales. From 1997 to 2004 
he had many residencies in computer music at 
IRCAM (Paris) with Ferneyhough, Lindberg, Harvey, 
Rebotier, Levinas; afterwards studied electronic 
music with Risset, Roads, Terruggi and Di Giugno 
at the Centre for Musical Research in Rome. In 
2003 Claudio Gabriele won the first prize of the 
International Electroacoustic Music Contest 
Musica Nova (Prague) with the acousmatic 
composition "Ombra nell'azzurro"; in 2006 he won 
an award at the International Composition Contest 
"Music in the Garden" (Krakow). To promote and 
expand interactive performances of music, dance, 
images and electroacoustic sounds he founded the 
Synthesis Ensemble in 1996. From 1994 to 2003, 
Claudio Gabriele had an intense collaboration as 
composer and guest lecturer with the New York 
University, consequently collaborated with the 
Juilliard School (New York), the Vanderbilt 
University (Nashville) and the Universities of 
Strasbourg and Montpellier(France).From  2005 to 
2008 he was Composer in Residence at 
Conservatories of Aix-en-Provence, Nîmes and 
Paris (France), where he received numerous 
commissions for solo, duo, trio, ensemble, and 
large symphony orchestra. Since 2005 he has been 
involved in Musical Theatre, writing his own 
librettos, and now has three works in his 
catalogue of this genre, commissioned and 
performed by leading ensembles (S.I.C., Reflex, 
Les Jeunes Voix du Rhin, Musiques Nouvelles). 
Claudio Gabriele is at present professor on 
Composition, Analysis and Electroacoustic Music 
in the Department of Music and New Technologies 
at the State's Conservatory of Benevento (Italy). 
Gabriele's works are published by "Les Editions 
du Tourdion" (Strasbourg-France), "Musicare" 
(Nimes-France), "Grenzland-Verlag" 
(Aachen-Germany), and "Studio Musicale Arcangelo" 
(Roma-Italy). His music is released on CD by 
"Rivoalto" (Venezia), SMA (Roma), interpreted by 
celebrated artists and performed worldwide in 
prestigious places or on the occasion of 
important international festivals.

Emile Tobenfeld, Video Artist

Emile Tobenfeld, AKA "Dr T" is an improvising 
video artist who prefers to work with improvising 
musicians who can see my projected images. His 
video is derived from photographic and video 
sources (as a still photographer since 1970), 
sometimes processed beyond recognition using 
software including Boris Red, Boris Continuum, 
After Effects and Photoshop. He brings the images 
to shows on DVD's and run 4 or 5 DVD players, 3 
switchers, and a percussion controller to trigger 
some of the switcher effects.He has also 
composed/improvised a great deal of electronic 
music over the years, though he has concentrated 
my artistic efforts exclusively on video during 
the last 3 years.

He is known (in some circles) as the founder of 
Dr T's Music Software and the author of the 
uniquely powerful KCS Omega sequencer. His 
current day job is writing video effects code for 
Boris FX.His influences include free jazz, light 
shows and experimental films, the photography of 
Minor White, the paintings of Kandinsky, the 
music of John Coltrane and the Grateful Dead, and 
his education as a physicist.

Juliet Case, Composer

Juliet Case was passionate about music from an 
early age. She learned folk guitar and classical 
piano from her father, and began writing songs at 
age twelve. She began her formal compositional 
training at Bennington College, studying with 
Allen Shawn and Stephen Siegel. She received a 
master of music in composition in May 2008 from 
the Longy School of Music, where she studied 
composition with John Morrison. Juliet is 
co-founder of "Juddertone", an organization 
dedicated to supporting the collaboration of 
composers and choreographers by producing an 
annual show premiering all new work. Juliet is 
interested in taking risks in her compositions, 
and experiments with new sounds for traditional 
instruments, extended techniques, and electronic 
music.



==========

Dennis Shafer

www.dennisshafer.com

785-979-8675

7 Hearn Street

Watertown, MA
--
My photography can be viewed at 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22231918@N06/collections/72157603627170351/

My videos can be viewed at
http://www.youtube.com/Tobenfeld

                Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D.
Video Producer                  Image Processing Specialist
Video for your HEAD!                    Boris FX
http://www.foryourhead.com              http://www.borisfx.com

" Practice makes perfect, imperfect is better."  -- Paul Bley