The Peak Experience Productions core philosophy is modeled after the belief of legendary concert impresario Bill Graham (who mentored Johnny in the early 1980s) that event-goers are more then just a source of revenue. We believe that each and every one of our event attendees deserves safe, respectful community celebrations that offer nothing less than genuinely profound inspiration and deep, healing joy. Through our audience-participatory activities we strive to help our event attendees be "the Hero in the movies of their lives." Our overall goal is to offer a sense of intelligent, spirited, highly creative adventure that is largely missing from the status quo concerts being produced these days..
Staff Biographies
Johnny Dwork
Johnny is a two-time world flying disc (Frisbee) freestyle champion. He holds the world's only Bachelor of Arts degree awarded for "Professional Flying Disc Entertainment and Education" studies from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. For ten years, Johnny edited and published Dupree's Diamond News, an internationally distributed rock music magazine that, at its' peak, enjoyed a circulation of 35,000. He is widely recognized as one of the world's foremost Grateful Dead and Jam Band scholars. His award winning 1800+ page, three volume encyclopedia - The Deadhead's Taping Compendium: A Guide To The Music Of The Grateful Dead On Tape, was published by Owl Books. Johnny is also an harmonic overtone singer- able to sing three notes simultaneously. He appears on the compact disc recording entitled "Coalescence" with Spectral Voices, a renowned overtone choir from Connecticut. Johnny is also one of the world's most accomplished "circuit bending" musicians- an esoteric form of electronic music in which musical instruments are manipulated to make ethereal trance music. For more than a decade Johnny served as the founding creative director of Speed of Light Productions, presenter of the world's most visionary multi-media light show Experiences. As Rabbi of the Phurst Church of Phun and as a minister in the Universal Life Church, Johnny officiates weddings and other such important life ceremonies for members of his extended community. These days, Johnny dedicates many of his off hours to the study of alchemy and the directing of Mytheogenesis - a progressive think tank of philosophers, healers, and artists dedicated to creating widespread societal paradigm shifts in thinking and lifestyle through art and ritual. Johnny is a nationally renowned master of the tribal art of fire dancing. He specializes in dancing with unusual flaming props, such as platonic solids, and the choreography of large-scale fire dance ritual theater set to live music. For more than a quarter of a century Johnny has been a social and environmental activist, developing ways in which to transform the hard work of saving our world into a fun, attractive, graceful dance. Explore www.worldmeditation.org for an example of his efforts in this realm.
e-mail: [email protected]
Nick Morgan
Nick is a core member of the Peak Experience team and serves as our General Manager and Special Projects Coordinator. He has twenty years of experience organizing public events, including environmental poetry festivals, and citizens' rallies for organizations as diverse as the U.S. Government and Greenpeace International. He has a deep commitment to a global shift in values to a more progressive, compassionate society. This emphasis on sustainable living and healthy communities helps define our events.
Nick also works several social change organizations, including the Rex Foundation and The Rockwood Fund. At the Burning Man festival, Nick has served as one of the camp coordinators of a 250-person camp, where he has helped create a structure and platform for creative expression among numerous diversely talented artists. In all these organizations, as with Peak, his leadership skills have been instrumental in creating a coherent organization that emphasizes team work, personal excellence and visionary performances.
e-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Dan
Dr. Dan is our Director of Community Affairs and serves as one of the managing principles. In addition to being a physician specializing in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Dan is a talented multi-instrumentalist and scholar of philosophy and religion. His deep love of music and his experiences with the Phurst Church of Phun are at the root of his involvement with Peak Experience. Dr. Dan works closely with the early stages of Mytheogenesis for each event, focusing primarily on integrating whomever wishes to accept our open invitation to join in the production. He facilitates the selection, training, and management of the theme team leaders, and through several web-based discussion groups for each event, helps to energize, focus and unite those who choose to participate.
e-mail: [email protected]
Carrie Munn
Carri Munn is Peak's Business Manager and Mistress of Marketing. Behind the scenes Carri designs promotions and curates content. Out front she's a community connector building support for events, coordinating with volunteers, and providing overall business support to our fearless leader JohnnyD. Count on Carri to hear what needs to be heard and do something loving and creative about it.
Dan Cohen-Peltier
In 1986, at age 22, Dan joined the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, a cross-country walk dedicated to raising public awareness of the peril and insanity of the nuclear arms race. In the course of this nine-month journey, Dan befriended the members of the folk-rock band, Collective Vision, which had formed on the peace march. Dan became CV's promoter and merchandise manager for four years, during which time the band shared stages with Santana, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jerry Garcia, Pete Seeger, Holly Near, the Doobie Brothers, Peter Paul & Mary, Jesse Colin Young, Graham Nash, and others. One of Collective Vision's finest moments was their appearance at Bill Graham's "Rock & Roll Summit" on July 4th, 1987. This event, the first-ever outdoor rock-and-roll concert in the Soviet Union, was recorded and aired on Showtime in 1987.
In 1990 Dan opened his first retail clothing and gift shop, Think Good Thoughts. During its successful eleven-year run, the operation grew to four stores, including one on Maui, Hawaii. In addition to retail, TGT also produced concerts for the local community, supporting folk musicians as well as up-and-coming jam bands. TGT quickly became a well-known cultural presence in the Portland community. During this period, with the foresight of mutual friends, Dan was united with John Dwork. Sharing a common dream and outlook on life, the two decided to form Peak Experience Productions.
e-mail: [email protected]
Michael Sammet
As cofounder of Mytheogenesis (Peak's think tank) Michael Sammet has been an essential catalyst in the development of Peak's mythic event themes. His philosophical musings have graced Peak's in-concert programs. Michael is a radio talk show host, philosopher and father. His wife, Kimba, also brings energy to Mytheogenesis from time to time. Together they served as the King and Queen of the Faeries at the epic Full Moon Dream Dance event in 2000.
e-mail: [email protected]
Martha Lee Bohn
Martha Lee advises Peak Experience in the areas of public relations, thematic development and volunteer organization. She has worked extensively as a political organizer in New York state, managing or advising campaigns for a state supreme court judge, numerous congressman, as well as mayors and other local government executives. Martha Lee herself has held elected office as a town councilwoman and has served in senior executive roles for regional political party organizations. Phor nearly 3 decades Martha Lee he has serve phaithfooly as the Secretary of Psillyness of the Phurch Church of Phun (Praise Ha!)
Melinda Holbein and Anne Parrott comprise our office staff and field production support crew. John Parrott is our steadfast elfin magician who crafts many of our amazing props. Bjorn Eflund is our Technical Production Assistant. Lili Henzler is our graphic designer. Gene Ehrbar at Anomaly, Inc. and Rocco Charamella at Amalgamotion are our web gurus. Robin Hewitt is our steadfast accountant. Ben Nieves is our Director of Media Services. Carlton Ward is our image archivist. Thomas Nathanson always seems to be around when something insanely cool and difficult needs to be accomplished in too little time. Thanks to our 50 other guardian angels (such as Chris McDaniel) who fly down from time to time to help us craft our magic.
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