About Judy Gail Krasnow
Judy Gail Krasnow grew up in the recording studios of Columbia Records where her father was chief of the Children's Division in the Golden Age of Children's Records, producing and directing such timeless songs as “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty The Snowman.” Judy sang backup for the likes of Captain Kangaroo, and her father produced and wrote much of the music for the Captain. She has been interviewed on National Public Radio's All Things Considered about her father and fascinating childhood and now has a published memoir about her father, Rudolph, Frosty, And Captain Kangaroo: The Musical Life of Hecky Krasnow - Producer of the World's Most Beloved Children's Songs.
Since age eight, guitar in hand, Judy has been speaking and singing out for and about people who have made a difference. As a Chautauqua Scholar and Performer for the Florida Humanities Council for ten years, she presented programs about women who left their marks upon history. As part of the Oklahoma Arts & Humanities Council Chautauqua Tour 2006, she brought hatchet-wielding Temperance Activist, and American Icon, Carry A. Nation, to life. In 2008, once again touring in Oklahoma, she portrays Rachel Carson, pioneering ecologist and author of Silent Spring, the book that awakened global environmental concern. Judy's historical programs include stories of adventurers, explorers, and achievers. She performs for all ages, adapting her programs accordingly and captivating young and old alike. As a Kennedy Center trained Artist-In-Education, Judy has received many grants to develop and perform her varied programs. In addition to her prime genre of historical programs, her fare includes tales and tunes from cultures around the world, curriculum-related programs, and, of course, programs custom-tailored to requested themes, workshops, and Keynotes.
In addition to her recently published memoir, Rudolph, Frosty, And Captain Kangaroo, Judy is co-author of Day of The Moon Shadow: Tales With Ancient Answers to Scientific Questions. The book won the Curriculum Administrators Districts Choice Top 100 Award and a Story World Honor Award. Her book, Work and Labor: A History in Story and Song, received outstanding reviews in several labor publications. A story and original song of Judy's appear in the anthology Sandspun: Florida Tales by Florida Tellers. The Momentum Dance Company hired Judy as a guest writer, narrator, and musician to create and perform It's Off to Work We Go: American Work Songs and Women of Valor. Judy wrote, produced and hosted a four-part documentary, AIDS - The Plague of Our Times, for PBS-WLRN-TV. It won "Best Bets," from the Miami Herald. As the creator and producer of the NBC Special, Hurricane At the Zoo, Judy helped to raise money to rebuild Miami MetroZoo after Hurricane Andrew. Judy writes Ask Anansi, a column in the Florida Storytelling Association's quarterly, StoryTimes.
Judy served as Director of Live Performances and Lectures for the Miami Museum of Science. Here, she created 25 original programs and lectured on such diverse topics as wolves, dinosaurs, cryogenics, robots, and fashions hazardous to health! In partnership with WLRN-TV and the Museum of Science, Judy co-authored and hosted a 13-part television series, Wonder With Me, which took viewers on journeys back in time to visit ancient cultures and hear, through stories, how they answered questions about nature and the universe. For several years she brought fun and laughter to the lives of children and their families, alias Dr. La La La Loca, as a member of The Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit® at Miami Children's Hospital.
Judy's venues include Chautauquas, schools, international schools, colleges, libraries, organizations, historical societies, museums, adult communities, elder hostels, festivals, correctional facilities, corporations, businesses, and labor groups. She is a master at creating programs for specific needs and requests. Recently, Judy sold her home in Miami, Florida to move to Armory Arts Village, an experimental artist community on the renovated grounds and buildings of the historic Jackson, Michigan prison. In Michigan, she will be bringing the history of this prison, the town of Jackson, and the reformist prison Chaplain, Albert M. Ewert to life as Interpretive Director of The Ella Sharp Museum of Art & History exhibit on the topic. She will entertain students through the American History in the Schools program, and travel as part of the Michigan Humanities Council Touring Roster. Judy will also continue presenting her entertaining educational programs throughout the nation and abroad and, of course present book readings and signings about her memoir.