Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius have launched an IndieGoGo campaign to fund two new releases; a live box set and a new studio album, both due out in 2023.
All the rewards are related to Stratospheerius’ music, starting with a $10 pledge that grants the fans project updates and early mixes, to $2000 for the band to play a concert anywhere in the United States. (Out-of-country performances, please email us).
Melodic Revolution Records will be releasing the live double CD/DVD& Blu-Ray box set in early 2023. The box set is called “Behind the Curtain: Live at ProgStock.”
Later in the year, the band will release their next studio release, the working title “Impostor,” which features many guest stars including Saga’s Michael Sadler, Porcupine Tree’s Randy McStine, Bill Hubauer (Neal Morse Band), multi-instrumentalist Rachel Flowers, cellist Ruti Celli, singer Chloe Lowry (Trans-Siberian Orchestra), and Echo in the Canyon’s Fernando Perdomo.
Along with social media, live shows, and appearances and workshops at music events, Joe says crowdfunding is a way he and the fans have connected through the years. “These days, artists have more creative control and can bypass the middleman and build a beautiful relationship directly with their fans. We are beholden to no one but the people that love and support our music. I love the fact that fans get a chance to follow an album as it is being written, recorded, and mixed. They feel more vested in the project and it becomes a collaboration between the band and the fans.
“The band is grateful for the love and support they have received for their music in recent years, especially in the progressive rock community, and is very excited to release the new projects.”
Led by electric violinist/vocalist Joe Deninzon, who has been called “The Jimi Hendrix of the violin,” Stratospheerius has showcased their “frenzied mélange of progressive rock, jazz fusion, and funkabilly” throughout the world.
Band members are Joe Deninzon-electric violin/vocals (Bruce Springsteen, Renaissance, The Who, Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Jason Gianni-drums (The Ultimate Queen Celebration, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Rock of Ages, Neil Morse Band), Michaelangelo Quirinale-guitar (Thrilldriver), and Paul Ranieri-bass (Mark Wood, Circuline, Riot Act).
The Richland 2 School District Honors Orchestras will present one concert on Friday, January 31 in the District Auditorium, featuring electric violinist and recording artist Joe Deninzon. The district auditorium is at 7500 Brookfield Rd, Columbia, SC 29223. The District Honors concert begins at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
The program will include original songs by Joe, as well as some of his arrangements of popular songs from The Beatles, Queen, and Pink Floyd.
Joe Deninzon, the music world’s expert on alternative violin techniques, will also lead a two-day workshop with Richland Two District Honors Orchestra students, focusing on rock stylings and improvisation. A musician who transcends many genres.
Joe has also recorded and performed with a variety of artists including Renaissance, In Continuum, Thank You Scientist, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Everclear, Ritchie Blackmore, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, Les Paul, Phoebe Snow, Jane Monheit, Robert Bonfiglio, and President Bill Clinton.
An active clinician, he has taught at Mark O’Connor’s renowned String Camp and Mark Wood’s Rock Orchestra Camp. He leads the crossover prog band Stratospheerius, which was a winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. Additionally, he was awarded the Online People’s Choice Awards in the Cornucopia Festival, and named “Best Jam Band” in Musician’s Atlas Independent Music Awards.
He is also a member of the classical Hip Hop Latin Jazz String Quartet, Sweet Plantain. Joe is the author of the Mel Bay instructional violin book, PLUGGING IN: A Guide to Gear and New Techniques for the 21st Century Violinist.
The concert and clinics are made possible through the generous support of Parents, Students, and Richland School District 2.
We are thrilled to announce the World Premiere of “Behind the Curtin” by Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius, the video will be available exclusively on Power of Progbetween Jan 2nd and Jan 4th after which it will be available worldwide via YouTube Staring Monday, February 5th.
Joe says, “The song is about the rise and downfall of celebrity and the primal fascination we have in building someone up and tearing them down, watching someone suffer. We love to chastise someone while we ourselves often lead double lives, hiding all kinds of skeletons in our closets while pretending we are faultless.”
“Behind the Curtain” features actor Max McGuire “Star-Crossed Lovers” playing different characters and Stratospheerius members Joe Deninzon (electric violin & vocals), Jamie Bishop (bass), Aurelien Budynek (guitar), and drummer Lucianna Padmore wearing neon-colored masks.
In the video, Max plays a tormented wretched old man stuck in an endless maze of corridors in his mind, his own personal hell. Through the video, he opens different doors and enters new worlds where he assumes a different identity in each, putting on a face and playing a role, always returning back into his hallway of hell and searching for a new doorway to open, doomed to do this for eternity. The band represents the demons who continue to hover around and haunt this man, with a nod to the Droogs from Clockwork Orange.
The video was co-produced by renowned MTV producer David P. Levin, Filner at Alpha Wave Studios in East Hanover, NJ, and edited by David Milone and David P. Levin.
The album GUILTY OF INNOCENCE is finding praise for its songwriting, musicianship, vocals, inventiveness, and sounds:
“Joe Deninzon has made a career…wielding his violin like a guitar. In that way, he has pioneered a new standard for rock violin, much the same way Ian Anderson did for flute.”
– PROGRESSION MAGAZINE
”When you put distorted guitars up against a violin you get magic. When you put a violin solo in a metal song, you get Fucking amazing shit! …pure magic!” – Act One Magazine
GUILTY OF INNOCENCE is a howl for justice delivered by virtuosos completely in synch with one another!“ writes – Strings Magazine, the “Bible” for the String music world.
“GUILTY OF INNOCENCE is not only great but one of the most hectic and heart-stopping albums I’ve listened to,” states – Music From the Other Side of the Room Zachary Nathanson.
Stratospheerius has showcased their “frenzied melange of progressive rock, jazz fusion and funkabilly” throughout the world at colleges, festivals, and clubs. They have opened for artists including Alex Skolnick, Gary Hoey, Martin Barre, Tim Reynolds, Mickey Hart, Mike Stern, and John Scofield. The group has played festivals including The Detroit International Jazz Festival, Great South Bay, Chattanooga RiverFest, Harmony Fest a number of times through the years. The band was a winner of the John Lennon International Songwriting Competition the Musicians Atlas Independent Music Awards. They have been featured in Progression, Relix, Downbeat, and Jazziz… Known as the “Jimi Hendrix of violin,” Joe is the author of Mel Bay’s electric violin technique book, “Plugging In: A Guide to Gear and Technique for the 21st Century String Player,” and has recently worked with Bruce Springsteen, Phoebe Snow, Everclear, Peter Criss from KISS, Renaissance, and as a soloist with Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New York City Ballet, and The Muncie Symphony Orchestra on his concerto!
Joe is a keynote speaker at the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Annual Conference.
Clinic: Joe Deninzon 3D ROCK! on March 9 and 10, and performing with Sycamore High School’s Rock Youth Choir on February 16 in Montgomery, Ohio.
April 19, 2018, Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius and the band Edensong join forces with legendary radio stations WNYU and WUSB for a live progressive rock summit in New York City.
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TOUR DATES
February 10th, at Sellersville, opening for John 5 (White Zombie)
April, 19th, at Drom, NYC with 2Birds and Edensong
April, 20th, at Olive’s, Nyack with Thrilldriver and Edensong
April, 27th, Mojo’s, Jamestown with Eric Brewer Band.
April, 8yh, TBA with Eric Brewer.
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