Lang College Hosts Marni Nixon Public Lecture 9/27

Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts has announced the accomplished singer and actress Marni Nixon as its Fall 2007 Visiting Artist. Nixon's residence will kick off with a free public lecture, "An Evening with Marni Nixon," on her illustrious stage and film career on Thursday, September 27 at 6PM at The New School, Wollman Hall (65 West 11th Street, fifth floor). The lecture is free and open to the public.

Nixon's career spans opera, symphony, Broadway, recording, film, and television, although she is best known as "The Voice Behind the Stars" for her work dubbing the singing voices of Hollywood's leading ladies during the 1950s and '60s, including Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Deborah Kerr in The King and I, and Natalie Wood in West Side Story. Nixon's uncredited work in these films was not recognized until years later. As part of Nixon's residency, she will lead several classes and workshops with Lang students. Lang will also present a multimedia exhibition surveying her career in its SkyBridge Gallery (66 West 12th Street, third floor), which opens on September 27 at 4PM in connection with the lecture.

The Visiting Artist Program at Lang was launched in 2006 as part of the school's new arts curriculum, which was introduced in 2006 to encourage artistic collaboration and cross-disciplinary work. The reconceived curriculum integrates the arts disciplines of theater, dance, music, and visual arts into a single curriculum that provides students with maximum exposure to different kinds of art, and gives a social and intellectual context to the art they are studying and the role collaboration plays in its creation. Each semester, a distinguished artist is invited to join the Lang community by leading public programs, performances, and master classes. Marni Nixon is Lang's third visiting artist, following residencies by writer/media artist John Jesurun in Fall 2006 and dancer/multimedia artist Ralph Lemon in Spring 2007.

Marni Nixon began her career dubbing vocals for film musical stars in the 1950s. She first appeared in film roles as a teenager, and later played the part of Sister Sophia in the 1965 musical The Sound of Music. Nixon has also had a long career on Broadway, including major roles in Cabaret, Follies, and James Joyce's The Dead, and in many national tours In 1999, she wrote and performed the autobiographical one-woman show Marni Nixon: The Voice of Hollywood, which included her famous renditions of "I Feel Pretty," "Wouldn't It Be Lovely," "Getting to Know You," and "I Could Have Danced All Night." In 2006, Nixon's memoir "I Could Have Sung All Night" was published, and in 2007 she was cast as Mrs. Higgins in the American revival tour of My Fair Lady, a role she will begin in January 2008. She has been honored for her outstanding work with four Emmy awards, two Gold Records, and two Grammy nominations.

With a diversity of students, faculty, and academics, Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts is a seminar-style liberal arts college located in New York City that was established in 1985. Remaining consistent to its founding philosophy, Eugene Lang College grew out of a highly progressive freshman-year program developed at The New School in 1973. Lang offers intensive liberal arts study as well as a faculty committed to teaching undergraduates in an interdisciplinary context. Paths of study include: cultural studies and media; the arts; literature; writing; philosophy; religious studies; science; technology and society; social and historical inquiry; and urban studies. For more information, visit www.lang.newschool.edu.