Alex Segal
Musician, Composer, Audio Engineer, Educator
Upcoming Events:
Wednesday, September 30th, 2020 @ 12pm – The 20th Annual San Diego Toy Piano Festival – ONLINE
Join the Library at the 20th Annual Toy Piano Festival for toy piano performances fit for listeners of all ages. Playing new works for toy pianos and songs from “The Cat in the Hat Songbook,” festival director Scott Paulson will be joined by his toy piano colleagues Sue Palmer, Andrea Wingen, Kenneth Herman, Barbara Scheidker, Samara Rice, Christian Hertzog, Peter Flynn, Alex Segal, Gail Gipson, Kiera Sullivan, Linda Kernohan, and Philippe Robles-Fradet. Many of the premieres at this year’s festival will merely be 20 measures or 50 seconds, in tribute to the 20th anniversary of the festival and the upcoming 50th anniversary of our Geisel Library building.
UC San Diego’s history with toy pianos dates back to 1966 when composer Robert Erickson, a founder of the university’s music department, wrote a piece for toy pianos and bells that premiered on California’s PBS television stations. The first composer to write a “serious” work for toy piano was John Cage, who visited campus on several occasions, including a two-week stay as a Regents lecturer in the 1980s. Peter Flynn and Scott Paulson, who were on campus for Cage’s lectures, will perform a Cage tribute piece at this year’s festival.
Current Projects
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES is the new musical inferno raging out of control in Southern California. Each millisecond, this 10-piece roaring blaze combusts enough hard rock, funk, and theatrics to produce an incandescent glow bright enough to light a thousand paths, a thousand hearts, and a thousand parties. While some bask in the warmth, others dance with the flames, kick up those embers, or roast their sonic marshmallows with sheer delight. A majestic horn section soaring atop a thunderous rhythm section navigate the treacherous musical topography that has been described as “The Foo Fighters meets Parliament Funkadelic.” Please use extreme caution, as listening to even just one California Wildfires song is likely to singe your eyebrows and move your feet.
From one of the creative minds behind “Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical” and the hip-hop tour de force VENMC, “I Am The One Who Rocks: A Breaking Bad Concert“- based on the critically acclaimed TV show and pop culture phenomenon- is an original song cycle inspired by the show’s final season. Set in the American southwest, Walter White, now kingpin of the southwestern meth trade, is cornered on all sides: by his DEA brother-in-law, his former partner Jesse, his family’s knowledge of his true identity, the gang after his money, and his cancer, now back out of remission.
Featuring all original music by Zach Spound and VENMC and performed by their band, Apolla, this raucous theatre-turned-concert event will make you want to dance, cry, and binge the entire series all over again.
Then stay tuned after the show for an encore featuring Apolla’s greatest hits!
The Band: Brendan Healy, Alex Segal, Zach Spound, VENMC
Featuring Betsy Stewart as Skyler White!
The Three Clubs
1123 Vine St, Los Angeles, 90038
21+
2 drink minimum
Fri. Aug. 30, 2019, 8pm
Sat. Aug. 31, 2019, 8pm
Swamp Donkey The Moosical is a new live musical puppet show with themes and characters the whole family can enjoy!
The story is of a young moose that grows up next to a donkey farm where she is treated like a second-class donkey. But when she goes on a journey of self-discovery where she meets a helpful beaver and encounters wolves and a bear, she exposes lessons of friendship, being oneself, and treating others kindly.
