Rosemary Loar, Broadway veteran, composer/lyricist/librettist, 2024 MAC AWARD NOMINEE & 2012 MAC HANSON AWARD WINNER will release her 9th Album/CD, Vagabond Heart (Coraçāo Vagabundo) on Friday, May 3rd @ 7pm @ Chelsea Table +Stage.
Ms. Loar will perform music from the Vagabond Heart CD accompanied by her award-winning trio: Frank Ponzio on piano, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Vito Lesczak on drums, with a guest appearance by Gary Schreiner on chromatic harmonica.
Jazz is front and center on this new project, as Ms. Loar and pianist Ponzio collaborate on creative arrangements of well-known classics along with a couple of hidden gems from the samba, swing jazz waltz playbook, and a few of Loar’s own compositions.
Rosemary and her Trio have been redefining the intersection between jazz and the American songbook throughout their recent performances. In July Ms. Loar was featured (along with her pianist, Frank Ponzio) at the Sicilian Jazz Festival in Palermo, Italy and last fall she and her trio performed at the Ridgefield Park Jazz Festival in New Jersey. Her new CD is the inevitable result of this experimentation.
Ms. Loar’s 40+-year career in music includes such world-renowned New York stages as Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Symphony Space, Birdland, The Iridium, Joe’s Pub, with the Raleigh Symphony, on the PBS New Year’s Eve Special, and cabaret and jazz stages all over the world.
In the years before her most recent projects, Rosemary was an accomplished Broadway performer in shows such as You Can’t Take It With You, Sunset Boulevard with Glen Close, Chess and Cats and Once Upon A Mattress with Sarah Jessica Parker. Loar also performed lead roles in four national tours and numerous regional theaters, earning her a Phoebe Award for best musical theater actress.
Rosemary Loar’s songs have been featured on NBC’s The Today Show, on The Lifetime Network, at The Sicilian Jazz Festival, at Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, Joe Franklin and Joan Hamburg shows, at the UN Fourth Conference for Women in Beijing and in the documentary Our Daughters, Our Future narrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton. In addition to her 5 CD’s of original music Rosemary written, produced and presented two original musicals: Spoolie Girl, which took the award for Best of the Fest at the Midtown International Theatre Festival, and had an Equity run at The Actors Temple Theater; and Water From The Moon which had an Equity production at Urban Stages.
STING*chronicity Loar’s original production featuring Sting’s music combined with monologues, was co-written by Ms. Loar and Robert W. Atwood, was first presented at Joe’s Pub and was most recently presented at the Fringe Festival at Centenary Stages in Hackettstown NJ.
Vagabond Heart is the latest example of Ms. Loar’s lifelong love of jazz, elegantly showcasing her ability to infuse the genre with international influences and traditional cabaret.
“Showing skill as a songstress and songwriter, Rosemary Loar’s approach ranged from jazz to operatic, sometimes utilizing both styles on a single song.” –Variety
Rosemary Loar is that rare combination of jazz vocalist and dramatic actress. She can sing and scat, but she also delivers the lyrics of the selections with a delicate probing of the emotions within. BroadwayWorld.com
“…the one-woman versatility of Rosemary Loar. She is an effervescent soprano, a seasoned theater performer, a jazz bird, vivacious, funny and likeable.” Elizabeth Ahlfors- Cabaret Scenes
Words4Culture 