Tuesday night, luminaries from the Broadway and music industries gathered at the stunning new landmark building 108 Leonard Street in Tribeca to celebrate the release of Sondheim Sublime, the new album from Tony Award-nominated singer & actress Melissa Errico. Co-Hosted by Cristina Cuomo, guests included music icon Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary), Errico's husband tennis star and ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe, acclaimed NYC artist Rachel Feinstein, Apple VP Doug Beck, handbag designer Kathy Kwei, restaurateur & burlesque star Marja Sampson, Tony Award-winners Karen Ziemba & Alice Ripley, Tony Award-nominees Stephen Bogardus, Robert Cuccioli & Will Swenson, Broadway stars Ben Davis and Ken Jennings (one of the original stars of Sweeney Todd on Broadway opposite Angela Lansbury), Met Opera star tenor Richard Troxell, singer Sasha Lazard, Indian film star & producer Ritu Pande, million dollar Met Museum donor Ellen Marcus, and the album's producer Rob Mathes (who is also the main producer for Sting and Elvis Costello).
With drumming chops more lethal than most drummers one-third of his age, Greg Kanaga holds court with his bandmates Matthew Loren Cohen and Larry Treadwell making kick-ass music for The Groundlings Friday/Saturday night shows (Next Friday/Saturday night show GROUNDLINGS MIX TAPE opens November 2, 2018). It was only a matter of time before I caught up with Greg to pick his musical brain, as I had already interviewed Matthew and Larry earlier.
The San Francisco Early Music Society's 2018-19 concert season continues next month with the Bay Area's own Cappella SF. Directed by Ragnar Bohlin, Cappella SF has taken the choral world by storm in just four years, acclaimed both at home and abroad. In their debut program for SFEMS, Neither From Heaven Nor From Earth, Cappella SF will perform works spanning a period from Josquin through Allegri, Schutz and Couperin.
United States Representative Darin LaHood and City of Peoria, Illinois Mayor Jim Ardis have honored country music veteran Tim Atwood with both a Proclamation from the 18th Congressional District of Illinois and the City of Peoria. Both Proclamations acknowledge and honor the contributions that Tim Atwood has made in his nearly fifty year career in country music.
Variety reports that Nickelodeon selected its participants for the 19th annual Writing Program, including the program's first preschool-specific finalist.
Lipscomb University Theatre unveils its latest production - a play that started out as a college senior project - which depicts the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in a fun-filled, creative new staging of John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz's Godspell. Coinciding with homecoming festivities on the Nashville campus, Godspell stars Nashville professional actor Patriq James as Jesus in performances November 2-11, along with an ensemble of Lipscomb University student actors.
Irish Arts Center (IAC), the multidisciplinary center dedicated to bringing people of all backgrounds together through the excellence and dynamism of Irish arts and culture, this year creates a thrilling intersection of musical traditions from Ireland and the Gulf of Mexico for its annual Winter Solstice Celebration (December 14 at Symphony Space). The beloved holiday gathering is hosted by NEA award winner and "one of the most important Irish musicians to emerge from the folk revival of the 1970s" (Time Out) Mick Moloney (banjo, mandolin, vocals) and acclaimed fiddler Athena Tergis.
Monumental Theatre Company will present 'Black Girl Magic,' a fundraising concert for their upcoming season, on November 27, 2018. The concert will feature local Black artists Jade Jones (Mrs. Lovett in Rep Stage's Sweeney Todd), Awa Sal Secka (Simon Zealotes in Signature Theatre's Jesus Christ Superstar) and Ines Nassara (Dorothy in Ford's Theatre's The Wiz). The women will be performing popular songs and standards, as well as audience favorites from hit musicals. The concert will be music directed by Chris Urquiaga, a singer songwriter whose album "I'm Here" is currently available on all platforms.
Ben Platt took to Twitter to share a video of him performing the hit single 'Shallow' from the film A Star is Born. Check out Ben going off the deep end (in the best way possible) below!
Today, USA Network revealed the 21 artists competing in its new music showcase series REAL COUNTRY and the prizing they will be vying for. Set to premiere November 13 at 10/9, each contestant was hand-selected by the show's permanent panel of artists – five-time GRAMMY Award®-winning trailblazer Shania Twain, platinum-selling singer-songwriter Jake Owen and GRAMMY Award®-winning music legend Travis Tritt.
Last night on The Voice was the Knockout Rounds. Below are the artists that won their Knockout, were Saved by their coach, or were Stolen by another coach.
Hey Broadwayworld. Its Lea writing this blog while listening to "Let it Go" and "Monster" from Frozen simultaneously while not trying to scream like a crazy person because I love it so much but have yet to see it.
Musical Theatre's West's acclaimed "Broadway in Concert" series returns with an exciting line-up of stars from the Great White Way! Opening the series at the intimate Beverly O'Neill Theatre at Long Beach Convention Center, is Broadway's Sam Harris (The Producers, The Life) performing Let Me Sing: An Evening of Broadway, Ballads, and Blues on November 18, 7pm. The series continues with performances by David Burnham (Wicked and Light in the Piazza) & Tami Tappan Damiano (Cyrano and Miss Saigon) in A Broadway Romance (February 3, 2019), and Teri Bibb (Phantom of the Opera and She Loves Me) in Once Upon a Song: A Tribute to the Ladies of the Silver Screen on March 24, 2019. All performances are at 7pm. Season tickets are now on sale, starting at $60 for all three concerts, or each performance is available starting at $35. For tickets, go to www.musical.org, at the Musical Theatre West Box Office, or by calling 562-856-1999 ext 4.
Opera isn't my go-to art form, I'll admit it. In fact, I don't know many people who truly appreciate opera music nor do they understand what it actually takes to become a successful opera singer. It's an art that often goes unnoticed because of the stereotypes that it is long, boring, difficult to understand, unrelatable, and only for old, rich people. But if music is a universal language, and I truly believe this to be true, then why do we insist that we cannot understand and then listen to all forms of music except for this one? I recently had the honor of speaking with two artists who are radically trying to change the scene, and make opera music accessible to everyone.
Two of the three remaining Certified Guitar Players (an honor bestowed by Chet Atkins)--TOMMY EMMANUEL and JOHN KNOWLES--have announcedFriday, January 11 as the release date for their new collaborative instrumental album, HEART SONGS, via CGP Sounds/Thirty Tigers.
The official music video for 'I'll Never Love Again' from 'A Star is Born' featuring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper has been released. Watch the video below!
Alabama Shakespeare Festival will present a new production of The Sound of Music beginning November 15, 2018, directed by ASF Artistic Director Rick Dildine. The Sound of Music features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, and book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (suggested by "The Trapp Family Singers" by Maria Augusta Trapp.)
The 'sublimely exploratory' (The Chicago Reader) Wet Ink Ensemble continues its 20th anniversary season today, October 27, 2018 at 8:00pm with a staged production of Wet Ink-member Kate Soper's IPSA DIXIT, part of Miller Theatre at Columbia University's Composer Portrait: Kate Soper.
