Pinwheel is an ensemble of classically trained musicians and puppet artists that creates new collaborative interdisciplinary performances for both young and adult audiences.

The seeds of Pinwheel were planted in 2018 when Bo Lee and Max Gayford bonded over their interest in multidisciplinary performance during their time as Kenan Fellows at Lincoln Center Education. During their fellowship., Bo and Max started developing Magic Pearl, a shadow puppet play for young audiences based on a Chinese folk tale, and commissioned Christopher Vu to compose the score for the piece.

While working on the first iteration of Magic Pearl, Bo, Max, and Chris realized that they wanted to keep working together to develop that piece and other works. They applied for and received funding from Bo’s and Chris’s Alma Mater, New England Conservatory of Music, to develop Magic Pearl in audio format for Atlanta’s Audio Fringe Festival, and to continue development in residency at Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, MA in October 2019.

Since then, each member of Pinwheel has developed their own artistic styles as a puppeteer, flute player, and composer, respectively, and we are excited to announce new collaborative efforts in 2022 and 2023.

The Team

Copyright 2021, Robert Doyle Photography

Max Gayford (they/them) is a puppeteer, mover, and designer, currently based in NYC, where they are pursuing an M.S. in Dance/Movement Therapy at Pratt. They are also a company member of Treehouse Shakers Dance Theatre. Recent work includes Genderslime, a puppetry short in collaboration with Ashley Winkfield, at Puppet Blok 2021 and the New York State Puppet Festival Storefront Theatre Festival, Shake on the Lake Presents: Songs and Sweet Airs, The Othello Project, Remember When They Told You This Was A Helicopter?, virtual educational programming for Grand Pistachio and Warsaw Public Library, the NYC and Flint, MI productions of Concrete Temple Theatre’s Packrat, and Pardon Me, a short pop-up shadow puppetry piece created for Puppet Blok 2019 with Early Gray the Band. Other theatre work includes performing and stage managing for Invited Dress, Shake on the Lake, The Dead End Kids, and Sproutworks. BFA '18 UNCSA www.maxgayford.com

Flute player Bo Lee (she/her) is currently a Kenan Fellow at Lincoln Center Education in New York City. Bo holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). Her primary teachers include Renée Krimsier, John Heiss, Tadeu Coelho, and Angela Massey.

In 2017, she was named the second prizewinner of the James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition (Boston, MA) as well as the South Carolina Flute Society Young Artist Competition. She made her Jordan Hall recital debut in May 2018 with her trio, OWL riot, which was named a 2017-2018 NEC Honors Ensemble. She has performed solo and chamber recitals throughout New England and across the southeast region of the country. She has also performed in Canada, Luxembourg, and Spain. During Bo's time in North Carolina, her students were successful in auditions at the state level and were accepted to institutions such as the Governor's School and the high school program of UNCSA.

Bo is a native of Augusta, Georgia. In her free time, Bo enjoys the art of cross-stitch.

Christopher Vu. (he/him) is a Boston-based composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music for concert hall and stage. Son of a concert pianist, Chris draws from his diverse influences and interests as a performer, which include being a professional jazz pianist, a keyboardist in touring funk/rock/pop bands, and being a featured soloist with Boston Pops in a sold out concert event.

Chris has been commissioned by the Boston Percussion Group, SOLI Chamber Ensemble, and the Vietnamese American Society of Contemporary Art and Music. His music has been performed at Alba Music Festival Festival in Italy, Wintergreen Music Festival in Virginia, and at the Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) in Boston. Chris most recently had his piece Doppler premiered at Jordan Hall at NEC by OWL riot as a result of winning NEC’s Honors Ensemble Composition competition in 2018.

Born in Los Angeles, Chris has studied composition with Thomas Oboe Lee at Boston College and studied privately with Gilda Lyons. Chris is continuing his composition studies at the New England Conservatory studying with John Mallia and Michael Gandolfi.