Episode 31: Award-winning Performer/Producer/Writer/Band Leader Grerg Purnhagen

Send us Fan MailSince studying vocal performance at NYU and Mannes College of Music, Greg has toured in several productions with Philip Glass, and performed in pieces created by avant-garde luminaries Meredith Monk and Anthony Braxton.His show, "BABALU-CY! The Art of Desi Arnaz" debuted at Metropolitan Room in 2007, won a Backstage Bistro Award in 2008 and went on to an Off-Broadway run at the Actor’s Temple in New York’s Theater District.  A presentation of the show at Hofstra University’s Monroe Center Theater in 2010  brought him to the attention of the team that took over the Xavier Cugat Orchestra after Cugat retired.  One thing led to another and Greg went from portraying the great Cuban American bandleader to becoming an actual bandleader himself, adopting his birth father’s family name in the process. And he grew up blocks from Eric Ruben!Support the show