Artists In Partnership
6th Annual Cabaret Festival

A note from the director

Dear Lovers of the Arts,
Welcome to Artists In Partnership’s 6th Annual Cabaret Festival. We are pleased to present an extraordinary lineup of vocalists and musicians. I believe you will agree when you experience their performances and as you read their extensive biographies.

Special thanks must be given to you our audience for supporting this event as well as AIP’s mission of collaboration with our artists and the community.

Enjoy our festival.

Friday, May 16, 8 PM - Corbin & Reynolds, AIP Cabaret Fundraiser
Karen Oberlin with Tedd Firth in "The Wizard of Words" - The Wit and Wisdom of Yip Harburg
Entertainment plus 3 course dinner including tax and gratuity with a complimentary AIP membership and tax-deductible donation
$65 per person, $125 per couple. Paid reservations may be made online at www.aip-arts.org Limited tickets. For more information,
call AIP at 516-432-6342.

Saturday, May 17 - 1:30 PM, Library – “The Great American Songbook: Cabaret Style”
Barry Kleinbort, noted cabaret director, composer, and lyricist will lead a performance workshop demonstrating the transition of songs from their traditional format to the personal and customized styling of the cabaret genre. Guest performers will include Sara
Zahn, Anita Darian, Tedd Firth, Christopher Denny, and Susan James

Saturday, May 17 - 8 PM, Library, “Young At Heart”
Sara Zahn performs her cabaret show "Young at Heart" accompanied by Christopher Denny, featuring the lyrics of Carolyn Leigh.

Sunday, May 18 - 2 PM , Library
Nancy McGraw performs her cabaret show "The Song Remembers When", a collection of classic and contemporary songs, including the title song by Hugh Prestwood, a Long Island resident. Nancy will be accompanied by Bruce Coyle on the piano. Question and answer period to follow.

Performers (in order of appearance)

KAREN OBERLIN

Back Stage Bistro Award winner and jazz-pop vocalist ,Karen Oberlin was very recently described by Stephen Holden in The New York Times as having an “impeccable pop style…musical intelligence…purity, naturalness, polished phrasing and a jazzy spontaneity.” Rex Reed, in the New York Observer, called her performance “thrilling,” and said her performance “rings true and funny and flawless.” She has released two acclaimed CD’s, My Standards and the award-winning Secret Love: The Music of Doris Day, and was featured on the CD Secret Ellington (a never-before recorded Duke Ellington musical). She has performed at such renowned New York venues as The Town Hall, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, The Metropolitan Room, Merkin Hall, The FireBird and The Knitting Factory, and will perform in Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center in the fall. Oberlin co-starred in the hit Off-Broadway show, “Our Sinatra,” was in the first staged incarnation of “Rent,” and has acted and performed at major theatres, on television and in film, in everything from Shakespeare to national commercials, including playing a recurring nurse on “All My Children”. She also enjoyed being part of a professional a cappella group called "Where’s The Band?" for many years.

TEDD FIRTH

Tedd Firth is a New York City based accompanist, jazz pianist, and arranger. He most recently was the Musical Director for Mary Cleere Haran at the Café Carlyle. He was also the Musical Director for “Broadway at the White House” with Tom Wopat at the Congressional Picnic on the White House Lawn for President George W. Bush and Laura Bush. He has accompanied many renowned artists, including Lee Ann Womack, Margaret Whiting, Carol Sloane, Bob Stewart, Nancy Marano, Marlene VerPlanck, Jane Scheckter, Pam Tate, Trudi Mann, and Claiborne Cary. Among the jazz musicians he has worked and recorded with are John and Bucky Pizzarelli, Jay Leonhart, Frank Wess, Houston Person, Benny Golson and Joe Morello. Mr. Firth’s New York appearances include Town Hall, the Blue Note, Birdland, the Iridium, the Algonquin, the Rainbow Room, the Hotel Carlyle, and the Russian Tea Room along with numerous East Coast Jazz Festivals. Mr. Firth’s television appearances include “The Today Show,” “All My Children” and “The Caroline Rhea Show”. Tedd is a graduate of William Paterson University and the Manhattan School of Music.

BARRY KLEINBORT

Barry Kleinbort has worked as a director, composer, lyricist, and librettist over the last twenty five years, earning the prestigious Edward Kleban Foundation Award for Lyric Writing, a 2002 and 2003 Gilman-Gonzalez Musical Theatre Commendation Award, the 2007 ASCAP Foundation Jamie deRoy award, two Back Stage Bistro awards, ten Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) awards, and two Cable "Telly" awards for his efforts. Throughout the United States and in Europe, Mr. Kleinbort has directed and/or written material for such show biz luminaries as Kaye Ballard, Regis Philbin, Marcia Lewis, Mary Cleere Haran, John Barrowman, Penny Fuller, Karen Mason, Rita Gardner, Brent Barrett, Sylvia McNair, Eric Michael Gillett, Harolyn Blackwell, Jeff Harnar, Heather MacRae, Rodney Gilfry, the late Jerry Hadley, Jo Sullivan and Emily Loesser and many, many others. Besides the countless cabaret shows, Mr. Kleinbort has conceived and directed topical revues and intimate theater productions, including Rita Gardner's "Try to Remember- A Look at Off-Broadway" at the Sullivan Street theater (where she originated the role of Luisa in "The Fantasticks,") as well as lavish special event evenings like the all-star Kurt Weill Gala at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He recently adapted and directed the New York premiere of Bob Merrill's musical "The Prince of Grand Street" starring Mike Burstyn for the Jewish Rep and John Epperson’s well received autobiographical evening SHOW TRASH at the Studio Theater in Washington D.C.
He wrote the book and lyrics for the new musical, WAS, (based on Geoff Ryman’s cult classic with music by Joseph Thalken) which was the inaugural production of the American Music Theater Project in Chicago. He wrote the incidental music and songs for the off-Broadway production of SECOND AVENUE by Allan Knee and the book, music and lyrics for ANGELINA, a musical based on That Summer-That Fall by Frank D. Gilroy. As librettist, he co-wrote with David Levy PERFECT HARMONY, a musical play about the lives of the Barry Sisters that has recently been optioned for off-Broadway. For PBS, he provided the written continuity for "A Washington Opera Celebration" and the 2003 presentation of DIE FLEDERMAUS. Over the past two seasons, he has performed similar writing duties for six PBS broadcasts of Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops and, currently, Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops. Most recently, he was a consultant on “Cathouse: The Musical” for HBO. A highly acclaimed revue of his theater songs, BIG CITY RHYTHM, which played the Triad Theater in New York City is available on Harbinger Records.

SARA ZAHN

“Young at Heart” is singer Sara Zahn’s joyful and touching tribute to one of the finest and least appreciated female lyricists of the Twentieth Century, Carolyn Leigh. Leigh, who provided first rate wordplay for three decades until her untimely death in 1982, brought real heat and humor to the popular songs of the Eisenhower era. And she collaborated with some of the greatest composers of all time: Cy Coleman, Harold Arlen, Marvin Hamlisch, Morton Gould, and Jule Styne. Her roster of hits includes such deathless standards as “The Best is Yet to Come,” “Witchcraft,” “I’ve Got Your Number,” “Hey, Look Me Over,” “The Rules of the Road,” along with this evening’s unforgettable title tune. Leigh has a worthy soul mate in Sara Zahn who, along with her musical director Christopher Denny, deftly scale the hits as well as some unusual items from the Leigh catalogue, like a hilarious cut song from the musical, “Little Me” or a show stopping soliloquy from an unrealized musical version of ”The Great Gatsby.” “Young at Heart” is both a love letter to enduring classics from the Great American Songbook as well as a glimpse into the extraordinary gifts of one its finest practitioners.

Sara Zahn is a singer/songwriter whose work for television, film and records, has been heard in the United States and internationally for more than 25 years. Her CD “Callou”, based on the popular kids’ TV show, went “gold” in Quebec and won a Canadian Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album. While Sara is very much at home inside a recording studio, she also enjoys a love affair with cabaret audiences, which has garnered her a Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist and the prestigious Hanson Award from MAC, the Manhattan Association of Cabaret.

Sara is a critically acclaimed cabaret performer with rave reviews from Rex Reed, The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post, and Variety. Her cabaret club roster included engagements at some of the most popular spots in New York: Rainbow and Stars, The Russian Tea Room, Michael’s Pub, The Ballroom and Maxime’s to name just a few.

Sara will be traveling to Spain this coming December 6th – 14th, 2008 to perform her show “Young at Heart” retitled: “The Best Is Yet To Come” at el Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Grand Opera House in Barcelona.

Her CD, SARA ZAHN, WITCHCRAFT, The songs of Carolyn Leigh is available on line at www.amazon.com, on i tunes and at major record stores throughout the country. She is currently in pre-production for her next album.
Sara lives in northern New Jersey with pianist and musical director, Allan Kashkin her two children, Lily (19, now a freshman at Tufts University in Medford, MA), Harry (14), their dog Hamlet (5), and cat Tsimis (18). She also became the proud step mom of Jarod (24) and Alex (17), in January 2004 by marrying their dad, Allan, the inspiration for all her love songs.

CHRISTOPHER DENNY

Christopher Denny has served as musical director, arranger and pianist for such theater, cabaret and opera luminaries as Karen Mason, Julie Wilson, Brent Barrett, David Campbell, Ron Raines, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Loudon, Judy Kaye, Steven Brinberg and Rodney Gilfry. His duties have taken him to virtually all of the major rooms in New York and throughout the U.S., notably including Carnegie Hall, where he performed his own arrangements with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops, and Barcelona’s great opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, as well as to Australia and London’s West End. Film work includes having produced the recording sessions of Placido Domingo for Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-winning musical film, Moulin Rouge. [[Favorite New York theatrical credits include musical direction for the world premiere of Barry Kleinbort’s hit musical revue, Big City Rhythm; for The Songs of Kurt Weill, starring Kitty Carlisle Hart and Paula Lawrence; and for Joshua and Nedda Logan’s musical memoir, I Remember It Well; as well as assisting Agnes de Mille in preparing the gala dance concert, Agnes de Mille and Friends, at the Shubert Theatre.]] As a vocal coach, he has worked with many promising newcomers and well-established stars, including Boyd Gaines, John Cameron Mitchell, Ethan Hawke, Melissa Errico, Anthony Rapp, Jack Noseworthy, Austin Pendleton and many others. He has recorded more than twenty CD's.

NANCY MCRAW

Nancy McGraw appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award winning musical “Nine”, Off-Broadway in “Godspell”, and toured nationally in both those shows. Off Broadway she played Connie Boswell in “The Heebie-Jeebies, a Musical Tribute to The Boswell Sisters”, and appeared in “Forbidden Broadway”. She sang in the Bistro Award winning revue “Hard Candy, the Songs of Carol Hall”, and “Bajour” at The York Theater.
She has performed in cabarets all over Manhattan, and in concerts at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Hudson Theater, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and The Town Hall.
On the other side of the footlights, she produced Frank and Malachy McCourt’s comedy “A Couple of Blaguards” now touring nationally, The Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights Aids Cabaret Series, and The MAC Awards at The Town Hall.
With her husband, Steve, Nancy owned and operated Steve McGraw’s, a cabaret theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There, she presented several of Off Broadway’s longest running musicals including “Forever Plaid” and “Forbidden Broadway”.
Nancy participated in several Artists in Partnership Cabaret Festival’s here in Long Beach with The Songbook Project, an organization fostering classic and contemporary popular songs.
Nancy is a graduate of Northwestern University.

BRUCE W. COYLE

Bruce W. Coyle's career has spanned many facets of music and theatre. He has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center's State Theatre and Alice Tully Concert Hall and has conducted Symphony Orchestras across the U.S. and Canada. He has musical directed many Off-Broadway shows and regional theatre productions. To complete his varied resume, Mr. Coyle once accompanied Phyllis Newman and Adolph Green in Macy's window in NYC.

Bruce is recipient of two of Florida's Carbonell Awards for his work on Coconut Grove Playhouse's productions of "Berlin To Broadway" and "Side By Side By Sondheim". He also performed regularly at NYC's Rainbow Room and The Ballroom. Mr. Coyle also conducted "Sunset Blvd." in Germany where he has also been Helen Schneider's musical director and arranger for over twenty five years.

Most recently, Bruce has just finished preparing a score for the new musical "Romeo and Bernadette" for publication, for which he had also done the arrangements and orchestrations.

OPERATION GRATITUDE

Hundreds of thousands of American troops are deployed in hostile and remote regions of the world, including the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa, Guantanamo Bay and on ships throughout international waters. The physical conditions they must endure are difficult and they may be separated from loved ones for long periods of time. OPERATION GRATITUDE seeks to lift troops' morale, and bring a smile to their faces by sending care packages to service members overseas. OPERATION GRATITUDE care packages contain food, toiletries, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support.
Through Collection Drives, Letter Writing Campaigns and Donations of requested items or funds for shipping expenses, OPERATION GRATITUDE provides civilians anywhere in America a way to express their respect and appreciation to the men and women of the U.S. military in an active, hands-on manner.
OPERATION GRATITUDE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer corporation, funded entirely by private donations. For safety and security, the assembling of all packages occurs at the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, California.