Cover: $8/$6 w/ Student ID   www.myspace.com/thebrooklynproject

Cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach has performed extensively as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals across the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. She has collaborated with conductors Mstislav Rostropovich, James DePreist and Peter Oundjian, and with The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Fort Worth Symphony , the Charleston Symphony, the Lake Forest Symphony (Chicago). Her recording with pianist Fabio Bidini of the Franck and Rachmaninoff Sonatas is released on the Encore Performance label. With the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ms. Gerlach performed solo cello music on a month-long tour of India and at New York’s City Center, and she has collaborated in a duo with New York City Ballet principal dancer, Damian Woetzel, at the Caramoor Festival. As a chamber musician, Ms. Gerlach has performed at numerous festivals including Marlboro, Aspen, Piccolo Spoleto and Caramoor, where she is a Texaco Rising Star. She is a member of Concertante, a string sextet based in New York City.

British pianist Simon Mulligan celebrated his début aged 19 at London's Barbican Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; a month later he recorded his first compact disc under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin. This led to a seven-year collaboration and friendship, culminating in what was to be Lord Menuhin's final concert in Dusseldorf, March 1999. Described by The Times of London as 'the most abundantly gifted of pianists', Simon performs and records internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. He has made over twenty recordings for compact disc, including performances of Martinu's Triple Concerto (conducted by Menuhin), Rozsa’s Spellbound concerto with the BBC Symphony conducted by Slatkin, Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, his own Suite for Piano and Orchestra, the Beethoven Sonatas, and the Nocturnes of Chopin. As a chamber musician, Simon collaborates with many notable artists, including violinist Joshua Bell, with whom he has appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, the 2002 Grammy Awards, and a recent performance for President Obama at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.. In other fields, Simon has supported Van Morrison, Dame Shirley Bassey and Liza Minnelli, and was invited to perform for Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family at London’s Royal Albert Hall.   www.SimonMulligan.com

Cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach has performed extensively as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals across the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. She has collaborated with conductors Mstislav Rostropovich, James DePreist and Peter Oundjian, and with The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Fort Worth Symphony , the Charleston Symphony, the Lake Forest Symphony (Chicago). Her recording with pianist Fabio Bidini of the Franck and Rachmaninoff Sonatas is released on the Encore Performance label. With the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Ms. Gerlach performed solo cello music on a month-long tour of India and at New York’s City Center, and she has collaborated in a duo with New York City Ballet principal dancer, Damian Woetzel, at the Caramoor Festival. As a chamber musician, Ms. Gerlach has performed at numerous festivals including Marlboro, Aspen, Piccolo Spoleto and Caramoor, where she is a Texaco Rising Star. She is a member of Concertante, a string sextet based in New York City.

British pianist Simon Mulligan celebrated his début aged 19 at London's Barbican Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; a month later he recorded his first compact disc under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin. This led to a seven-year collaboration and friendship, culminating in what was to be Lord Menuhin's final concert in Dusseldorf, March 1999. Described by The Times of London as 'the most abundantly gifted of pianists', Simon performs and records internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. He has made over twenty recordings for compact disc, including performances of Martinu's Triple Concerto (conducted by Menuhin), Rozsa’s Spellbound concerto with the BBC Symphony conducted by Slatkin, Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, his own Suite for Piano and Orchestra, the Beethoven Sonatas, and the Nocturnes of Chopin. As a chamber musician, Simon collaborates with many notable artists, including violinist Joshua Bell, with whom he has appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, the 2002 Grammy Awards, and a recent performance for President Obama at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.. In other fields, Simon has supported Van Morrison, Dame Shirley Bassey and Liza Minnelli, and was invited to perform for Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family at London’s Royal Albert Hall.   www.SimonMulligan.com

Simon Mulligan
British pianist Simon Mulligan celebrated his début aged 19 at London's Barbican Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; a month later he recorded his first compact disc under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin. This led to a seven-year collaboration and friendship, culminating in what was to be Lord Menuhin's final concert in Dusseldorf, March 1999.

Described by The Times of London as 'the most abundantly gifted of pianists', Simon performs and records internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. His recent recording of Beethoven sonatas will soon be released on Sony Masterworks. His previous solo album for Sony Classical, “Piano” won great acclaim throughout Europe, South America and the Far East, and featured in various television, radio, and internet campaigns. He has recorded more than fifteen discs, including performances of Martinu's Triple Concerto (conducted by Menuhin)

As a jazz pianist, he has led several of his own groups since he was 13, performing at festivals throughout the UK, Europe, Shanghai and Barbados. His new jazz quartet album, “Playlist”, will soon be released by Sony.

James Weidman
A valued and talented pianist, James Weidman has been a sideman and accompanist in many settings over the past 20 years, from Abbey Lincoln and Steve Coleman to Kevin Mahogany and Joe Lovano. He has also proven to be an increasingly significant bandleader and composer. His most recent CD, Three Worlds (released September 2009 on Inner Circle Music), is arguably his finest recording to date.

James Weidman’s music fits into the modern mainstream of jazz without being predictable. With original chord changes and voicings, his mastery is demonstrated with various changes in rhythm and time.   www.SimonMulligan.com ,  www.jamesweidman.com

We have reason to believe this is the only celebration on this side of the pond of Alfred Lord Tennyson's 200th birthday.

"Enoch Arden" is a poem published in 1864 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, during his tenure as England's Poet Laureate.

The hero of the poem, fisherman turned merchant sailor Enoch Arden, leaves his wife Annie and three children to go to sea with his old captain, who is offering him work.

He finds upon his return from the sea that, after his long absence, his wife, who believed him dead, is married happily to another man, his childhood friend Philip, and has a child by him. .

The story could be considered a variation on and antithesis to the Classical myth of Odysseus, who after an absence of twenty years at sea found a faithful wife who had been loyally waiting for him.

Audrey Saint-Gil was born in Toulouse, France, and attended the Conservatoire National de Musique de Toulouse where she was awarded several first prizes with distinction as a pianist soloist and as a vocal coach. She received as well a PhD from the University of Toulouse. Mrs Saint-Gil has worked as a pianist and vocal coach for several famous opera houses such as Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Carnegie Hall and The Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Paul Hecht has appeared regularly at the Café as the director of the Happy Birthday Poet series. His theatre work includes Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Tony nomination 1968),The Invention of Love, 1776, Noises Off ,and Pirandello's Henry IV (Obie award 1990). He appeared in the Stoppard/Previn Theatre piece Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, and Façade (Sitwell/Walton)with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has recorded audio-books of works by Ray Bradbury, Alexander McCall Smith, and Thomas Mann. He has appeared as several unsavory characters in most of the Daytime Dramas and of course Law and Order.He appears regularly at Symphony Space (Selected Shorts) and the 92nd street Y, where he directed Edna St Vincent Millays poetry play Conversation at Midnight.He performs a program of John Donne and Shakespeare Sonnets with the early music group Parthenia, and reads to 4th and 5th grade students at PS 255 in deepest Brooklyn as part of Screen Actors Guilds Bookpals Program.

 Cover $10

“Brilliantly performed…very impressive.”
- Ahmad Jamal, jazz piano legend, of Waltzer's ‘100 Dreams Ago.’

"In the era of concept records, this startling young pianist has flipped the script: the message behind One Hundred Dreams Ago is ‘let's just play.’ Accordingly the trio gets its bustle on. Ellington's small groups are in the air here, and the pleasure Waltzer generates is bountiful.”
- Jim Macnie, the Village Voice
 Cover $10   www.myspace.com/benwaltzer