T H E P Ro G

Thursday Evening, February 4, 2016, at 8:30 m a r g The Songs of Todd Almond o r With special guests Courtney Love, Sherie Rene Scott, P and Brandon Victor Dixon e Lear deBessonet , Director h David Bloom , Musical Director T Barrie McLain , Vocals Sylver Wallace , Vocals Angela Sclafani, Kate Douglas, Molly McAdoo , Sirens Bobby Lewis Ensemble Josh Henderson and Sarah Goldfeather , Violin Sarah Elizabeth Haines , Viola Eric Allen , Cello Jon Spurney , Piano and Guitar Ann Klein , Guitar Jeremy Chatzky , Bass Eric Halvorson , Drums This evening’s program is approximately 75 minutes long and will be performed without intermission. This performance is being streamed live; cameras will be present. Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off. Major support for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook is provided by Amy & Joseph Perella. Endowment support provided by Bank of America This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. Steinway Piano The Appel Room Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall American Songbook Additional support for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook is provided by The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, The Shubert Foundation, Jill and Irwin B. Cohen, The G & A Foundation, Inc., Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. Artist catering provided by Zabar’s and zabars.com MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center UPCOMING AMERICAN SONGBOOK EVENTS IN THE APPEL ROOM: Friday Evening, February 5, at 8:30 Janis Ian Saturday Evening, February 6, at 8:30 Jerry Dixon & Mario Cantone Wednesday Evening, February 17, at 8:30 Foreigner: The Hits Unplugged Thursday Evening, February 18, at 8:30 A Coffin in Egypt: An Opera-in-Concert featuring Frederica von Stade Friday Evening, February 19, at 8:30 Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! Saturday Evening, February 20, at 8:30 Andy Karl & Orfeh Wednesday Evening, February 24, at 8:30 Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla & Bhi Bhiman: Swimming in Dark Waters—Other Voices of the American Experience Thursday Evening, February 25, at 8:30 La Santa Cecilia The Appel Room is located in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit AmericanSongbook.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 or visit AmericanSongbook.org for complete program infor - mation. Join the conversation: #LCSongbook We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces . Flash photography and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. American Songbook I Meet the Artists s t s i t r A e N O h S L U t A P A H S t I T A e e Todd Almond M Todd Almond is a composer, lyricist, and playwright. His musical Girlfriend , which uses new arrangements of Matthew Sweet’s epony - mous cult album, had an acclaimed run last summer at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles under the direction of Les Waters, following pro - ductions at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. In March 2015 his musical Iowa , a collaboration with playwright Jenny Schwartz, received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in New York. He also composed, and starred alongside Courtney Love, in the opera Kansas City Choir Boy at the Prototype festival, directed by Kevin Newbury. Mr. Almond composed, wrote, and starred in an adaptation of The Odyssey at the Delacorte Theater for the Public Theater’s Public Works program under Lear deBessonet’s direction; it previously premiered at the Old Globe. The two also worked together to create adaptations of The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest for the Public Works program in 2013–14, which Mr. Almond also composed, wrote for, and starred in; each of these produc - tions featured casts of 200 people and received rave reviews. Mr. Almond recently wrote the music for, and performed in, Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss at Playwrights Horizons. Other credits include a musical ver - sion of Ruhl’s Melancholy Play , originally produced by Page 73, with an acclaimed recent production at Trinity Repertory Company. Mr Almond also wrote the music and lyrics for We Have Always Lived in the Castle at Yale Repertory Theatre, and was the music director/arranger for Sherie Rene Scott’s lauded Piece of Meat at 54 Below and at the Hippodrome, London. He was also the music director/arranger for Laura Benanti’s acclaimed solo show at 54 Below, and can be heard on Benanti’s live album In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention . Mr. Almond’s albums include Mexico City and his newly released Memorial Day . American Songbook I Meet the Artists Courtney Love Courtney Love is a musician, song - writer, actress, and activist. Her music with the band Hole and as a soloist broke new ground, combining music of singular power and riveting emotional intensity with lyrics of intellectual and observational acuity. Two Hole albums, Live through This and Celebrity Skin , went multiplatinum. In addition to her many music-related activities, including impassioned involvement in a variety of artist rights–related issues, Ms. Love continues to pursue her love of acting and recently completed production on James Franco’s film The Long Home , based on William Gay’s debut novel of the same title. She can also be seen in the final season of the critically acclaimed series Sons of Anarchy , as well as in guest roles on the hit shows Empire and Revenge. On stage Ms. Love recently starred in the sold-out hit Kansas City Choir Boy , an original opera composed by Todd Almond, as part of New York’s Prototype fes - tival. Her much-celebrated turn as Althea Flynt in the 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt was a career breakthrough, earning Ms. Love a Golden Globe nomi - nation, along with Best Supporting Actress awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Boston Society of Film Critics. Sherie Rene Scott Sherie Rene Scott co-wrote and starred in Second Stage Theatre’s Whorl Inside a Loop , a meta-the ater piece with Dick Scanlan. She also co- wrote, with Scanlan, and starred in Everyday Rapture in 2009. When the show moved to Broadway, Ms. Scott received Tony Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Book of a Musical, as well as Drama Desk Award nominations for Best Musica l, Actress, and Book, and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for Leading Actress and Outstanding Musical. In 2013 she wrote and performed the critically acclaimed Piece of Meat with Todd Almond . Other credits include John Guare’s Landscape of the Body (Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations), Disney’s The Little Mermaid American Songbook I Meet the Artists (Outer Critics Circle nomination), Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida (Clarence Derwent Award), The Last Five Years (Drama Desk nomination), Randy Newman’s Faust , and Kander and Ebb’s Over and Over (Helen Hayes nomi - nation). Ms. Scott founded the Grammy-winning Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records, and is a producer of the film The Last Five Years. Brandon Victor Dixon Brandon Victor Dixon’s Broadway credits include Shuffle Along , Motown: The Musical (Berry Gordy; Grammy and Drama League nomi - nations), and The Color Purple (Harpo; Tony nomination). He has appeared in Cotton Club Parade with Wynton Marsalis and House of Flowers at City Center Encores! Off-Broadway credits include The Scottsboro Boys (Haywood Patter - son; Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle awards) and Rent (Tom Collins). Regional credits include Ray Charles Live! and Far From Heaven . On television Mr. Dixon has appeared in Quincy Jones’s America’s Millennium , One Life to Live , Law & Order: Criminal Intent , and The Good Wife . He is a graduate of Columbia University. Lear deBessonnet Lear deBessonet (director) is an Obie and Lucille Lortel Award–winning direc - tor. She is currently resident director at the Public Theater and director of its Public Works program, for which she has directed musical adaptations of The Tempest , The Winter’s Tale, and The Odyssey at the Delacorte Theater. Also for the Public, she directed Good Person of Szechwan (produced by Foundry Theatre at La MaMa; winner of Lucille Lortel, Obie, and Lilly awards; Drama Desk nomination). She directed Pump Boys and Dinettes for Encores! Off-Center, and has directed shows at the Old Globe, Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3, Intiman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Joe’s Pub, Women’s Project Theater, Performance Space 122, and 13p. She has received awards including a Doris Duke Impact Award, Theatre Communications Group’s Peter Zeisler Award, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Presidential Award for Artistic Excellence, and the Meadows Prize. Ms. deBessonet has also acted as a visiting professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. American Songbook I Meet the Artists David Bloom David Bloom (musical director) is the founding co-artistic director of Contemporaneous, a New York–based ensemble of 21 musicians dedicated to performing the most exciting music of the present moment. A devoted advo - cate for new music, Mr. Bloom has conducted over 120 world premieres at such venues as Carnegie Hall and Le Poisson Rouge in addition to Lincoln Center. He has worked with artists and ensembles as diverse as David Byrne, Donnacha Dennehy, NOW Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Dylan Mattingly, and Dawn Upshaw.

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