Songbook Summit

“A fast-paced, vastly entertaining 90-minute show… interesting and informative,” (Cabaret Scenes) Songbook Summit is a live musical drama, lecture and performance celebrating various American Songbook composers.  Each version of the show focuses on one composer’s life and music (George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael or Jimmy Van Heusen).

Led by “virtuosos on clarinet and saxophone” (New York Times) and Juilliard graduates Peter and Will Anderson, Songbook Summit spotlights a 6-piece ensemble featuring a jazz vocalist.  The Anderson’s are Bistro Award winners, and their past shows have been Drama Desk nominated.  Experienced through a swinging jazz sextet, vocal song, informative lecture and rarely seen on screen video, each iconic composer’s life and story is chronologically told.

Conceived in August 2017 in New York City, Songbook Summit debuted at 59E59 Theaters for a 4-week run of 32 shows, and has since run in August 2018, 32 shows at Symphony Space.  Family members of the legendary composers have enjoyed the show such as Nina Beaty Hannoun (Richard Rodgers’s granddaughter), Rita Arlen (Harold Arlen’s sister-in-law) Hoagy Bix Carmichael (Hoagy Carmichael’s son) and Mary Ellin Barrett (Irving Berlin’s daughter).

Each show features 12 classic songs written by the featured composer such as George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow,” Richard Rodgers’ “My Favorite Things,” Irving Berlin’s “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” Jerome Kern’s “‘Ol Man River,” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind,” and Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Come Fly With Me.”