The Concerts at Tudor City Greens, the free outdoor concert series that brings the sounds of music to the heart of Midtown, continues on Wednesday August 3 at 6:30pm. (Rain date: Thursday August 4 at 6:30pm.) "Swinging on the Moon - Cool Jazz for a Hot Summer Night," features a diverse group of singers and instrumentalists from the worlds of Broadway, classical, jazz and cabaret, including John DeMarco, Dan Furman, Anders Holst, Tom Hubbard, Daryl Kojak, Shaynee Rainbolt, Gabriella Stravelli, Sean Harkness, and Terese Geneco.
Hosted and produced by the Broadway and cabaret veteran
Raissa Katona Bennett, the series mission is to increase new audiences for live music while encouraging private, non-profit and community organizations (and individual citizens) to support and protect New York green spaces.
The guest stars on August 3 include the singers
Gabriella Stravelli, Anders Holst,
Shaynee Rainbolt and
John DeMarco, and the highly regarded bassist Tom Hubbard. The MAC Award-winning guitarist and Windham Hill recording artist
Sean Harkness, and the MAC & Bistro Award-winning big band innovator Terese Geneco are series regulars. The concert's music directors are
Bill Zeffiro (a series regular),
Daryl Kojak, and Dan Furman.
At the August 3 concert, Bennett will announce a songwriting contest of songs celebrating New York's green spaces, and the different roles they play in the lives of New Yorkers. A blue-ribbon panel of well-known singer-songwriters and music industry executives, who will help choose the contest's top songs (to be performed throughout the 2012 season), will be announced at the concert.
The free outdoor series takes place at the South Park of Tudor City Greens Park (enter at Tudor City Place, between 41st & 42nd Streets, and 1st & 2nd Avenues). The series' continues on September 7, and, weather permitting, October 5 (all Wednesdays at 6:30pm).
Tudor City Greens is one of a small number of privately maintained public spaces in New York. In
May Bennett (Broadway in "Phantom of the Opera" national tours of "Cats" and "Parade") won the 2011 MAC Award for hosting "The Concerts at Tudor City Greens."
Tudor City, built in the late 1920's, featured two neighborhood parks that were threatened by Helmsley developers in the 1970's. A successful grass roots campaign to preserve the parks was mounted by the residents to save their green spaces. Today, the Tudor City Association and the non-profit tenants group, Tudor City Greens,
www.tudorcitygreens.org continues the tradition of park preservation.
For additional information visit:
www.raissakatonabennett.com
