Name: MOONDOG On The Keys!
Start: 2024-11-16T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Epsilon Spires

Join us for an extraordinary night of piano and vocal works by the maverick American Composer Moondog! Presented by his grand-student, trimbist Julian Calv, pianist Alex Stewart, and vocalist/percussionist Sarah Penna.
His music forms an unexpected link between the resurgent science of counterpoint, Arapaho, Navajo, Blackfoot, and Sioux rhythms and song forms, the art of jazz improvisation, and the beginnings of a repetitive and minimalist aesthetic. Spanning Moondog's career, a variety of compositions will be performed with introductions about the music from Julian-- who studied with Moondog's only student, Stefan Lakatos.
Moondog (1916-1999) was born Louis Thomas Hardin Jr., and was a blind American classical composer, performer, poet, music theoretician, and inventor of musical instruments. His strongly rhythmic, contrapuntal pieces and arrangements influenced composers of minimal music – American composer Steve Reich has called him the "Grandfather of minimalism." He lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1972, during which time he was often found on the corner where Sixth Avenue meets 53rd street, selling records, composing, and promoting his art.
Julian Calv is a musicologist and performer who specializes in the music of Moondog. He graduated from Moravian University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Music degree and plays the trimba, a percussion instrument invented by Moondog. Moondog's only trimba student, Stefan Lakatos, was the teacher of Julian. He does both studio and live projects. His 2023 vinyl release “Route 4/Thorn and Roots” presents two percussion compositions based on rhythmic patterns utilized by Moondog. Following this on November 9th 2024, Julian's debut album Nonstop Motion will be released-- presenting original compositions alongside never before recorded Moondog compositions. He's brought Moondog's music to uncharted territories too. On July 18th, 2024, he performed with his vocal sextet Non Prophets at the Southern State Correctional Facility, in Springfield Vermont, to a captive audience – some of whom had never heard live music in the last seventeen years. This project was the first of a lifetime of activism projects Julian hopes to continue.
Alex Stewart is a musician, architect, and man about town. He loves living in Newport, NH. He directs the adult choir and bell choir at the South Congregational Church where he plays organ and piano each week. He directs the Kearsarge Community Band in nearby New London. He also accompanies several community and school ensembles, performs with the NH Troubadours and the Newport Opera House Association, serves on the Choral Arts Foundation of the Upper Valley, and does other stuff. He is grateful for this opportunity, and hopes you’re having fun.
Sarah Penna is a musician and all around nature lover. She graduated from Moravian university in 2021 where she studied music education along with vocal, and piano, performance. Her honors project “The Human Faith Melody and the Power of the Common Soul: Charles Ives and the Concord Transcendentalists” was completed in 2021 and is a culmination of her music studies and spiritual interests. Sarah continues to unify community and music through her work with the Vermont State parks and performances with Julian.