Artist description Paul Reisler is the founder and leader of Trapezoid. For over 25 years, he has been creating a direct and emotional music that cuts across borders- combining folk roots, world music eclecticism, classical precision, and new age mysticism with the vitality of contemporary music. As the Washington Post says, his music "climbs up the Blue Ridge and down to the bayou and back up to the Himalayas."

Musical Influences Meredith Monk, Arvo Part, Peter Gabriel, Beth Nielsen-Chapman, Beatles, Randy Newman, Angela Kaset, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, George Gershwin, Sweet Honey in the Rock

Artist History In 1975, I co-founded Trapezoid, an acoustic music group that I led for almost 25 years. Trapezoid performed in several thousand concerts and produced 9 albums. ***Over the past 15 years, my focus has been on songwriting and composing. I write songs and instrumentals in a broad range of styles and also write for theatre, TV, and film and am just completing work on a full length piece for orchestra and narrator based on Aesop's Fables. ***I love teaching songwriting and teach around the country at most of the major songwriting schools and camps for adults. http://www.paulreisler.com. *** I am also the founder of Kid Pan Alley--a kids songwriting project where I go into a community and write songs with groups of kids and then the professional musicians of the community record them. The first album of that series is called "Tidal Wave of Song." We are currently starting another full project in Nashville. http://www.kidpanalley.org.

Albums Remembered Ways, Birth of a River, Long Time Down This Road

Press Reviews "...a delightful musical melange..." NEW YORK TIMES .."his songs are as radio ready as a Mary Chapin Carpenter performance and as true to life as a Harry Chapin composition." V MAGAZINE "The musicianship is impeccable" - OAKLAND (CA) TRIBUNE "Poetic song writing." ACOUSTIC MUSICIAN MAGAZINE "The vocals are pure poetry. ensemble treats these original tunes by Trapezoid's founder Paul Reisler with the reverence of old traditional ones but with a daring of Promethean proportions." ALL MUSIC GUIDE "reason to believe that there is still real music on this continent." STEREO REVIEW "The Kid Pan Alley project is a great concept, to be sure. But the end result is even more impressive. Kids' music that is exactly that: music for and by kids. The songs are written with a charming honesty and whimsy that only children can create. "Tidal Wave of Song" is unquestionably the most original kids' CD I've heard all year." Kenny Curtis, Program Director XMKids, XM SATELLITE RADIO

Location Washington, VA - USA

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