For Immediate Release
New York, NY On Monday, April 30, The New York Pops marks its 29th birthday with a grand gala evening titled ‘Journey On’ honoring Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the Tony Award-winning and Oscar-nominated songwriting team of such renowned Broadway musicals as Ragtime, Once On This Island, Seussical, My Favorite Year, A Man of No Importance, The Glorious Ones and the feature film Anastasia. The event begins at 7:00 PM with a concert at Carnegie Hall hosted by four time Tony-winner Terrence McNally, featuring a spectacular lineup of guest artists under the baton of Music Director Steven Reineke. Performers include Liz Callaway, Kevin Chamberlin, LaChanze, Jason Danieley, Boyd Gaines, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Darlene Love, Rebecca Luker, Marin Mazzie, Tiler Peck, Andrew Rannells and more! The New York Pops will also be joined by Bad Habit and the Ronald McDonald House Chorus, Camp Broadway Kids and Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA. Following the concert, a black tie dinner and dance will be held at the luxurious Plaza Hotel.
The evening’s corporate honoree is Industrial Acoustics Company (IAC), the world’s largest provider of noise control products and systems. IAC has been a stalwart supporter of The New York Pops and its education programs since 2004.
There will be an online auction at www.CharityBuzz.com/NewYorkPops from April 13 – May 4 featuring items generously donated by the orchestra’s many friends from the world of arts and entertainment. All gala and auction proceeds support the orchestra and its free education programs throughout New York City.
TICKETS
Single tickets to the concert-only are $60 and $90. To purchase, call CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, visit the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th St and 7th Ave, or online at www.carnegiehall.org. For benefit tickets and to support The New York Pops’ Kids in the Balcony program, visit www.newyorkpops.org.
Tickets to the full gala evening range from $1,000 (for one concert ticket and dinner seating) to $50,000 (for a premier first tier box and dinner table for eight). For more information about the black-tie benefit dinner dance at The Plaza Hotel, call 212-765-7677 or visit www.newyorkpops.org.
PRESS TICKETS
Contact: Dan Dutcher, Cohn Dutcher Associates; 917-339-7157; ddutcher@cohndutcher.com or Brittnee Walker, Cohn Dutcher Associates; 917-339-7183; bwalker@cohndutcher.com
ABOUT THE NEW YORK POPS
The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States, and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular music. Led by Music Director Steven Reineke, the orchestra performs an annual subscription series and birthday gala at Carnegie Hall, enjoying one of their highest subscription renewal rates. The New York Pops was founded by Skitch Henderson in 1983 with a mission to create greater public awareness and appreciation of America’s rich musical heritage. Along with performing at Carnegie Hall, The New York Pops tours throughout the world and gives free concerts in New York City parks. The New York Pops’ extensive education programs allow thousands of public schoolchildren to participate in concert and music-making experiences at Carnegie Hall and in schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City.
Steven Reineke’s boundless enthusiasm and exceptional artistry have made him one of the nation’s most sought-after pops conductors, composers and arrangers. Mr. Reineke is Music Director of The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, the newly appointed Principal Pops Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Pops Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He also serves as Principal Pops Conductor of the Long Beach and Modesto Symphony Orchestras through the end of the 2011/2012 season and was Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Mr. Reineke is a frequent guest conductor with The Philadelphia Orchestra and in the past year he’s been on the podium with the Boston Pops and The Cleveland Orchestra. He makes his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut on July 4, 2012 at Ravinia. His extensive North American conducting appearances include Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa (National Arts Centre), Detroit, Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Tampa (The Florida Orchestra), Calgary, Memphis and Oklahoma City. Mr. Reineke is also an established symphonic composer, with his works have recently been performed by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
ABOUT LYNN AHRENS AND STEPHEN FLAHERTY
Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are considered the foremost theatrical songwriting team of their generation. They won the Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and received two Grammy nominations, for their score of the Broadway musical Ragtime, and garnered two Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for the songs and score of Twentieth Century Fox's animated feature film, Anastasia.
They are co-creators of the Broadway musicals Once On This Island (eight Tony nominations and winner of London’s Olivier Award for Best Musical) and Seussical (Grammy nomination), which is now one of the most frequently-performed shows in America. Other award-winning theatre credits include My Favorite Year; A Man of No Importance; Dessa Rose; Lucky Stiff; Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life and The Glorious Ones. They were most recently represented on Broadway with the acclaimed 2009 revival of Ragtime.
Individually, Ms. Ahrens provided co-book and lyrics for the holiday extravaganza A Christmas Carol, which ran for ten seasons at Madison Square Garden; she also wrote its television adaptation for NBC’s Hallmark Entertainment Special. She recently wrote text for The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers – commissioned by the Boston Pops (composer, Peter Boyer). She is a mainstay songwriter and singer for ABC-TV’s Schoolhouse Rock, and is an Emmy Award winner and four-time Emmy nominee.
Mr. Flaherty’s concert music has premiered at the Hollywood Bowl, Boston's Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Guggenheim Museum and Symphony Space. He is happy to continue his association with The New York Pops, who premiered his American River Suite (text by Bill Schermerhorn) at Carnegie Hall. He wrote incidental music for Neil Simon's play Proposals on Broadway, and the musical score for Loving Repeating: A Musical Of Gertrude Stein (Chicago’s Jefferson Award for Best New Musical).
Ahrens and Flaherty are Council members of the Dramatists Guild of America, and co-founders of the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program for Emerging Writers.
ABOUT INDUSTRIAL ACOUSTICS COMPANY
Founded in 1949, IAC has become the world’s largest provider of noise control products and systems. Providing a diverse range of services including noise control systems for the airline industry; anechoic and reverberant chambers for scientific and medical research, and acoustic walls and doors for a variety of industries. Recent projects include The Palladium Performing Arts Center in Carmel, Indiana where Michael Feinstein serves as Artistic Director; The Alexandra Center for Science and Technology located at the East River Science Park in New York City; The Julliard School of Music-Alice TulIy Hall in New York City and the Steinhart School of Music in New York City. IAC has been a stalwart supporter of The New York Pops and its education programs since 2004.
ABOUT THE GUEST ARTISTS
TERRENCE McNALLY
Terrence McNally was awarded the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. He is the winner of Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and his books for the musicals Ragtime and Kiss Of The Spiderwoman. In 2010 the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presented TERRENCE Mcnally’s NIGHTS AT THE OPERA, a three-play festival of his work. His new play Golden Age will open at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage One at City Center this fall and the Pearl Theatre will premiere And Away We Go at their new home on 42nd St. in May. He has collaborated with Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty on two occasions – Ragtime and A Man Of No Importance.
LIZ CALLAWAY
Award-winning actress, singer, and recording artist Liz Callaway made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. She went on to star in Baby (Tony nomination), Miss Saigon, Cats, The Three Musketeers and The Look of Love. Other NY appearances include The Spitfire Grill (Drama Desk Nomination), No Way to Treat a Lady, Marry Me a Little, Brownstone, the legendary Follies in Concert, A Stephen Sondheim Evening, and Fiorello! at Encores!
Sibling Revelry, created with her sister Ann Hampton Callaway played to great acclaim at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Their new show, Boom! is currently touring venues across the country, and their live recording of the show was recently released on PS Classics. Liz’s extensive concert and symphony career has included appearances at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and with The Boston Pops. Worldwide, she has performed in China, South Korea, Iceland, France, Spain, and Australia.
Liz sang the Academy Award-nominated song “Journey to the Past” in the animated feature Anastasia, and is also the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin sequels as well as the title character in The Swan Princess. Television appearances include Ready to Go (Emmy Award), In Performance at the White House, and Inside the Actor’s Studio: Stephen Sondheim. She has released 4 solo recordings: Passage of Time, The Beat Goes On, The Story Goes On: Liz Callaway On and Off-Broadway, and Anywhere I Wander: Liz Callaway Sings Frank Loesser.
KEVIN CHAMBERLIN
Kevin Chamberlin originated the role of Horton the Elephant in Ahrens and Flaherty’s “Seussical” - receiving 2001 Tony® Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for his performance. Other Broadway credits include The Addams Family (2010 Tony®, Drama Desk Nominations) The Ritz, Chicago, Dirty Blonde (2000 Tony®,Drama Desk Nom) Triumph of Love, My Favorite Year, Abe Lincoln In Illinois. City Center’s Encores: Stairway to Paradise, Zeigfeld Follies of 1936, One Touch of Venus. Off-Broadway; Wonder of the World at MTC, As Thousands Cheer, Smoke on the Mountain, Juno. In Los Angeles, Reprise's Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins, Company, Applause and most recently directed Working and Baby for them. Film; Taking Woodstock, Road to Perdition, Lucky Number Slevin, DieHard With A Vengeance, Suspect Zero, In and Out, Christmas With The Kranks, Trick. TV: Heroes, Better Off Ted, nip/tuck, State of Mind, Without A Trace, Frasier, Crossing Jordan, CSI:NY. Kevin currently stars as “Bertram” on Disney Channel’s hit TV series Jessie.
LaCHANZE
Singer and actress LaChanze most recently appeared on Broadway in The Color Purple, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. She was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk awards for her role as TiMoune in Once on This Island, and also performed on Broadway in Ragtime, Company, and Uptown It’s Hot. Off-Broadway, LaChanze created the title role in Dessa Rose, earning herself Obie Award and Drama Desk Award nominations. Other Off-Broadway roles include The Vagina Monologues and Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. Theater credits also include The Wiz, Baby, From the Mississippi Delta and Spunk. LaChanze’s film work includes The Help, Breaking Upwards, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Disney’s Hercules, For Love or Money and Leap of Faith. Television credits include her Emmy Award-winning role in Handel’s Messiah Rocks, as well as Lucy, Law & Order: SVU, Sex and the City, New York Undercover and The Cosby Show. She recently performed in the American Songbook Series for Lincoln Center.
JASON DANIELEY
Broadway actor, singer, concert performer and recording artist Jason Danieley has most recently starred on Broadway as Dan in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next To Normal. Other Broadway credits include creating the role of Aaron Fox in Curtains (Outer Critics Circle Nomination), the titular character in Candide, directed by theatre legend Harold Prince (Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Nomination), original Broadway and West End casts of The Full Monty as Malcolm, and leading roles in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and Strike Up The Band as part of City Center's Encores series. His Off-Broadway performances include The Trojan Women: A Love Story by Charles Mee Jr., Dream True by Ricky Ian Gordon and Floyd Collins by Adam Guettel. Some of his Regional Theatre appearances are Some Lovers by Burt Bacharach, The Highest Yellow by Michael John LaChiusa (Helen Hayes Award, Best Actor in a Musical), Beauty by Tina Landau, Casino Paradise by William Bolcolm, 110 In The Shade (Garland Award - Actor in a Musical) and Brigadoon at Los Angeles' Reprise concert series.
As a concert soloist, Jason has appeared with many of the country's leading orchestras including the New York, Boston and Philly Pops, L.A. Philharmonic (at the Hollywood Bowl), New York Philharmonic, St. Louis, Grant Park, Ravinia Festival, Utah, Minnesota and Buffalo Symphonies, Orchestra of St. Luke's and the BBC Pops Orchestra. He also appears in numerous critically acclaimed performances with fellow Broadway star and wife, Marin Mazzie, in their intimate concert He Said She Said and Opposite You at leading venues including Café Carlyle, Feinstein’s, Joe’s Pub and the Cinegrill to name a few. Finally, Jason and his rural jazz band The Frontier Heroes released their debut CD self- titled Jason Danieley and The Frontier Heroes (PS Classics).
BOYD GAINES
Boyd Gaines has appeared in a number of films and television shows, including Fame, L.A. Law and Law & Order, but is best known for playing a dental student and dentist Mark Royer, who married Valerie Bertinelli's Barbara Cooper on One Day at a Time and as Coach Brackett from the 1982 movie Porky's. Gaines is a voice-actor, and is credited with recording several audiobooks. Gaines was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in 2007, for Journey's End, making him the first actor to be nominated in each of the four Tony categories. He has won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play - The Heidi Chronicles, 1989, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical - She Loves Me, 1994, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical - Contact, 2000 and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical - Gypsy: A Musical Fable, 2008
KECIA LEWIS-EVANS
Kecia Lewis-Evans has crafted her career playing powerful women. Broadway: Chicago, Shrek, The Drowsy Chaperone, Dreamgirls, Once on This Island, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Big River, The Gospel at Colonus. Off-Broadway: Dessa Rose (Drama Desk nomination). Regional: Dreamgirls (Ovation Award), Polk County (Bay Area Outer Critic’s Circle Award), Raisin (L.A. Drama Critics Circle nomination), Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Hairspray, Smokey Joe’s Café, South Pacific, The Sound of Music. Film/TV: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Law & Order, Crossing Jordan, The Hughley’s.
DARLENE LOVE
Rolling Stone has proclaimed Darlene Love “one of the greatest singers of all times.” The New York Times declares that her “thunderbolt voice is as embedded in the history of rock and roll as Eric Clapton's guitar or Bob Dylan's lyrics.” Recently, Ms. Love starred as Motormouth Maybelle in Broadway's Hairspray from 2005 - 2008. Simultaneously, the veteran singer has begun recording under her own name again. In 2007, she released a holiday album, It’s Christmas Of Course. In 2010, she released a live retrospective, The Concert of Love. In 2011, Darlene Love received the highest honor in rock music. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In the sixties, Love sang lead on a string of Phil Spector-produced hits including “He’s a Rebel,” “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” “(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry,” and the seasonal classic “(Christmas) Baby Please Come Home.” In addition, she sang background vocals on numerous other Spector produced hits. In the seventies, Ms. Love joined with Dionne Warwick, whom she backed on record and on tour. She also sang on the Warwick-hosted TV show Solid Gold. In 1984 she starred in one of the first successful “jukebox musicals,” Leader of the Pack (based on the Ellie Greenwich songbook), which had extended runs at New York’s Bottom Line and on Broadway. She also did dramatic work, appearing in three Lethal Weapon movies and a stage adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie.
REBECCA LUKER
Three-time Tony Award Nominee for Mary Poppins, The Music Man and Showboat. She has also appeared on Broadway in Nine, The Sound of Music, The Secret Garden and The Phantom Of The Opera. Other New York appearances include: NYC Opera: X (The Life and Times of Malcolm X) and Brigadoon. Off-Broadway: The Boys From Syracuse (Encores!), Indian Blood (Primary Stages), Can’t Let Go (Keen Co.) and The Vagina Monologues (West Side Arts). Regional: Passion (Kennedy Center Sondheim Festival); She Loves Me (Reprise!); Time and Again (Old Globe), Harmony (La Jolla Playhouse). Concerts: Solo evenings with The American Songbook Series (Jazz at Lincoln Center), Feinstein’s, Library of Congress, Town Hall, Symphony Space, Carnegie Hall, City Center, numerous Symphony engagements include the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Symphony, London Symphony, Chicago, Alabama and many more. Film: Spectropia; TV: The Good Wife (CBS), Law & Order-SVU, and CBS.
MARIN MAZZIE
Critically acclaimed actress and singer, Marin Mazzie, is a three time Tony Award nominee and is currently starring as Margaret White in the highly anticipated revival of the musical Carrie. She most recently starred on Broadway as Diana in the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next to Normal. On Broadway, Marin has starred in Enron, as Claudia Roe. She received Tony and Drama Desk nominations and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Lilli/Katharine in the hit revival of Kiss Me, Kate, and later received an Olivier Award nomination when she made her West End debut in the show. Other Broadway credits include: Monty Python’s Spamalot (also West End), Ragtime (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics nominations), Passion (Tony nomination), Man of La Mancha, Into the Woods, Big River, and Out of this World and Kismet (Encores!). Her Off-Broadway appearances comprise of: The Vagina Monologues, The Trojan Women: A Love Story, and The World Goes Round (also National Tour).
Marin's extensive concert career has crossed the country from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl under the batons of Michael Tilson Thomas, Marvin Hamlisch, Skitch Henderson, Keith Lockhart, Paul Gemignani, Peter Nero, Patrick Summers, John Mauceri, and Doc Severinson to name a few.
Marin appears in numerous critically acclaimed performances with fellow Broadway star and husband, Jason Danieley, in their intimate review He Said She Said and Opposite You at leading venues including Café Carlyle, Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency, Joe’s Pub, the Cinegrill, and more.
TILER PECK
Tiler Peck first moved to New York when she was eleven years old to play the role of Gracie Shinn in Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man on Broadway, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman. She has also performed as Clara in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, was a guest performer on Dancing with the Stars, and made a guest appearance on Bravo’s television show Rocco’s Dinner Party. At the opening ceremony for the 1998 Goodwill Games, Ms. Peck danced a featured role choreographed by Marguerite Derricks. She also co-hosted Barbie’s 40th Anniversay with Dick Clark at the Waldorf Astoria. Ms. Peck's film credits include A Time for Dancing, Geppetto, and Donnie Darko. In September 2004, at the age of fifteen, Ms. Peck became an apprentice with New York City Ballet. In February 2005 she joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet, in December 2006 she was promoted to Soloist, and in October 2009 she was promoted to the rank of Principal. Ms. Peck is a 2004 recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation - USA Dance Fellowship, a 2004 Mae L. Wien Award recipient, Janice Levin Honoree for 2006-2007, and winner of Leonide Massine’s Positano Premia La Danza for International Emerging Artist 2011. Ms. Peck most recently originated the role of Marie in Susan Stroman’s workshop of Little Dancer, where she had the honor to work with Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.
ANDREW RANNELLS
Rannells received Tony, Drama Desk and Drama League nominations for his work in BOM. Rannells was also seen on Broadway as Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys and Link Larkin in Hairspray. Recently, he has been a proud part of the development of new projects including William Finn and James Lapine's Little Miss Sunshine and Douglas Carter-Beane's Lysistrata Jones. Rannells will next be seen on HBO's new series "Girls" produced by Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow.
The New York Pops 29th Birthday Gala
Monday, April 30, 2012
"Journey On"
7:00 PM Concert at Carnegie Hall | 57th Street & 7th Avenue
Black Tie Dinner Dance to Follow Performance at The Plaza Hotel | Fifth Avenue at Central Park South
Music Director and Conductor: Steven Reineke
Musical Honorees: Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
Corporate Honoree: Industrial Acoustics Company
