Category Archives: Beginnings

Entries related to my biography and development as an artist.

BERLIN WALL MEMORIES #1 – Growing up 5 miles from the BRIDGE OF SPIES

Posted on October 16, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The moment I read the announcement that Steven Spielberg was preparing his next movie called “Bridge of Spies”, I knew, without having any additional morsel of information, that Die Glienicker Brücke – the Glienicke Bridge of Berlin, also known as … Continue reading →

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EVOCATION II – Double Stop Etude or Relationship Elegy?

Posted on October 2, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

There were about 200 wedding guests present when Ed and I got married (the first time) April 25, 1998.  It took at least an hour for the reception line to make its full way past us.  And with the expected … Continue reading →

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THE NEARLY INVISIBLE BISEXUAL MALE

Posted on September 17, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The director of “Speakeasy”, Lissa Moira, and I were conducting another one of our weekly meetings pouring over the script and discussing staging and production issues, when I mused aloud that in many ways “Speakeasy” is an expression of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Live! On Stage, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

An ORPHAN MELODY is remembered in POMPEII

Posted on July 30, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Mark Twain.  Pompeii.  An orphan melody.  What connects these three disparate things? Wait, what do I mean by an orphan melody? A week ago Ed plunked the latest Smithsonian magazine next to my breakfast dishes and pointed to its front … Continue reading →

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THE SUMMER OF FROG – How a grand musical for 35 performers became a better musical for 6.

Posted on July 27, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

The summer of ’84 I stayed home alone in Berlin while my parents left on vacation.  It was my choice to spend the six week break between my junior and senior high school year spending 8-14 hours every day working … Continue reading →

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EVOCATION I – Happy Birthday, Ed, Now Pull Out Your Viola!

Posted on July 12, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Today is my husband Edward Elder’s birthday.  He is the mustachioed fellow in the picture above.  One of my birthday gifts for him is a new viola/piano duet.  He plays the viola, I play the piano.  It has become a … Continue reading →

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OUR DAY HAS COME – a personal marriage story with musical accompaniment

Posted on June 26, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Ed and I got married in 1998.  And again in 2011.  Then our marriage got federally augmented in 2013.  And now finally in 2015 the state of our union will be fully recognized in every state of the Union.   It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Melodies Linger On, Notes in the News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

GETTIN’ WITCHY WITH IT

Posted on June 25, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Above is the first video I ever posted on YouTube, and easily the most visually fun of the ones I’ve posted so far: a demo recording of three songs from the musical “Witches” enhanced with 105 illustrations of witches past … Continue reading →

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THE DAY I BECAME A COMPOSER

Posted on June 4, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

It was Friday, April 23, 1982.  I was fourteen, one month shy of my fifteenth birthday.  I remember the day and the events that sealed my fate very clearly (although admittedly I had to dig up the old journal I’d … Continue reading →

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Forbidden Movies, Forbidden Music

Posted on May 14, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

I walked out of the Film Forum mind abuzz and guts churning.   I was chewing on a whole lot of food for thought as well as the ice cream melt I bought to soothe my emotion roiled innards. I’d just … Continue reading →

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Des Broadways liebstes Kind – Broadway’s Dearest Child

Posted on April 22, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

I was introduced to American musicals through German television.  Although I saw much music theater on stage growing up in Germany, it was all opera productions my mother (the coloratura soprano Catherine Gayer) was performing in.  I performed musicals at … Continue reading →

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The Walk in the Park that Conceived “Speakeasy”

Posted on April 16, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

I came up with the idea for “Speakeasy” while strolling in Prospect Park with Ed six or seven years ago. But I had the ideas that would lead to the idea for Speakeasy many years, even decades before that moment. … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How this young chum came to the Cabaret

Posted on April 14, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

This Christmas one of my “stocking stuffers” from Ed was the gift that thrilled me the most this holiday season: a (battery operated) votive candle with an actual screen cell of Liza Minnelli singing the title song from the movie … Continue reading →

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THE FIRST “NOTES FROM A COMPOSER“ BLOG POST … Or Why am I doing this, really, why?

Posted on April 11, 2015 by dannyashkenasi

Why am I starting this blog? Did I really have this great need to share my views on the arts in general, music and theater in particular, and my own experience in creating music theater very particularly? Um, actually no, … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Live! On Stage, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment