TV Exclusive: CUTTING-EDGE COMPOSERS CORNER- Daniel Zaitchik Sings 'New Year's Eve'

We're featuring one of our favorite singer-songwriters this week, Daniel Zaitchik! Here he is performing "New Year's Eve" at our concert at 54 Below.

"'Grenadine' is a slice of life chamber musical centered around a man, a woman, a dog, and an addiction. It's the first music-theatre project I've written with the intention of performing in as well. The song 'New Year's Eve' was inspired by my own melancholic reaction to fireworks. At this point in the show, the character is sitting at the piano in a Manhattan apartment as a New Year's party goes on upstairs. He's had a rough few months, and as midnight approaches he ruminates on the manipulative nostalgia of the approaching fireworks and struggles with the meaning of the new year."

Daniel Zaitchik is a singer-songwriter, playwright-composer, and actor. His musical Picnic at Hanging Rock was developed at Lincoln Center Theatre and the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and was recently produced at Weber State University. Other theatre projects include Suprema (developed at Ars Nova, Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and New Dramatists), Ula (45th St Theatre) and Grenadine (currently in development.) As a singer-songwriter, Daniel has played NYC/LA venues including Joe's Pub, Canal Room, Rockwood Music Hall, Room 5 and The Bootleg Theatre. In 2009, Daniel created the multi-voiced band Blue Bottle Collection, with whom he released the 2011 concept album Summer of the Soda Fountain Girls. His debut solo EP, Bad Dancer, was released last June. His songs can be heard on the webseries "Submissions Only" and "EastSiders." As an actor, Daniel has worked at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Cherry Lane, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Barrington Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the Intiman Theatre, and others. Grants and Awards include The Ester B. Kahn Career Entry Award from Boston University, the Frederick Loewe Award from New Dramatists (for Suprema with Jordan Harrison) and The Georgia Bogarduz Holof Lyricist Award (for Picnic at Hanging Rock.) Daniel lives in Los Angeles, where he is working on his next studio album. http://danielzaitchik.com/