Savage Wonder

Christopher Paul Meyer

Savage Wonder is a podcast about warriors and artists. It features long-form, one-on-one conversations with people who have a foot in both the world of the artist and the world of the warrior. It is produced by the Veterans Repertory Theater, a creative hub for talented veterans and world-class performers to create compelling live theater and events. read less

Our Editor's Take

On the Savage Wonder podcast, listeners hear from service members who became artists. When people think of veterans, art is not the first thing that comes to mind. But this podcast hoped to change that. This show gives a platform to veterans who reboot their careers in the arts. Guests of the podcast have served in all military branches and have different journeys in life. Host Christopher Paul Meyer interviews veterans throughout the United States.

Finding a supportive work environment can be difficult for veterans. They may not have support to find success in the arts. They can feel like they have an alter ego in modern family life. On Savage Wonder, veteran artists share their stories, challenges, and successes.

Artists featured on the show range from performers to musicians to visual artists. Fans can listen to guests such as Ashley Guttermuth, who left the Air Force for a career in standup comedy. Fred Graver, who has written for National Lampoon and Late Night with David Letterman, also joins the Savage Wonder podcast.

Meyer, the Savage Wonder host, is a Veteran's Repertory Theater board member. He served in Afghanistan and earned a Bronze Star there. After his military service, he practiced in theater and standup. He is working with the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center in upstate New York. This location hosts the Savage Wonder Festival each year. The festival allows veterans to perform in conjunction with the Sugar Loaf Spring Festival. And this podcast talks about the festival and interviews participants.

Savage Wonder is a production of the Veteran's Repertory Theater. That organization employs and supports military veteran performers. Podcast listeners wanting to learn about military veteran artists should try this podcast.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture

Episodes

Lois Hicks-Wozniak
Apr 9 2024
Lois Hicks-Wozniak
Lois Hicks-Wozniak is an active concert saxophonist and educator in the New York Metropolitan and the Hudson Valley region, committed to community engagement through new music and Global Music styles. A D’Addario Woodwinds Artist, her many awards include winning the Special Presentation Winners Recital Series, sponsored by Artists International Presentations; earning her a New York Recital Debut at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. She is described in performance as having “tremendous technique and fidelity to tone without sacrificing musical line,” and a “beautiful soprano saxophone sound...preserving the beauty and consistency of her sound regardless of the technical or musical demands of the moment” (Saxophone Symposium).From 1996-2004 she served active duty in the U.S. Army as a saxophonist with the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, the West Point Saxophone Quartet and as a featured soloist at the World Saxophone Congress 2000 in Montreal, where she performed the Glazunov Concerto with the West Point Concert Band. She resigned her position in the Army to take on her most prized role as proud mom of four terrific children. (two sets of twins!)She can be heard on her recording Playback: Music for Saxophone and Bass Trombone with Matthew Wozniak, bass trombone and Nadine Shank, piano and on the West Point Saxophone Quartet CD, Fault Lines. Her performances have been broadcast on New York public radio and she has an educational YouTube channel called “TheSaxophoneLady,” featuring frequent audition material for elementary and junior high students. As a subscription series soloist with the New Jersey Wind Symphony, she presented the east coast premiere of the Concerto for Soprano Sax and Wind Ensemble by John Mackey. An artist-in-residence at Mississippi State University, she performed the Mississippi premiere of Dream Dancer for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble by Michael Colgrass, and she has been a guest of the Ithaca College Saxophone Society. She served as principal saxophonist with the New Jersey Wind Symphony from 2005-2018, and has performed and recorded with the Albany Symphony; along with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Greater Newburgh Symphony, the Lawton Philharmonic, the Pone New Music Ensemble and the Dallas Wind Symphony, to include their recording, Fiesta! She maintains an active schedule as a performer and clinician, appearing as guest soloist with high school, university and community ensembles. As a freelance musician, she has shared the stage with diverse acts from Manhattan Transfer to Milton Berle. She has commissioned and championed many new works for saxophone.With a passion for World Music, Ethnomusicology, and Diversity, she has studied South Asian Carnatic percussion and has recorded with Pat Waing master, Kyaw-Kyaw Naing and the first Burmese-American Hsiang Waing ensemble. She is a featured professor in the textbook, World Music Pedagogy Vol VII: Teaching World Music in Higher Education (Routledge 2020), holds a certification in Smithsonian Folkways World Music Pedagogy, and teaches classroom courses in Global Music Studies.An advocate of new chamber music, she and her husband, Matt Wozniak, comprise the saxophone and bass trombone duo, The Wozniak Duo. During the 2020 pandemic, Lois and Matt created “Music Tells a Story,” a recorded local library program for children and care-givers featuring story-telling, enactive music involvement, global music and incorporation of new music. Championing new works for this unique ensemble, they have commissioned and premiered works by Kevin Ames, Rob Deemer, Zae Munn, Carter Pann, and Gregory Wanamaker, most recently presenting the world premiere of Zae Munn’s Gnashing of Teeth at the North...
Dan Lauria
Dec 12 2023
Dan Lauria
Dan Lauria has appeared as a guest star in over seventy television episodic programs and more than twenty Movie Of The Week productions plus a score of motion picture credits.  Dan is a very familiar face to the off-off, and off-Broadway and regional theatre scene having performed, written or directed over 50 professional stage productions.  In 2010/11 Dan was seen on Broadway as the legendary coach Vince Lombardi in LOMBARDI, with the beautiful and talented Judith Light playing Marie Lombardi. The production was directed by Thomas Kail (Hamilton).  Dan returned to Broadway in the 2013 & the 2014 production of the Tony-nominated A CHRISTMAS STORY: The Musical directed by Tony winner John Rando.  A published playwright, Dan’s DINNER WITH THE BOYS and JUST ANOTHER DAY have received many productions. However, Dan is most recognized as the Dad on the highly acclaimed, Emmy-winning ABC television show THE WONDER YEARS.  Dan was most recently seen on the Fox TV show PITCH as manager Al Loungo and then joined the family of THIS IS US both series written by television’s most talented writer, Dan Fogelman.  Dan and dear friend, the lovely and talented Wendie Malick have performed the play THE GUYS by Anne Nelson, for veteran & firemen organizations around the country.  THE GUYS is a tribute to those brave men and women who died on 9/11. Wendie and Dan now do LOVE LETTERS as fundraising events for the development of new plays at regional theatres, and to save our planet and the animals that inhabit it. Dan is a Marine and Vietnam Veteran.See Dan's JUST ANOTHER DAY in NYC this March!
Michael D. Fay
Nov 13 2023
Michael D. Fay
Michael D. Fay is a former USMC Combat Artist with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mike enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1975 and was discharged in 1978 as an 81 mm mortarman (MOS 0341). In 1978, he returned to Penn State Univeristy and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education. In 1983, re-enlisted into the Marines and served as an avionics technician (MOS 6322) in the Presidential Helicopter Squadron (HMX-1) and Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 365 (HMM-365) until 1993. Fay served a tour on recruiting duty (MOS 8411) and was a recruiter of the year for 1989 and 1990. He left active duty at the end of September 1993. Fay returned to service in the USMCR in January 2000. He was assigned as an official combat artist. He is now retired from the Marine Corps. Fay's artwork is in the Marine Corps Combat Art collection, the National Museum of the Marine Corps and the collection of the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.Fay has also had solo exhibitions at the Farnsworth Museum, where he was the target of a protest group. His artwork has been published in Leatherneck Magazine—the official magazine of the Marine Corps Association—and the New York Times. The Guardian called his work "exceptionally moving and thought-provoking", and said, "Over the past decade, Fay has seen action as a war artist with US troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but his latest journey was to a military veterans' hospital in Richmond, Virginia. In the resulting New York Times blogs, he relays his meetings with three young men severely wounded in Afghanistan. His account of their injuries and rehabilitation is gripping, but what really deepens the reporting are his drawings, reproduced alongside the articles."Fay has also recorded wounded veterans recovering from their injuries. As part of this work he founded the Joe Bonham Project to document the experiences of the wounded. After retirement, Fay campaigned for enhanced recognition and improved working opportunities for war artists. Fay also uses sculpture. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Illustration; his thesis was called The Boy Who Drew Soldiers.
Michael Bard
Oct 9 2023
Michael Bard
The child of a Ukrainian POW and US Air Force veteran, Michael Bard is an active musician, composer and teacher who resides near Washington, D.C. He has performed as a soloist and with various musical ensembles throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, North Africa, South America, Central America and the Middle East. He has also been featured on various radio and television programs around the world.  He has served as Vice President of the Dayton Classical Guitar Society as well as Vice President of the Washington Guitar Society.While pursuing graduate studies at Arizona State University, Tempe, Michael was awarded a full scholarship to study at l’Accademia “Ottocento” in Vigevano, Italy, a school which specializes in the classical guitar music of the 19th century. During that time he also participated in a concert tour of northern Italy and Switzerland.Michael has also performed as rhythm guitarist for Higher Octave/Virgin recording artists Shahin and Sepehr with whom he has toured nationally and abroad. He also appeared on their fourth album “World Cafe” which peaked at #18 on the Billboard charts and was featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”As a performer, Michael was chosen by the U.S. State Department to concertize throughout Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and the kingdom of Morocco with fellow guitarist Corey Whitehead. Billing themselves as ‘Douze Cordes’ Michael and Corey effectively served as cultural ambassadors, offering diplomacy through music. They were later invited to give more performances in Jordan and Kuwait on a second tour again sponsored by the U.S. State Department. More recently they embarked on an 11 city concert tour throughout the country of Chile, this time as a trio with vocalist Deborah Benner, Michael’s wife & musical partner.Michael has performed for many luminaries and dignitaries including former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore as well as various members of royalty throughout the Middle East & South America.His first recorded solo effort entitled ‘Illumination’ features original compositions for guitar and solo piano, blending a soothing mix of of Spanish, Latin, and adult contemporary instrumental styles. His composition ‘Mediterranean Beauty’ for two guitars is published by Lathkill Music Publishers, England.He provided Spanish guitar accompaniment for The Choral Arts Society of Washington‘s award winning NAXOS recording “Celebrating Sacred Rhythms” featuring Ariel Ramirez’ “Misa Criolla” & “Navidad Nuestra.”Michael currently performs & records with Washington D.C. based Latin Rumba-Flamenco group Trio Caliente, which has released 3 albums, performed nationally, and whose music was featured on NBC’s former hit TV show “Smash” as well as E! Entertainment Television Network. ​​Michael holds a Masters degree in music from Arizona State University, Tempe and a Bachelors degree in music from Wright State University, Dayton, OH.Get tickets to Michael's Carnegie Hall concert on November 4, 2023.
Scott Cottrell
Aug 7 2023
Scott Cottrell
Scott Cottrell is a retired US Army Colonel. His debut novel, When Chaos Reigns, is available now on pre-order and will be released on Kindle on August 8, 2023. China, Russia, a powerful drug cartel, and a radical Islamic terrorist group form a secret cabal bent on shocking America and her global influence to its core while taking what they want across the globe. With the U.S. President facing impeachment on multiple counts and focused on securing a trade agreement with China without Senate approval, his actions put the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll at risk and ignite the tinderbox of the South China Sea.  Can the web of corruption and deceit created by enemies, foreign and domestic, be uncovered and destroyed in time to save the United States and Western civilization? So well documented in present-day fact,When Chaos Reigns seems too close to reality to be called fiction.A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Scott served for 29+ years in the U.S. Army in locations worldwide, including as Commander of the US Army Kwajalein Atoll/Kwajalein Missile Range, now the Reagan Test site. Scott has three master’s degrees, including a Master’s in Military Art and Science from the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies; and a Master’s in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College. Scott’s other military assignments included the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii; the Near East Project Office in Ovda, Israel, with the US Army Corps of Engineers; US Southern Command’s Engineer Directorate in Panama; XVIII Airborne Corps G3 Plans section in Fort Bragg, NC; US Space Command J5 Plans Section; and the US Central Command’s Engineer, which involved many trips to the Middle East. He is married to Peggy, with two children and eight grandchildren.Follow him here.