Guest of Honor: Trio Menagerie!
Trio Menagerie is a string musical group of three friends who met through the furry fandom. Our mission is to bring classical music to audiences who may not ordinarily get to experience it in a personal way by creating our own arrangements of pop-culture music for string trio and performing at conventions and nerd-centric spaces across the country. With our in-house composer, our goal is not only to champion classics of the string trio repertoire, but music of the modern day from the games, tv shows, and movies that we love.
Herr Wozzeck, violist for Trio Menagerie
When not doing anything music-related (which is rare), Herr is also an avid writer who got their start in the world of fanfiction, and is the author of the novels Whip and Boot and Lost Inside the Blue Line, as well as the poetry collection The Enigma Letters and various short stories peppered throughout FA. They also like to kick back with a good turn-based strategy RPG every once in a while, and also letting their family take turns wearing their fursuit head.
Herr Wozzeck is a loud, squawky Cuban Amazon who serves as the violist, composer, and chief arranger of Trio Menagerie. Originally born in Miami, they are currently a resident of Boston, where they went to undergrad for music composition and where they returned to find better opportunities in the music world. They got their masters and then their Doctorate in Musical Arts in composition in Ohio for five years, during which time they connected with the remaining members of Trio Menagerie, eventually forming the trio and going on to perform convention concerts throughout the US.
Outside of the fandom, Herr is an emerging composer, and also a fairly active Thereminist, whose gigs have included outings with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony. They also perform with orchestras in the Boston area, in particular the Boston Civic Symphony and the New England Philharmonic. They also write opera criticism for an online publication for the greater Boston area, and it is a gig they take great pride in as they are a huge opera fan and will talk your ear off about it if you let them.
Rory Leonore is the cellist of Trio Menagerie. She started playing the cello at the age of three with famed Boston Suzuki teacher, Nancy Hair. She holds a Bachelors in Music from Drake University from her studies with Ashley Sidon, and studied with Richard Hirschl at the Roosevelt Chicago College for Performing Arts for her Masters Degree. She won the Fort Dodge Young Artist Competition playing my favorite concerto by Shostakovich, and was a member of the Des Moines Symphony, Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, and Peoria Symphony. She spent several years in Chicago teaching for the non profit People’s Music School.
Rory Leonore, cello for Trio Menagerie
In addition to performances with the Trio, she currently runs a publication in Naperville that connects the community, and helps local businesses with their branding and marketing. She is also an active member of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to all this, she is a mother to two adorable fuzzballs in Bruce the cat and Nora the dog. She’s also a major donut fiend, and will scour every con space possible for all the donuts that are on display.
Shost, a dragon from the forests of New Hampshire, is the violinist of Trio Menagerie. They’ve studied the instrument for over 25 years, hold a degree in Violin Performance from Boston University, and have performed in North and Central America as well as Europe.
Outside of music, they deeply enjoy photography, specifically featuring dancers and musicians. Shost loves to capture artists in gravity-defying singular moments of expression. When not performing themselves, you can often find them close to the stage or dancefloor, camera in hand.
Shost primarily focuses on research and restorative performance of rarely heard classical music. They spend much of their time finding the works of obscure composers, or pieces of famous ones that have been lost to history. Shost also composes/produces electronic music on the side.
Shost, violinist of Trio Menagerie
Talenshi
A many-time vendor at IndyFurCon, we are delighted to invite Talenshi to be our Artist of Honor for 2024!
Scott Frerichs, KaiserNeko
Voice Actor, part of the co-founders TeamFourStar (Dragon Ball Z Abridged), and editor for early episodes of Hellsing Ultimate Abridged