ANNA BERGMAN
Q-Your favorite 3 cabaret
singers (Male and Female)? Cabaret songwriters?
Anna: My favorite cabaret singers:
Female:
1. Anne Hampton Calloway because she takes risks, is an extraordinary
musician, has versatility, vocally and stylistically and truly comes from her
heart.
2. Klea Blackhust because she is naturally so witty, delivers her songs with
confidence and commitment and she is wonderful to work with.
3. Julie Wilson & Andrea Marcovicci because they are generous performers and
very supportive of other artists. They also know who they are as artists and
deliver it!!
Male:
1. Steve Ross because he knows what he does best and is masterful at it.
2. Ron Raines because he sings like a God, is sexy and funny.
3. Lee Roy Reams because he is such a thrilling entertainer, tells the best
stories and has been a great mentor to me.
Cabaret Songwriters:
I adore the great songwriters like Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Irving Berlin,
Rodgers and Hart/Hammerstein, Jerome Kern, Leonard Bernstein, The Gershwins
etc. I also like the contemporary writers like Sondheim, David Friedman, John
Bucchino, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Ricky Ian Gordan and Joe Thalken.
Q-What is Cabaret to you?
Anna: Cabaret is a uniquely special art form that is the most intimate form I
know and that is why I love it so much. To be able to sing into people's eyes,
feel and see them respond to what you are expressing is a gift. As a cabaret
artist, I have great artistic freedom to sing whatever kind of music I choose,
so that I can sing folk, pop and opera in five languages if I choose (and
do!). Cabaret also demands that you be who you are.
Q- What do you like, prefer or aspire to be called: A diva, A super vedette, a
Cabaret sensation or...?
Anna: I like to be called "an artist".
Q-What's next on your agenda?
Anna: I am in rehearsal for several projects coming up and am preparing
repertoire for various concerts in the 2003-04 season. I am currently
performing one of my concert-cabarets in The Hamptons and at The Colony in
Palm Beach this summer and am writing a new show which will be premiered in
Washington DC in September and New York in December.
Q1-What your audience should know most about you? Why?
Anna: What my audience should know most about me is that I like to sing
various styles of music, sometimes in different languages. Why? Because I love
eclectic musical performances and I want them to experience the passionate
beauty of a Puccini melody and listen and maybe contemplate the poignant lyric
of a Sheldon Harnick musical theatre song and then feel the beat of an African
folk song. If a person favors classical music and discovers, in my
performance, an appreciation for a popular song or vice versa, that pleases
me.
Q-Any new releases? Concerts? performances?
Anna: You can visit my website at
http://www.AnnaBergman.com
to find out where I will be performing. Upcoming Performances include: Guild
Hall (Easthampton); The Colony (Palm Beach); The Corcoran Gallery of Art
(Washington DC); The Chicago Humanities Festival (Chicago); Le Chat Noir (New
Orleans); The Stanhope and The 92nd St Y (New York City).
Q-How do you bring life into your songs?
Anna: I always strive to bring my life into my songs because that is what is
true, what makes the songs my own and as an artist I strive to express truth
and be original.
Q-What are you singing about now?
Anna: Now I am singing about peace and beautiful melodies; about bizarre
things that make me laugh; about what it was like to grow up as a diplomat's
daughter in different cultures; and I am singing about the nature of love--
romantic and spiritual.
End of the article.