TheTell-Tale Heart Beyond beTwixt, beTween & beTWAIN The Song of Job 9:11
"Some of the songs that Ashkenasi has written for this show are transcendent, lovely, and moving ... "let the River Flow", "Mississippi Song" & "Sunset on the River" are evocative and exciting ... The visit ro the ruins of Pompeii (in a gorgeous song called "Remember Me") is enormusly moving ... The sequence in Palestine is presented with a simplicity and clarity in Ashkenasi's music ("Jerusalem, Jerusalem" and "Sea of Galilee") that makes it profound ... Ashkenasi's compositions are often beautiful, and the arrangements for piano, keyboard, recorder, guitar, oboe, flute, accordion, clarinet and harmonica - all played variously by the composer and the other six members of the cast - are impressive. His is a musical voice that commanbeds attention ... I was greatly impressed by the seamless way that Ashkenasi moved the performers from instrument to instrument without ever calling attention to the process ... His promise as a musical theater composer is clear."
- Nytheatre.com
"Ashkenasi's musical adaptation of these tales highlights Twain's humorous eye for life's small details and people's unique oddities ... These are not commercial jingles, but compact musical stories ... None are uninspired ... When you have an artist this involved in their work you know are are seeing a fully realized vision that is deeply personal to the artist. There are special moments in beTwixt, beTween & beTWAIN, where it is fun to watch Ashkenasi close his eyes on the sheet music and play the melody he hears in his head ... Mark Twain may have written tha tales , but the collection of tunes belong to Ashkenasi and the six person ensemble of DiPiazza, Eden, Gonzales, Green, Pinyan and Satow, whose combined efforts give this production a fun and energetic life."
- OffOffOnline.com
(including Directing/Music Directing credits) admin@ashkenasi.net
Current projects 2004-2008:
beTwixt, beTween & beTWAIN - a Mark Twain Musical Revue
Showcase production at The Producer's Club Crown Theater May 16 - June 8*
Special Performance at the Westport Library in CN May 19*
staged reading at the Twainathon Festival at The Metropolitan Playhouse, Jan 25-28, 2007 (*)
Nosferatu - incidental music for theatrical adaptation of the silent movie - Rabbit Hole Ensemble Oct/Nov 2006
The Tell-Tale Heart - a musicabre - theatrically produced Jan12-29, 2006 at Metropolitan Playhouse*
and Aug 11-29, 2006 at The Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre*, NYFringe Festival
Recipient of Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics at 2006 NYFringe festival
Jenseits/Beyond – theatrically produced Aug 12-21, 2005 Connelly Theatre, NYFringe Festival (*)
March 21, 04 concert reading of English version at Village Temple
August 28, 03 concert reading Biesalski Salon, Berlin Germany (*)
Chamber opera, libretto by Helga Krauss, music and English translation by Danny Ashkenasi
The Song of Job 9:11 – theatrical production Aug 13-29, 2004 Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace
University, part of the NYFringe Festival (*)
Concert readings: April 8 & Sep 23, 02, La MaMa Etc.
Village Temple Sep.11, 02, Riverside Church Jan.26, 03, 15th St. Meeting House Dec 14, 03 (*)
Book, music and lyrics by Danny Ashkenasi
Spoken text adapted from The Book of Job and news media publications
Projects in development:
The Treasure - Jewish Folk Musical;
Book: Marsha Sheinness; Lyrics: Steve Liebman; Direction: Bob Kalfin
The Pit and the Pendulum - companion piece to The Tell-Tale Heart
Chaplin’s Dream – Finalist, Hamburg Musical Convention 1997;
Full length musical; book & lyrics: Walter Kalk; music: Danny Ashkenasi
Previously produced full length musicals:
Pericles – August 2&3, 03, NYU Education Summer Theatre Production Provincetown Playhouse
2 Songs plus much choral and percussive music developed through exercises with students
Les Artistes – October 17 – 28, 02, Intar Theatre, 500 West 52nd Street
play by Greg Steinbruner with 6 songs, music by Danny Ashkenasi
Boroughed Tales: Brooklyn – March 8-23, 2002 at the Blue Heron Arts Center
(White Bird Productions); excerpt "Lucky Hans" revived Apr. 04 at the Calhoun School.
Commissioned score for one musical one-act (Lucky Hans – book & lyrics: Margorie Duffield), incidental music for five other plays, plus the music and lyrics for the Theme Song
Hexen (Witches) – two women musical premiered 1991 in Berlin, Germany
Produced to date in at least 20 different theatres throughout Germany including the Deutsche Oper Berlin 1998 (and two other Berlin theatres)
Showcased in New York at the Tribeca Lab February 1993 (*)
Book & lyrics: Peter Lund; music and English adaptation: Danny Ashkenasi;
Wir Pfeifen auf den Gurkenkoenig – musical premiered 1990 in Berlin, Germany *
Produced 1991 at the Hebbel Theatre, Schalotte Theatre and the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Book & lyrics: Peter Lund; music: Danny Ashkenasi
When Thou, My Music, Music Play’st (the Shakespeare Sonnet Musical) – NYU, 1989 (*)
Book and lyrics adapted from Shakespeare’s Sonnets; music: Danny Ashkenasi
Once Upon a Frog - Berlin 1985 (*) Book, lyrics and music: Danny Ashkenasi
Previously produced one-act musicals:
Lemmings: a Real Cliffhanger – Inter. Schools Theatre Ass. York, England, 1991 *
Book: Devon Allen; music & lyrics: Danny Ashkenasi
All the World’s a Stage – NYU 1988 (*)
Book and music: Danny Ashkenasi developed with the ensemble.
Dancing on a Landslide – Berkshire Ensemble for Theatre Arts, 1987 *; NYU, 1988 (*)
Book & lyrics: Steve Bennett; music & lyrics: Danny Ashkenasi;
Dying to Live – Berkshire Ensemble for Theater Arts, 1986 *
Book: Regina Kelly; music & lyrics: Danny Ashkenasi
Picture Perfect – Berkshire Ensemble for Theatre Arts, 1985
Book: Tom Randolph; music & lyrics: Roger Ames & Danny Ashkenasi
Chamber works (a selection – all performed in various concerts):
Spreewaldlieder - 12 song suite for Flute and Harp
Evocation 1- 14 – duets for viola and piano
Remembrances – Klezmer Rhapsody for clarinet, guitar, and cello – commissioned by the Trio Emanuel
8 Aphorisms for Mezzo Soprano and Trumpet
Cry of the Owl – duet for clarinet and piano; also excerpted as the sore for short film of the same name.
The Rascal – duet for clarinet and piano
Romance – duet for Flute and piano
Numerous cabaret and art songs for various performers
Awards:
Awarded “ASCAP foundation Composer-in-Residence at the Met. Opera Guild Award” 1998
New York Fringe Festival 2006 Overall Excellence Award for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" for "The Tell-Tale Heart - a musicabre"
Plus: Directing and Music Directing several dozen original Public School Musical productions,
--which were composed and written by students under Mr. Ashkenasi's guidance
Resident Artist, Met. Opera Guild Ed. Dept. Creating Original Opera Program (since 1990)
Choral teacher, Original Opera Program teacher, for Brooklyn Childrens School
Resident Artist with Manhattan New Music Project since inception 2002
2 semesters Composition with Conrad Cummings at Julliard Evening Division
Participant in RIMT (Raw Impressions Music Theatre) as composer (2001) and writer (2003)
Participant in RIDT (Raw Impressions Dance Theatre) as composer (2002).
Composer at the 2001 New Dramatists’ Composer/Librettist Studio with Ben Krywosz
Only two time Finalist at Hamburg Music Theatre Competition 1997 & 2000
BFA in Drama with honors, Playwrights’ Horizons Theatre School, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
Actor: TV and Film (Germany and USA), Off Broadway, regional tours and much downtown theatre
Music Director for all productions marked * Stage director as well for all productions marked (*)
Overall Excellence Award FringeNYC Festival 2006 Outsatnding Music and Lyrics
"An astounding composer"
- Hi! Drama - Channel 57
"A well-honed and deliciously creepy chamber piece. Ashkenasi has written a dense score for his three proficient instrumentalists, and the songs percolate with atonal arpeggios and screechy scales. In "True, Nervous," the opening song, he jumbles Poe's words to create a lyric pattern that pops with impending doom. The cellists feverishly pluck and saw at their instruments to match his emotional state, later creating the ominous pulse of the dead man's heart. The final searing notes evoke the sound of frantic scribbling, the scrambling of a doomed man trying to escape from a trap. The Tell-Tale Heart is a spooky glimpse into a darkly tinted world"
- OffOffOnline
"A tight, musically wonderful piece. It won't be soon that I forget the cello thumping heartbeats of Poe'stale."
- Off-Off Blogway (more reviews at right)
"If a cellist playing pizzicato isn't the ideal orchestral representation of a heartbeat, I don't know what is ... As those fiercely plucked strings ring throughout the tiny Studio at the Cherry Lane, you feel just as Ashkenasi's narrator does when he imagines he hears an old man's heart beating feverishly during the last seconds of his life; crushingly guilty, yet also exhilerated, as if you too, are about to commit a murder."
- Talkin'Broadway.com
"The outstanding feature of the production is the original score, performed with sensational flair by three cellists, Ella Toovy, Tara Chambers, and Maria Bella Jeffers. The tone nimbly and thrillingly shifts from dark romance to horror-film themes to ingeniously rendered sound effects, like white noise and the indispensable thundering heartbeats. There's even one number (where the narrator invades the victim's bedroom with superhuman sloth) which I can only describe as "Gothic Swing."
- NYTheatre.com
"Mr. Ashkenasi's music [has] dimensionality and touches of poignancy. The score shuttles ... between tuneful musical theatre bits and slightly more edgy modern writing."
- NYTimes
"A piercing musical rumination ... richly musical and gorgeous to the ear."
- Talkin'Broadway
"Ashkenasi's repetitive, melancholic, joyous, and, at times, darkly hilarious composition, suffuses the show with operatic, and cosmic, spectacle."
- NYTheatre.com
"One of the most remarkable aspects of Mr. Ashkenasi's libretto is how comprehensive it is, and how vividly it evokes the specific details and mood of September 11 and the weeks that followed ... An intelligent pop musical ...beautiful music, evocative language, ritual ... akind of requiem, a piece that can mark that day."
- Suzanne Travers (freelance review)
"A stark and compelling new musical work ... Haunting melodies ... culminating in a cathartic finale"
- Backstage
"Promises musical beauty and delivers ... artfully captures many of the vivid emotions of that day. From classical to modern jazzy pop, the score runs the spectrum to properly evoke the many emotions reflected in the piece.'
- BroadwayWorld.com
"Original in scope and design ... worth a visit, a listen and a taking to heart."
- Theatre Reviews Limited