Interview: Carolyn Montgomery of AMERICAN SONGBOOK ASSOCIATION 2022 GALA at Merkin Hall At Kaufman Music Center

Carolyn Montgomery wears a lot of hats. She's a multi-award-winning MAC, Bistro, and Nightlife singer/songwriter. She's the co-founder of The American Songbook Association - in that organization, she is the Director of Education and Outreach, as well as the Executive Director of the organization.

On Monday, May 9, the ASA will be hosting its third annual Gala. This year, they'll be celebrating the artistry of Stephen Schwartz with an evening of entertainment that will benefit the ASA's multiple programs.

I had the opportunity to speak with Carolyn and found out just what the ASA is all about and the Gala itself.

This interview has been edited for space and content.

Carolyn, thank you for speaking with Broadway World! Your Gala is coming up. What can attendees expect from this evening?

One of the things that will make this evening absolutely unique is that we decided to include only performers that have a strong personal relationship to Stephen. They are people for whom Stephen changed their lives and the trajectory of their careers. (Artists like Christine Andreas, Jim Brochu, Liz Callaway, Rachel A. Kaufman, Debbie Gravitte, Teri Ralston, Rupert Holmes, Paul Shaffer, John Boswell, Ann Harada, Judy Kuhn, Sally Mayes, Kurt Peterson, Kelli Rabke, Jessica Hendy, and John Bucchino. Scott Coulter is directing and the musical direction is by Michael Roberts.) They all know him well. They've broken bread with him and are personal friends of his. We are just doing a piano - no fancy combos or anything like that. It's going to feel as if you are in Stephen Schwartz's living room.

How do you select your honorees?

So, we have a board of seven, who make the creative decisions, as well as the fiduciary decisions. We have honored Sheldon Harnick and Marilyn Maye as lifetime achievement honorees. Both of them are in their 90's. We try to find honorees who have contributed decades and decades to the American Songbook. Stephen Schwartz has contributed decades because he started so young. He has 5 decades worth of music that's not just prolific, it's brilliant. We're so thrilled to have him because his career spans 5 decades and he's done so much. That's how we determine the honoree. We look for someone who's contributed a lot and who's had a long career that deserves to be honored for the amount of time that they've put into their creative work.

Tell me about your corporate honoree this year:

James Brent White is the recipient of the Bill Sensenbrenner Dream Maker Award. He is the first recipient of this award. He was the head of Diversity and Inclusion for a company called Lord Abbett. He has left there and is starting his own consulting firm. He's a Diversity and Inclusion advocate, trying to partner with marginalized communities that need more resources and funding with financial institutions, and getting the places that have the most to fund programs for people that have the least. He is always promoting events for women and female empowerment for women's rights, for Black Lives Matter, and he's always been an advocate for SAGE, which is for LGBTQ seniors.

You co-founded the ASA, but you are in your first year as Executive Director. What made you take on that role?

I have been a fan of Cabaret Scenes, which is a 27-year-old magazine, but I felt we could go further. My mission is to protect American musical legacies. I have a 17-year-old son, and I was seeing that rap and hip-hop (which, by the way, I like a lot of, so I'm not a music snob.) were prevalent. The kids weren't learning anything in underserved public schools - which is what we were going after - they don't have any music programs at all. So we are preserving Jazz, Musical Theatre, and the American Songbook. We are not creating little performers. We are using the music as a teaching tool to expand their mind, their vocabularies, their ideas about possibilities for themselves, about life, and higher education. Our metric has been overwhelmingly successful.

How did the ASA come to team with Cabaret Scenes Magazine?

Frank Dain, who is the editor, and I are friends, and Peter Leavy, who is the original publisher - the three of us just met in a diner and I said, "I have this vision." I created the education program. Despite the pandemic, we have taught over 3000 public school students. We've had them doing programs of Johnny Mercer that are just breathtakingly wonderful. Frank loved my idea, so we decided that we would preserve and promote this incredible music by enriching underserved senior centers and teaching it to kids, and doing it in print with the magazine

In your outreach, how do you manage to introduce the American Songbook to a generation that was weaned on Hip-Hop, Rap, and Rock?

One of the things I've done is to make certain that I have teachers of color who are successful, articulate, fabulous teachers. They come in and they say to these kids: "Suspend your disbelief and just try." We play Cole Porter, and it takes approximately two hours to get these kids engaged. It's incredible. We thought it would take two weeks. It doesn't. They turn to us and say "What does THAT mean?" We get great teachers. We pay our teachers and we offer these programs 100% free of charge. That's why we have this gala: to fund the programs.

What gives you the most pride in working with this organization?

I'm so proud of this organization. The whole board turned to me and said, "You need to be the executive director." I said, "I don't think I know enough about non-profit management." I spent a year taking classes and I've been accepted into the Columbia graduate program for non-profit management, which I'm going to attend in the spring. It's our education program of which I'm the most proud. It's kids who live in shelters that don't even consider where they'll go to high school, now understanding that there are possibilities for them. Their parents love them very much, they just don't know what's out there for them, what's available. I find myself having conversations with these kids about SUNY schools, about how to go to college without paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. It had never occurred to them before. It's called leveling the playing field.

How do you approach these schools in order to bring these programs to them?

It was HOURS of work in the beginning - because they didn't trust me. They thought it was going to be that they'd get a taste of it, and then we'd start charging them. They had no budget. But once I got in, and the word got out, I now have a waiting list. It took me about a year.

How can the average New Yorker help with your programs?

Well, those with resources can certainly donate money, and I know that's obvious. Others can volunteer at events or help me find foundations and resources. The truth is that there are plenty of resources in this country. It's finding them and funneling them into the right place.

What is the American Songbook to you?

The misconception is that the American Songbook was written by five guys from the lower east side in 1930. They certainly are a great foundation: Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin. The American Songbook is also Carole King, Leonard Cohen... it's still being written. The American classic standard is any song that has been recorded by hundreds of artists in their own way. My Favorite Things has been recorded by more than 450 singers of note. That's a classic standard. So, it's still being written. I think Sara Bareilles is writing it. All sorts of modern writers, as long as their songs expand into perpetuity throughout the musical community. That's a standard.

Thank you, Carolyn, for chatting with me and I wish you much success on your upcoming Gala!

The ASA Gala will take place this coming Monday, May 9 at Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center (129 West 67th St.) Tickets are available at www.AmericanSongbookAssociation.org

Breaking news: On May 5th at 2:35 pm emails went out to subscribers of the American Songbook Association website announcing new cast members to the cast of the May 9th event: David LaMarr, Anthony Murphy, and Darnell White.