Natasa Trifan Performance Group

Current Collaborators of [NPTG]   
Biographies

Brenda Cooney/actress, a native of Ireland would like to thank Natasa for this wonderful opportunity to perform. She has performed in Off-Off Broadway theaters and has some film credits to her name.

Petre Radu Scafaru/composer/ Romanian-born, he completed a B.A. at the New School Mannes Jazz studying with such luminaries as Reggie Workman and Richie Bierach. Petre also studied at the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with the electronic music guru Joel Ryan. Petre has performed his own electro-acoustic music twice at The Kitchen in New York for separate evenings by choreographers Amy Cox and Tai Jimenez (Principal Dancer with the Boston Ballet) and composed the music for Ms. Jimenez's duet "Not One, Not Two" which premiered at the Virginia Ballet. Petre has conducted three musicians and four dancers in a project combining John Zorn's and Butch Morris' conduction methods in a piece that premiered at the Muider-Poort Theatre in Amsterdam and has also been a guest performer with Magpie Music Dance appearing with Han Bennick. Petre is an accomplished saxophone, clarinet and flute player and appears regularly in New York and abroad with different musical projects.

Martin Burga, Video Artist,  is pleased to be making his collaborative-debut with the Natasa Trifan Dance Company. For the past year, he has been working as a freelance video editor & filmmaker in New York City. Originally from Seattle, he has studied film and theater at both the University of Southern California and New York University. For more information on his work, visit www.smashrocks.com.

Oana Botez-Ban (Costume Designer), a native of Romania, has designed for major theatre and dance companies including The National Theater of Bucharest and was involved in different international theatre festivals such as the Quadrennial Scenography Show in Prague. Ms. Botez-Ban is part of the first Romanian theatre design catalogue, Scenografica. Since 1999, her New York costume collaborations in theater and dance include Richard Foreman, Richard Schechner, Brian Kulick, Zelda Fichlander, Karin Coonrod, Jay Scheib, Eduardo Machado, Gus Solomon Jr. & Paradigm, Carmen deLavallade, Adrian Giurgea, Gisela Cardenas, Pavol Liska, Matthew Neenan, Molissa Fenley, Veniamin Smekhov, Zishan Ugurlu, Doris Mirescu, Erin Mee, Alva Rogers, Saviana Stanescu, Naomi Goldberg, Judith Ren-Lay, Michael Sexton, Pig Iron Company, Play Company, Charles Moulton, Loy Arcenas, Ripe Time. Ms. Botez-Ban received an M.F.A. in design from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is a Princess Grace Award recipient for 2007.

Sylvia Mincewicz / Composer / Sylvia is an electric violinist & composer. She began studying the classical violin in Poland, then jazz at Milton Academy and at NYU with Mike Richmond. For the last 7 years she's been performing around New York at venues including Irving Plaza, The Knitting Factory and Joe's Pub. She's been composing scores for dance, theater and performance art pieces, her latest, "-space," at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater and "Cinnamon Moths" at Urban Stages. She is the Music Director of International Theater New York.

Giles Hendrix /Video designer/  Hendrix produces and mixes video for live performances and installations. Giles Hendrix's videos have been featured at Lincoln Center's New York Video Festival [Synaesthesiologists], AMODA, The Kitchen, X-FEST, and on UNITYGAIN television. In February of 2005, his audio/video piece "In Real Time" was exhibited as part of the
T-Minus gallery show at Synchronicity Space in Manhattan. In December of 2003, Blackdove.tv released the DVD "Giles Hendrix: Selected Experimental Works Vol.1."  In January 2002, his short "Internet Video" was exhibited in Times Square in New York City as part of the CBS Spectacular Open Air Shorts program.

Chiaki Watanabe / Video / Chiaki is a visual/media artist with interests in performance media, experimental music and film. Her works range from live audio-visual performance to mixed media installation, video, and motion graphics. She creates abstract video animations -- motion paintings -- that combine aspects of minimalist and organic aesthetics. She has been experimenting extensively with interactions between visuals and various types of sounds.