MICHELLE RAITZIN
Michelle Raitzin is an 21 year old rising pop sensation from Long Island, New York, with the vocal range of Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion & Mariah Carey coupled with the stage presence of a rock star.
Michelle has not only been featured in Newsday newspaper and on the cover of Good Times Magazine but has also toured Europe & Japan in addition to being featured on Nickelodeon doing voiceovers for Barbie Diaries and Zoey 101, and has been hired to do demo jingles for Mastercard, Crayola Co, Hess Trucks and Mays Dept. Stores.
Her recording work includes "The Littlest Light" Soundtrack, rock band Royal Hunt's "Collision Course" CD, "X" CD and their latest CD "Show Me How To Live", two Barbie Hits CDs and nine Kidz Bop CDs.
Michelle was the WOR Radio's 2008 "Shining Star" winner, out of over 1000 submissions and 60,000 listener votes for her rendition of Celine Dion's "Power of Love."
She has extensive Theater, Dance and Singing training including years of Classical Voice lessons at The Long Island Conservatory and multiple lead roles in staged musicals including Into the Woods and Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has studied Dance extensively and specializes in Hiphop and Jazz.
Michelle recorded a self-titled debut album which was self released and has been produced by Bill Malina (worked with Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Katy Perry). The album also features Tim Pierce (Miley Cyrus, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen) and Pro J (Christina Aguilera, Usher, En Vogue). Michelle not only sings on the album but also co-wrote lyrics and music to 7 of the 11 tracks on the disc.
Michelle is presently working on her new songs and will be going into the recording studio to produce some new demos. She just performed on October 13, 2011 in Los Angeles, California, an acoustic show in The Key Club. For more info about bookings and appearances please contact Majestic Entertainment, Co. LLC: booking@majestic-rondelrecords.com
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André Andersen – keyboards/guitars
DC Cooper – vocals
Jonas Larsen – guitars
Andreas Passmark – bass
Allan Sorensen – drums
The name Royal Hunt appeared for the first time in 1989; the brainchild of André Andersen (main songwriter in the band) the band was created in order to combine basic values of Classic Rock with progressive, current musical elements. Today, after selling approx. 1.2 million albums and touring the world numerous times, the band’s still going strong…:
After countless local club tours the
secured their first record deal with Teichiku Records, Japan (Panasonic branch), a management deal with Majestic Entertainment (USA) and a world wide publishing agreement with Warner Chappell.
Debut album - “Land of Broken Hearts” came out in 1991 and sold 35, 000 copies in Japan alone; soon after it came out in the USA (through Rondel Records), where it created a buzz through a net of college radio stations.
An instrumental piece from the album – “Martial Arts” – was picked as a theme tune by the Japanese Wrestling Federation and still is the best selling “sports single” in the country (passed 150,000 copies).
Another tour followed bringing the band to Japan as well, where some unplugged performances created a demand for an “exclusive” release – “The Maxi Single” (1992), which contained 4 unplugged versions of songs from the debut album and two new tracks.
The follow up album – “Clown in the Mirror” - recorded in Denmark and mixed at House Of Music, NY and mastered by the legendary George Marino at Sterling Sound, NY – was released in 1993 by the abovementioned labels and – sold beyond 60,000 units – brought the band on the road again, only this time including a two month tour across the USA… aside from Europe and Japan.
Right after the tour the band got their first “hit”, releasing an EP containing 4 live tracks and a new song – “Far Away” (1995) – which went to the top of the Japanese rock charts and stayed there for 3 months, pushing the saless figures up to 70,000 units… a longer promo tour brought the band to SE Asia and most of Northern Europe.
Next studio album – “Moving Target” (1995), recorded/mixed at Medley Studio (DK) with Lars Overgaard behind the desk, was the first album to be released world wide (Royal Hunt inked a deal with Long Island Records in Europe) and paved the way to a 72-date world tour, selling approx. 120,000 copies. Various rock publications throughout the world honoured Royal Hunt as “the best live band of the year” as well as “the best album of the year”.
The next year saw the band releasing a double live album – “1996” - accompanied by a “8-camera-shot
-full length VHS” (the concert was filmed/recorded in the prestigious “5,000 seater” Gotanda U-port Hall, Japan)… a combination which is still regarded as one of the best live releases of the decade.
“Paradox” – the album which many fans (as well as press) is considered to be a “classic” – came out in 1997 and propelled Royal Hunt to the top of numerous rock charts around the globe, followed by a 4 month non-stop tour and another “live CD/VHS” – “Closing the Chapter” (1998) – showing the band (through a 12 camera set-up) performing the entire “Paradox” with a huge stage production (completely sponsored by Martin Lights (DK).
In 1999 the band released their next studio album - “Fear”, this time through SPV (Europe), Pony Canyon (Japan and SE Asia) and Magna Carta (USA). As usual the world tour followed, this time bringing the band to some new territories - Korea and Russia – and ending on the main stage of Germany`s Wacken Open Air festival in front of 75, 000 people. Royal Hunt – again and again – rewarded with assorted awards for “best live performance”/”album of the year” from various media outlets.
Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles became a basis for a concept trilogy released in 2001: a single “Intervention”, a full length album “The Mission” and an EP “The Watchers” (claimed to be “the longest EP in history”, containing over 70 minutes of material). The following tour stretched over a period of 6 months, this time including previously missing Korea (headliner slot at Pusan Open Air festival – attendance: 25,000, sold out ) and Russia (where the band signed a separate record deal with AMG Records for Russia and CIS).
Without missing a beat, Royal Hunt released their new studio album, “Eyewitness” in 2003 and – in order to regroup and to reinforce some of their business structures - decides to skip another major tour, concentrating on a few selected festivals (incl. FireFest (UK) and Italy’s “Gods of Rock”) as well as countless TV and radio appearances throughout the world .
“Paper Blood” came out in the spring of 2005 and created a substantial stir among the fans and the press by its simplified, aggressive nature and was followed by not one, but two full blown tours; as a celebration of Royal Hunt’s first double live CD/VHS “1996”, the show in St. Petersburg´s Music Hall (Russia) was captured by 7 cameras and released as a double CD/DVD package, simply named “2006”.
Represented by Frontiers Records (Europe), Marquee/Avalon (Japan/SE Asia), Magna Carta (USA/N. America) and CD Maximum (Russia/CIS) Royal Hunt released “Collision Course – Paradox II” in 2008. Scoring high positions on the charts around the world and received rave reviews in the press, the band embarked on yet another tour - this time including countries like Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland, closing at the main stage of Sweden Rock Festival (attendance: approx. 37,000)
Aside from the abovementioned activities, Royal Hunt played in front of approx 12,000 Danes as a “special guest” with Alice Cooper (Sønderborg) and Deep Purple (Copenhagen, Odense) during the summer of 2008 – and an enthusiastic response from the audience as well as a completely sold out merch. stand convinced the band and its partners about the potential of Scandinavian territory and – immediately – a string of concerts (festivals and support slots, exclusively by ET Concerts) has been arranged for the summer of 2009… in order to explore a new market.
In 2010 ROYAL HUNT released the album "X" which also for the first time was released on LP format as well. After renewed communication and relentless requests from their fans, the band decided to colaborate again with their former lead singer DC Cooper. Subsequently this has resulted in a very successful reunion tour. That success has been followed by the recording of a new 11th studio album entitled "Show Me How To Live" that was released worldwide in December 2011.
STAMINA
Luca Sellitto – guitars
Andrea Barone – keyboards/guitars
Jacopo DiDomenico – vocals
Lorenzo Zarone – bass
Mirkko De Maio – drums
Italian rock band STAMINA is the brainchild of songwriter/guitarist Luca Sellitto. In June 2001, Luca got in contact with keyboard player Andrea Barone, who was the first to join the new venture. After more than a year spent auditioning various singers and musicians, the line-up of STAMINA was completed with the addition of the lead singer Giorgio Adamo, bass player Roberto Chiumiento, and drummer Cristian Silvestri.
Since the beginning, the band’s aim has been to create a personal style of music, combining a wide range of influences ranging from melodic rock to progressive rock, to hard-rock and fusion. STAMINA recorded the first unofficial demo The Demo Songs in February/March 2003 and the second demo Here To Stay in July 2004. Both demos gained exceptionally great reviews in various Italian webzines and magazines, and the band started to promote its name playing live everywhere in the south of Italy.
In September 2006, the band entered into the studio to record the debut full-length album Permanent Damage, which was released on Italian label Heart of Steel Records in December 2007. The critics and fans response was so overwhelmingly good, that during 2008 STAMINA was invited to open for many various national and international artists in Europe.
In October 2009, the band entered the studio to record the second album Two Of A Kind. This time Danish singers Henrik Brockmann (ex Royal Hunt, Evil Masquerade) and Kenny Lubcke (ex Narita, Andre Andersen, backing vocal of Royal Hunt) took part on various tracks as special guests.
In August 2010, the band signed a new record deal with German label Ice Warrior Records (a division of Rock It Up Records). They released the new album worldwide on October 8, 2010. The critics and fans response was once again excellent, and in April 2011 the album charted in Japan in the Top 50 Import Disks Charts, published by notorious Japanese magazine "BURNN".
STAMINA spent the most part of 2011 playing many concerts in the south of Italy to promote the new album. That same year, two of the original members left the band. After several weeks of auditions, bass player Lorenzo Zarone joined the band and singer Jacopo DiDomenico was hired as "session lead singer" to complete the live shows scheduled for that year. Now both of them are permanent members of the band.
In April/May 2012, STAMINA embarked on their European Tour. During the second leg of the tour, the band had the opportunity to open for Danish rock quintet Royal Hunt in honor of their 20th anniversary world tour.
