HONK NYC!

Sara Valentine’s been making shows ever since she can remember: first baton twirling and trapeze-dance numbers in her yard as a kid; then D.I.Y. shows for Riot Grrrl NYC in the early ‘90s. She specializes in melding spectacle with music, and was in the right place at the right time when Hungry March Band formed in her living room. She’s led the HONK NYC! team since 2008 and plays with Batala NYC.

Samantha Tsistinas is the accidental founder of the HONK NYC! Festival, having thrown the now infamous dinner party that birthed the great fest in 2007. She’s a long-standing member of Hungry March Band, and is very well-known amongst the community for her inimitable performance style and cymbal chops. She’s a native New Yorker who now resides in France, where works in a museum and plays percussion with The Pompier Pony Club. She just had her first baby girl, who has now become her life’s work...and she loves it! She graduated from the School of Visual Arts, BFA 1990. http://samitsistinas.blogspot.fr/

Stacy Kovacs started playing music at the age of 6: first piano, followed by percussion, next trombone. She played in the marching band as a teen, and continued marching through college at Michigan State University. Stacy has the distinction of being the first woman in MSU’s history to lead the trombone section of the Spartan Marching Band. After a break with music during her professional training, she resumed playing in brass bands in NYC with the Big Apple Corp and Rude Mechanical Orchestra. She then went on to study samba with established local groups in NYC, returning to percussion. In 2012, she started Batala NYC, an all women's Afro Brazilian drum corps. When not music making, she saves lives as a Physician Assistant.

Wollessonic is a collective of instrument makers and musicians. The project is spearheaded by percussionist Kenny Wollesen. Their Sonic Massage is an ultra-low volume, acoustic, kaleidophonic, surround-sound experience. Audience members are invited to lie down on yoga mats while "sonic massagers" move throughout the space delivering sounds directly into the ears. MEAT (a/k/a Himalayas) is a marching band that plays anywhere & anytime. MEAT have been known to play on bridges, mountain tops, beaches, in elevators, on Grammy nominated records, on huge uptown stages & in dinky downtown clubs. MEAT is a spontaneous, organic, ephemeral pleasure-filled situation! www.wollesonic.com