Recipient
Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda
Brendan Milburn used to tour around the country all the time in a van with his band GrooveLily; now he stays home a lot more and writes musicals, produces other people’s records, and changes his new son’s diaper a lot. Current Projects: Striking 12: The Groovelilly Holiday Show (with Valerie Vigoda and Rachel Sheinkin), Sleeping Beauty (with Vigoda and Sheinkin, commissioned by Deaf West), a chamber musical commissioned by the Pittsburgh City Theater, Watt?!? (with the multiple Emmy-award-winning David Javerbaum), Wheelhouse (with GrooveLily and Ms. Sheinkin).
Bio as of September, 2008.
Valerie Vigoda, electric violinist/singer/songwriter, grew up in McLean, Virginia. She has toured the world with with Cyndi Lauper (opening for Tina Turner and Cher), Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. An honors graduate of Princeton and former Army lieutenant, Valerie founded the band GrooveLily in 1994, and spent years touring on the indie circuit. Now she is delighted to be spending less time in the band van, and more time creating projects with her collaborators: Striking 12, the first GrooveLily concert-musical (Off-Broadway 2006, Lucille Lortel Nomination for Outstanding Musical, Bay Area Theatre Critic’s Choice Award); Toy Story The Musical for Disney; Sleeping Beauty Wakes for Deaf West Theatre/Center Theatre Group (Two 2007 Ovation Awards, including World Premiere Musical; Valerie was also nominated for Lead Actress); Wheelhouse, the second GrooveLily concert-musical; Long Story Short for City Theatre of Pittsburgh/TheatreWorks Palo Alto; Midsummer Night’s Dream for McCarter Theatre/Paper Mill Playhouse; and Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, a new 1-woman fever-dream musical.
Bio as of September, 2008.