Sunny Leigh Performs at the Triad Theater, Feb. 13
Cabaret artist Sunny Leigh will return to The Triad Theater for one romantic night only in "My Sunny Valentine," Tuesday, February 13 at 7PM.
With "My Sunny Valentine," Leigh performs her sixth show at The Triad Theater (previous shows include: "Sunny Side Up I & II," "Wake Up And Live," "Sunny in Brasil," and "Sunny in Paris") with Sheldon Forrest as pianist and musical director.
Leigh will cover love songs in all genres: Richard Rodgers, Harry Warren, and Sammy Fain from the Great American Songbook; The Beatles, the Doors, Burt Bacharach and the Righteous Brothers from the worlds of pop and rock; Nina Simone and Patti Austin from the worlds of jazz and R&B; as well as selections from Kismet and Bizet's Carmen.
Joining Leigh will be ace rhythm players Trevor Allen on hollow-body electric bass and Adam Snyder (orchestral drummer for the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp musical Movin' Out).
My Sunny Valentine is performed one night only: Tuesday, February 13 at 7pm at the Triad Theater (158 W. 72nd St., 2nd floor)--$15 Reservations may be made on www.triadnyc.com and advance tickets may be purchased at www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm
Today Joanna, James and I attended the free concert of Christmas music at the St. Patrick's Cathedral. The program included three New York City choirs: Long Island Choral Society, Young People's Chorus of New York and The Cathedral of St. Patrick Choir. Each choir sang a set of Christmas hymns and at the end all three joined together for a powerful performance of O Holy Night and Hallelujah. Throughout the concert there were several times when the audience was asked to stand and sing familiar Christmas carols together with the choir. When listening to the music, I found it much better to close my eyes. This way there was no visual distruction and I could pay attention to every single nuance of the music. The concert culminated with dimming the lights and lighting up the candles to the sound of Silent Night.
Today Joanna and I went to see the Broadway musical Mamma Mia. Since both of us grew up in the countries where ABBA was very popular, we were both very excited to see this show. Out of the 22 ABBA songs that were included in the musical I did not know only 3. What was amazing to me how the author of the musical was able to integrate the songs into the story. Even thought the songs were written years before the musical, it seemed that they were written just for it. Here is the list of the songs in alphabetical order:
Chiquitita
Dancing Queen
Does Your Mother Know
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
Honey, Honey
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
I Have A Dream
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Lay All Your Love On Me
Mamma Mia
Money, Money, Money
One Of Us
Our Last Summer*
Slipping Through My Fingers*
S.O.S.
Super Trouper
Take A Chance On Me
Thank You For The Music
The Name Of The Game
The Winner Takes It All
Under Attack*
Voulez-vous
Today I went to the recital at the Columbia University Miller Theater. It was organized by my friend Yelena. This was a performance of very talented young people who are enrolled in a Barnard-Columbia-Juilliard joiont degree program. This program offers students an opportunity to earn both a B.A. from Columbia or Barnard College and a Master's degree in Music from Juilliard in five years. Barnard and Columbia students apply and audition for the program during their junior year and spend the next two years living in Juilliard dormitories. This Fall concert is part of a bi-annual series presented by Miller Theatre to showcase these skilled young performers.
The performance included the following people (in order of appearance):
Hamilton Barry, cello
Daniel Adams, viola
Yelena Grinberg, piano
Emilie-Anne Gendron, violin
Taylor Cowdery, cello
Larry Weng, piano
Michelle Ross, violin
Yi Fang Huang, piano
Yelena and Emilie-Anne are part of "G-Sharp Duo" ensemble. I went to hear them play about a week ago at the Harvard Club.
The program included the works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, Dmitry Shostakovich, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. The pieces chosen are very technically challenging and the performers aced them without a hitch.
The first video in this playlist is a medley of all performers. The rest are the selected recordings of certain performances.
Today Ismerie and I went to see the opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). It was the opening night of a new production of this opera. A lot of people in the audience were dressed in black tie and I even saw one guy in white tie and tails. This must be because of the opening night gala that took place the same night.
Ismerie, an opera expert herself, said that the quality of singers was very high. She was especially looking forward to hear Juan Diego Florez who is an astounding tenor. Indeed he and the other singers were very good. If they were paid by the word, they'd make a lot of money in this opera! After many arias the applause just kept going and going with lots of "bravos".
The stage set was quite plain but they did have a live donkey. At the end of Act 1, I am still not sure what was up with the huge piece of iron slowly coming down on top of a cart full of pumpkins and crashing it to pieces. Are they saying goodbye to the Halloween season?
To day my friend Yelena Grinberg and her musical partner Emilie-Anne Gendron gave an inspiring concert at the Harvard Club. Together they comprise the ensemble by the name G-Sharp Duo. The concert showed that they both excel at their instruments - Yelena on the piano and Emily on the violin.
A friend of mine gave me free tickets for
the biggest Korean pop concert in New York. The event brings together Korea's most popular Hip Hop and R&B talents who are in the YG Family. The YG Family consists of Se7en, Jinusean, 1TYM, Gummy, Big Mama, StonySkunk, Lexy, and Big Bang. All these popular Korean artists shared the stage of the Theater at the Madison Square Garden. The concert had awesome light effects and projections all synched up to the music. Here are the highlights:
Today I went to a performance by a singer Dina Fanai which was to celebrate her CD release. Julia knew her and invited me to come along to the concert.
Dina has a very nice sounding and powerful voice. The music was very diverse. Some songs were slow ballads sung to the piano accompaniment, some were dreamy and abstract pieces sung together with a cello and steel guitar, and some were energetic fast paced songs with very complex rhythm.
"Sunny in Paris" (A French-American Friendship Cabaret) featuring Sunny Leigh singing songs of Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, & Dee Dee Bridgewater accompanied by the pianist Sheldon Forrest at the
Triad Theater.
My friend Meg invited me to a performance at Tower Records at Lincoln Center. The concert was part of the series called "Saturday Jazz Brunch" which happens every Saturdayn afternoon at 1 PM featuring New York's finest Indie Jazz musicians. Today the concert featured Patrizia Scascitelli who is a renouned Jazz pianist in New York and in Italy. Patrizia has accompanied Meg in several of her own shows. This time Patrizia was playing together with 3 musicians - Jim Seeley on trumpet, Ada Rovatti on tenor saxophone, Bob Bowen on bass, and Carlos Cervantes on drums. All musicians showed a remarkable skill at playing their instruments and creativity in jazz improvisation. The music featured selected original compsitions from Patrizia's CD "Close Up" which she autographed for me.
Today James, Joanna, Julia (wow 3 J's) and I went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert held at the Madison Square Garden. I've been to it once before, but that was in the Theatre, which seats around 5000 people. This was my first time going to an event held at the arena which is an enormous space capable of seating 18200 people!
The concert lasted for about 3 hours and it was awesome. The band consisted of several guitar players, keyboard players, obviously a drummer, and believing or not... a string section. I have to say though that I could hardly hear any violins which were overpowered by the roaring guitars, but I guess it did a good justification to the band's name. The were several vocalists with voices ranging from hoarse hard rock grunge, to Broadway musical, to opera. The music was very diverse. The program featured many rock renditions of classical pieces by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and other classical composers as well as arrangements of several Christmas carols. Of course there were also original compositions too. Joan Jett (two more J's!) made a surprise guest appearance singing her hit I Love Rock And Roll.
What made the concert really stand out were the awesome light effects produced by spot lights, strobe lights, lasers and fireworks - all synchronized to the music. This was the first concert at which the audience was asked to turn on their cell phones at one point. This was to make us participate in the light effects show by having thousands of cell phones glow in the dark. It was a very cool effect and it made me see how many people have cell phones these days - a lot!
The video is the best way to describe the concert:
Last time I heard Mitsuko sing was more than 5 years ago when she did her senior recital at Manhattan School Of Music performing classical vocal pieces. Back then we used to hang out at DanceSport while both of us were taking dance classes there. I was pleasantly surprised to bump into her several weeks ago at Central Park Tango. It turned out that she is now performing jazz and today I attended her concert at Shatters Cafe. She was performing in a wide variety of styles from Bossa Nova to ballads to standards. Check out Mitusko's website: mitsukojazz.com.
Sunny is a great dancer that I met at the weekly hustle dance parties held at DanceSport every Monday. It is always fun to dance with her because she has lots of expression and creativity when dancing. Given the fact that she is such a great dance performer, I was not surprised to find out that she is also a singer. Several times she has given me fliers to come to see her sing at various concerts she gave, but I could not make it because of scheduling issues. This time, my friend Mihoko told me about Sunny's concert with a Brazilian theme. Given the fact that I just came back from Brazil a week ago, I decided to make an effort and leave work early to make it to her 7PM show today at the Triad Theatre. The show was called "Sunny In Brazil".
It was great to finally hear Sunny sing. She has a great voice and her performance on stage reminded me of her sensuous dance style. She performed the classic Brazilian songs like "Brazil", "Girl From Ipanema", "Dingi" and many others. She was accompanied by a great pianist and great guitarist. But those instruments unfortunately are not enough to make the music sounds like a real Brazilian samba. And trust me, I've heard a lot of live brazilian music during my stay there. You need percussion! And there was a conga player on the stage, but unfortunatly he only provided the visual presense. He played so softly that no one could hear him. So that being said, I could not really hear the real Brazilian rhythms, but the melodies were pleasant to listen to and have memories of Brazil flow through my mind as Sunny was mentioning Ipanema and Sugar Loaf.
Today I witnessed some incredible piano playing at a concert of a Yugoslavian pianist Vladimir Milosevich. The concert was held at the Weill Recital Hall located in the Carnegie Hall building. The concert was sponsored by the Italian Academy Foundation which is a non-profit organization that sponsors and presents Italian musical, artistic and educational programmes. This time though, the musician was not Italian, but he is studying in Italy with famous Italian musicians and he has one first place in many piano competitions in Italy.
I was amazed by Vadimir's piano playing skills. Take a look at the video excerpts to see for yourself:
Programme:
Mozart: Rondo in A minor, KV 511
Chopin: Sonata N. 3 in B minor, op. 58
-Intermission-
Milan Mihailovic: Three preludes/1989/
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
Prokofiev: Toccata op. 11
Vladimir Milosevich Pianist
Born in Leskovac, Yugoslavia on May 11, 1980, Vladimir finished his graduate and post-graduate studies in Belgrade with Prof. Nevena Popovic. He studied with G. Valentini and Lazar Berman at the Accademia pianistica "Incontri col maestro" in Imola - Italy, where he will continue his studies with L. Margarius; participated in mastercourses with Arie Vardi, Naum Starkmann, Michel Dalberto, Francois Rene Duchable, Leslie Howard and others.
First Prize winner of competitions: "N. Rubinstein" - Paris, Pietra Liguere - Italy, "P. Konjovi" - Belgrade, Nis-special prize with 100 points etc. Semifinalist of "Clara Haskil" competition, Chopin competition - Warszawa 2000 and Cleveland 2001/third round. In 1998, winner of "Orpheus" prize at jeunesse musicale competition in Belgrade, "Olga Mihailovic" prize as the most talented young pianist, and "Emil Yeysec" prize as the most promising pianist of his generation. In 2001, he won "Stanojlo Rajicic" prize for the best piano recital in the preceeding season. In 1998 - prizewinner at "Paderewski" International competition in Poland and winner of the audience-prize for best performer. In October 2002 - First Prize at TIM competition in France, Torneo internazionale di musica. In June 2003, first prize at International piano-competition "Concerti in Villa" in Vicenza, as well as the prize of musical critics and prize for best foreign competitor. The prize includes debut-recital in Carnegie Hall, New York. In March 2004 - winner of the competition Mee sur Seine, France. In October 2004 - prizewinner at Porto international Piano Competition, Portugal.
Vladimir played in many recitals and with orchestra in Belgrade and other Yugoslavian cities; then in Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro. In Italy: Milano "Serate musicali", Monza, Rome, Venice, Verona, Bari, etc. In France: Paris-salle "Cortot" and many others. In Prague: Salle Foerster. In Poland: as a soloist with orchestra and in many recitals, than in Brasil, 2002, in Marocco 2003 etc. He recorded many times for radio and television in all these counties as well as for Japanese television in Warszawa.
Gotan Project is a French group that blends the sounds of tango and contemporary dance beats. My friend Julia was in love with their music. She introduced me to this band by playing couple of songs on their website. I liked the music too. The sounds of accordion and violin put on top of funky drum beats were quite intriguing.
On October 20, this group performed live at Irving Plaza. We got there by 7:30 PM and there was a pretty long line outside the entrance. At 8:00 PM they opened the doors. The concert hall resembled a night club. There were no seets, just a big dancefloor where people just stood around waiting for the concert to begin. Waiting and waiting and waiting.... The conert did not start until almost 10:20 PM. Someone told me that this is normal for concerts held at Irving Plaza. Even though on the ticket it says "doors open at 8:00 PM" the actual concert does not start until something like 10. Waiting for the beginning of the concert was a pain since there were no places to sit. Julia and two other of her girlfriends found a barrier in the corner on which they managed to sit, while me and another guy were standing all the time.
So at around 10:20 PM the concert finally began. It opened by a movie being projected on a semi-transparent screen behind which the band members could be seen. The movie was just some random shots of typical stuff you can see in dance clubs. They played couple of songs like that and then the screen lifted up. Now we could see a musician sitting behind a a big grand piano, a female vocalist, an accordion player, a guitar player, a violin player and behind them two DJs with some equipment which included two laptop computers and turn tables. All male performers were dressed in suits. It was fun to watch the two DJs popping along to the beat as they pushed various buttons on their gear while the other musicians expressively played their acoustic instruments.
I actually like the stand-up concerts (unless you have to wait for more than two hours) because you can move around during the performance. So we went into the back next to the bar and found a couple dancing tango. A woman approached me and asked me if I did the tango. So we danced for a while along with the other couple as the others were watching us forming a circle. This was my first time dancing argentine tango to the music that had so much beat.
All in all the concert was not bad. I wish they started earlier since on a Monday night you don't want to stand too late. We left around 11:45 PM.
Modern Talking - a duo from Germany - was one of the most popular foreign groups in Russia during the 80's. Due to this fact, Thomas Andres - the lead singer - came to the US for the first time to perform for the Russian immigrants living there. Unfortunately Dieter Bohlen - the other member of the duo who composed almost every song of the group, did not show up. The guest artist C.C.Catch was also a nice added bonus. Her music was also written by Dieter Bohlen and is similar in style to Modern Talking. They were performing at Atlantic City and Chicago.
I went to their concert on March 31 in Atlantic City. The huge concert hall was all sold out. The audience was 99.99% Russians living in USA in the New York and surrounding areas. C.C.Catch opened the concert with her classic songs from the 80's and finished with the Mix found on "Best Of 98" album. She was accompanied by two rappers/dancers. She looked different than on her 80's albums featuring bright blond hair. That's her current look that can be found at www.cccatch.com. She was singing to the pre-recorded background music which sounded no-different from the CD. However, several times when the music faded at the end of the song, she continued singing in the mic and sounded very nice. Her voice is still strong.
Then Thomas Anders continued the rest of the show. He was wearing a grey suit. He had couple of people on the keyboard, couple of guitarists and a drummer on stage with him. Of course they were playing along a pre-recorded soundtrack. The funny thing happened during "Atlantis Is Calling" when the soundtrack started to skip and then completely shut down. The music had to be just played by the on-stage musicians. And interestingly enough Thomas was just speaking the words in the mic instead of singing them until he realized that the soundtrack was broken. Then he tried to sing, but did not sound as nice as the pre-recorded voice that was used throughout the performance. The really funny sound was when he was trying to sing the high-pitched refrain. By the end of the song they were able to bring the soundtrack back on line. Thomas apologized for "technical difficulties". Obviously music like Modern Talking only sounds good when recorded in the sound studio and cannot be performed live without the pre-recorded background sound track.
The light show was quite nice with various special effects and projections on both stage and audience. People came down from their seats to the stage and were dancing and cheering Thomas and his band members. Even though they announced that videotaping was not allowed, many people had portable camcorders and cameras. I used my digital camera to take some video clips.
Unfortunately the group has now broken up for their second and most probably final time. Their first break up was in 1987 and then after more than 10 years, in 1998 they reunited and released an album "Back For Good". But they did not hold their promise. Soon after the concert that I went to they announced that they will split up again - this time really for good.
The famous Sweedish group ABBA from the seventees was resurrected in New Jersey by the tribute band ABBA-Mania that performing their hits on the stage of an auditorium at The Montclair State University.
To get everyone in the spirit of the seventees disco, the concert opened by several songs from The Bee Gees performed by some unknown impersonator. This was not very impressive. But once ABBA-Mania took the stage, the concert really came alive. The cosumes, the looks of the artists, the voices - everything had striking resemblence to the original ABBA. The band performed more than 20 ABBA hits as the audience was singing along. The blonde lead singer was quite entertaining and was joking with the audience a lot between the songs. The concert culminated with kids from the audience getting on stage singing "Dancing Queen".
Vladimir Milosevich
