BIOGRAPHIES

Death on The Downbeat

Sara Mountjoy-Pepka

MAGIC CIRCLE MIME Co. is regarded as one of today’s premier family attractions. Their highly acclaimed performances, which unite the concert orchestra with visual theater, are consistently praised for imaginative and innovative content.

Magic Circle Mime Co. performs with virtually every major orchestra in North America and has performed on numerous occasions with the Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Saint Louis, Seattle and Toronto; Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra; and on more than half a dozen occasions at The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Magic Circle Mime Co. also has a growing reputation outside North America. In the Pacific Rim and Far East they have performed at festivals and with major orchestras in Australia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan. Appearances include the Beijing Music Festival, Shanghai International Children’s Festival, Taiwan International Children’s Festival, the Hong Kong Philharmonic (six times), the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the West Australia Symphony Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. They made their European debut with the Palau de la Música de Valencia in April of 2007.

Magic Circle Mime Co. is the creative partnership of Maggie Petersen and Douglas MacIntyre. Both artists have backgrounds in theatre and instrumental music, and have utilized that training to create their highly regarded programs. Their newest production, "Orchestra from Planet X", explores the music of the orchestra in the New World.

Sara Mountjoy-Pepka became the first associate member of the Magic Circle Mime Company in 2007, the same year she graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. As a music major, Sara served as principal bassoon of the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and can be heard in performance on the Summit Records recording of “Contemporaries" featuring the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Before returning to her native Pacific Northwest, she performed in Chicago as a member of The Mime Company and Child's Play Touring Theatre. Since joining the Magic Circle Mime Company she has performed in orchestra productions in Canada, the United States and Spain; and in the spring of 2009 she will have her first performance in Taiwan.