Award Winning Vocalist Celia Berk Releases Holiday EP

Award-winning vocalist Celia Berk has released her first Holiday EP: Holiday Spirit: 3 Songs of Joy, Wonder and Hope.  The compilation includes three songs Berk recorded during the pandemic: “Holiday Bells Medley,” “Still, Still, Still,” and “A Simple Prayer.”  The album is streaming on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora and Spotify.

“It occurred to me that each song represents a facet of what we are meant to be experiencing at this time of the year,” says Berk.  ‘Holiday Bells Medley' captures the joy.  ‘Still, Still, Still' expresses the sense of wonder.  And ‘A Simple Prayer' is a wish for a world more at peace with itself.  I hope listeners find something that puts them in the holiday spirit at this difficult moment.”  

She shares a video describing the backstory on each recording here:

“Holiday Bells Medley” is a blend of “Silver Bells,” “Carol of the Bells” and Shostakovich's “Waltz #2, Opus 99.”  Renowned jazz pianist Jon Weber arranged the medley and vocalese. CJ Camerieri and Steve Kenyon provided trumpet, french horn and woodwind arrangements.

“Still, Still, Still,” an Austrian Christmas carol, is based on a folk tune dating back to 1865.  A wiegenlied or “cradle song,” this lullaby describes the infant Jesus being sung to sleep.  Berk sings verses in both English and German and is accompanied by Broadway and recording artist Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf on cello.

“A Simple Prayer” was written by Michael Silversher in response to 9/11.  Berk and Music Director Alex Rybeck made its first commercial recording at the height of the pandemic, with Berk describing it, then, as “an orison for troubled times.”

Tony and Grammy-award winning sound designer Scott Lehrer produced all three tracks, guiding studio and remote recording sessions along with Engineer MP Kuo.

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.  Berk's second album, Manhattan Serenade, received the 2017 LaMott Friedman Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets. You Can't Rush Spring and Berk'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.  The recording appeared on a number of Best of 2014 lists. 

Berk's music is available on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora and Spotify, and streaming platforms worldwide.

More about Celia Berk at www.CeliaBerk.com

Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/YouTube: CeliaBerkMusic

Photo by Helane Blumfield

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