Carmichael/Arodin: Lazy River

Carmichael/Arodin: Lazy River

I’ve rarely found anyone that has ever heard of Kay Starr. I got to know Kay Starr by a friend of mine from West Virginia who told me that Kay was Patsy Cline’s favorite singer. If you’ve not gone down the rabbit hole of Kay Starr’s discography, do yourself a favor...
Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer:  Skylark

Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer: Skylark

I know of two perfect songs: Fauré’s “En sourdine,” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark.” Paul Verlaine was the poet for the first of them, and Johnny Mercer the lyricist for the second. Please don’t ask me to explain what makes them perfect, or even why I think they...

NYFOS@Juilliard: Day 5

Yesterday we had a break in our routine. It was our first day without Adam Cates, the choreographer, and that always makes us feel as if daddy has gone away. (Were we bad?) And Mary Birnbaum, our director, also took most of the day off for meetings time-sensitive...

NYFOS@Juilliard: Day 4

A few years ago I had the brilliant inspiration to take another pianist on board to help me with the Juilliard rehearsals. We work six hours a day, seven days in a row, and in previous years I found myself morphing into a rehearsal pianist, exhausted, taking short...
NYFOS@Juilliard: Day 3

NYFOS@Juilliard: Day 3

The work continued today much as yesterday, with a significant difference. In the morning I received an email in which Sam Levine brought up a thorny question: “Do you think anyone will be bothered by the racial and gender politics in the show?” He was referring...