When:April 21, 2016
Time:5:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Cost: $55 Adv / $60 Doors Plus applicable service fees
Doors and Silent Auction: 5:30pm
Talent Show Start: 6:45pm
Zing for Zonta 2016 Featured Artist: Maputo Mensah
Maputo Mensah
Listen to Maputo here
Maputo Mensah was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, in a family of professional musicians and dancers. By the age of five he was dancing and drumming with his family, and by the age of ten he was teaching and performing these traditional Ghanaian arts professionally.
Later, Maputo was honored to study for 14 years with Mustapha Tettey Addy, one of Ghana’s premiere artists in traditional music and dance. Over the years Maputo has performed and taught with various dance troupes such as the Akrowa Cultural Ensemble in Kokrobite, Ghana, and the West African Folkloric Troupe in Accra. He also has wide experience as an international guest drummer, dancer, and solo performer. Currently, he also performs with his own dance troupe, Logo Ligi, based in Boulder, Colorado.
As a master drummer, dancer, and storyteller, Maputo is passionate about sharing the art and culture of Ghana with the West through the classes he teaches at the University of Colorado, Naropa University, K-12 schools, and community classes. He also leads a month-long trip to his native Ghana each summer, giving his students the opportunity to deeply experience the culture he is devoted to preserving and promoting. Maputo is an artist, a teacher, a cultural ambassador, and a citizen of the world.You can learn more about Mike by visiting his web site.
Zing for Zonta 2016 Performers
Vote for your favorite HERE!
Ben Barron
Listen to Ben here
Ben was born in Boulder, where he grew up alongside his four siblings, spending most of his time outdoors or in garage band rehearsal. After pursuing degrees in comparative literature and environmental geography, he has returned to Boulder to explore the intersections of music and social/environmental activism. His current project, a documentary film, uses music to reframe environmental threats facing the Colorado River Basin as opportunities to reconsider the human relationship with the planet. For more information on the project, go to www.confluencethejourney.com.
Anya Chavez
Listen to Anya here
Anya Chavez is a local 12-year-old singer/songwriter who attends 7th Grade at the Alexander Dawson School. She was born in New York City and moved to Boulder when she was 2 years old. Anya started singing when she was 8 years old, began playing the guitar and the piano at age 10, and she took up the ukulele at age 11. Music has become a strong influence in her life, and she wrote and performed her first original song, “Tightrope” in 2015. Besides performing vocally, Anya enjoys jazz and hip hop dancing. Her expressive interests extend to creative writing, and as a 6th grader she was recognized with a first-place award in the regional Rocky Mountain PBS Story maker’s Contest for fiction writing. She lives in Boulder with her mother, father and 9-year-old sister.
You can hear more of Anya here.
Ethan Cohen
Listen to Ethan here
Ethan Cohen has been writing songs since early 2012 and playing them around Boulder and Denver ever since. His unique brand of songwriting won him recording time and an appearance on eTown live with his band Willow Tree in the first ever eTown Handmade Song Series back in 2013. He’s just returned from a three month trip backpacking through South America and is excited to begin writing and playing again. You can check him out online.
Finch, Karen
Listen to Karen here
Karen grew up on the east coast, listening to a lot of different music…all the”psychedelia, semi-country, rock and roll, motown, classical, blues,march music” you could stand. Her brothers played in bands and my dad played the turntable. Her biggest early influences were Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, The Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel and Odetta. Being a performer, either acting or singing, has been a dream of mine since she was a child.
She was on her way to California ( to surf and be a star of course) and made it as far as Boulder, 30-plus years ago. She has one wonderful daughter who will be getting married at the end of May, two cats and a grand-bunny. Since you need to pay the bills, she works as a Maintenance Supervisor for Boulder County Housing where she has been employed for 24 years. She also volunteers for Planet Bluegrass, eTown and Wildland Restoration.
Music is her first love and she spend a lot of evenings playing open mics, showcases and the occasional full evening show. She would like to be doing more full shows and studio recording. Karen loves the outdoors and most activities that involve being outside. In the summer you will find her either paddle boarding or dancing and hula hooping at the outdoor music concerts.
Eric Gebhardt
Listen to Eric here
Eric was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and raised in the community of Two Rivers, roughly 30 miles outside the city proper. The second oldest of six children, and home schooled until 7th grade, Eric grew up listening to soulful oldies, R&B, and pop music with his mother, and classic country, classic rock, and the blues with his father, all of which helped direct him in his musical avenues, though he didn’t start playing guitar until he was 12, shortly after his parents gave him a copy of “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow”, and the Kansas LP “Leftoverture”. Eric moved to Boulder in 2013 to begin working towards a career in music, and quite literally moonlights as a milkman for the Longmont Dairy, a job which he delights in for its hard work and quirkiness .
Eric is a self taught musician, and his style reflects a desire to create the kind of music he would want to listen to. While he has played with a number of bands over the years, a love of the intimacy and accessibility of performing as a solo singer/songwriter, as well as the creative challenges, has led to the acoustic side of the road being Eric’s medium of choice.
Stella Pradeau
Listen to Stella here
A native Arkansan, Stella Pradeau began studying piano at the age of 12. Graduate work at CU exposed her to the beauty of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, and here she has happily lived ever since. Stella has been the Collaborative Pianist for Cantabile, a Boulder-based choral ensemble, for the past 16 years. She collaborates with many choral groups in the Boulder area and also maintains a piano studio in Louisville. Stella and her husband Francois have three daughters and a cute, feisty cairn terrier named Scooter. Her hobbies include traveling (especially to her husband’s native France), drinking coffee, reading, sunning, gardening and watching NCIS with her youngest daughter. She also loves hiking with her dog, enjoying the beauty of Colorado nature.
Mike Presci
Listen to Mike here
Mike is from Long Island and has lived in Boulder County for the past four years. He went to school in Allentown, PA, where he studied music composition. He now works as a dog walker and trainer. He says he probably knows more dogs in the area than people.
He loves to make things, from instruments to jewelry, and has been playing and writing music since he was about 14- years old. You can learn more about Mike by visiting his facebook page.
Zing for Zonta: Boulder’s Got Talent Judges
Zing for Zonta: Boulder’s Got Talent will be a tough competition and our famous judges will have a tough job. But they are ready for the challenge.
Helping to pick the winners will be:
Josie Heath
President of The Community Foundation of Boulder County
Josie Heath is President of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, a position she has held since l995. She served as County Commissioner from l982-1990, the second woman elected to serve as Commissioner for Boulder County. During that time she chaired the Consortium of Cities and chaired the Urban Caucus for Colorado Counties.
Heath served in the Carter Administration as the Regional Director of ACTION, the federal agency for national service. Her leadership responsibilities included Peace Corps recruitment, and supervision of other national service programs involving eighteen thousand volunteers in six western states.
Josie was a candidate for the United States Senate in l990, winning the Democratic primary, but losing the general election. She was also a US Senate candidate in 1992.
Ed Rudman
Guitarist to Legends
Inspired by legends such as Chet Atkins and Django Reinhardt, Ed Rudman picked up the guitar in 1969 and quickly entered into a long career as both a performer and teacher. In the early 1980s he worked in New York City, recording radio commercials and other projects as a studio session guitarist, and performing in a variety of settings, including the Broadway production of “Godspell.” Throughout his career, Ed has had the opportunity to play gigs with guitar greats such as Larry Coryell, and has opened up for Kris Kristofferson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and Three Dog Night, among others. For the past 20 years, Ed has been a member of the acclaimed instrumental group Laughing Hands. Lauded as “acoustic string wizards” by Westword, Laughing Hands has opened for notable acts such as Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Leftover Salmon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Ed has taught guitar and banjo at H.B. Woodsongs for the past 25 years, specializing in jazz, blues, rock and folk. He has developed a student-centered approach to his lessons, at which his Collie named Emma is often in attendance!