Imperial Theatre
Opened March 21, 2024
Water for Elephants Musicians
Elizabeth Doran
Conductor/Keyboard 1/Harmonica
Abel Garriga
Keyboard 2/Associate Conductor
David Mann
Reed 1 - Piccolo/Flute/Clarinet/
Alto Sax
Alden Banta
Reed 2 - clarinet/Bass Clarinet/
Tenor Sax/Bari Sax
Brandon Lee
Trumpet/Flugelhorn
Nick Grinder
Trombone/Bass Trombone
Mike Dobson
Drums/Percussion
Matt Sangiovanni
Guitar 1 - Steel String/Nylon String/5-String Banjo/Tenor Banjo/Archtop
Peter Douskalis
Guitar 2 - Steel String/Nylon String/Drop Tuned Steel String/Slide Dobro/Mandolin
Mary Ann McSweeney
Acoustic Bass/Electric Bass
Katie von Braun
Violin
Sarah Hewitt-Roth
Cello
Musician Bios
Alden Banta
Reed 2 - Clarinet / Bass Clarinet /
Tenor Sax / Bari Sax
Multi-instrumentalist Alden Banta enjoys a varied career playing woodwinds for commercial, jazz, and classical music, as well as in collaboration with singer-songwriters. On Broadway, Alden currently plays woodwinds in the orchestra for Water for Elephants, with other theater credits including Camalot, The Music Man, Tootsie, King Kong, Hello Dolly!, Finding Neverland, Motown the Musical, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Chaplin, Catch Me If You Can, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Sondheim on Sondheim, Spamalot, and, for five seasons, the orchestra for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
As a freelance bassoonist, Mr. Banta has performed with many of New York City's premier ensembles, including the Orchestra of St. Lukes, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Opera New Jersey, and the New York Pops. He was recently part of the Gil Evans Project, which recorded newly discovered works by Miles Davis collaborator and composer Gil Evans, released on compact disc and the Live at the Jazz Standard release, Lines of Color. A member of the BMI Jazz Composers Orchestra, he often performs in many modern jazz groups and big bands throughout the city.
Brandon Lee
Trumpet / Flugelhorn
Bach Artist, Brandon Lee - a NYC-based jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, and educator (b. 1983, Houston, TX), received a BMus (2005), MMus (2007) and an A.D. (2008) from the Juilliard School. In 2008, Lee became one of the youngest faculty members to ever teach at Juilliard (2008-2012). From 2013 to 2018, Lee served as the Professor of Jazz Brass at UNC-Greensboro in North Carolina. Currently, Lee holds a position on the Jazz Faculty at NYU.
Lee is a member of the renowned Count Basie Orchestra, as well as the Christian McBride Big Band and various other NYC-based bands. From 2022-23, Lee made his Broadway orchestra debut on the 4-time Tony Award winning musical, Some Like It Hot.
With over 30 albums recorded as a sideman, Lee has received 4 Grammy Awards. These include The Count Basie Orchestra's Basie Swing's The Blues (2023), the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Some Like It Hot (2023), Christian McBride Big Band's For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver (2020), and Bringin’ It (2017). As a bandleader, Lee has recorded three albums: From Within, Absolute-Lee and his latest, Common Thread. As a co-bandleader with Uptown Jazz Tentet, Lee has recorded 2 albums: There It Is and What’s Next.
Currently, Lee can be found performing in the orchestra for the new musical Water for Elephants.
Instagram @bleejazzofficial
Nick Grinder
Trombone / Bass Trombone
Originally from San Francisco, CA, Nick Grinder is a versatile low brass musician living in New York since 2011. He has performed in over two dozen Broadway pits, both as a substitute and chair holder, and currently plays in Water For Elephants. Most recently he played trombone, bass trombone, tuba, and euphonium at Parade on Broadway, the winner of the Tony Award for Best Revival. Other chairs include Beautiful, The Carol King Musical, Mr Saturday Night Feat. Billy Crystal and War Paint. Nick has also alternated between both bass and lead trombone chairs in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Orchestra since 2019. He has shared the stage or recording studio with a variety of artists such as Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lorde, Patti Labelle, DMX, St Vincent, Paquito D’Rivera, Terry Bozzio, and many others.
In television and film, he has recorded the soundtracks to In The Heights, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel, John Mulaney's Sack Lunch Bunch, Fosse/Verdon, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The CBS Evening News Theme, PGA Fedex Cup, ESPN's 30 for 30, and appeared on The Late Show, Colbert, and others.
In the jazz world, he has performed in the Grammy award winning big bands of Arturo O'Farrill, Alan Ferber, Darcy James Argue, John Daversa, and the Mambo Legends, and has recorded as a sideman on over 40 albums. He has released two records of original compositions, Farallon and Ten Minutes, which have been described as "joyful yet intricate" by Jazziz, "highly imaginative and genuinely sincere" by Just Jazz, and “modern, forward thinking, and powerfully melodic” by JazzEd.
Mike Dobson
Drums / Percussion
Mike Dobson is a Tony and Drama Desk Award-nominated musician, composer, foley artist, and sound designer. Dobson designed and performed the live foley in Broadway’s Spongebob Squarepants musical, for which he was nominated for the 2018 Tony Award in sound design. Dobson also designed and performed foley for off-Broadway’s Center of the Youniverse at Minetta Lane Theater (Starring Jane Krakowski and Tituss Burgess) and Old Hats at the Signature Theater (Starring Bill Irwin and David Shiner).
Other credits include Broadway’s 1776 and Gutenberg! (drums and percussion); Vegas Nocturne at The Cosmopolitan Hotel of Las Vegas (Music Director); The Big Apple Circus; Fun House at the Brisbane Festival (AU); Exit! at GOP Variete (DE) and Festival Der Traume (AT); Writer, composer, and performer for Room 17B (Drama Desk nom.); Cut to the Chase; Big Love (Assistant Director); Sisters’ Follies; The Old Comedy; Time Step; Nelly KcKay; Shaina Taub; Paul Anka; Clay Aiken; Dawn Upshaw; Ira Sullivan; American Composer’s Orchestra; SEM Ensemble. Television: The Late Show with David Letterman; The Today Show; The Tony Awards; The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage.
Dobson frequently accompanies silent films, providing sound effects with the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, as well as performances at MOMA and The Brattle Theater.
Dobson teaches privately and gives masterclasses on sound design, foley, and percussion. He holds degrees in percussion performance from The Hartt School (BM) and The Mannes College of Music (MM).
Matt SanGiovanni
Guitar 1 - Steel String / Nylon String /
5-String Banjo / Tenor Banjo / Archtop
Matt is a versatile multi-instrumentalist and two-time graduate of Berklee College of Music with degrees in Guitar Performance and Music Production. Living in New York since 2015, Water for Elephants is the 10th Broadway show he's performed with as either a chairholder or a sub, in addition to doing multiple tours and playing all across the NYC Metro area with various artists. Prior to this, Matt most recently played for the world premier of Real Women Have Curves at the ART in Cambridge, MA, the Broadway revival of 1776, and the Off-Broadway revival of Vanities. Outside of theatre, Matt is the guitarist and music director for the punk rock band Maria & the Late Friends who plays all over the city on a regular basis. You can hear his work as a music producer on any streaming platform under the artists Maria Wirries and Madilyn Jaz.
For more information, or to contact Matt, you can visit his website or his social media pages:
Matt's website: www.mattsangiovanni.com
Matt's Instagram: @mattsangiovanni
Matt's band's website: www.mariawirries.com/latefriends/
Matt's band's Instagram: @thelatefriends
Peter Douskalis
Guitar 2 - Steel String / Nylon String /
Drop Tuned Steel String / Slide Dobro / Mandolin
Peter Douskalis is a musician, orchestrator, songwriter, and educator. He is a cofounder and Project & Music Director of Sounds of Cyprus and has been a substitute guitarist on various Broadway shows.
He was most recently a substitute musician for the shows The Lion King and Hamilton. Other Broadway substitution credits include Dear Evan Hansen, School of Rock, Mean Girls, Mrs Doubtfire, and Caroline, or Change. Notable off-Broadway credits include substituting at SUFFS, The Office Parody Musical, and Desperate Measures. He chaired the NYMF show Bad Ass Beauty: A Rock Opera! and has also performed with the Broadway Inspirational Voices. He is a participating musician on the Grammy nominated ‘Caroline, or Change’ New Broadway cast album (2022).
He is cofounder, Project & Music Director of the groups Sounds of Cyprus and PANEL, with the goal of promoting and preserving the traditional Cypriot music, with contemporary approaches, abroad and to next generations. The project partly is a research into his own roots but also an effort to unite the communities of conflicted heritage while also promoting the beauty of Cypriot music, culture, history, and language to broader audiences. It is a tangible and practical project that demonstrates the beauty of intercultural music education and positive cultural exchange.
Mary Ann McSweeney
Acoustic Bass / Electric Bass
Born in Aptos, California, Mary Ann McSweeney started playing piano at the age of 5, and began to study violin at age 8. In high school, she fell in love with the acoustic bass while watching Ray Brown perform at the Concord Jazz Festival.
At age 16, she was chosen to play at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the All-Star band fronted by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. McSweeney has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Joanne Brackeen, Lee Konitz, Gil Goldstein, and Bucky Pizzarelli. She has also played for renowned conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, and John Williams. McSweeney has performed with Renee Rosnes, Vic Juris, Ken Peplowski, Dennis Mackrel, Lewis Nash, and Larry Goldings. Big Band performances include Maiden Voyage and Diva, and she has performed with her own quintet at the Seixal Jazz Festival in Portugal, and with the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center. She has arranged for and recorded with Warner Brothers artist, Lea Delaria. Recent engagements include the Berkshire Jazz Festival, backing up Veronica Swift, and traveling to the Roswell Jazz Festival in New Mexico to perform with Ken Peplowski, Randy Sandke, Holly Hoffman, Chuck Redd and Mike Wofford. McSweeney has toured Europe, and has performed with David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness and five-time Tony award-winning vocalist Audra McDonald. Her orchestrations can be heard on Chita Rivera’s CD entitled “And Now I Swing” and her version of “Avenue Q Swings” is available online. McSweeney performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Claire Daly and the Baritone Monk Band, which was rated in the top ten on jazz radio in the USA.
She performed at the White House with the Eli Yamin Quintet and the Kennedy Center Gala with the Clayton/Hamilton Orchestra. She was musical director/arranger for three shows at NYC's Birdland featuring Jane Monheit, in a program that included selections from Irving Berlin and the Cole Porter musical, Anything Goes. In 2017 she performed in Greece and Berlin with her Urban Fado Project.
McSweeney has played more than 45 Broadway shows, including Tony award-winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. She can be seen on Broadway performing with Water for Elephants at the Imperial Theater in NYC, and most recently played on the Grammy and Tony Award winning show Some Like It Hot.
Mary Ann continues to compose and spend time in the Berkshires.
For more information go to www.maryannmcsweeney.com
Katie von Braun
Violin
Originally from Boston, MA, violinist/violist Katie von Braun has worked in New York City since 2016. She has performed with the American Ballet Theatre, American Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Grattacielo and Westchester Philharmonic, performing at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House and Radio City Music Hall.
On Broadway, Katie has been interim Violin 2 chair and concertmaster sub at Some Like It Hot, and also subbed at Phantom of the Opera (violin), The Lion King (viola & violin), and Dear Evan Hansen (concertmaster and viola). You can see her performing currently as the concertmaster on Water for Elephants. Katie has toured as violist with the Dear Evan Hansen National Tour, as concertmaster with An American In Paris Second National Tour, and as an aerial flying violinist with Cirque Musica Holiday Spectacular. She was the concertmaster and house violinist at Westchester Broadway Theatre, and onstage bluegrass fiddler at New London Barn Playhouse. She has also performed at Broadway Backwards and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp benefit galas.
Katie attended the University of Michigan School Of Music, Theatre and Dance for her Bachelor of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music for her Masters. She was both concertmaster of the SFCM orchestra and one of the founding members of the Amaranth String Quartet. In the summer of 2014, Katie spent two months volunteer teaching in Haiti. She has been on violin faculty at the 92nd Street Y, Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, Harmony Program, Blume Haiti, Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Hamilton Park Montessori School, as well as maintaining a private studio. She is certified to teach Books 1-4 of the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Method, and was featured along with her Harmony Program students in a mini documentary called Music Lessons
You can follow Katie on katievonbraunviolin.com and on Instagram at @kveebee.
In her free time, Katie loves nature illustration; you can see her art on IG at @natureandnurtureart.
Sarah Hewitt-Roth
Cello
Praised for her “golden, beautifully singing” playing (Opera News), cellist Sarah Hewitt-Roth, has talents that span a wide musical spectrum. As a chamber musician, Sarah has toured throughout Europe and the United States, performing with Philharmonia Virtuosi and The New York Chamber Soloists. A regular performer at Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center, Sarah is currently a member of the New York Pops Orchestra, and is Assistant Principal Cellist of the New York City Chamber Orchestra. A frequent Broadway collaborator, Sarah has held cello chairs on 14 shows on Broadway and is currently performing in the show Water for Elephants. She has shared a stage with artists as diverse as Joshua Bell, Beyoncé, and Joni Mitchell, and has appeared on The Today Show, Late Show with David Letterman, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Sarah has performed on ‘Live from Lincoln Center’ broadcasts and is the cellist on two Grammy award winning albums. In addition to her other recording work, Sarah appears on albums with Tony Bennet, Harry Connick Jr., KD Lang, Antony and the Johnsons, Audra McDonald, and with jazz legend, Ruby Braff.
When not playing the cello, she enjoys drawing things. Her most recent illustrations are published in the cookbook ‘Musician’s Cook!’
www.musicianscook.com