THEO SAUNDERS (Additional Arrangements and music, Pianist), a native New Yorker, has lived in California since 1985, but his musical career remains international in scope. Saunder’s musical odyssey has taken him to four continents and more than twenty countries. He has performed in may of the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals, concert halls and night clubs, with distinguished jazz artists including: Freddie Hubbard, Carla Bley, Charles Lloyd, Bob Brookmeyer, Harold Land, Buddy Collette, Eddie Harris, Ted Curson, James Moody, Buddy Hutcherson, Teddy Edwards, Jack Dejohnette, Joe Lovano, Jimmy Garrison, Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Fortune, Slam Stewart, Zoot Sims, Rashied Ali, Mike Stern, Chris Conners, Morgana King and Rosanna Vitro, J.R. Montrose, Sonny Greenwich, Al Cohn, John Klemmer, Wilber Ware.
He has recorded over thirty CD’s, five of which are under his leadership. His diverse musical activities have included musical director for opera and dance productions, for cabaret singers, and international musical theatre. He has played with many well known Latin, R&B, and rock artists including, Claudio Roditi, Victor Brasil, Ray Mantilla, Willie Bobo, Raul De Souza, Ray Armando, Gladys Knight, Four Tops, Elephants Memory, and is a former member (piano) of the Jazz Tap Ensemble.
As a composer, Theo has numerous jazz and rock compositions to his credit as well as original scores for dance, theatre, radio and multimedia production. His compositions have recently been recorded by Henry Franklin, Ray Armando, Benn Clatworthy, Bobby Matos, and Bruce Paulson. His biographical sketch appears in ‘People in Jazz- Jazz keyboard improvisers of the 19th and 20th centuries’ by Bill Lee.
Saunders’ compositions include: Musical Score for Waterside – Plexus Dance Theatre, Venture, CA; Musical score for Vincent – A Passionate Journey Into The Life Of Van Gogh – a play by Leonard Nimoy; Music for Chekov Short Stories – a series for Public Radio; Musical score for the Sequoia National Park Centennial Multimedia Presentation.
Verse Of Fortune represents Theo Saunders’ twenty-fifth year of collaborations with Noa Ain, the show’s composer. He was Musical Director (MD) for Ain’s Trio, an opera performed at the Berkshire Music Festival, first American Music Theatre Festival, Philadelphia, and at Carnegie Hall; and another Ain opera, Outcast, performed at Merkin Hall, NYC, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Houston Grand Opera. He was also MD for the play Peace Child, produced in both the US and former Soviet Union.
NOA AIN (Composer) graduated from Juilliard and L’école des Beaux Arts, Fontainebleu, France (master
classes with Nadia Boulanger and Robert Casadesus). She studied piano with Seymour Bernstein, analysis
with Stefan Wolpe, and composition with Hall Overton.
Her works – Libretto, lyrics and music by Noa Ain – have been produced by the Kennedy Center (first prize
for her music for Angels Voices ), Trio produced by Carnegie Hall Corp, American Music Theatre Festival.,
Arts at St. Ann’s, The Outcast produced by Houston Grand Opera, Opera Ebony at BAM's Majestic Theatre,
Aaron Davis Hall with Merkin Hall, Czas Na Uwiegi (Time At The Edge) produced by Teatr Stu. Krakow, Poland
(chosen best performance of the year), Song Of The Turtledove with Gerard Edery for the Gerard Edery
Ensemble, produced at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Festival and Lincoln Center. She is the winner of the
Stephen Sondheim Award, an Obie, and 15 awards from ASCAP. She has worked twice with Polish director,
Henryk Baranowski, on The Orestia and Macbeth.
She won first prize for her music for the film Face by Howard Lester. Silence the animated film based on the
life of Tana Ross (music by Noa Ain based on her music-theatre work Through The Silence…for cello and
Survivor won 25 international awards and was bought by Save The Children, and Moma.
Verse Of Fortune is her first collaboration with Christian Holder.
Noa’s name has appeared twice in the New York Times crossword puzzle. As a visual artist Noa Ain had her
first show of drawings in 1975 at The Music Inn, Stockbridge, Mass. In ’90, as part of her opera, The Outcast
presented by Houston Grand Opera, her painted scrolls were displayed in their gallery. Her work is in 80
private collections.
She has currently completed a cycle of paintings to be displayed along with her opera, Joan Of Arc, and is
working on a new series to accompany her music-theatre work in progress, Song Of Bilitis
Verse Of Fortune is CHRISTIAN HOLDER’s first credit as book writer-lyricist. In January of 2001 he conceived and began writing the show, inviting composer Noa Ain to join him in 2006.
He enjoyed a successful career as leading dancer with the Joffrey Ballet from 1966 to 1979, where he worked with choreographers: Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey, Kurt Jooss, and Leonide Massine. He has choreographed and designed costumes for the Joffrey Ballet, Washington Ballet, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Ballet Théâtre de Bordeaux, and American Ballet Theatre, as well as for ballerinas Martine van Hamel and Valentina Kozlova.
In February 2000 Mr. Holder’s costume designs for Margo Sappington’s ballet, Toulouse-Lautrec, were put on display at the Toulouse-Lautrec museum in Albi, France. The ballet was commissioned by the Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse.
2004 saw Mr. Holder reciting Gertrude Stein as The Narrator in The Joffrey Ballet’s production of Sir Frederick Ashton’s 1937 ballet, A Wedding Bouquet, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The occasion was the Ashton Centenary.
In 2006 The Joffrey Ballet invited Mr. Holder to perform as one of the Ugly Stepsisters in their production of Sir Frederick Ashton’s 1948 masterpiece, Cinderella.
Mr. Holder has designed stage wardrobe for Ann Reinking and Tina Turner. He has also written reviews and two cover articles for Dance Magazine. He teaches ballet at Steps On Broadway in New York, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, PeriDance, and for Cedar Lake Dance.
Mr. Holder’s performing career began as a child in London, where he attended the Corona Academy Stage School. In the UK he appeared in repertory theatre in Bromley and Wimbledon, and on the television series The Avengers, Danger Man, and Play Of The Week. A BBC production of Moby Dick, although unfinished, provided him with the privilege of being directed by Orson Welles at the age of five. He also danced with his father’s London-based company, Boscoe Holder and his Caribbean Dancers, making his performing debut with them at the Coronation festivities for Queen Elizabeth II. He has begun a nonfiction account of his family’s history in the UK from 1919 to the present.