BIOGRAPHY
Amanda Palmer
A.R.T.: The Onion Cellar. Performer, director and composer who is best known for her role as leader of the “punk cabaret” band The Dresden Dolls. After making her living from 1997–2003 as a Harvard Square “living statue” known as The Eight Foot Bride, Palmer turned to music full-time. After releasing three albums with the Dolls, she released (with the help of fellow pianist and producer Ben Folds) her first solo effort, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, along with an accompanying photography book of the same name that included short stories by writer (and husband-to-be) Neil Gaiman. She recently completed a two-year-long touring cycle that took her (and a troupe of Butoh- based Australian performance artists known as The Danger Ensemble under the direction of Steven Mitchell Wright) through Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. She wrapped up her year with the Boston Pops for a historic New Year’s celebration in which Palmer was possibly the first pianist to put Tchaikovsky, Nine Inch Nails and Lady Gaga in the same program. Last year, Palmer and Cabaret director Steven Bogart collaborated on an original show (workshopped and performed by Palmer and students of Lexington High School) titled With The Needle That Sings In Her Heart, which was inspired by the music of Neutral Milk Hotel and the diary of Anne Frank. Her excitement to be working with Steven Bogart and the A.R.T. knows no bounds and she hopes to continue to keep one foot in the theater world as she continues down the long road of rock ’n’ roll.