About the Members
B Bagby
B began playing guitar at thirteen years old, and then moved to drums at seventeen, eventually giving lessons and making the round through several local bands, including the one where he met Jeff. Although he loved playing drums, and wasn't a totally unfortunate player, he realized that they were not much to listen to solo, and switched back to guitar.
B returned to the Roanoke Valley and began producing Shakespeare productions and choreographing combat for those same shows in 1998 at Virginia Western Community College. He quickly moved in to writing for the "Winter Children's show". As the new "official" music writer, B wrote original music for several very successful original family musicals including "Captain Hook", "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and several others. B even tried his hand at acting, winning the title roles in both of those shows.
In his spare time, B teaches programming at a local college and manages the "Media Geeks", the group that manages the media technology at a local college, while he’s finishing his Masters in Education.
... and yes, he really does just go by the letter B.
Jeff Hofmann
Jeff Hofmann studied bass at Roanoke College, under Alan Weinstein (Kandinsky Trio, and Assistant Professor of cello and bass at Virginia Tech). Jeff also studied under Ed Mikenas (Roanoke and Lynchburg Symphonies), and Bleda Elibal (Principal Bassist-Roanoke Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony).
Jeff performs with many groups of various styles and appears on more than 20 CDs. In 2003, Jeff performed with two area musicians on the soundtrack for a commissioned work. This was an animated trailer that is shown at the beginning of films showing at the historic Grandin Theater, in Roanoke, VA. This work won several ADDY awards in advertising for 2003-2004 in several categories including Best in Show.
Jeff has done other music education programs with The Marcato Trio/ Roanoke Chamber Players. This was a classical trio sponsored by the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, which performed concerts and artist-in-residence programs at schools in Roanoke City and County, and Montgomery County.
Dave McDonald
Dave is a performing/recording musician with over 25 years' experience as percussionist, vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist. The youngest of seven children (all musicians), he began his formal musical training in elementary school as a percussionist. He carried his snare drum, sticks, and method book to school in a cardboard box fitted with a twine handle.
Informally, however, he continued to fuel his passion for the guitar and bass guitar by learning solo and ensemble playing techniques from hand-me-down "Play Guitar With the Ventures" records.
David attended the University of Kentucky in Lexington where he enrolled in the school of music as percussionist under the instruction of James Campbell. In the summer of 1988 he attended The Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio before going back to school at Virginia Tech as a Music Education Major under the guidance of John Floyd (percussion) and Vernon Burnsed (Music Education).
Working mainly at Blackwater Recording in Wirtz, VA, David McDonald is currently one of the area's top audio recording engineers. He also works as a freelance audio engineer/producer for other studios and musicians in the Roanoke area. Notable clients include Lenny Marcus, Los Gatos, The African Showboyz, The Acoustic Burgoo, and The Roanoke Chamber Brass.
There have always been outlets for performance in David's life including musical theater, rock and roll, country, island music, jazz, solo and duet performances, and studio session work. In addition to his work with Einstein’s Monkey, he has been hired as keyboard player/guitarist/vocalist for the Roanoke-based 80s tribute band, SUPERHOLD.
