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A Musical Life
This show is a musical journey through some of the songs which have enriched Bill's life. The format of the show permits some of the musical selections to vary for each performance, even to the point of tailoring the show to the mood of the audience. Elegant and sophisticated, droll and at times comical, the impression left with each listener is one of having spent a warm and intimate evening with good friends, feeling the beauty of music which most of us don't hear very often, and enjoying the laughter and poignancy of having been present together at a very special moment.
Audiences have been treated to Classical works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, and Gottschalk, songs from musicals and movies, arrangements and spontaneous New Age compositions by Bill, popular music from Sinatra and Fitzgerald through to Ann Murry and Bette Midler, ragtime music (with stoptime by the audience), blues, gospel, jazz, and the best of the timeless international art songs recently re-popularized by the Three Tenors.
This is a more compact and energetic retrospective of music one might have experienced in America between 1890 and 1930. This was the era of Joplin and Gershwin, Boogie Woogie and Ragtime, Jazz and The Blues. It was also a time of great change for America, as it experienced the Turn of the Century and the Industrial Age, the War to End All Wars followed by the Great Depression, and an unprecedented cultural influx of immigrants from the Old World.
The show features music from this time, with a thoughtful balance between Classical, popular, ragtime, jazz, and contemporary styles. The songs come thick and fast, and are joined with a patter which can be amusing, factual, melancholy, and touching, according to the mood of the music. The audience gets involved at every step, both as listeners to and participants in the musical experience.
We've had quite a few requests for a three-hanky, highbrow classical show, and this is the answer. Bring someone you love along to float in Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, sigh over strains of Traumerei, and experience romance like you've never felt before, guided by your hosts and commentators for the evening, Ed and Art.
"A Muse Me" is an original one-act play which frames some of the greatest classical piano music ever written.