"A little more than a month before Dinner Concert", a benefit for Outsound Presents
featuring music by
Moe! Staiano & Melne Murphy
RSVP & Information
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The event takes place at the Helsinki Cafe in the basement of the Berkeley Finnish Hall just 4 blocks from the North Berkeley BART Station.
You can also
Visit our Indiegogo fund drive pageWalk-ins are welcome just let us know you're coming!
Moe! is conductor and composer for the
Moe! Staiano Ensemble, (formerly Moe!kestra!), a large-ensemble avant garde orchestra, which can feature over 30 musicians playing everything from violins, clarinets and cellos to drum kits, oscillators and electric guitars.
Moe! Staiano Ensemble performances are high-energy, electrifying experiences that create unique and memorable soundscapes that intrigue and beguile. Moe!'s innovative solo percussion shows feature prepared drum kit, found objects, audio looping and the inventive use of a "percussion guitar" woven in with performance art, which always gets the audience involved and eagerly expectant of what might happen next. Moe! also fronts Surplus 1980, a post-punk band that continually evolves its journey of no-wave progressive and percussive musical exploration. Surplus 1980 features Moe!'s bracing guitar and wry wordplay and a wide palette of timbres from the multi-instrumentalist members of the group. Over the years, Moe! has worked with a veritable who's-who of the Bay Area creative music scene, including Ron Anderson (the Molecules, RonRuins, PAK), Tom Nunn, Vacuum Tree Head, Z'ev, Amy X Neuburg, Ava Mendoza, Nurse With Wound, David Slusser, Karen Stackpole, Ches Smith, Michael Evans (God Is My Co-Pilot), Caroline Kraabel & John Edwards (Shock Exchange), Gino Robair, William Hooker, Tom Dimuzio and has performed with all these plus Henry Kaiser, Mark Growden's Electric Pinata, Amy Denio, Cheer-Accident and sfSoundGroup among others.
Melne is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. She enjoys playing many styles of music, but has a special place in her heart for "weird music," which undoubtedly grew out of early exposure to Ornette Coleman, Pere Ubu, Glenn Branca and Present.
She began working with Moe Staiano in 2011 after playing in his large ensemble Moe!kestra, and joined his group Surplus 1980 in 2012. In 2013 she performed in Rhys Chatham's 100-guitar orchestra, as well as playing with the Moe Staiano Ensemble at the 2017 San Francisco International Arts Festival and Chapel of the Chimes Garden of Memory in 2018. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Studies at the California Jazz Conservatory.
Cost: $100 - $1000