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	Tom Dugan		Tommy Sands
	Rachael Price		Deanna Swoboda
	Quartet San Francisco		Thodos Dance Chicago

Tom Dugan

Nazi Hunter - Simon Wiesenthal is a full-length, one-man theatrical journey that chronicles the life of a true hero of the 20th century. Veteran actor and playwright Tom Dugan portrays the aging Simon Wiesenthal, who recounts his remarkable life’s work of bringing to justice the most notorious war criminals in human history.

From his narrowly escaping death in the Nazi concentration camps, to his relentless and controversial pursuit of Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele and other infamous SS war criminals, as well as Wiesenthal’s unique collaborations with Robert F. Kennedy, Ronald Regan, the Dalai Lama and Bill Clinton, this gripping story of one man’s fight against Holocaust amnesia is a mesmerizing evening of theater that will inspire, educate and entertain.

Dugan is originally from New Jersey where he studied acting at Montclair University, then moved to Los Angeles in the early 80’s. Dugan caught the attention of director Ivan Reitman, who cast him in five of his feature films: Ghostbusters II, Kindergarten Cop, Dave, Beethoven II and Junior.

Dugan’s TV and film credits also include; Bones, Friends, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Even Stevens, The Practice, Chicago Hope, Just Shoot Me, The Naked Gun and Marked for Death.

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Rachael Price

What’s a 20-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee doing singing jazz? It’s a good question, but one that Rachael Price finds easy to answer. “I appreciate all kinds of music, but jazz hit an inner chord with me at the age of five. I heard Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of ‘The Lady is a Tramp.’ I didn’t understand the lyrics, but I liked the feeling it gave me.”

Price has dedicated her life to her love. She is a jazz studies major at the New England Conservatory in Massachusetts. “Prior to attending the Conservatory, it was like getting the gist a foreign language, but not understanding every word,” Price said. “Now I know what each word means and those special nuances.”

In 2003, Price was tapped by the Grammy Foundation as a vocalist with the High School Grammy Jazz Choir, and she was a semi-finalist at the Montreux International Jazz Vocal Competition in France. In 2004, Price wowed the audience (and was the youngest competitor) at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.

August 2004 brought her professional U.S. jazz festival debut at Yale’s Jazz on the Green, opening for Joshua Redman. In 2005 came another milestone: the renowned Shubert Organization held a Gala to honor Robert Goulet.

Goulet accepted, yet informed them he would have to leave early and could not perform as he was in rehearsal for his return to Broadway in La Cage Aux Folles. But when he heard Price sing in his honor, he joined her onstage and, together, they brought the house down.

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Quartet San Francisco

Non-traditional in their delivery, Quartet San Francisco redefines the sound of chamber music. “When the music says swing, we swing. When the music says groove, we groove.”

Grammy nominees for their last two releases (2006 and 2007) and International Tango competition winners (New York , 2004), Quartet San Francisco expresses itself in its agility and standout virtuosic playing. Quartet San Francisco is Jeremy Cohen and Kayo Miki , violinists, Keith Lawrence, violist, and Joel Cohen, cellist.

As crossover specialists they excel in multiple styles — from jazz to tango, pop to funk, blues to bluegrass, gypsy swing to big band and beyond. Since its concert debut in 2001, Quartet San Francisco has offered its exclusive and ground-breaking literature to local, national and international audiences in a variety of venues that include tango and concert halls, jazz festivals, museums, and classrooms.

Quartet San Francisco’s recent seasons include performances at:

• Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, NY)
• Yoshi’s Jazz Club (Oakland, CA)
• Herbst Theatre (San Francisco)
• Café Tortoni (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society Summer Music Festival
• San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival (San Luis Obispo, CA)
• Dumbarton Concert Series (Washington, DC)
• Berklee College of Music (Boston)
• Ford Amphitheatre (Los Angeles)

Their Latin and tango CD, “Látigo” (2006), was honored with Grammy nominations for Best Classical Crossover and Best Engineered, Classical. The quartet members are current Classical Crossover nominees for “Whirled Chamber Music” (2007), “…what could easily be the most cheerful and brilliantly-executed release of 2007” (Judith Schlesinger, All About Jazz, 22 October 2007 ).

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Tommy Sands

Tommy Sands, singer, songwriter and social activist has achieved something akin to legendary status in his own lifetime. From the pioneering days with the highly influential Sands Family, bringing Irish Music from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, he has developed into one of the most powerful songwriters and enchanting solo performers in Ireland today.

His songwriting, which draws the admiration of Nobel Poet Laureate Seamus Heaney and father of folk music Pete Seeger, prompts respected US magazine “Sing Out” to regard him as “the most powerful songwriter in Ireland, if not the rest of the world”.

His songs, like There were Roses, and Daughters and Sons, which have been recorded by Joan Baez, Kathy Matthea, Dolores Keane, Sean Keane, Frank Patterson, Dick Gaughan, The Dubliners and many others have been translated into many languages and are currently included in the English language syllabus in German secondary schools.

Although constantly performing on stages all around the world he prides in taking his music down from the lights and into the darker corners of society. One of his current projects, teaching underprivileged  prisoners in Reno, Nevada to write their own songs with which to defend themselves in court is currently creating a wide spread stir in the world of community art in the United States.

Back home in Northern Ireland he has just completed a CD written with Protestant and Catholic schoolchildren about their own areas, in towns and villages around Northern Ireland. During the Good Friday Agreement Talks, his impromptu performance with a group of children and Lambeg drummers was described by Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon as “a defining moment in the Peace Process”.

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Deanna Swoboda

Deanna Swoboda is Assistant Professor of Music at Western Michigan University where she teaches tuba and euphonium and performs with the Western Brass Quintet, a resident faculty ensemble. Swoboda holds degrees from the University of Idaho and Northwestern University, and is completing studies for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University.

From 2000-2005, Swoboda performed as a member of the Dallas Brass. Prior to her appointment at WMU, Swoboda taught at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Las Vegas Arts Academy. She has also taught at the University of Northern Iowa, University of Denver, University of Idaho, National Conservatory of Madrid (Spain), and Deutschen Tubaforum–Hammelberg (Germany).

As a solo performer, educator and recording artist, Deanna Swoboda performs around the world, uniting people of all ages through music. As a video artist for Silver Burdette-Ginn and a tuba artist for Accent Musical Instruments, Deanna shares her talents in schools across the country, performing “Band Blast Off” and motivational workshops for music students and young children.

As a Summit recording artist, Ms. Swoboda’s solo children’s CD entitled “Deanna’s Wonderland” is available through Summit Records.  Assembly Program “Band Blast Off” is a multimedia, educational music program that combines music with elements of science, history and humor to promote curiosity and the excitement of participating in the school music program.

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Thodos Dance Chicago

As a highly innovative contemporary dance company, Thodos Dance Chicago’s mission embodies a new model for contemporary dance. The Company’s unique blend of dance performance, dance education and creation of new work provides its artists with the maximum opportunity to grow.

Melissa Thodos & Dancers was founded in 1992 by dancer and choreographer Melissa Thodos, an honored member of the Chicago dance community for more than 20 years. As Artistic Director, Ms. Thodos has combined her extensive classical and modern dance background with gymnastics training to create a unique style of dance that proves to be fast-paced, highly athletic and very entertaining.

Many of the Company’s works make use of innovative props such as balls, hoops, poles, chairs, multi-level platforms and even pool cues, adding yet another creative dimension to the Company’s repertoire.

For the past several years, Thodos Dance Chicago has been featured in performance with The Joffrey Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Company in Chicago’s annual “Dance For Life” AIDS fundraising gala.

In 1999, Thodos Dance Chicago toured to Scotland as part of The Ruth Page Dance Series to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2001 the company was invited to the International Istanbul Dance Festival and the Ankara Music and Dance Festival, where it performed to sold-out houses and received numerous curtain calls.

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