Photos: Celia Berk Releases FOUR SEASONS OF SONG Album

Celia Berk, a vocalist known for her intimate interpretations, warm cello sound, and affinity for hidden gems by great songwriters, has released her fourth album, Four Seasons of Song. The album brings together her distinctive series of seasonal EPs as a 17-track song cycle featuring songwriters ranging from Stephen Sondheim, Irving Berlin, and Jule Styne to the Zac Brown Band and the Michael Korie/Scott Frankel focus track 'Will You?' from the Broadway musical Grey Gardens. Co-produced by Tony and Grammy award-winning sound designer Scott Lehrer and strikingly arranged and orchestrated for strings by music director Bálint Varga, the album is available digitally and on CD October 23.

Their recording of Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' is currently a semi-finalist for the 2026 Apollo Global Music Award in the Best Cover category. The 2025 release of the four EPs was recognized as one of the Top 10 Vocalist Albums of that year by The Broadway Radio Show.

Berk and Varga will perform a special Album Release Concert on November 5th at The Laurie Beechman Theatre in the West Bank Café @ 7pm. Details: https://www.thebeechman.com/events/lbt25-celia-berk

About Four Seasons of Song (taken from Liner Notes by Jonathan Widran)

Four season-themed suites, released throughout 2025, are now revealed as an extraordinary song cycle that takes the listener on a gently unfolding year-long musical journey. It's a fascinating exploration of time—how it moves and how it accumulates meaning—marked by shifting moods, changing perspectives, and moments of graceful connection.

Created in collaboration with arranger/orchestrator Bálint Varga and co-produced by Scott Lehrer, each season carries its own sonic identity: Spring's light, chanson-inspired chamber music; Summer's relaxed guitar and ukulele-driven warmth; Autumn's sweeping, introspective string sextet; and Winter's buoyant, Django Reinhardt-inspired jazz. Throughout, Celia's vocals become part of the ensemble itself, woven seamlessly into Varga's distinctive string arrangements and musical through-lines. At times leading, at times blending, she is always attentive to the narrative, guided by her instinct for lyrical truth and expressive precision.

Though the focus is clearly on the dynamic interplay between Celia and Varga, the role of producer Scott Lehrer cannot be overstated. His understanding of Celia's voice and instincts ensures continuity across the project's shifting landscapes. And through subtle remastering and the shaping of space between tracks, transitions that once marked seasonal boundaries begin to feel like natural continuations.

Four Seasons of Song resists easy categorization. It is not simply a collection of recordings, nor is it a conventional concept album. It is, instead, an invitation: to listen closely, to notice tone and texture, and reflect. Like the seasons themselves, it does not arrive at a final destination. It circles back, begins again, and reveals new meaning with each return.

Notes Berk: 'As you listen to the four seasonal suites as one complete song cycle (with a surprise at the end to sum things up!), I hope you will find the journey as interesting as we have. And I hope you will discover that these are all songs of the heart, with the seasons as a metaphor.'

Adds Varga: 'Celia's cello-like voice takes us through a range of emotions and reflections in this collection of musical stories. So we gave each season a distinctive sonic identity shaped by a string ensemble creating new sounds within the genre.'

Tracklist

1) They Say It's Spring

2) April Fooled Me / The Breeze And I

3) Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

4) Spring Isn't Everything

5) Knee Deep

6) Apply

7) That Sunday, That Summer

8) The Girls Of Summer

9) Autumn

10) Indian Summer

11) Will You?

12) September

13) Warm In December

14) Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

15) Let's Start The New Year Right

16) Love Turns Winter To Spring

17) Seasons Of Love (Epilogue)

About Celia Berk

Celia Berk is an award-winning vocalist living in New York City whose recordings have attracted listeners around the world. She has made memorable appearances at Carnegie Hall, Jazz At Lincoln Center, Birdland Theater, 54 Below, The Town Hall and the National Arts Club. Influenced by iconic singers and their interpretations of theater, jazz, and popular standards, Celia is known for her intimate style, warm cello sound and affinity for hidden gems by great songwriters.

Celia has been praised by some of the most prominent champions of the Great American Songbook. Rex Reed called her 'One of the best singers I've heard in a long time.' Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times, 'Ms. Berk makes you feel about New York the same way a Cole Porter song makes you feel about Paris.' BroadwayWorld described her as a 'first-class vocalist and a master of the art of song interpretation.'

Celia Berk released her third album, Now That I Have Everything, in September 2022. It was included on the 2023 Grammy Awards Preliminary Ballot, named one of the Top 10 Vocalist Recordings of 2022 by The Broadway Radio Show, and was nominated for the BroadwayWorld and LaMott Friedman Awards. Celia's second album, Manhattan Serenade, received the 2017 LaMott Friedman Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets. You Can't Rush Spring and Celia's solo cabaret debut earned her a 2015 Bistro Award: Vocalist, 2015 MAC Award: New York Debut/Female, 2015 BroadwayWorld Award for Best New York Cabaret Debut, and The 2015 Margaret Whiting Award. She is a Voting Member of The Recording Academy.

Berk's music is available on all major platforms, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal and Quobuz. More about Celia Berk at www.celiaberk.com

About Bálint Varga

Bálint Varga is a New York-based composer originally from Budapest, Hungary. His work has been performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Jazz At Lincoln Center, Symphony Hall, Bastille Opera House and Birdland. His writing credits include d'ILLUSION: The Houdini Musical (an audio theater experience on Spotify), and YASUKE—The Legend of the Black Samurai, currently in development for Broadway.

Photo Credit: Helane Blumfield