DEREK KLENA, LINDSAY MENDEZ, KATIE THOMPSON, AND MORE JOIN RYAN SCOTT OLIVER TO OPEN LINCOLN CENTER’S AMERICAN SONGBOOK SERIES
Award-winning composer Ryan Scott Oliver will open the 2016 season of Lincoln Center’s acclaimed AMERICAN SONGBOOK series with a free concert on Tuesday, January 19 at 7:30 pm in the David Rubenstein Atrium. Now in its 17th season, American Songbook celebrates the best of American singing and songwriting as interpreted by top performers and rising stars. Admission is free; no tickets required; seating is first-come; first-served.
The concert will star Kerstin Anderson, Nick Blaemire, Ben Crawford, Jason Gotay, John-Michael Lyles, Julia Mattison, Derek Klena, Lindsay Mendez, Katie Thompson, Betsy Wolfe, and more to be announced.
It will also feature Ethan Carlson, Jessica Crouch, Ian Fairlee, Mary Claire Miskell, Tatiana Lofton, Daniel Yearwood, and the cast of Pace University’s Pace New Musicals developmental workshop of Oliver’s latest musical, ROPE. The concert will feature a dynamic range of songs spanning Oliver’s career.
For the third year, through Lincoln Center’s partnership with PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Songbook’s “Invest in the Future of American Song,” gave members of the public the opportunity to select the artist to open the Songbook season with a free concert at the Atrium. Oliver received the most votes, earning him the opening spot on January 19.
The Larson Grant Award-winning composer’s work has been presented at the Kennedy Center and Joe’s Pub, among other notable venues. Oliver created the music and lyrics for Jasper in Deadland premiered Off-Broadway and remounted at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre); 35mm: A Musical Exhibition (licensed by Samuel French, with original cast recording on Ghostlight Records); Darling, Mrs. Sharp, Out of My Head (licensed through Steele Spring Stage Rights) as well as the commission We Foxes (Broadway Across America). Additional career highlights include a commission for Disney Theatricals, projects for Rosie O’Donnell’s Theater Kids and Theatreworks USA’s We the People.
Oliver is the Director of New Musicals at Pace University in New York City and the Artistic Director of the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program. He is currently at work on the new musical Rope, a commission for Grove Entertainment. Visit RyanScottOliver.com and follow him on Twitter @ryanscottoliver.
American Songbook continues with performances in The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center from January 20 through February 27, followed by American Songbook in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse from March 16 through April 1. For more information and to purchase tickets to these performances go to AmericanSongbook.org, call CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or visit the Alice Tully Hall and David Geffen Hall Box Offices, or Frederick P. Rose Hall Box Office.
Since its launch in 1998, American Songbook has been dedicated to celebrating the extraordinary achievements of the popular American songwriter from the turn of the 20th century to the present day. Spanning all styles and genres from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway to the eclecticism of today’s songwriters working in pop, cabaret, rock, folk, and country, American Songbook traces the history and charts the course of the American song from its past and current forms to its future direction. For a list of artists that have performed in American Songbook over the years, as well as the composers that have been honored by evenings of their music, click here.
Lead Support for American Songbook provided by PGIM