While love was always the overriding subject of their work, American songwriters also produced thousands of songs about New York City - the wise-guy cockiness, the irreverent skepticism, the bruised romanticism, and the heightened awareness of the cacophony that surrounded them. They reveled in the crowded streets of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, the tumult of Little Italy and the Lower East Side, and they moved to the sound of ragtime. Even when the subject wasn't New York, or even a city, their sensibility had become decidedly urban. They occupied a vantage point on the east bank of the Hudson, and reported on what they saw to the rest of America. They wrote love songs about a city.
This event will survey timeless songs from before 1900 to World War II, with insights from musicologist Michael Lasser.
Michael Lasser is the co-author (with Philip Furia) of
America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. He is well known as the host of the nationally syndicated public radio program Fascinatin' Rhythm, winner of the 1994 George Foster Peabody Award. The Peabody citation praised the show for letting "our treasury of popular tunes speak (and sing) for itself with sparkling commentary tracing the contributions of the composers and performers to American society." He is back by popular demand following his event on the songs of World War I in May 2007.
Sara Holliday holds a degree in Vocal Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has performed extensively in musical theater and opera with the New Punctuation Army theater company in Manhattan and the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, among others.
Shad Olsen is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. He has performed in many operas, musicals, and plays Off-Off Broadway as well as in his native Minnesota. He is the book author and lyricist for the musical The Man in the Iron Mask, which premiered at Chelsea Studios in 2005.
Brenna Sage primarily works as a musical director for theatrical productions but has credits as an accompanist, actor, dancer, singer, vocal impressionist, drummer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, choir director, orchestral conductor, choral arranger and orchestrator, music copyist, sound designer, midi recording engineer, voiceover artist, radio dj, club dj, and church organist, as well as a graphic and web designer.
Sara Holliday holds a degree in Vocal Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has performed extensively in musical theater and opera with the New Punctuation Army theater company in Manhattan and the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island, among others.
Shad Olsen is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. He has performed in many operas, musicals, and plays Off-Off Broadway as well as in his native Minnesota. He is the book author and lyricist for the musical The Man in the Iron Mask, which premiered at Chelsea Studios in 2005.
Brenna Sage primarily works as a musical director for theatrical productions but has credits as an accompanist, actor, dancer, singer, vocal impressionist, drummer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, choir director, orchestral conductor, choral arranger and orchestrator, music copyist, sound designer, midi recording engineer, voiceover artist, radio dj, club dj, and church organist, as well as a graphic and web designer.