Stefan Zeniuk is a New York City-based musician, composer, and animator. He has been featured in the New York Times; appeared on Saturday Night Live, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and Europe’s Arte Live; and has had his films featured on Billboard.com and NPR.com
He was born and raised in downtown Manhattan in the 1980s, and was raised amongst experimental art and jazz. After college, he immersed himself in the downtown performance art and experimental music scenes of New York City in the aughts, acquiring an appreciation for spectacle and theatricality. His group, Gato Loco has recorded for Winter & Winter Records, and WNYC says is like “a multi-headed Latin music hydra, perfect for the dance floor”, and was called “Exotic and simultaneously urban” by Le Monde (Paris). He formed the performance sound art group, Baritone Army, which has expanded globally and is active in five cities around the world. He developed a flame-throwing saxophone, which has brought him from Vietnam to Venice, as well as racking up millions of viral youtube views. As a Saxophonist and Clarinetist, he has performed with artists ranging from The Violent Femmes and Vampire Weekend to Hal Willner and Bill Frisell. He is known for his specialty on the unwieldy Bass Saxophone, as well as the Suona. He plays Fred Lebayle mouthpieces.
As a composer, he studied with Annea Lockwood and Jonathan Elliott. He has received a Jean A. Edson Award for composition, a Meet The Composer’s grant, and has been commissioned by The Center for Italian Modern Art, The Collective Museum, and the USAFE Band, among others. His music stems from a deep love and appreciation of latin music styles, while fused with the downtown avant-garde music he grew up with. For his 2014 album with Gato Loco, he reinterpreted Giuseppe Verdi’s 1874 Requiem, while skewing it through 140 years of cinematic history. For his 2020 album, 13 pieces for Marino Marini, he interpreted the female nude sculptures of Italian sculptor Marino Marini. Music is a gateway to understanding, to connecting with the world surrounding us, to building a bridge between our minds and our physical existence. Zeniuk’s compositions attempt to embrace that delicate awareness in a digital age, and bring back a small bit of humanness.
He has been a stop-motion animator since 2015. His films have been featured on Billboard.com and NPR.com.
He is a DJ on the world-famous radio station WKCR, in the latin and classical departments.
When not playing music, he watch silent films, goes urban exploring, and has been known to dabble in street-art. He was married in 2010 to Irene Carroll, and welcomed Viola Zeniuk into the world on June 10th, 2019.
He has a Wikipedia page here
Instruments regularly in his arsenal include : C-soprano, alto, tenor, bari & bass saxophones; soprano, bass & contra bass clarinets; flute; oboe and english horn; suona (corneta china), tarogato.