BIOGRAPHY
Rinde Eckert
Playwright and composer of, and performer in, Orpheus X and Highway Ulysses. Renowned as a composer, writer, director, singer, actor, and movement artist. Conceives and writes both the music and libretto, and performs his own staged, full evening works which have toured extensively both nationally and in Europe. Works include: And God Created Great Whales (two-person musical opera conceived, with music and libretto written by, and performed by, Eckert, opened in New York City May 2000—Obie Award for the music; remounted in September 2000 for a six-week Off-Broadway run, third run January 2002 at the 45 Bleecker Theatre); An Idiot Divine; Romeo Sierra Tango (commissioned by the Public Theater); Quit This House; Shoot the Moving Things (radio musical); Four Songs Lost in a Wall (radio opera); The Gardening of Thomas D (two-person musical play); The Navigator (opera for children commissioned by California's Opera Piccola and premiered in 1999; conceived, composed, and directed by Eckert). He has worked extensively as a composer and collaborator with choreographer Margaret Jenkins, and he won the San Francisco Bay Area's Isadora Duncan Award for his music in Shelf Life. Also writes for instrumental chamber music ensembles. His chamber works have been performed in Portland, Boston, and New York. Record producer Lee Townsend and Rinde have created three CDs of Eckert's music: Finding My Way Home, Do the Day Over, and Story In, Story Out are available on the Intuition label in Köln, Germany.