Artists' Forum Presents Nellie McKay and Susan Werner on April 19 at Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Kalamazoo Valley Community College's Artists' Forum presents a Friday, April 19 concert with a double billing - Nellie McKay and Susan Werner, performing at 7:30 p.m. in Dale B. Lake Auditorium at the Texas Township Campus.
KALAMAZOO, Mich., March 26, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Kalamazoo Valley Community College's Artists' Forum presents a Friday, April 19 concert with a double billing – Nellie McKay and Susan Werner, performing at 7:30 p.m. in Dale B. Lake Auditorium at the Texas Township Campus.
Jazz singer Nellie McKay's seventh album, Sister Orchid, was released in 2018. It starts with Get Away From Me (called "a tour de force" by The New York Times), including Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day, and My Weekly Reader, music of the '60s, her second collaboration with famed Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. On Obligatory Villagers ("a brisk nine-song set that plays like the breathless first act of a stage musical decrying American fascism" – SPIN), Poconos hometown jazz greats Bob Dorough, Phil Woods, and David Liebman contributed their talents.
McKay has won a Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Polly Peachum on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera, performed onscreen in the films PS I Love You and Downtown Express, and her music was used in Rumor Has It, Monster-in-Law, PS I Love You, Gasland, Last Holiday and Private Life.
McKay co-created and starred in the award-winning off-Broadway hit Old Hats and has written three acclaimed musical biographies – I Want to Live!, the story of Barbara Graham, third woman executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin, Silent Spring: It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature, an exploration of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson, and A GIRL NAMED BILL – The Life and Times of Billy Tipton, named one of the Best Concerts of 2014 by The New York Times. Her latest lady bio is The Big Molinsky – Considering Joan Rivers (called "unpredictable, thrilling…sardonic wit…" by The New York Times).
Her music has been heard on Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Weeds, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Nurse Jackie, and SMILF, and she has appeared on TV shows including The Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, Ferguson, and The View. Nellie has made numerous radio appearances on NPR's Mountain Stage, A Prairie Home Companion, eTown, and Marion McPartland's Piano Jazz. The Chase Brock Experience produced a ballet of her third album, Obligatory Villagers, and she contributed the forward to the 20th anniversary edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat. Her writing has also appeared in The Onion, Interview and The New York Times Book Review.
Susan Werner is renowned as a charismatic performer and known above all for challenging herself to conquer new styles every few years. From her 1995 major label debut, the folk/rock gem "Last of the Good Straight Girls," to her 2004 collection of Tin Pan Alley styled originals "I Can't Be New," to her 2007 "agnostic gospel" hymnal "The Gospel Truth", to 2013's tribute to agriculture and her Iowa farm roots "Hayseed" to 2018's Cuban flavored collection "An American In Havana," Werner's creative restlessness has become her defining characteristic.
"I like concept albums, because they provide a place for the audience and the artist to meet. You may not know me and I may not know you, but we both know something about a farmer's market, about what it is to sit in a pew at church and wonder what life means, we both know something about falling in love and maybe falling back out again. I like to have a starting point for an evening's conversation with an audience – it's a great icebreaker."
She first arrived on the national stage when her 1995 BMG debut earned her national concert tours with Joan Armatrading and Richard Thompson. In 1996, Werner was featured as part of the "next generation" in Peter Paul and Mary's PBS special LifeLines. She has performed on NPR's World Café, NPR's Mountain Stage, and in 2016 Nebraska Educational Television broadcast "The Land Will Outlive Us All," a one hour special on Werner, agriculture, and her 2015 concert tour across the state.
Her songs have been recorded by Tom Jones and Michael Feinstein, Broadway stars Betty Buckley and Christine Ebersole, and countless individuals and ensembles. But Werner says she's just getting started: "I just released an album of songs inspired by a trip to Cuba. And I've always wanted to go to Scotland – hey, maybe I could learn the bagpipes. It's not impossible… is it?"
Since its inception in 1986, Kalamazoo Valley's Artists' Forum has exposed the Kalamazoo community and its students to a diverse collection of musicians, artists, writers, actors, singers, dancers and social commentators – including Mavis Staples, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Patty Griffin, David Sedaris and Morris Dees.
Through partial funding provided by The Gilmore Foundation, The Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation and the KVCC Foundation, the Artists' Forum has established a performance series that reflects the Kalamazoo community and broadens the perspective of the performing arts, according to Dave Posther, Chair of Artists' Forum and Kalamazoo Valley photography and film instructor.
Tickets are available at http://www.kvcc.edu/artistsforum, at the Texas Township Campus bookstore (269.488.4030) or by contacting Dave Posther at 269.488.4476. Doors open at 6:45 p.m.
Media Contact:
Dave Posther
Kalamazoo Valley Community College Artists' Forum Chair
269.488.4476 or dposther(at)kvcc(dot)edu
SOURCE Kalamazo Valley Community College
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