Rebecca Luker, Rob Kapilow and More Set for Celebrity Series of Boston's WHAT MAKES IT GREAT? Today

Celebrity Series of Boston will present What Makes It Great? With Rob Kapilow today, November 3, 2013, at 3pm at NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston. Sponsored by Amy and Joshua Boger. Celebrity Series of Boston has presented What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow 33 times since its Boston debut in 1997.

Tickets start at $30, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Jordan Hall box office, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston.

Harold Arlen wrote some of the greatest hits from the 30's and 40's, including the entire score to the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. Songs such as Over the Rainbow, Get Happy, Stormy Weather, It's Only a Paper Moon, I've Got the World on a String, and Last Night When We Were Young are just some of the standards that live on today and have distinguished Harold Arlen as one of the Great American Composers of the 20th Century.

Rob Kapilow is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, and is an accomplished pianist. He has brought the joy and wonder of classical music to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, opening their ears to musical experiences and helping them to listen actively. The reach and diversity of his interactive events is considerable, both geographically and culturally: from Native American tribal communities to inner-city high school students and from children barely out of diapers to musicologists long out of Ivy League programs. Mr. Kapilow's popularity and appeal are reflected in notable engagements: on NBC's "Today Show" in conversation with Katie Couric, in a program for broadcast on PBS's "Live From Lincoln Center" in January 2008; and in his books, All You Have To Do Is Listen and What Makes It Great? Kapilow's What Makes It Great? (WMIG) made its debut on NPR's Performance Today nearly 20 years ago, and with its accessible ten-minute format it quickly attracted a wide base of fans and followers.

Vocalist Rebecca Luker has starred in the Broadway productions of Mary Poppins 2007 (Tony Nomination), Nine, The Music Man (Tony nomination), The Sound of Music, Showboat (Tony Nomination), The Secret Garden and The Phantom of the Opera. In addition to numerous Off-Broadway productions, she has also been featured on TV in The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, Rodgers & Hart and Oscar Hammerstein tributes, and An Evening with the Pops. She has performed concerts, including the Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series; Carnegie Hall's No, No Nanette; Gay Divorce; and My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies; Encores!: Where's Charley? and The Boys From Syracuse. She has performed with symphonies around the world, including London, Stockholm, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Hollywood Bowl and more. Her recordings include Greenwich Time (PS Classics), Leaving Home (PS Classics), Anything Goes: Rebecca Luker Sings Cole Porter (Fynsworth Alley), Aria, Aria 2 & Aria 3 (Koch), Wonderful Town, Jerome Kern Treasury, Broadway Showstoppers, Brigadoon, Strike Up the Band and more. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Luker was recently given an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montevallo.

Vocalist Michael Winther is returning for his sixth performance with the Celebrity Series of Boston. He has starred in numerous Broadway productions including 33 Variations, Mamma Mia, The Crucible, 1776, Artist Descending a Staircase and Damn Yankees. Off-Broadway he has appeared in Merrily We Roll Along, Songs From An Unmade Bed (Drama Desk Nomination), Radiant Baby and Hapgood. His recent concert engagements include Fred Hersch's My Coma Dreams (Berlin, San Francisco), William Finn's Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Songs of Fred Hersch, Hear & Now! (Lincoln CenterAmerican Songbook), "What Makes It Great?" with Rob Kapilow (Lincoln Center, Cerritos Center), The Songs of James Taylor, Bill Finn's Songs By...(Merkin Hall), New Love Songs (Metropolitan Room), New Voices (Symphony Space), Broadway Cabaret Series, and Broadway By The Year (Town Hall). Recent film and TV credits include The Avengers, Leverage, Meet Dave, Jumper, The Break Up, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Law & Order.

Program:

Over the Rainbow: The Songs of Harold Arlen (1905-1986)

Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler "Get Happy," from The Nine Fifteen Revue (1930)

Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg "Last Night When We Were Young" (1935)

Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler "Stormy Weather," from Cotton Club Parade - 22nd edition (1933)

Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer "That Old Black Magic," from Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)

Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg "Over the Rainbow," from The Wizard of Oz (1938)

The program will be approximately 90 minutes performed without intermission, and will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario AaRon Richmond. Over the course of its 75-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world's greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.

The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers-from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more-to Boston's major concert halls for 75 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience-on stages, in schools, at home- everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

Pictured: Rebecca Luker. Photo Credit: Laura Marie Duncan.