First Night's 2012 Commissioned Artist

The commissioned artist for First Night Monterey 2012 was The Junkman, aka Donald Knaack, the classically trained percussionist who played with esteemed philharmonic orchestras before making his name by performing on instruments of his own construction made entirely from reclaimed materials and found objects.

Donald Knaack (aka The Junkman) travels to the beat of a different drummer. He now exclusively composes for and performs on junk and recycled materials. It's called Junk Music and it's a unique collection of infectious grooves and musical styles that's gaining audiences from every spectrum of the music business from rock to jazz to world music. Impossible to categorize, worldwide audiences are recognizing Junk Music is eye-opening, provocative and entirely new.

First Night Monterey invited the tinkerers, music-makers and dreamers of all ages to come make instruments from junk. The Junkman hosted free workshops in Monterey, Greenfiield and Marina to build the instruments that were played at the Junk Jams on New Year's Eve in historic downtown Monterey. Under the guidance of the Junkman and with help from local artist and museum manager Addison Moore, the community built sound sculptures from recycled materials donated by Waste Management. At the Archer Park Community Center discarded plumbing parts, plastic buckets and scrap wood were transformed by members of the local community into the instruments at the center of the Junk Jams at First Night on Saturday, December 31st. Visit his website at www.junkmusic.org

Special thanks to our Junkkman funder The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF)