Concerts for City Greens Continue 6/20
By: Kelsey Denette Jun. 11, 2012
Concerts for City Greens, the free outdoor concert series that brings the sounds of music to the heart of Midtown, will add flashes of comedy as several quick-silvered wits join the musical mix on Wednesday June 20 at 6:30pm at Tudor City Greens. (Rain date: Thursday June 21 at 6:30pm.)
“Comedy Tonight… with a Splash of Jazz” welcomes these featured guests: "the jazz-jesting bandleader Joan Crowe; the MAC and Bistro Award winning story-singer Faye Lane; songwriter, singer and author Bobbie Horowitz; the singer-songwriting duo of Ritt Henn and Liz McNamara; Comedy Central’s Stone and Stone; beloved cabaret raconteur and dandy Sidney Myer, and the molten-voiced jazz heartthrob Gregory Generet."
The Windham Hill recording artist, Sean Harkness (2012 MAC Recording of the Year), and the composer-pianist Bill Zeffiro return as series regulars. The concert’s featured instrumentalists are Kenneth Gartman, Tracy Stark and Mark Janas on piano (who join Zeffiro as the concert music directors), Ritt Henn on bass, and Rex Benincasa on percussion. The Broadway and cabaret veteran Raissa Katona Bennett is the evening’s host and producer.
Two more of the eight semifinalist songs competing in the Concerts for City Greens song contest receive their concert premieres, as the MAC and Julie Wilson Award-winning singer Julie Reyburn debuts the song “This Lake” by Charles Bloom (music and lyrics) Karl Gadjusek (lyrics), and the Houston-based singer-songwriter Kristine Mills introduces her “Patch of Green”. The semifinalist tunes, all of which celebrate the different roles green spaces play in the lives of New Yorkers, are being performed throughout the season (two per concert) by prominent guest artists from the worlds of Broadway, jazz, cabaret and classical music. The contest’s finalist songs, chosen after the summer, will be showcased at a special gala concert at Feinstein's at the Loews Regency, in the fall or winter of 2012. (TBA)
Conceived and developed by Raissa Katona Bennett, Concerts for City Greens (formerly The Concerts for Tudor City Greens) is dedicated to exposing culturally and socio-economically diverse audiences of all ages to free, professional live music in city settings, while linking with other community groups and organizations to promote effective dedication to the “greening” of cities. Bennett won the 2010 Bistro and 2011 MAC Award for hosting “The Concerts at Tudor City Greens.”
The concerts take place at the South Park of Tudor City Greens Park (between 41st & 42nd Streets, and 1st & 2nd Avenues) on the following upcoming Wednesdays at 6:30pm: August 1, September 12 and October 3. Four of this summer’s concerts are being dedicated to the music of four of the song contest judges: Amanda McBroom (May 30), Neil Sedaka (August 1), Ann Hampton Callaway (September 12) and Michael John LaChiusa (October 3). (The other judges are the quadruple-platinum songwriter andToday Show regular David Friedman, and the two-time Emmy Award-winning MTV executive Matthew Parillo). For more information visit www.raissakatonabennett.com
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