Brief: I started studying classical piano and music theory at the age of 8 and played in bands/ensembles throughout high school. When I moved up to LA for college, I did not find time to play in groups, though I have continued to develop my chops in jazz, funk, rock and more. I’ve been playing acoustic guitar since age 14 and most of my playing on that instrument is bluegrass-style. I’m working on my flatpicking… Anyway,  it’s time to get playing again.

Skills: keyboards, acoustic/rhythm guitar, background vocals, music theory and arranging

Influences: Classic Rock, Bluegrass, Indie-Folk, Jazz, Electro, Trance, Hip-Hop, Blues, Singer-Songwriters… I take it all in.

I Play: Roland XP-30, Alvarez AD-90SDK

Back in the day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXyhwSY-cSA (we won the high school battle of the bands with this performance)

I can’t help thinking about Paul Robeson while I try to sleep.

Born in 1898, the literal Son of a Preacher Man, Paul Robeson earned a four-year scholarship to Rutgers. Recognized as Phi Beta Kappa, he was also valedictorian of his class at Rutgers while simultaneously earning 15 letters in track, baseball, basketball, and football. As if this wasn’t enough, Robeson was also an *All-American* footballer in his college years.

He played professional football on the weekends while attending Columbia law school but dropped out as he saw no future in the racially tainted New York Bar Association. His education continued, as he would master more than 20 languages in his lifetime.

Forsaking his love for law for a future on stage and screen, his silky bass, charismatic performances and educated theatrics quickly catapulted Robeson into the world’s biggest Black superstar to-date. His outspoken voice drew attention to injustices not just at home, but around the world. But his communist worldview put him on the FBI watchlist, and that gatherered over 3,000 pages on the man. His reputation, tainted by these associations, resulted in him having his passport revoked for much of his life. Though he was barred from traveling internationally, Robeson should be remembered as a hero for the everyman.

Though he may best be known for his rendition of Ol’ Man River from the classic musical Showboat, Robeson’s unique and troublesom life experiences conspire to make, perhaps, the most influential and poignant American of all time. While historians, and even the State department, are finally coming around to recognizing Robeson’s tremendous contribution to the human race, we are deeply in danger of glossing over his mistreatment.

What Paul Robeson accomplished in his limited capacities is beyond extraordinary. He is truly the finest breed of man, a humanist, a dissident, a global citizen able to communicate at both the most intellectual and primal levels. A hero.

For me, the most powerful clip I’ve ever heard is Robeson performing Zog Nit Keynmol, a Yiddish song about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He says:

‘Never say that you have reached the very end
When leaden skies a bitter future may portend;
For sure the hour for which we yearn will not arrive
Arid our marching steps will thunder: we survive’.

Robeson singing in Chinese:

Robeson singing in Czech:

While a student at UCLA, my partner and I “conducted” an interview and profile of Professor Neal Stulberg, Director and Conductor of the orchestras at University of California, Los Angeles (which include the UCLA Philharmonia and the UCLA Symphony). Also featured are Dr. Stephen Karr and Henry Shin.

As Programming Director at Yiddishkayt, I presented Psoy Korolenko in a sold-out, standing room only show at Genghis Cohen on June 4th, 2011. His performance took the crowd on a journey through Yiddishlands real and imagined. Psoy is a lexicological prankster, comically switching between tongues and cheeks.

This deeply personal short was produced while a student at UCLA. It chronicles my inner challenges related to my Jewish identity as expressed through my facial hair.

Wez:Strange Things from WAC 180 on Vimeo.

It is not news that the US government has consistently supported Israel as its primary economic and diplomatic partner in the Middle East. But the reasons for continued investment in the region are based on more than lofty democratic and ideological similarities. American dollars sent to Israel have resulted in stable and significant returns on investment. That this economic partnership is now expanding into the field of alternative energy comes as no surprise.

From the wispy, year-round winds in the North to the sun-drenched desert in the South, Israel’s climate and technological ingenuity are proving to be successful launching points for a widespread and sustainable green-energy movement. The US government and private investors – Americans and Israelis – have taken note of this and have already begun investing deeply, both monetarily and politically.

In July 2006, the US House of Representatives voiced its approval for HR 2730, the United States-Israel Energy Cooperation Act, which will authorize funding for joint ventures between US and Israeli businesses in the alternative-energy sector. The cooperative partnership is expected to be launched at the Eilat-Eilot International Renewable Energy Conference this February 17-19. It seeks to invest millions of US dollars in “research, development, or commercialization of alternative energy, improved energy efficiency, or renewable energy sources.”

The conference will serve as a forum for local and international sustainable-energy leaders to plan the future of the renewable-energy market. It will feature local Israeli businesses, including: Arava Power Company, a firm that is trying to get 10 percent of Israeli households powered by solar technology, primarily through alliances and land owners; and AORA, a leading developer of applied ultra-high-temperature-concentrating solar power (CSP) technology.

AORA recently announced that it has begun construction on the world’s first gas-turbine solar thermal-power station in Israel at Kibbutz Samar in the Arava. The company’s modular energy-generating system is designed to require less land while generating more usable power and heat at a lower cost than other solar-energy systems; its revolutionary hybrid approach enables the system to run on solar-radiation input and almost any alternative fuel, including biogas, biodiesel and natural gas, guaranteeing an uninterrupted green-power supply 24 hours a day.

During the conference, AORA will conduct an exclusive tour of its Samar power station, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of March. The power station is situated on two dunams of land in the Arava and consists of a field of 30 tracking mirrors (heliostats).

Each heliostat will follow the sun and direct its rays toward the top of a 30-meter-high tower housing a special solar receiver along with a 100-kilowatt gas turbine. The patented receiver will use the sun’s energy to heat air to a temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius and direct this energy into the turbine. The turbine will in turn convert this tremendous thermal energy into electric power that will be fed directly into the national grid.

The international business community has also taken notice, with names such as Google-backed eSolar and German-based Concentrix attending. Last week, Deutsche Bank, one of the world’s largest and most well-respected financial institutions, formally announced its intention to seek renewable-energy partnerships and investments with both local and international companies who will be attending the event.

“We enthusiastically support the future growth of the Israeli renewable energy industry and very much look forward to taking an active role in its development,” said Boaz Schwartz, Deutsche Bank’s managing director for Israel. “I strongly believe that the combination of efficient utilization of natural resources and advanced technologies, coupled with Deutsche Bank’s know-how and experience, is a win-win proposition for the renewable-energy markets here in Israel and around the world.”

Deutsche Bank is very active in the global renewable-energy arena and has been involved with numerous energy projects as a financial advisor and an equity investor.

The news was met with much excitement, with renewable-energy leaders hailing it as a landmark moment for the development of the country’s local energy market.

“Through their pursuit of investments in Israeli infrastructure and Israeli technology, Deutsche Bank is underscoring its commitment to advancing the local renewable-energy industry,” said Shimon Klein, managing partner of Jerusalem-based EZKlein Partners, a leading renewable-energy service provider. “To have a company such as Deutsche Bank actively invest in the growth of the Israeli energy market is a very significant and important milestone for the local sector.”

The Deutsche Bank announcement follows the statement released last week by SCHOTT Solar, another large German-based corporation, which said it would use the event to officially launch its Israeli operations. With more than 50 years of experience in the solar market and 18,000 employees, SCHOTT Solar has targeted Israel and its history as a technological pioneer as a great opportunity to expand its business.

The conference also will focus on the development of the Timna Renewable Energy Park initiative, a huge undertaking that will be this country’s “alternative-energy Silicon Valley.”

Israel suffers from hostile relations with many oil-producing countries, and a consistent flow of oil and natural gas is of great concern. These same geopolitical issues have become critical for Western countries. Major resources are held at the whim of tumultuous regimes. The war in Iraq was at least partially motivated by this fear of limited resources.

Sustainable, alternative energy has become so widely accepted as the way of the future in the US that even writing about its importance has become cliché. In Israel, we are slowly coming to the realization that alternative energy is a major stabilizing force, both outside and inside the Middle East.

By developing a sustainable-energy infrastructure and market, Israel can be freed from the shackles of foreign oil and further develop its own economic independence. The recent issuing of the country’s first solar licenses is a sign that the government is finally catching on to the importance of harnessing and developing the country’s renewable energy resources.

Israel currently boasts more than 600 companies in the clean-tech industry, many of which have already made significant advances in solar energy, utilization and management of water resources, geothermal technologies, energy management and conservation and desertification. These advancements are partly attributable to Israel’s academic institutions, which boast the highest number of PhDs per capita.

Like its desertification efforts, Israel continues to create something out of nothing, to sustain the unsustainable. These efforts will take a major step forward at the conference. While Israel may be lacking in water resources, the southern part of the country is drenched almost year-round with an abundance of sun. Harnessing this natural resource presents the country with both a unique challenge and immense opportunity.

“Let there be light.”

This presentation was projected before most shows at Grand Performances during the 2009 season. The presentation was seen by tens of thousands and had a big part in improving the organization’s reach in social media.