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Michael
Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois and is a
first generation American of Assyrian decent.
He has been a professional musician, composer,
and producer since 1976, focusing extensively
on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition,
puppet theater, experimental theater, and international
musical forms. He has collaborated extensively
with contemporary theater, dance, and other multidisciplinary
forms and has received three Joseph Jefferson
Awards for Original Music Composition in Theater,
in 1996, 1998, and 2000. He has over sixty titles
in his discography and has toured nationally and
internationally since 1981 with and ever-widening
pool of collaborators. He was the artistic director
of the Link's Hall Performance Series from 1985-1989
where he produced over 300 concerts of jazz, traditional
ethnic folk music, electronic music, and other
forms of forward thinking music. He continued
to produce concerts at Cafe Urbus Orbis from 1994-1996,
and at his own space, The Candlestick Maker in
Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, from 2001
- 2005. He has taught as a guest artist at The
School of the Art Institute of Chicago in performance
technique, sound design, and sound/music as it
relates to puppetry; rhythmic analysis for dancers
at The Dance Center of Columbia College, Northwestern
University, and MoMing Dance and Arts Center;
courses in Composer - Choreographer Collaborations
at Northwestern University; music to children
at The Jane Adams Hull House. He has held workshops
in improvisational music and percussion technique
and teaches private lessons in rhythmic analysis,
music composition, and percussion technique. www.michaelzerang.com
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