DOROTHY PAPADAKOS

Dorothy J. Papadakos is a Juilliard trained performer, composer, playwright and author internationally renowned as one of the great organ improvisers of our time. From 1990 to 2003, she was the first and only woman Cathedral Organist at the world’s largest gothic cathedral, New York City’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Prior to her appointment she served as the Cathedral’s Organ Scholar and Assistant Organist and joined the 6-time Grammy Award winning Paul Winter Consort, the Cathedral’s iconic Artist-in-Residence internationally renowned for their groundbreaking fusion of jazz, world music, improvisations with animal song (esp Humpback Whales & Timber Wolves) and environmental advocacy.

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Dorothy is celebrated for her silent film screenings, improvising on the world’s great pipe organs. Her Halloween Horror Tour is an annual sold out tradition in venues such as SF Jazz at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Kansas City Symphony's Kaufmann Center and spectacular cathedrals & concert halls around the world from Singapore to Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway & England. She loves improvising to the silent horror classics Phantom of the Opera (1929), Nosferatu (1922), Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920), Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger (1927) and Charlie Chaplin comedies (1917).

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Her musical UNCORK'D (former title POMPEII), the first musical about wine, smashed historic box office records in its first production and is now in development for an exciting new production. Her first novel, The Kingdom of Winter (YA 9-14), is now a STEM middle school curriculum in her acclaimed climate science adventure series for kids, The Kingdoms of the Seasons. Endorsed by the International Honour Society in Education, the books are climate science made fun & easy to understand. A featured pick by Dell Technologies, book #1 draws us into Earth’s most powerful realms, the Four Seasons, telling the inside story of climate change from Nature’s point of view through Sir Windham the North Wind and Earth's real life superheroes working 24/7 to keep Earth in balance. Book #2, The Kingdom of Spring, is due out in 2024 soon to be followed by book #3, The Kingdom of Summer!

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As guest speaker and teacher, her most recent events include Dell Technologies on Climate Science Education and her renowned Improvisation Masterclasses around the country.

 

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