Maria Corsaro: Love Makes the Changes at Chelsea Table + Stage

Maria Corsaro’s love of music and performing began early in her life. She received her first undergraduate degree in theater and after graduation joined an off Broadway theater company. Then, after years in a rewarding, but non-musical career, she returned to singing. Her recent focus has been returning to her love of jazz and the music of legendary jazz composers and lyricists. This is the music of her heart. She wants her audience to experience the emotional texture of this great American art form. She feels passionately that music feeds the soul and is the creative result of musical collaboration. Love Makes the Changes is Corsaro’s third solo show to premiere at Chelsea Table + Stage. In March 2023, Corsaro performed songs inspired by her philosophy of life in Why Not?, and in November 2023, she performed I Could Get Used to This! All three shows are directed by David Friedman with musical direction by Gregory Toroian. In 2022, she completed a successful run of her show, You Taught My Heart to Sing, with the Gregory Toroian trio and directed by Sue Matsuki, at Pangea. The jazz-inspired show consisted of songs where lyrics were added to instrumental compositions – sometimes years later. In addition to Chelsea Table + Stage, Don’t Tell Mama, Laurie Beechman Theatre, and Pangea in NYC, Corsaro has performed at Jazz On Main in Mount Kisco, NY, The Magnolia Room in Norwalk, CT, Club Cafe in Boston, MA, and Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, PA. ww.MariaCorsaro.com

Gregory Toroian is a musical director, arranger, jazz pianist, vocalist, songwriter, and educator. He has been featured in Cabaret Scenes magazine and was the 2020 Bistro Award winner for Outstanding Collaboration with Sue Matsuki, with whom he had also won a MAC award for Best Duo Production. In addition to working with such artists as Tony Bennett, Jon Hendricks, Cab Calloway, Donna Summer, Melissa Errico, Marilyn Maye, Karen Mason, and Jane Olivor, he has appeared in almost every jazz club and cabaret (major and minor) in New York. He has toured with principal dancers from the New York City Ballet and has made numerous radio and television appearances including the Today Show and Maury Povich. His recording work includes the recent debut CD of Suzanna Ross, the debut CD of award-winning cabaret artist Sue Matsuki, for which he was arranger, producer, and pianist, and seven CDs with cabaret singer Nancy Stearns. Gregory’s vocal arrangements have been featured on a series of albums in the US and Japan, by the vocal group String of Pearls. He currently offers an array of performance workshops.

Skip Ward is a Grammy Award Winning Bassist, Guitarist, Ukulele-ist (is that a word), Lap Steel, Tuba and Penny Whistle. Ward is a classically-trained jazz musician with a penchant for rock n' roll, and fusion, blues and bluegrass. Artists he has played/recorded with include: Tony Trischka, with Steve Martin, Phoebe Snow, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Cyndi Lauper, Cassandra Wilson, David Sancious (Sting, Eric Clapton), Melissa Manchester, Glenn Miller Orchestra and more! You may have also seen him on David Letterman, SNL or the Ellen DeGeneres Show. You'll hear Skip on many soundtracks, and he has been on national tours with a number of major theatrical productions. In New York City: Shakespeare in the Park (As You Like It), Hands On A Hardbody, Million Dollar Quartet, High School Musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, Song & Dance, A Chorus Line and West Side Story.

David Silliman is a drummer and percussionist. David's middle name should be “versatility”. Whether accompanying song stylists such as Mariah Carey, Cassandra Wilson, and Blossom Dearie or playing with Colombian Harpist Edmar Castaneda, David's exciting rhythmic energies add color and mood to any musical performance. He's also comfortable playing in the pit of a Broadway show or with the New Jersey Symphony. David has over 20 years of experience. His performances have taken him to concerts and festivals in Italy, Vienna, Berlin, the North Sea, Monterey, Uruguay and Lithuania. David was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was exposed to a wide variety of music. David's first studies were in the Classical field, studying snare drum, xylophone and timpani. Later studies exposed him to Jazz, Latin Jazz, Brazilian and Funk music.“ I love living in NY because it gives me the opportunity to play and perform with so many diverse artists, across all styles of music!”

Mark Fineberg, saxophonist and flutist, has a twenty-five year Broadway career highlighted by Smokey Joe's Cafe, Riverdance, and Jersey Boys. He’s performed with Billy Joel, Donna Summer's horn section, Peter Frampton, Roger Daltry with the British Rock Symphony, Gladys Knight, Lou Rawls, and from Motown, The Four Tops, The Temptations, and The Spinners -- just to name a few! Thanks to pianist/producer Daniel Frieberg, who Fineberg met thru studio owner and big brother he never had, Larry Gates, he went on to record over forty albums in the Spanish Pop market with artists including Jose Jose, Valeria Lynch, Mijares, and Argentina’s Alex Lerner. He also recorded with Jamaica’s premier jazz guitarist, Ernest Ranglin, R & B artist Pru, and from the Hip Hop world, Ghost Face Killa. Combined with the Jewish market, Fineberg has played on 90-100 CD's and albums. He currently performs with Mike DeGuidice, Billy Joel guitarist and leader/lead singer of the well know Billy Joel tribute band Big Shot and with the Motown tribute group Shadows of the 60s.

David Friedman is a film and theatre composer, songwriter, author, lyricist and conductor based in New York City. He received a 1997 Backstage Bistro Award for Composer of the Year and a 1997 Johnny Mercer Award for Songwriter of the Year, and a Special Lifetime Achievement Award at the 26th Annual MAC Awards. His oratorio, King Island Christmas, won a Frederick Loewe Award and Dramatists Guild Award. David's musical Desperate Measures won the 2018 Drama Desk Award for Best Music and Best Lyrics (Peter Kellogg) as well as the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off Broadway Musical and the Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical. Love Makes the Changes is the third show David has directed for vocalist Maria Corsaro. The first, Why not?, was performed at Chelsea Table + Stage in March 2023, and I Could Get Used to This! in November 2023.