William Bolcom News

Though Ervin Drake's 'The Friendliest Thing (Two People Can Do),' from his 1964 hit What Makes Sammy Run?, has been called the first song from a Broadway musical to be directly about having sex, Suzanne Carrico employs no vampy winks or purring vocals as she observes with heightened intellectual interest the unnecessity of foreplaying drinks and dances when a couple in lust could simply get right to it.  (Yes, I just made up two words in that sentence.  Deal with it.)  Her new show at The Metropolitan Room, opening less than three weeks afters winning the MAC Award for Outstanding Debut, is named for this suggestive showtune but the self-described geek cleverly treats the song as a subtext to Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields' 'Welcome To Holiday Inn,' sandwiching the cerebral sexuality between slices of broader, comical pass-making.  This is either the smartest show about sex or the sexiest show about smarts in town.In outstanding company both offstage (Mary Cleere Haran is her director) and on (she's got music director/arranger Tedd Firth on piano and Steve Doyle on bass), Carrico has the kind of sunny, uncomplicated voice that can fill Harold Arlen and Leo Brown's 'Hooray For Love' with perky glee, matched with the kind of acting skill that can explore the dark dramatic longings of Arlen and Johnny Mercer's 'I Had Myself a True Love,' climaxing in an anguished belt that is far more about the woman she portrays than her ability to vocally shine.She calls this her hanky-panky show and most every number has something to do with sex.  There's the sweet simplicity with which she approaches Jimmy Roberts and Joe DiPietro's 'I Will Be Loved Tonight,' where a woman who has gone too long without a lover's touch anticipates how the evening's date will end, and the wry exasperation of 'Toothbrush Time,' William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein's tense contemplation on why last night's lover is taking so long to get out of the apartment.  She savors the snazzy jazz jauntiness of Michael John La Chiusa's 'The Thief' and turns George Gershwin and B.G. DeSylva's 'Do It Again!' into a lopsided debate between the mind and the libido (guess who wins).The very funny sexpot character song, 'Femininity' (Jay Livingston/Ray Evans), is given an interesting personal twist as she introduces it with some of her own feelings as an adolescent girl surprised by the different way boys would look at her once she started developing.  Her admiration for the romantic passion expressed by Alan and Marilyn Bergman fuels her detailed story-telling in 'Like a Lover' and 'The Island.And for those who believe that hanky-panky is never complete without a bit of cuddling after, she finishes the evening with a very satisfied and satisfying 'Embraceable You' by the Gershwins.

The opening of the 57th annual BMI Student Composer Awards competition was recently announced by BMI President and CEO Del Bryant and BMI Foundation President Ralph N. Jackson. The competition, which is co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, will award $20,000 in prizes.

Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook returns in January for its eleventh season celebrating the diversity of American popular song. For 17 nights of pop, folk, cabaret, R&B, country, rock, show tunes, bluegrass and multimedia, the series will explore the best of the golden age of musical standards through to today's most dynamic contemporary songwriting. The 2009 season - January 14 through March 6 - will bring to the stage some of today's most gifted interpreters of song, including top vocalist Kurt Elling and country's winning Patty Loveless. It will feature the rare opportunity to hear Paulo Szot, star of Broadway's South Pacific, and film and stage star Alan Cumming, in intimate concert settings.

Join the Composers, Writers and Performers who are creating the Chicago AIDS Quit Songbook for cocktails and conversation from 8-11PM this Saturday, October 11 at Hydrate, 3458 N Halsted St, Chicago! This very special cocktail party supports the creation Chicago AIDS Quit Songbook, a fundraising event for Season of Concern, presented by Chicago Opera Vanguard at the Court Theatre on World AIDS Day 2008, December 1.

New York Festival of Song, whose recent 'A Bernstein/Bolcom Celebration' was performed with 'Comic and dramatic flair,'(The New York Times) presents Fugitives, songs by composers who fled Hitler's Europe, on November 18 and 20 at the newly restored Merkin Concert Hall in New York. The program will feature music from Broadway, the concert stage and Berlin cabaret by Kurt Weill, Erich Korngold, Alexander Zemlinsky and many others.

New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), co-founded and directed by pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, who 'reinvented the song recital during the 1990's with daring and dramatic programming' (The New Yorker), announces its 21st season (2008-2009).

After saying 'Good Night Alice' last April, a transformed Alice Tully Hall, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with FX Fowle, will open on February 22, 2009 with the Alice Tully Hall Opening Nights Festival, an exciting two-week celebration designed to highlight the artistic range of Alice Tully Hall's primary tenants, and showcase the Hall's prominence as one of New York City's premier concert venues.

On March 3rd at 7:30PM the University of Michigan Entertainment Coalition (UMEC) and the U of M Club of New York will present Bravo Blue! This 'Musical Homecoming' Concert will feature over 40 U of M alumni professionals and friends in a fast paced sampler of musical theatre, classical and contemporary music, jazz, opera, and dance. The performance will be held at the Peter Norton Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia on Broadway at 95th St at 7:30PM.

New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) continues its 20th Anniversary season by presenting Bastianello and Lucrezia, two newly commissioned comic operas by composers John Musto and William Bolcom with libretti by Mark Campbell. The concerts will take place on Tuesday, March 11 and Thursday, March 13 at 8PM, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, West 57th Street and 7th Avenue.

New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS) founders Steven Blier and Michael Barrett and the students of The Juilliard School's Vocal Arts Department will present 'A Modern Person's Guide to Hooking Up and Breaking Up,' a free evening of song on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 8PM at The Juilliard School, Peter Jay Sharp Auditorium

The opening of the 56th annual BMI Student Composer Awards competition was announced today by BMI President and CEO Del Bryant and BMI Foundation President Ralph N. Jackson. The competition, which is co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, will award $20,000 in prizes. Student composers under the age of 28 who are citizens of the Western Hemisphere. All entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, February 15, 2008.

The New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) opens its 20th Anniversary season on October 16 and 18 at 8PM with 'No Song is Safe From Us,' an evening of song encompassing four musical genres.

On Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 7 p.m., the New York Festival of Song celebrates with a benefit concert titled 'Too Marvelous for Words!,' a gala evening of Johnny Mercer songs.

Vortex Theater Company will open its 24th season, a season devoted to musicals, with a radical new version of Gilbert & Sullivan's audience favorite H.M.S. Pinafore, directed by Dave Dalton, with musical direction by Edward Barnes and choreography by Carrie Cimma.

The New York Philharmonic presents Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady in four semi-staged performances, March 7-10, 2007. The musical - a New York Philharmonic premiere - will star Kelli O'Hara, Kelsey Grammer, Charles Kimbrough, Brian Dennehy, Marni Nixon and Tim Jerome.

Soprano Barbara Cook, who began 2006 by being the first female pop singer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera when she made her solo concert debut at the MET in January, will end the year by being the first pop performer to be named Vocalist of the Year when Musical America, the international directory of the performing arts, presents its annual awards at Lincoln Center's Kaplan Penthouse on Wednesday, December 20

American Songbook, the critically acclaimed Lincoln Center series devoted to the rich history and variety that is American popular song, returns for its eighth season.

Undercover Lover, a lost musical by Arnold Weinstein and Frank O'Hara, will be presented in New York from November 3rd through December 4th

Young Talents Emerge at Lotte Lenya Competition for Singers Winners Chosen by Harold Prince, William Bolcom, and Angelina Réaux