LAURA PAWEL DANCE COMPANY - Key Persons
CHRIS HANEY was born in Xenia, Ohio and has been living in New York City since 2002. Chris holds a Bachelors of Music from Ohio State University, and a Masters of Music from SUNY Purchase. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. Chris has recorded or performed with Brad Leali, Greg Tardy, Wessell Anderson, Bobby Porcelli, Joe Magnarelli, Ray Vega and many others. He can be seen performing regularly at jazz clubs such as Smalls, Fat Cat, and Mezzrow in New York City.
GENE CAPRIOGLIO was born in Manhattan, but is a lifelong resident of Queens. He has been playing guitar since he was 11 years old and has a BA in music education from Queens College. He is currently the Vice President for New Music and Rights at the C. F. Peters Corporation. When not managing rights and new music, he plays guitar and sings with Barebones, The Bumper Crop Boys, Le Nozze di Carlo and Old Souls. The Bumper Crop Boys released a CD in 2018, Caretakers. It can be purchased online at iTunes and streamed on Spotify. To be appraised of Gene's latest musical exploits, become his 'friend' at facebook.com
Pianist and composer, CECILIA COLEMAN moved to NYC in summer of 1998. She is a native of Long Beach, CA and was the jazz piano instructor at her alma mater, CSU Long Beach , from 1995 - 2013. Coleman formed her big band in 2010 and has recorded two CDs with the 18 piece ensemble. They can be heard each month playing in NYC at local venues. She had the privilege of working with Pam Finney as accompanist for the Modern Dance Center of Westchester for 15 years and Laura Pawel and the Laura Pawel Dance Company since 2009.
JIM FINNEY has been a member of the LPDC since 1975. His poetry and short stories have appeared in Transatlantic Review, Fiction, RAPPORT, Light Year '85, and Green House and Stand magazines. He won a CAPS grant for fiction in 1984 and has completed a book of short stories titled "Lucky Enough." In 1990 his poetry chapbook, "I'm Standing Here Alone," was published by A Musty Bone Press. His short stories "Fighting" and "Heroes" were recently published on-line by Marco Polo Arts Mag.
A native of New York City, KATHY KAUFMANN has been lighting dance and performance around the world for over 25 years. As always, it is a pleasure to be collaborating and creating with LPDC again. Kathy has had the good fortune to work regularly with many wonderful artists including Michelle Dorrance, Eiko & Koma, The Bang Group, Rebecca Stenn, Rebecca Davis, Mariana Valencia, Joanna Kotze and Ephrat Asherie. Her most recent projects were for Keely Garfield, Ben Munisteri, Joanna Kotze, Gina Gibney, Hilary Easton, and Jillian Peña. She is a two time Bessie recipient, resident designer at the Danspace Project at St. Marks Church, and currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence.
PAMELA FINNEY is an original member of the LPDC. She taught children and teens at the Modern Dance Center of Westchester from 1966 to 2014 and was founder and artistic director of The Corner Store Dance Company, which performed for children in schools and theaters for 28 years. Finney performed with Meredith Monk and other choreographers in the Judson era. She was a visiting artist in dance at Hunter College and Wesleyan University where she taught technique, composition and teaching skills. She is a founding member of a group of women who collectively administer Singing Eagle Lodge, a two-week girls' camp on Squam Lake in New Hampshire; she has been teaching dance there and helping to run the camp since it opened in 1975. Her first dance teacher was Truda Kaschmann in Hartford, CT. Pam graduated from Sarah Lawrence College; her work there with Bessie Schönberg has influenced all her subsequent dancing, choreographing, and teaching. She studied with Merce Cunningham for 20 years as well as with other NYC teachers, especially Nancy Meehan.
PASHA KARCHEVSKY is a rising-star jazz trumpeter, composer and educator and an Austin Winds and Reunion Blues artist. He has won many prestigious international competitions and performed at major venues and jazz festivals around the world. From 2013-2015 he was a member of the worldwide famous jazz band "The Moscow State Jazz Orchestra" consisting of outstanding Russian jazz musicians led by Igor Butman. Through his collaboration with this orchestra Pasha toured across countries in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Far East, Russia and elsewhere. Over the past 10 years of his professional career, Pasha shared the stage with a number of top-tier artists such as Mireille Mathieu, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Mintzer, Conrad Herwig, Terence Blanchard, Allan Harris, Igor Butman and Alex Sipiagin among others. In 2015 Pasha published his first book "12 Jazz Trumpet Transcriptions" and in 2018 he recorded his debut album Hope.
PHIL STONE studied experimental music at Wesleyan University, where he was extremely fortunate to meet and study composition for dance with Pam Finney and Laura Pawel. In addition to his many enjoyable years of solo work with the LPDC, he is a member of The Hub, a San Francisco-based computer network music ensemble. In 2019, The Hub received the Giga-Hertz Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. Phil and fellow LPDC musician Gene Caprioglio have collaborated on the 4'33" iPhone app, which celebrates John Cage's most notorious piece with user-uploaded performances from all over the world. Phil lives in Davis, California and writes software for the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. He plays bass for Sacramento's The Uncovered. Some of his electronic compositions may be enjoyed for free at www.pkstonemusic.com.
ROBERT LA SARDO (Dr. 88) was born and raised in New York City. He now resides in Brooklyn Heights with his wife Clare, who is an artist and designer. He was influenced at a very early age by black gospel, blues and R&B, and was drawn to the amplified harmonica sound of Little Walter, Rice Miller, and Paul Butterfield. He learned tenor sax from jazz saxophonist Pete Yellen. Robert played R&B with The Full Spectrum Band on sax, harp and vocals. He has played most of the New York City clubs from The Village Gate and The Lonestar Roadhouse to Le Bar Bat.
STACEY BERKHEIMER studied modern dance at Sarah Lawrence College and performed with The Corner Store Dance Company for ten years. She has been dancing with the LPDC since 1992, even after moving to Minnesota in 1995. She is grateful to Laura and the rest of company for making it possible for her to keep dancing, from a distance! She is also an accountant at PDRI, a human resources consulting company in Minneapolis; and a counselor at Singing Eagle Lodge, a summer camp for girls in New Hampshire.
Saxophonist and composer PETER BRAININ is a Grammy and Latin Grammy winning artist who has performed at major concert venues and jazz festivals all over Europe, Asia, South America and the U.S. Some of the the bands and artists he has toured with internationally include pianist Hilton Ruiz, Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Mongo Santamaria, Valery Ponomorev, Bebo Valdez, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Arturo Ofarrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and with his own quartet. Other artists he has performed and/or recorded with include Randy Weston, Benny Golson, Wynton Marsalis, Jeff Watts, Ray Barretto, Jerry Gonzalez, and Harold Mabern. A native of the Bronx, he was twice awarded the BRIO Award (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) for music composition. Some of his compositions and arrangements can be heard on his original CD recordings with co-leader, drummer Steve Johns and with the quartet Native Soul (www.nativesoul.net).