Caramoor Tributes Songwriting Teams and Arlen, July 2-July 4

I Can't Do It Alone: Great American Songwriting Teams salutes some of America's most beloved songwriters and lyricists, including George and Ira Gershwin, Ellington and Strayhorn, Kander and Ebb, Lerner and Lowe, Leiber and Stoller, Rodgers and Hart, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Many short-lived collaborations produced bona-fide hits, but those composers and lyricists who spent decades together are responsible for a tremendous amount of American popular song. This evening will celebrate their contributions to American song. Artists include Jennifer Alymer, Darius DeHaas, Jason Graae and Hugh Russell with The Orchestra of St. Luke's led by Michael Barrett.

Tony Award-winner Kaye celebrates the centennial of Harold Arlen in Sing My Heart. Arlen is most noted for composing the songs for the film The Wizard of Oz, particularly "Over the Rainbow," which was recently named the Number One Song of the Century. He also wrote over 400 songs including favorites such as "It's Only A Paper Moon," "Stormy Weather," "I've Got the World on A String," and "Accentuate the Positive." These and many more will be included on the program.

Soprano Aylmer most recently appeared as Norina in Don Pasquale with Michigan Opera Theatre, Emilia in Handel's Flavio with the New York City Opera and Nanetta in Act III of Falstaff with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. De Haas, a baritone, has been featured in various Broadway productions including Lincoln Center's revival of Carousel, Rent, and Marie Christine. He toured internationally in the world premiere of I Was Looking At The Ceiling, directed by Peter Sellars, and won the Obie award for his work in the title role of Off-Broadway's Running Man. Baritone Graae won the New York Bistro Award for Best Major Engagement and was listed in TimeOut NY's Top 10 Best Cabaret Shows of 2004 for his latest solo show, Coup de Graae! On Broadway, he was featured in Grand Night For Singing, Falsettos, Stardust, Snoopy! and, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? Off-Broadway shows include Hello, Muddah, Hello, Fadduh, for which he received a Drama Desk Nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, Forever Plaid and Olympus on My Mind. Russell, another baritone, made his San Francisco Opera debut last season as the Wigmaker in Ariadne auf Naxos and performed Frère Sylvestre in Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. He sang the role of Il Podestà in San Francisco Opera Center's Showcase production of La finta giardiniera and made his recital debut in the Opera Center's 2002 Schwabacher Recital Series.

Kaye, a mezzo-soprano, starred on Broadway in the smash hit Mamma Mia!, for which she was nominated for the 2002 Tony Award and the 2002 Drama Desk Award. She was honored with the 1988 Tony Award for her portrayal of the prima donna Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera and received the Theatre World Award, The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, and the first of two Drama Desk nominations playing Lily Garland in On the Twentieth Century.  Kaye starred on Broadway as Emma Goldman in Ragtime, a role she also played in Los Angeles where she received the Theatre L.A. Ovation Award. Other roles have ranged from Rizzo in Grease! to Musetta in La Boheme for the Santa Fe Opera (where she also performed Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld ) and Lucy Locket in The Beggar's Opera, Sally in Follies, Maggie in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Penny in You Can't Take It with You. She has been featured in NYFOS concerts both in New York and Washington D.C., as well as on their recordings of Bernstein and Gershwin songs.

Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world. Their musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival of today. Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection; the gardens; and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens established a Foundation to open Caramoor to the public in perpetuity. Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years. During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: The Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today. Under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.

Tickets to both I Can't Do It Alone and Sing My Heart may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914-232-1252 or visiting online at www.caramoor.org.