1995 Artist Support Program

Born in Pakro, in the eastern region of Ghana, Kofi Anang exhibited talent as both a dancer and musician from his youth. After graduating from the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies with honors, Kofi spent seven years with the Ghana National Dance Ensemble and performed throughout Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Having traveled for five years with the internationally acclaimed group, Oboade, in 1978 Kofi chose to settle in Seattle and pursue his individual musical vision. In Seattle, Kofi formed the group Ocheami to teach and perform African music and dance. Over the past twenty years, Ocheami has established a vast network of students and fans.

Kofi was one of the African immigrant artists whose music was featured in Safarini, a music album developed and produced by Jack Straw and Rakumi Arts International to promote the work of African immigrant artists. Safarini contains two of Kofi Anang’s songs – Hail, which uses the Ghanian kalimba to represent the sound of hail or raindrops on an iron roof, and Ko. “Ko” means “forest”, Kofi uses nature sounds and careful arrangements to create a traditional sound environment in this piece, based on traditional arrangements and using modern instrumentation. The Safarini compact disc was released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2000.

Reaching out from his traditional roots to the many influences he has absorbed in his travels, Kofi now explores ways of blending the traditional arts of Ghana with contemporary international forms of expression. The music on Safarini represents a foray into a new musical territory for Kofi and his audience. Kofi created these songs while he was a featured artist in Jack Straw Productions’ 1995 Artist Support Program. As part of this program, Kofi experimented with adding Australian didjeridu, flute, and electronic percussion to traditional African instruments.

Artist Support Program 1995: Recorded songs for Safarini In Transit: Music of African Immigrants and experimented with adding Australian didjeridu, flute, and electronic percussion to traditional African instruments.

Nikki Appino is a multi-disciplinary theater artist and filmmaker. Her art has been recognized through commissions and grants, including the Pew Center for Arts & Culture, the Flintridge Foundation, Paul Allen Foundation, Artist Trust, and the National Endowment for the Arts/TCG Fellowship.

In the ’90s she founded a company to develop and produce original theater and film works. From 1998 to 2003, she created over ten original pieces for the stage including Invisible Ink, Before the Comet Comes, Rain City Rollers, and Djinn.

Appino has collaborated with a range of artists and composers, including Eyvind Kang, Robin Holcomb, Tenzin Choegyal, Wayne Horvitz, and Philip Glass. Her directing credits include Robin Holcomb’s Silent Spring (Walker Center, Wexner, Flynn Center, Dance Theater Workshop) and early directing credits at A.C.T., Milwaukee Rep, McCarter Theatre, Perseverance Theatre, the Empty Space, On The Boards, and Berkeley Rep.

Artist Support Program 1995 (with Jim Ragland): Threshold

(Photo by Bill Bernstein)

Brent Arnold, cellist and composer, studied with violinist Michael White (Pharoah Sanders, John Handy) and cellist Walter Grey (Kronos Quartet). Solo cello & electronics and music for concert, theater, film, dance. Founding member of Ghost Quartet with Dave Malloy, Gelsey Bell, and Brittain Ashford. Music Director & Conductor for Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe’s Candyman performances. Composer for films including The Saint of the Impossible (dir. Marc Wilkins). Played/collaborated with artists including Jim Jarmusch, The Antlers, Ashwini Ramaswami, Drew McDowall, Filastine, Walid Ben Selim, Randall Dunn, Zola Jesus, Arun Ramamurthy, Jessica Pavone, DJ/rupture, Andrew Drury, Aditya Kalyanpur, Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenney, Wally Shoup, Reggie Watts, Steve Von Till, Baby Copperhead, and many more. Currently resides in New York City.

Artist Support Program 1995

Michael Bisio has been a member of the Matthew Shipp Trio since 2009. The trio has played Carnegie Hall, Newport Jazz Festival, and Sons di Hiver as well as most major festivals throughout North/South America and Europe. Since 2009 Michael has also been on faculty at Bennington College, VT. His latest collaboration with harmonic singer/acoustic guitarist Timothy Hill has already received wide acclaim and promises a bright future.

Artist Support Program 1995

Andy Frankel is an event promoter who spent 20 years in the music industry developing African recording artists all over the world and doing record production. In 1989 Andy started Rakumi Arts, a Seattle-based non-profit organization that promoted the arts and culture of Africa. He also founded a record label called IndigiDisc which has issued recordings of world-reknowned artists such as Lágbájá and King Sunny Adé.

Artist Support Program 1994

Based in Seattle, Goldston is currently working as a performer, dance class accompanist, teacher and studio musician. Discography and performances include work with David Byrne, Nirvana (Unplugged), the Presidents of the United States of America, Bush, Larry Barrett, the Old Joe Clarks, Jeff Greinke, Lori Carson, Laura Love, Gluebound, Citizens’ Utilities, Nancy Wilson, Flipp, Ed Pias, Elizabeth Falconer, John Doe, and Corporal Blossom. Goldston is accomplished in a wide variety of styles, including classical, world music, rock and free improvisation.

Artist Support Program 2006

Artist Support Program 2002

Artist Support Program 1995 (with Stacey Levine): The Post Office

Stacey Levine is the author of five books of uniquely original voice-driven fiction. Her novel MICE 1961, a comic-dramatic exploration of two sisters’ relationship and set during the Cold War, will be published by in 2024. Levine’s short fiction collection THE GIRL WITH BROWN FUR, longlisted for The Story Prize, was also shortlisted for the Washington State Book Award. Her novel FRANCES JOHNSON was shortlisted for the Washington State Book Award, and her collection MY HORSE AND OTHER STORIES won a PEN Fiction Award. MY HORSE and Levine’s novel DRA—  were published by the much-lauded Los Angeles-based Sun & Moon Press her short fiction has been translated for Danish and Japanese publications.

A frequent guest presenter at university writing programs, Levine has published fiction in The Brooklyn Rail, Tin House, Fence, The Fairy Tale Review, The Santa Monica Review, Yeti, The Iowa Review, and other venues. A collaborator on several projects with experimental cellist and composer Lori Goldston, Levine received a Stranger Genius Award for Literature and other fellowships. She lives and teaches in Seattle.

Artist Support Program 1995 (with Lori Goldston): The Post Office

The music of Bun-Ching Lam has been performed worldwide by such ensembles as the Macao Orchestra, American Composer’s Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, The Vienna Radio Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Albany Symphony. Born in Macao, Lam has served as the composer-in-residence of the Macao Orchestra from 2008-2016. She began her piano study in her native city, then further pursued her music education in Hong Kong and the United States. She holds a B.A. degree in Piano Performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California at San Diego. She has taught at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and served as Visiting Professor at the Yale University School of Music and at Bennington College.

She has been recognized by numerous awards including a Rome Prize, the highest Award at the Shanghai International Composers’ Competition, two NEA grants, fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has received commissions from the American Composers Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Macau Orchestra, Chamber Music America, CrossSound Festival, Bang On a Can Festival, Sequitur, Continuum, Ursula Oppens and the Arditti String Quartet. She also served as the Music Alive! Composer-in-Residence with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Bun-Ching Lam’s work has been recorded on Mutable Music, CRI, Tzadik, Nimbus, and Koch International. She now divides her time between Paris and New York.

Artist Support Program 1995 (with the New Performance Group): Mountain Clear Water Remote

(Photo by Moritz Krauth)

Dennis Rea’s guitar playing and composing blends modern jazz, creative rock, experimental music, and world musical traditions. Over the years he has led or been a key contributor to such innovative groups as Moraine, LAND, Iron Kim Style, Stackpole, Savant, Earthstar, and Tempered Steel. He has performed and/or recorded with many prominent creative musicians including acclaimed French composer Hector Zazou, Dutch jazz legend Han Bennink, trombone virtuoso Stuart Dempster, and godfather of Chinese rock Cui Jian, as well as members of King Crimson, Hawkwind, Soundgarden, Santana, Ministry, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. Past performances include NEARfest, WOMAD, Beijing International Jazz Festival, Sichuan-China International TV Festival, MuzEnergo Tour of Russia, Ustuu Huree Festival (Tuva), Voice of Nomads Festival (Buryatia), Baja Prog (Mexico), Bumbershoot, Northwest Folklife Festival, Earshot Jazz Festival, Seattle Art Museum, and Seattle Asian Art Museum. He has collaborated with many of the most important figures in contemporary Chinese music and was one of the first Western musicians to record an album for the state-owned China Record Company. He has appeared on roughly 40 releases to date.

Artist Support Program 2016: Record Giant Steppes, an album of experimental music inspired by the music of Central Asia.

Artist Support Program 2007: Views from Chicheng Precipice, an album of original compositions drawing from contemporary adaptations of traditional East Asian music.

Artist Support Program 1995: Seattle Improvised Music Festival

Flutist Paul Taub has been a leading performer of chamber and contemporary music in the Northwest US since his arrival in Seattle in 1979. Professor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts, he is a founding member and Executive Director of the Seattle Chamber Players. Very active in musical projects with former republics of the Soviet Union, Paul has toured in Russia four times and has also performed in Greece, France, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Costa Rica, and at universities and colleges all over the United States and Canada. His teachers include Marcel Moyse, Samuel Baron, Michel Debost, and Robert Aitken. Paul has given premieres of works by composers such as Henry Brant, Janice Giteck, George Crumb, and many more. His program of ten commissioned solo pieces was presented at Benaroya Hall in May, 1999. Oo-ee, the CD of this repertoire, is available on the Periplum label. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Flute Association.

Artist Support Program 2016: Produce recordings of five new commissioned chamber works by emerging and established Seattle composers.

Artist Support Program 2001 (with Taneko Ensemble)

Artist Support Program 1999: Record Oo-ee, a collection of new works for solo bass flute, alto flute, C flute or piccolo commissioned from ten composers representing a broad spectrum of ages, musical styles, and ethnic backgrounds.

Artist Support Program 1995

Patricia Van Kirk (1954-2005) was a longtime Seattle resident, director of plays and active member of the LGBT community who touched many lives through her work as Director of Front Room Theater and Hidden Histories, and through her position at Metro Transit as a Base Chief. The Patricia Van Kirk Memorial Scholarship extends her legacy and passion for life, humanity, and beauty to a new generation of theatre and visual arts scholars.

Artist Support Program 1995: Hidden History – True Stories from Gay & Lesbian Elders

Artist Support Program 1995: Surrounded by Green