Amanda Monaco & Andrey Henkin

Published: April 3, 2005
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Amanda Wagner Monaco and Andrey Alexandrovich Henkin are to be married today at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in Manhattan. Rabbi Felicia L. Sol is to officiate and Rabbi Marcelo R. Bronstein is to participate in the ceremony.

Ms. Monaco, 31, will continue to use her name. She is a guitarist and a composer. She is also a leader of the Lascivious Biddies, an all-female pop quartet based in Long Island City, Queens, and the leader of a jazz group, Amanda Monaco 4, also based there. She is the author of "Jazz Guitar for the Absolute Beginner" (Alfred Publishing, 2005) and teaches guitar in Long Island City. She graduated from William Paterson University. She is a daughter of Maryann Conrad of Wallingford, Conn., and Domenic Monaco of Southbury, Conn.

Mr. Henkin, 28, is a freelance music journalist and the editorial director and an owner of AllAboutJazz New York, a free monthly publication about the city's jazz and improvised music scene. He graduated from New York University. Mr. Henkin is the son of Zena and Alexander Henkin of Stamford, Conn.

Ms. Monaco and Mr. Henkin met at a club in the East Village in May 2002. The leader of the quartet Ms. Monaco was playing with, Judi Silvano, had proposed writing a column for Mr. Henkin's fledgling paper, and he had come by to give her a copy of the first issue.

"I stuck around for the show and noticed that Amanda made all the ugly faces musicians tend to make when they play, but when she made them she looked cute," he said.

After the set, he complimented Ms. Monaco on her playing and asked about her musical influences. It was a novel moment for her.

"A lot of guys say things like, 'I never heard a girl play guitar like that before,' and it gets tiresome," she said. "But Andrey just said I was a good player. Gender wasn't involved, just musicianship."

They didn't meet again until that July. Mr. Henkin was editing his publication's concert calendar when he noticed that Ms. Monaco was performing again and decided to drop by. He talked to her after the set for a few minutes, and over the next week or so, they exchanged a few collegial e-mail messages. Then Mr. Henkin decided to make a move. He suggested they go see the guitarist Tisziji Muñoz at Tonic, a club on the Lower East Side.

They dated for several months, but the clincher came in late October, when Ms. Monaco entrusted Mr. Henkin with the keys to her apartment so he could take care of her cat while she was on a two-week tour of Texaswith the Lascivious Biddies.

"I was living on the Lower East Side at the time, and she was in Washington Heights," he said. "It took nearly an hour and a half to take a train from where I lived to her apartment, so I decided to stay at her place for those two weeks. And I never left."