Auditorium Theatre 2019-2020 Celebrate Sondheim

NOVEMBER 16, 2019 | CHICAGO CELEBRATES SONDHEIM! | 3 BIOGRAPHIES Joan Curto (Director) is honored to return to the Auditorium Theatre for her third production, following 2016’s Cole Porter 125 and 2017’s Ella and Lena: The Ladies and Their Music . Curto has been called a “cabaret icon” by NBC-5 Chicago and “an artist with clout” by the Huffington Post. She has appeared across the nation in concerts and clubs, often celebrating the music of the Great American Songbook. As a Chicago- based performer, she is a familiar face to Chicago audiences, garnering a reputation for her thoughtful interpretations and powerful voice. She has performed at many Chicago venues, including the Auditorium Theatre, the Harris Theater, the Empire Room, Victory Gardens, Davenport’s, Drury Lane, Park West, the Thorne Auditorium, and the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center. She has participated in numerous years of the Chicago Humanities Festival and appeared at many of the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Conventions. Nationally, Curto has performed in some of the top cabaret clubs and concert series, including Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Room in New York City, NY; the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center in Milwaukee, WI; the Overture Center in Madison, WI; the Gardenia in Los Angeles, CA; and the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, FL. In 2016, Curto was recognized and awarded with the Gold Coast Award by Chicago Cabaret Professionals for her contributions to the art of cabaret and awarded the Chicago After Dark Award for Outstanding Cabaret Artist. She continues to explore the songs of both the Classic and the New American Songbook, and has developed and performed shows across the country featuring the music of Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerry Herman, and Stephen Sondheim. Howard Reich from the Chicago Tribune has praised Curto’s work, describing her as “a seasoned interpreter who makes every note count.” Her music can be found on CDBaby.com, at iTunes and Amazon, or through her website, JoanCurto.com. Beckie Menzie (Musical Director) has appeared at the legendary Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Birdland in New York; the Auditorium Theatre and Park West in Chicago; and concert halls and art series across the country. Hailed by WGN Radio as “indispensable to Chicago cabaret,” Menzie was featured in Michael Feinstein’s Now & Then Serie s for her Carnegie Hall debut. She has been featured at many Mabel Mercer Cabaret Conventions in New York, the Hamptons, and Chicago, and performed at the Chicago Humanities Festival numerous times, where she served as a performer, director, and musical director. Menzie serves as a Musical Director for Michael Feinstein’s Songbook Academy and performs regularly with Tom Michael. As a duo, they have toured their many concerts across the country. They performed at Carnegie Hall for Cole Porter’s 100 th birthday celebration and appeared with Rich Daniels’ City Lights Orchestra and many other symphonies for their holiday show. Menzie is part of the group Girls Like Us with Laura Freeman and Marianne Murphy Orland, which entertains audiences across the Midwest. She is the co-host for Monday Night Live at Petterino’s and is an award-winning songwriter who coaches Chicago’s young musical talent. For more information, visit BeckieMenzie.com. Rich Daniels (Conductor) has been creating and conducting memorable concerts and events since 1974, when he began his professional journey as a high school freshman on the South Side of Chicago. Music was always a passion for Daniels, as he realized at a very young age that it was possible to captivate an audience with a live performance while touching their hearts and minds in an indelible way. With the City Lights Orchestra, Daniels has been given a chance to participate in thousands of programs nationwide for associations, corporations, and non-profit organizations. Additionally, Daniels and his colleagues have had the chance to take the stage and perform in concert with some of the greatest musical artists of the past half-century, including Ray Charles, Garth Brooks, Mel Tormé, Rosemary Clooney, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Michael Bublé, and David Foster. In recent years, Daniels has also been busy in the studio composing and producing recordings for a wide range of projects. He composed music for the pilot of the Emmy Award- winning show Boss starring Kelsey Grammer, and served as the on-camera music supervisor for Empire on Fox, starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson. He also conducted regional orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Richmond Philharmonic, the Hartford Philharmonic, and others, performing a symphonic celebration of Jerry Garcia with legendary guitarist and vocalist Warren Haynes.