Kathleen Stuart Releases Music Video for 'Next Year's New Year's Eve'

Ring in 2022 with "Next Year's New Year's Eve," a new music video from Hawaiʻi/New York-based singer/actress (and Kāneʻohe-born) Kathleen Stuart, with the assistance of local artists, including accompanist Darcie Yoshinaga and the video production company Pop! Creative Media. The song features music and lyrics by the award-winning New York-based songwriter Patrick Dwyer.

watch!

Patrick Dwyer wrote "Next Year's New Year's Eve" in 2013, and it has since been performed in numerous cabaret shows, revues, and concerts, including the 2017 musical revue ThirtyWhatever which featured Kathleen Stuart among its cast members. In December 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kathleen collaborated with pianist Darcie Yoshinaga to create an accompaniment track so Kathleen could perform the song at a Kaimukī High School Performing Arts Center fundraiser in Honolulu. Earlier this fall, Kathleen engaged the services of Pop! Creative Media to create a music video for the song, which was shot on location in Kathleen's family home in Kāneʻohe. (Kathleen was featured in and previously collaborated with Pop! Creative Media on a music video to promote the work of the Hawaiʻi-based I'm A Bright Kid Foundation.)

Of the song, Kathleen said, "The lyrics just get me every time! 'I resolve to keep an open mind' - how often do we close off to protect ourselves out of habit, and the holding back just hurts us even more? The song stood out to me when I first heard it performed flawlessly night after night by fellow company members Erin Wegner Brooks and Correy West in the musical revue ThirtyWhatever at the Laurie Beechman in 2017. Patrick's simple rendition at home, which can be found on YouTube, stuck with me as heartbreaking and beautifully hopeful. And through the years following, I'd get the lyrics in my head and would be surprised by how deeply they continued to resonate - a testament to how the sentiments are revealed in the writing."

"After having the opportunity to sing the song for a Hawaiʻi audience in a fundraiser, with a recorded track due to the pandemic," Kathleen said, "I felt like the message of the song needed to be heard more than ever and I was compelled to collaborate in-person with Darcie, who had crafted such a sensitive track with me over the phone in December 2020 when in-person collaboration was not permitted. We needed to perform live together, and we needed to share it as the world is struggling through these unprecedented times. Especially since, as we speak, communities are shifting to isolation again to stop the spread of the Omicron variant."

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Kathleen Stuart (vocalist) credits her training at local Hawaiʻi theater organizations for her foundation; it was her performance as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific under the direction of Ron Bright at CPAC that secured Kathleen a spot at the stage conservatory Mountview Academy in London, England. Hawaiʻi's theatre community has continued to be a part of Kathleen's career. In 2017 Kathleen returned home as a guest artist to play Anna in The King and I (Poʻokela Award) for the I'm A Bright Kid Foundation, eventually teaching for the foundation virtually and in-person in 2020 and 2021. Kathleen was brought home again in 2019 by Mānoa Valley Theatre for the role of Hannah Campbell in Allegiance (BroadwayWorld Award) which made its Honolulu debut at the Hawaiʻi Theatre Center.

TV: "Hawaii Five-0" (CBS, dir. Peter Weller). New York and regional theater: ThirtyWhatever (Laurie Beechman Theatre); Eva Peron in Evita (Colleen Dewhurst Theater); Ethel Merman in Everything's Coming Up Roses (Rainbow Theatre Productions); Mother in Arthur Miller's After The Fall (The Chain Theatre).

The Kathleen Stuart Trio was formed in New York in 2018, performing jazz and blues weekly at The Rum House in Times Square and in venues throughout New York City. In July 2021 Kathleen sang with Mike Lewis' Big Band and guest Tony Lewis in a tribute to Stevie Wonder at Blue Note Hawaiʻi. http://kathleenstuart.com/

Patrick Dwyer (composer/lyricist) is a New York City-based songwriter. He received the 2015 Wallowitch Award for songwriting, and is a three-time MAC Award nominee. Cabaret work includes ThirtyWhatever, Ten Reasons Why I Am Going to Hell, I Can't Wait: The Songs of Patrick Dwyer, and The Patrick Dwyer Project. Other work includes If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (TheatreworksUSA: Off-Broadway, national tour), Misguiding Light (Procter & Gamble Productions), and Broadway's Epic Fail (New York Musical Theatre Festival). Patrick is an alum of the NYU Musical Theatre Writing Program, the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, and the Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project at Northwestern University.

Darcie Yoshinaga (accompanist) is a Hawaiʻi-based pianist. She began her classical training at the age of four, and started accompanying vocalists and wind players in high school. In the last decade, she has music directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mānoa Valley Theatre), The Bodyguard and A Gentleman's Guide To Love and Murder (Diamond Head Theatre), and A Timeless Princess (Edgewater Productions); and served as Assistant Music Director and Rehearsal Pianist for numerous musicals produced by the Castle Performing Arts Center and Kaimukī High School Performing Arts Center. Darcie has also played for local auditions, audition workshops, vocal performances, and community & high school musical theatre pit orchestras.

Pop! Creative Media (video production). Husband and wife team Nolan and Jamie Hong established Pop! Creative Media in 2016. Pop! works with nonprofits and small businesses to produce long format videos and virtual event production. They also create love story videos for engaged couples and documentary style legacy videos for families. https://popcm.me/

Pacific Music Productions (live performance audio recording). Kit Ebersbach, Honolulu, HI www.pmphawaii.org

Bunker Studios (audio mix and master) Aaron Nevezie, Brooklyn, NY www.bukerstudios.com

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