Vocalist Libby Shapiro and Pianist Jed Distler Perform on November 4

 

BARD CENTER CONCERTS CONTINUE SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, WITH VOCALIST LIBBY SHAPIRO PERFORMING "SOUNDTRACK OF A ZEITGEIST: WEIMAR-ERA SONGS OF THE STAGE AND SCREEN" Shapiro Will Be Accompanied by Pianist Jed Distler

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On Sunday, November 4, Libby Shapiro, who specializes in singing popular songs of Germany, will perform “Soundtrack of a Zeitgeist: Weimar-era Songs of the Stage and Screen” at Bard College. Shapiro will be accompanied by pianist Jed Distler. The program includes works by Friedrich Hollaender, Werner Richard Heymann, Robert Gilbert, and Kurt Weill, among others. The concert, presented by The Bard Center and the German and Jewish Studies Programs, is free and open to the public and begins at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall.

 

About the artists:

“Libby Shapiro’s voice is a gift from heaven,” wrote the Suddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, Germany, of the singer and actress. A connoisseur of popular song in English, German, and French—spanning many decades and even centuries with a special interest in the 1920s and ‘30s—she is known for her wit, warmth, and rapport with the audience, whether in intimate clubs, large concert halls, or theaters. She has performed in and/or given voice to a wide range of projects in the United States and Europe, embracing dramatic theater and musical theater, documentary film and radio commercials, installation art at the Whitney Museum of American Art and comedy on German TV. Her repertoire includes songs from film, the stage, and dance orchestras to chanson, pop, country, swing/Big Band, and folk. Shapiro’s New York appearances include venues such as the Jewish Museum, La Mama, Fez under Time Café, and the Cornelia Street Café; in Germany and France, she has performed with the Mickey Katz Orchestra with special guest Giora Feidman, the New Classic Jazz Quartet, and Hatshepsut, among others. She is fondly remembered in Germany from her two years as Zelda with the nationally acclaimed music comedy trio die Blauen Engel, which performed on countless stages from Berlin’s legendary Bar Jeder Vernunft to the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Hamburger Kammerspielen.

Composer/pianist Jed Distler has created such notable works as the Violin Sonata (written for Ethyl’s Cornelius Duffalo), Assault on Pepper, Landscapes for Peter Wyer (recorded for Point Records by Margaret Leng Tan), Loose Changes for Two Pianos (recorded for Bridge Records by Quattro Mani), and, in collaboration with playwright Ed Schmidt, his magnum opus piano theater work, The Gold Standard. His evening-length song cycle, The Death of Lottie Shapiro, for four sopranos and piano, was hailed as “a masterpiece, a song cycle without parallel in the serious music of contemporary America” (Newark Star Ledger). From San Francisco to Switzerland, Distler's piano recitals embrace the widest gamut of 20th- and 21st-century works, including premieres by Richard Rodney Bennett, Wendy Mae Chambers, Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Lois V. Vierk, and many more. His transcriptions and arrangements of piano solos by jazz giant Bill Evans were recorded by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet for Decca. A widely read CD reviewer for ClassicsToday.com and Gramophone (he helped uncover the infamous Joyce Hatto scandal in early 2007), Distler taught for many years at Sarah Lawrence College, and has participated in guest composer/teacher residencies across the United States. He has served as artistic director for the innovative New Music organization ComposersCollaborative, Inc, since its inception in 1987.

This concert is made possible, in part, through the generosity of the Homeland Foundation and the Leon Levy Endowment at Bard College. For further information about the program, call The Bard Center at 845-758-7425.

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(10.15.07)

This event was last updated on 11-05-2007

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