I first met Dan Sklar in 1992 when he was an intern at the Goodspeed Opera House and I was there orchestrating “John and Jen.” Both of our lives have changed considerably in the past twenty years; Dan is now the new cantor at Temple Israel in Westport, and he invited me up to doRead More »

A cheerfully random and delightfully chaotic evening tonight at the Academy of Holy Names – what could be more appropriate, after all, than for a Jewish boy to do a concert on Rosh Hashanah in a Catholic girls’ school? Thanks to Lisa Franklin, who brought me up from New York to work with 23 ofRead More »

It has been an amazing week at 54 Below with Shoshana Bean, one of my favorite singers in the entire world. (We’ve still got two shows left tonight!) And if getting to sing with Shoshana wasn’t fantastic enough, I’ve also had my tremendous band, The Caucasian Rhythm Kings, featuring Gary Sieger and Randy Landau andRead More »

For one concert a couple of years ago, I programmed “Over” to follow “The Old Red Hills of Home,” thinking it would be an interesting juxtaposition. I surprised myself (and my band) in the moment by not stopping in between songs – I just improvised a transition that could get me from Eb to ERead More »

From The Trumpet of the Swan, adapted by Marsha Norman from the novel by E.B. White: NARRATOR And then, on the last day before the boats were taken out of the water for the winter, a Western Union messenger boy arrived with a telegram for Louie. It said: MAN CAN OFFER YOU FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARSRead More »