SICA-USA is now honoring four more artists who are contributing their work to the First Annual Online Silent Auction launching on June 17th and running through July 17th.
Our purpose is two-fold: to raise money to expand our SICA Grants Program which benefits Subud Cultural Projects, and to showcase the amazing spectrum of the Subud Cultural/Artistic Community. This week we’re featuring the following musicians:

Jim O’Halloran

Jim O’Halloran is a long-time Subud member living in Seattle and opened in 1994, almost 30 years ago. Jim is the latest recipient of the SICA-USA Cultural Grant. His amazing band has been invited to highlight the 50th anniversary of Seattle’s P-Patch Community Garden Program at Bradner Gardens (designed by his wife, Lucinda O’Halloran) with a two-hour live performance that will include Subud poet Paul Nelson. Playing woodwind instruments, Jim will be backed by percussion, bass, flute, violin, and trombone. He has performed for Bradner Gardens since 2004, so this coming August event marks his 19th year at the park! Jim is offering his latest CD of jazz-fusion music, entitled Chela, with the following quote: “The mystery and allure of music is that the meaning constantly changes.”

Morris McClellan

Morris McClellan goes by the nickname Mo Mack, a moniker more in keeping with his folk-bluegrass-blues roots. His two older brothers literally dragged him into music. Mike, some five years senior to Morris, was doing a credible imitation of Leadbelly when he was 15 years old. Middle brother Bill was a proponent of bluegrass and old-time music. It was Bill who taught Mo Mack to play the guitar so he’d have someone to keep the rhythm while he played banjo, mandolin or fiddle. The three brothers still play together when they can, covering Cajun, Gospel, Bluegrass, Blues, Dixie, Rock, or Corrido.
Morris is donating two different CDs with 12 songs on each. These professionally cut CDs contains original Mo Mack songs, plus covers of not-so-famous songs composed by the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimmy Rogers, Hamid Camp, and Chuck Berry.

Eli Dokson

Eli has been playing music and writing songs almost as long as he’s been a member of Subud – a reflection of the proverbial conundrum: “which came first – the chicken or the egg?” He is donating his CD of original songs entitled A Dream I Can’t Forget, recorded in 2014 with some of his best friends. The CD contains songs with intriguing titles such as Family Farm Road, Tangled Up in You, Brake Fluid Druid, Center of the Sky, and In It for the Long Haul – a total of 16 songs!

Hamilton Cheifetz

Hamilton Cheifetz has been described in Fanfare Magazine as “an unquestionably magnificent player” for his solo recordings. He has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Similar to Mozart, Mr. Cheifetz first appeared as an orchestra soloist at the age of eleven. His music can be heard in audio recordings and videos recorded during live concerts at his website: www.hamiltoncheifetz.com. He served as Chairman of the Subud International Cultural Association, USA.

Hamilton Cheifetz is offering four of his recorded albums: Songs from the Cello, Affinity, Lizard Music and Other Arias, and Hamilton Cheifetz Live. These four recorded albums represent a portion of Hamilton’s long career both as a soloist and together with accompanying musicians Bryan Johanson on guitar and Harold Gray on piano.

The SICA-USA Board is really excited about showing more than a hundred works by Subud creatives across the country in one place, the first time this has been done. Remember, the site launches on June 17th . We encourage everyone to have a look, register to bid, find the pieces you would like to own, and bid away! Next week we will feature four more artists who have offered their work for this showcase. Please leave your comments in the field below and share the blog as widely as possible.