PS Classics to Release 'Midsummer' GrooveLily CD

PS Classics will release a CD of A Midsummer Night's Dream music by GrooveLily, the musical group who recently received acclaim for their musical Striking 12, which opened on November 12th at the Daryl Roth Theatre.

According to press notes, "A Little Midsummer Night's Dream Music" will consist of original songs and instrumental music from the novel production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in which GrooveLily co-starred last spring at Paper Mill Playhouse and the McCarter Theatre.  As it did with Striking 12, PS Classics will give the CD an early web-release; it will be available at the PS Classics website in early February (to coincide with a concert at the McCarter) and be available in stores the second week of April. 
 
"For this new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, director Tina Landau conceived that the lovers' dream within the play would be, in fact, GrooveLily's dream. It was her vision that, except when portraying three of the 'rude mechanicals' in the play within the play, GrooveLily would be onstage underscoring the action and singing with the actors. Three songs, 'Slings of Eros,' 'While You Were Sleeping' and 'When I Dream,' emerged, as well as a great many shorter passages, which GrooveLily has carefully developed and shaped into suites for this new recording.  Written with equal participation and improvisation from all band members, the end result is an exciting and unique CD – as GrooveLily's Brendan Milburn put it recently, 'some of the most lyrical, lovely, groovy, rhythmically complex and unfettered music we've ever made.'

Ignoring the boundaries of labels like rock, folk, jazz, and pop, the New York City trio GrooveLily generates original songs that combine wit, lush musical textures and soaring vocals. With backgrounds in classical music, musical theater, jazz, and rock, GrooveLily's members -- Valerie Vigoda (violin), Brendan Milburn (piano) and Gene Lewin (drums) -- make a new music all their own. Buoyed by the huge off-Broadway success of Striking 12 (written with Tony Award-winner Rachel Sheinkin), GrooveLily looks forward to widening its audience. In addition to A Midsummer Night's Dream, they recently collaborated with Deaf West Theatre, Center Theatre Group and Rachel Sheinkin on Sleeping Beauty Wakes. Wheelhouse, the second GrooveLily concert-musical is also in development."

Founded in 2000 by Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin, PS Classics has been profiled in publications such as The New York Times for its diverse line of cast recordings (including Grammy Award-nominated albums of Assassins and Nine: The Musical, its recent releases of Grey Gardens and I Love You Because, and of course, GrooveLily's own Striking 12); solo albums by such artists as Jessica Molaskey, Christine Andreas, Jason Danieley and Marin Mazzie, and Rebecca Luker; songbook tributes to composers ranging from Billy Strayhorn to Maury Yeston to John Bucchino; and recordings drawn from rare sound archives, including "Sondheim Sings, Volumes I & II" and its recent "Charles Sings Strouse. PS Classics" is distributed by Image Entertainment.  Visit www.psclassics.com.

Please visit www.GrooveLily.com. Click on this link to read Vigoda's latest blog entry.