Bios
Click on the name to read more about each artist and their journey.

Theodore Bikel
T
heo sang from the time he was a child. He sang with his parents at home and in the Vienna woods. Later, as a young man on a kibbutz in Israel, he found an abandoned guitar, taught himself to play and has not stopped playing and singing since. 

As an actor, he is known for creating the role of Baron Von Trapp in The Sound of Music on Broadway, for the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof which he has performed over 2,000 times and for his Academy Award nominated performance in Stanley Kramer's film, The Defiant Ones. Other memorable roles include: My Fair Lady, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming and I Want to Live. In 2009, he wrote his one man show, Sholem Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears. It was produced by the National Jewish Theater and played in Washington DC, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco and New York. 

As a folksinger, he has made over twenty albums in
many languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, Greek, Ladino and French.  In 1956, he gave his first celebrated Carnegie Hall concert and since then performs many concerts each year throughout the U.S, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Israel.

He is an activist for peace protesting  injustice throughout the world. Theo has been a force for many years in Actors' Equity Association serving as President from 1973 to 1982. He is currently the President of the Associated Actors and Artists of America. 
His autobiography, Theo was published by Harper Collins  in 1995 and since been re-issued.


Tamara Brooks

Tamara Brooks was a conductor who has had an international conducting career spanning more than 35 years.  The Boston Globe has said about her performances, “Everything was drawn out of the music and the situation it depicts and embodies; nothing was superimposed.  And this made every moment of it profoundly original ... an unusually searching, indeed sublime, spiritual experience.” The New York Times has described her work as “persuasive...charged with energy and a commanding central vision”  and the Philadelphia Bulletin said” [This] performance of three major 20th century choral works with orchestra, under the vibrant leadership of Tamara Brooks, was a stunning, beautiful experience second to no other musical event of any kind in the city.”

She was a graduate of Juilliard with degrees in piano and conducting. Brooks has conducted ensembles around the world. She gave concerts in Spain, Israel, Russia, Bosnia, Holland, Taiwan, Japan, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Germany, England, Wales, Greece and Italy and was principal guest conductor of the Istanbul Symphony in Turkey, conductor of the Cyprus Broadcast Orchestra and guest conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra (Salzburg).  She was also Music Director and Conductor of two bi-national music festivals on the island of Cyprus (bringing Greek and Turkish musicians together), where she held a Fulbright Professional Grant and designed the music curriculum for Cyprus’ first school of the arts.  She had returned often to conduct and teach master classes for conductors.


Concert accordionist Merima Ključo performs internationally as a recitalist and has been guest soloist with many orchestras. Her performances have been broadcast by the BBC and by networks all around Europe, North America and Australia. Ključo composes and arranges, and collaborates with many composers. She has contributed music to the films In the Land of Blood and Honey, written and directed by Angelina Jolie, with a score by the Oscar-winning composer Gabriel Yared, and Jack, by Sergej Kreso, among others, and has performed in the documentary films, Stories of Sevdah, by Robert Golden.

Merima Ključo was invited to perform and compose music (along with the pianist and conductor Tamara Brooks) for Sholem Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears, a one-man play, written and performed by  Theodore Bikel. Produced by the National Jewish Theater, it played in Washington DC, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco and New York.

In 2012, she was invited by the EastWest Theater Company and the renowned Bosnian theater director Haris Pašović to compose and perform Sarajevo Red Line (Sarajevska Crvena Linija) in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Siege of Sarajevo. This piece, which incorporated traditional songs, pop songs, and classical music, was performed on April 6, 2012 to an audience of 11,541 empty red chairs lining the main boulevard in Sarajevo, with one chair for every life lost in the siege. Thousands of people from all walks of life congregated to witness and remember.

Traditional music inspired Ključo from an early age and has brought a unique dimension to her work. As the producer, composer, and arranger for her highly rated album Zumra (Gramofon, 2009/ Harmonia Mundi UK / World Village 2010), which featured the Bosnian traditional singer Amira, she has created a multi-layered classical interpretation of a musical tradition she treasures. Merima Ključo has given workshops and master classes in conservatories and universities all over the world.

Shura Lipovsky
Shura Lipovsky is one of the best known singers of Yiddish/Jewish songs from Europe. A native of the Netherlands, she studied singing at the Rotterdam conservatory with Margaret Honig and Yiddish with Mira Rafalowicz and at New York University, Oxford Summer University and La Maison de la Culture Yiddish/Bibliothèque Medem in Paris. She studied dance at the Dutch institute for folkloristic dancing L.C.A. She now combines dance with Jewish mysticism. In 2005/06 she studied theatre and mime at the renowned L’École Internationale de Theatre de Jacques Lecoq in Paris.


Her work focuses on artistic expression and knowledge of Yiddish culture. She creatively combines her various areas of expertise to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
Shura Lipovsky teaches master classes for singers, repertoire classes of Yiddish songs and workshops in Hassidic dance, songs and stories. She has taught and performed at university courses of Yiddish (Oxford, London, Paris and Vilnius), at Limud in England and the Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center Elat Chayyim in Upstate New York, at the International Yiddish Festival and the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, at Klezfests in London, Paris, Montreal, St. Petersburg, and Weimar and in various cities including Stockholm, Budapest, Bremen and Radolfzell - on the occasion of the founding of a World Monastery.

She has worked with outstanding musicians from Europe and the United States and performed the official Memorial Concert of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1993. 

With her singing, dancing, and storytelling, Shura Lipovsky is deeply involved in intercultural and interreligious dialogue. In Germany she taught at the Hedwig-Dransfeld-Haus in Bendorf near Koblenz, where she worked with spiritual leaders from various religions groups.
Shura Lipovsky is active as a singer and member of the committee of recommendation for Musicians without Borders (MwB), located in the Netherlands. MwB does peace work through music and dance in countries experiencing ethnic conflicts and war. 

Shura has released a number of recordings including Moments of Jewish Life, Heros and Poets and, most recently, TSART.


Michele Noble (Director/Producer)
Michele Noble is a graduate of USC film school and is a screenwriter, film director and producer.  She grew up in Los Angeles and early on dreamed of making films to both educate and entertain. 

Journey 4 Artists  is her third creative collaboration with Theo Bikel, executive producer/partner, Paul G. Alberghetti  and director of photography, Geza Sinkovics who filmed her debut feature film, Runaway Dreams written by her mentor, John Hopkins.  It is Noble's second film project with multi-talented editor, Travis Rust. Michele Noble enjoys working with many of the same artists project to project; she is grateful and celebrates their productive shorthand, profound shared understanding and continued  innovation as a team. Currently, Michele Noble is working on her documentary, Theo Bikel: A Self Portrait.

Michele Noble is also a political activist raising her voice in protest against injustice, inequality, poverty, racism, and War.  She believes Journey 4 Artists demonstrates, illuminates and proclaims the ideals of political, social and religious activism, in this case, through world music.  By making this film, Noble was able to preserve folk songs sung in so many languages of so many cultures rarely heard or professionally performed or filmed in this way.  She feels to capture and honor such incredible world music performances was a once in a lifetime privilege.

In a recent interview about the film, Michele Noble  stated, "Theo, Shura, Merima, and Tamara’s deep understanding of our shared world and their mission to present a better way in which we can live together in it was truly informative and inspiring for me.   When they played all of these songs of different cultures and in different languages, I was struck by how familiar the songs seemed. They were speaking to me and surprisingly also connecting with my young film crew on an intense level as if they were songs from a distant home, a common place, living somehow secretly deep inside our souls. I had never experienced that before."

Paul G. Alberghetti (Executive Producer)
Paul G. Alberghetti  has specialized in entertainment law, motion picture production and marketing for over 30 years. He has served as an executive both for the motion picture studios as well as becoming an independent producer.  He is the producing partner of writer/director/producer, Michele Noble.

For the past twenty years, he has specialized in managing the development and commercial exploitation of iconic images such as Audrey Hepburn and is an officer and member of the Board of Directors of the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, a non-profit, organization founded by the sons of Audrey Hepburn.

Paul G. Alberghetti has a long history in the world of music having been a member of a family of performing musicians and singers and conducted symphony orchestras beginning at the age of 7 and retiring from conducting at the age of 13.

Journey 4 Artists was a labor of love and a lasting tribute to his father, Daniele, a tenor, cellist, and conductor, who dedicated his life to music.

Travis Rust (Editor)

Travis Rust has been editing feature films, documentaries and network programming for the past 20 years. His editing helped secure a 2012 theatrical release for the feature film Footprints, and garner the Audience Award for Best Short at the Pan African Film Festival for the 2003 film The Sacrifice.  

As a musician himself, he was able to incorporate his passion for storytelling and music into his craft when editing, Journey 4 Artists. This is the second film collaboration with writer/director/producer Michele Noble. In 2004, Rust edited Noble's experimental film, New York Summer Project (aka the Revolution) with Kathryn Erbe (Law & Order Criminal Intent) James Roday (Psych), and Adam Rothenberg (Ripper Street).

Travis has honed his keen sense of storytelling on such network and reality shows as Last Comic Standing and The Real Housewives of New York City, in addition to a variety of programming for networks like NBC, FOX, The WB, Bravo, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, TLC, Discovery and Women’s Entertainment. He has also designed and edited several dynamic video presentations for large exhibits of Audrey Hepburn in Berlin, Tokyo, Rome and Los Angeles benefitting the nonprofit, The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.

Travis Rust attended Scottsdale Community College, where he directed and edited his own award winning film, What Seemed As Love, which went on to take the Best Dramatic Short honor at the Southwest Film and Video Festival.

John Pratt  (Music Producer)
With a career spanning thirty-seven years, John Pratt has contributed to the music industry on many levels. Initially as a performer, singing across America and later as a recording artist whose music has been heard in over thirty countries. His most recent album, "Turn the Page" (B4Jmusic Records) received critical success around the world. Simultaneously, John has been scoring feature films, numerous television series and telefilms with an extensive list on his ever growing resume.

John studied Film Scoring at UCLA and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Seeing music visually was a natural process for him creatively so the transition to film in the latter part of his career was a given. As a songsmith, John wrote over 100 song in the nineties specifically for network movie of the weeks, singing on over 75 of them. Some of these have actually spawned cult followings. His latest scoring work can be seen on the National Geographic Channel's 10 hour docudrama, Rock Stars and the upcoming independent feature film comedy, R.A, Resident Advisor (Pense Productions 2013). Currently, John Pratt is composing music for a number of CBS television shows (Dr. Phil,
Entertainment Tonight, The Doctors and Rachel Ray) through Diamond/Mine Productions.

Having owned recording studios in the past and present, John is well versed in the production and recording process, Learning his craft in the days of analog and 2 inch open reel tape up to the most current digital platforms, it is here that his assets as Music Producer for Journey 4 Artists could truly be utilized. He determined that a union of the two formats would be essential to deliver the audio quality of such a historic event. The task of assembling a quarter of a million dollars of the finest vintage gear and then using the latest digital technology on the film set was incorporated and the results are stunning.

Michael Frondelli (Music Recorded & Mixed)
Michael Frondelli President of RELEVANT ARTISTS a branded entertainment company applying over 25 years of music industry experience connecting artists and brands. 11 years as Vice President of CAPITOL RECORDS STUDIOS, a leader in high resolution audio, secure Internet distribution, 5.1 SURROUND, a partner in COOLSVILLE / INTERSCOPE RECORDS, coproducing/engineering BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY, additionally Grammy Award winning
ERIC JOHNSON'S "CLIFFS OF DOVER" from "AH VIA MUSICOM", KEITH RICHARDS and BILLY IDOL to BURT BACHARACH. Film composers DANNY ELFMAN, "THE BREAKFAST CLUB" with KEITH FORSEY and GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA, with FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S/JACK KEROUAC'S , "ON THE ROAD", to mention a few. Currently, Michael is on the production committee of the "LIGHT UP THE BLUES CONCERT" benefiting AUTISM SPEAKS featuring CROSBY, STILLS & NASH, RYAN ADAMS, RICKIE LEE JONES, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, DON FELDER, CHRIS STILLS--HOSTED BY KRISTEN AND STEPHEN STILLS WITH MC-JACK BLACK.

  

Geza Sinkovics (Director of Photography)
Geza was born in Budapest, Hungary and worked at the Hungarian Television as a camera assistant and later as a cameraman on many documentaries and feature films. He came to the United States in 1982. He attended the American Film Institute. His feature film credits as Director of Photography include: Delusion with Jennifer Rubin, Undertow a film for Showtime with Lou Diamond Philips, The Crew with Viggo Mortensen and Michele Noble's Runaway Dreams with Jennifer Gorey and Kathryn Erbe.                                                    

Geza has filmed  all over the world.  For many seasons,  he was on location in Lithuania as the director of photography for the TV series: The New Adventures of Robin Hood for Warner Brothers. He also photographed A Carol Christmas and The Long Shot for Hallmark Entertainment and recently completed a feature film, Metamorphosis with Christopher Lambert, filmed on location in Hungary, Austria and Germany. His work in documentaries was recognized at film festivals in Europe and in the U.S. He is a member of the Hungarian Society of Cinematographers - HSC and the Digital Cinema Society.


           In Loving Memory
    Tamara Brooks (1941-2012)
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