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PROJECTS
MUSIC
THE LEISHMAN SONGBOOK:
IN MY SKIN
GL vox , baritone ukulele and piano
Charlie Burnham violin
Matt Muisteri guitar
Greg Cohen bass
A follow-up to Bed Time, her debut album as a singer, IN MY SKIN is an intimate collection of 12 new songs. Where Bed Time was primarily dark nocturnal ballads and featured a mixed all-star roster of downtown musicians, most of these songs were written on the baritone ukulele during afternoons in a hammock, so it seemed natural to form a "string quartet" - again an all-star collection (see above). With guest appearances by Marc Ribot, Todd Sickafoose and Kenny Wollesen, this is Vol. II of the Leishman Songbook, due for release spring 2007 on GCQ Records.
Listen to samples on DISCOGRAPHY page soon.
Buy IN MY SKIN on CD Baby
BED TIME
Vol. I of the Leishman Songbook, this was the first document of her work not just as composer and arranger but as a singer/songwriter - a collection of her favourite songs that she has written, both for herself and for others, over the past years. Largely ballads, chief amongst them are two distinct groups: those that she wrote for herself as a document of the heart; and a number of settings of Shakespeare, written for others to sing, and play, at the California Shakespeare Theater over the past six years - but Shakespeare as he is rarely heard...
Helping her out on the recording are an extraordinary roster of New York friends and musicians: Greg Cohen and Trevor Dunn, bass; Kenny Wollesen and Roberto Rodriguez, drums and percussion; Marc Ribot, guitar; Doug Wieselman, guitar and clarinets; Anthony Coleman, piano; Brian Mitchell, organ; Steven Bernstein and Peck Allmond, trumpet; Jenny Scheinman, violin; Rob Burger, accordion; JD Foster, producer.
Listen to samples on DISCOGRAPHY page
Read reviews on the PRESS page
Buy BED TIME on CD Baby
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GLASS MUSIC
Over the years Gina has returned periodically to her interest in playing glass, which culminated in her commissioning the building of the glass tiers, a sui generis instrument resulting from the desire to be able to both micro-tune and play multiple pitches. Projects have ranged from Earwax's MicroTheater (1991) to Marc Ribot's score for Drunk Boat (2006), glass and percussion duos with Kenny Wollesen (1995 thru 2006) and the Glass Summit with Miguel Frasconi (Issue Project Room 2005). She is currently working on a piece for glass and steel, featuring the glass tiers, other glass
instruments created by Australian glass artist Elaine Miles, and the
metal sculptures of Beati Perry.
KAMIKAZE GROUND CREW
A seven-piece horn ensemble (3 brass, 3 reeds and a drummer), a super-group of New York “downtown” musicians, each a band-leader in their own right, KAMIKAZE GROUND CREW has been performing and recording together for over 20 years, on both coasts of the US and in Europe. Recent performances include the 2006 San Francisco Jazz Festival and Seattle Earshot Jazz Festival, where they premiered PORTRAITS, Ms. Leishman’s recent commission from Chamber Music America. Concerts in Europe include the Donaueschingen Music Festival in Germany (where they premiered four newly commissioned works), the Vossa Jazz Festival in Norway, the Frankfurt Jazz Festival and the SJU Festival in the Netherlands. New York venues include Merkin Hall, Joe's Pub, and Tonic.
They have released five albums, two on New World Records' CounterCurrent series, two on Koch Jazz, and one on Busmeat Records. Members of the band have worked with Bill Frisell, Henry Threadgill, Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Don Cherry, Carla Bley, Lester Bowie, John Zorn, Craig Handy, John Lurie's Lounge Lizards, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Antony and the Johnstons, Trey Anastasio, and many others.
The original band was formed for the Broadway run of the Flying Karamazov Brothers' Juggling and Cheap Theatrics in 1983, but soon evolved into a vehicle for original composition, whilst continuing to do the occasional theatrical collaboration (including their legendary production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors at Lincoln Center - also broadcast live on PBS - and Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival). Originally based in San Francisco, the all-New York line-up was put together in 1995 ago, and is:
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Gina Leishman, co-leader, alto and baritone sax, bass clarinet, accordion, piano, vocals
Doug Wieselman, co-leader, Eb, Bb & bass clarinets, tenor & baritone sax, guitar
Peter Apfelbaum, tenor sax
Steven Bernstein, trumpet & slide trumpet
Art Baron, trombone
Marcus Rojas, tuba
Kenny Wollesen, drums & percussion
(See a description of the band members on SFJAZZ.ORG)
Alumni of the band include Michael Blake, Ralph Carney, Bud Chase, Jeff Cressman, Danny Frankel, Bob Lipton, Paul Magid, Roy Nathanson, Howard Patterson, and Mike Sarin.
Their latest recording, Postcards From The High Wire, is out now on Busmeat Records. Seven years since their last one, and featuring their trademark widescreen sound that has been called "pure ear candy", Postcards includes recordings of the Donaueschingen commissions as well as other favourites from the recent stretch of their 20-year-long scenic route.
Buy Postcards From The High Wire at:
Downtown Music Gallery
342 Bowery, NYC (between E.2nd & E.3rd St)
212.473.0043
See the DISCOGRAPHY page for a list of recordings
See the PRESS page for critical acclaim
MR. WAU WA
The Mr. Wau Wa Band was formed in 1998 as part of a project at P.S
122, which was celebrating Bertolt Brecht’s centenary. The band was
inspired by a photo of Brecht from the ‘20s, performing with some
clowns including the famed Karl Valentin and his partner Liesl
Karlstadt. Brecht is standing in a cart playing the flageolette,
behind a roll-down cartoon drawing of a strong-man being run over by a
car full of revellers, with the inscription “Mr. Wau Wa”. The band is
dedicated to performing the songs of Bertolt Brecht as set by his
collaborators Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau, as well as
some contemporary settings by David Hidalgo (from Los Lobos). Formed
with four members of Kamikaze Ground Crew, plus the internationally
renowned performance artist Rinde Eckert, members of the band are:
Gina Leishman - vocals, accordion, pump-organ
Rinde Eckert - vocals, pump-organ, accordion, euphonium
Doug Wieselman - guitars, clarinet, saxophone, vocals
Marcus Rojas - tuba, bass trombone
Kenny Wollesen - drums, percussion
See the DISCOGRAPHY page for a list of recordings
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O MISTRESS MINE
A limited release, this CD features music Gina has written over the years for the California Shakespeare Theater, compiled and released in celebration of their 30th anniversary this year. It includes some of the cuts from Bed Time, plus material recorded with the Much Ado Tango Trio (Odile Lavault, bandoneon, Marcelo Puig, guitar, Kristina Forester, cello).
Release date April, 2004.
To order, go to www.calshakes.org
3X3
A largely a cappella trio of three singer/composer/instrumentalists: Gina Leishsman, Alexandra Montano and Cecilia Engelhart. Singing material written and arranged by themselves for themselves, they bring together their diverse backgrounds in jazz, folk, classical and medieval music to explore the sonorities of three female voices and to have as much fun as possible.
KAREN KOHLER'S KABARETT KOLLEKTIF
The Kabarett Kollektif is a loose group of cabaret and theater artists, many European-born and now based in New York City, and dedicated to preserving the European cabaret arts through performances and educational outreach. The European songbook, as represented by Kurt Weill, Friederich Hollaender, Hanns Eisler, Jacques Brel and many more, is performed in original languages by artists equally at home in both their native culture and their adopted one. The Kabarett Kollektif was formed by Karen Kohler in January of 2003 and a debut series was launched the following April. The Kollektif is actively seeking private and public funding to support its efforts. A series of fund-raising house concerts and other performances are planned for the spring and fall 2004 in an effort to create an on-going performance series and a regular home for the European cabaret arts in New York City.
MAX CAT - A JAZZ OPERA
Gina is proud to be a part of this wonderful venture by painter S Again. She is the voice of the human.
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THEATER
Gina has been involved in the theater, as composer, actor and/or musician, since the age of seven, when she played Mole in an outdoor production of Toad of Toad Hall in Teheran, Iran.
She founded her own theater company in the '70s in London, in an old disused taxi-meter factory near Paddington, which was dedicated to the works of Bertolt Brecht, and subsequently worked for several years with a longstanding street theater company in Hackney, before quitting London and the theater for the life of a musician on the west coast of the US. There she ran into the Flying Karamazov Brothers (a long story), and ended up back on the boards in The Comedy of Errors at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and eventually Lincoln Center, by way of the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival (another long story) ("Gina Leishman....and a few others have a genuine affinity for the Shakespearean language." Mel Gussow, NY Times). Other theaters she has worked in as an actor include La Jolla Playhouse (A Feast of Fools, Don Quixote de la Jolla), Berkeley Rep (Twelfth Night, Endgame), Seattle Rep (Brothers Karamazov), and BAM's Next Wave Festival (Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale).
Her work as a composer in the theater has been extensive. Theaters include 2 Broadway shows with the FKB; NYSF/Public Theater, La Mama, CSC, the Talking Band and the Vineyard Theater in NYC; Guthrie Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, California Shakespeare Theater (Associate Artist), Berkeley Rep, San Diego Rep, Dell'Arte, Portland Stage, and many others. Directors she has worked with include Robert Woodruff, Lisa Peterson, Daniel Fish, Joanathan Moscone, Karin Coonrod, David Esbjorson, Daniel Sullivan, David Gordon, Sam Woodhouse, Tony Taccone, Richard Seyd, Loretta Greco and many others.
(see composition list below
for selected titles)
A FEAST OF FOOLS
A comic duo with clown/actor Geoff Hoyle, this is a show without words (except for some singing), interweaving the best of Hoyle's memorable character pieces (Two Waiters, Three Legs, Hoylo, etc.) accompanied by Ms. L. at the grand piano and various other sundry instruments. Life, death and other cheerful topics are viewed thorugh the prism of the fractious on-stage relationship between two veteran performers.
COMPOSITIONS
Gina has written for the theater, opera, dance, film, TV and concert stage, garnering numerous awards
View a selected list of compositions
See the PRESS page for critical acclaim
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"Leishman, a master of her art, has a beautiful voice, beautiful diction and a fine ear for tones... you'll find this audio a treat." |
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NARRATION & VOICE OVER
VIRGINIA LEISHMAN, READER
When audio book listeners hear narrator Virginia Leishman, they are hearing a voice tempered by years of musical training and experience. Bringing her considerable experience to the audio book studio, Virginia has narrated a wide range of literature, from classics to children's books, garnering numerous awards.
Her performances include:
For Recorded Books:
The Spiral Staircase, by Karen Armstrong
The Great Fire, by Shirley Hazzard (EARPHONES AWARD)
To The Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
Possession, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, The Matisse Stories, and Elementals, by A.S.Byatt (BEST AUDIOBOOKS OF 1999 selection, Library Journal)
Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe
Mourning Ruby, by Helen Dunmore
The Best of Friends and The Brass Dolphin, by Joanna Trollope
A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (EARPHONES AWARD)
The Railway Children, The Enchanted Castle, and Five Children and It, by E.Nesbitt (EARPHONES AWARD)
The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw (BOOKLIST: EDITOR'S CHOICE 1998) (ALA NOTABLE CHILDREN'S RECORDINGS 1999)
Being Dead, by Jim Crace
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, by Amanda Foreman
Rebecca's Tale, by Sally Beauman
and many others.
For Soundelux Audio Publishing:
Female Sleuths and Women on the Case, edited by Sara Paretsky
Samples: (requires MP3 player software)
Character voices:
Excerpts:
See the PRESS page for critical acclaim |
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contents © 2007 Gina Leishman
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