Baltimore's Julian Fleisher Performs at New York's Joe's Pub Feb. 27

Baltimore has once again produced a successful composer of music. Following a long line of great musicians and composers from Charm City comes Julian Fleisher, son of the world renowned pianist/conductor Leon Fleisher.  The singer/songwriter has been described as a "nightclub supernova" by the LA Times and "hard to resist by the NY Post.

 

You can catch Fleisher this coming Monday night, Feb. 27 at Joe's Pub,

425 Lafayette Avenue, New York.  Tickets are $23 and are available by calling 212-239-6200. Appearing with Fleisher is Ana Gasteyer, the former Saturday Night Live comedian who has become an accomplished musical theater performer having recently created the role of Elphaba in the Chicago production of "Wicked". She will soon be appearing with Alan Cumming in the upcoming Roundabout Theatre Company revival of "The Threepenny Opera".

 

"Singing selections from basically every corner of the cannon, these two randy rapscallions promise 70 minutes of music, mayhem and frosty mojitos. Standard, contemporary, original and more: no tune is off limits, no era out-of-bounds and no rehearsal held on time," according to press notes.

 

Fleisher began his career in the theater at a young age appearing in many Center Stage productions including "Cyrano de Bergerac" with F. Murray Abraham, "Inherit the Wind", Israel Horowitz' version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", and "The Work Room". He gave up acting after attending Yale to concentrate on music. What may turn out to be a turning point in his career occurred when he was heard playing his music on his guitar by actor John Cariani who had written a play. This resulted in Fleisher composing music for Cariani's "Almost Maine" which has just finished a well-received run off-Broadway.

 

Having never wrote or composed music for a play was certainly a daunting task.
"Almost Maine" consists of eight short plays, a prologue, and an epilogue. His responsibility was to compose 27 music cues, from 30 seconds to three minutes in length.

All told, thirty minutes of music was composed. He recorded almost all the music in his New York apartment thanks to incredible technology, and would then email his music to Portland, Maine where the show was getting its premiere at Portland Stage.

 

He has also penned music for Tom Stoppard's "Rough Crossing" also at Portland Stage. Here, had wrote music for Stoppard's lyrics in a Cole Porter style.  The versatile composer/performer will be appearing with the entire Fleisher clan on July 20 at the Aspen Music Festival. This will be the first time the family has performed together.

 

Yes…he has a lot on his plate. Oh…did I mention his CD? His solo recording "Rather Big" is available on Modern Records.

 

He does have one wish…to appear at Baltimore's wonderful July celebration of the arts, "Artscape". He recalls fondly attending the very first event. So, if anyone in Baltimore can help him achieve this goal, email me at cgshubow@broadwayworld.com. It would be great to see and hear this talented young musician here in Baltimore!

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