Erich Rausch is a recipient of the PaperMill Playhouse Rising Star Award for music direction of Once on This Island – on which he has since conducted another half dozen times with every age group from elementary school to regional productions. He has worked on over 400 productions as a music director, conductor, composer, director and actor, and has garnered excellent press notices from The New York Times, the Village Voice and Newsday. These include premieres of new work as well as the NY premiere of Brecht’s THE ROUNDHEADS AND THE POINTHEADS, and many of the now classic musicals from the Golden Age. More recently, he has been acting on film, and has played leading roles in over 100 films, two of which will be showing at Cannes 2016. With Eric Michael Gillett, he created an ongoing series of film symposiums for the Tools of the Trade class at HB Studio, bringing filmmakers and other industryites to sit on panels and talk about their work with actors. Over several years, nearly 100 guests have met with several hundred actors, some of whom are currently being seen in new projects on the festival circuit.