One Night Stand Concert @ Ars Nova!

It was truly an honor to get to have my first full concert last month at Ars Nova, showcasing music from 2 Original Musicals I'm writing with Katie Hathaway, Afterland & Starblasters, and accompanied by a remarkable slew of talented musicians and performers. Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible, including Music Director David Gardos, Producer Susan Griffin, Associate Producer Lilla Goettler, & Orchestrator Solomon Hoffman.

Please check out some of the videos below!

BAND:
David Gardos (Piano), Joe Nero (Drums), Ben Gallina (Bass), Hideaki Aomori (Reeds), Monica Davis (Violin), Adrian Aiello (Guitar)

PERFORMERS:
Alysha Umphress, Emily Skeggs, Arielle Jacobs, Lilli Cooper, Van Hughes, Robert Ariza, Benjamin Velez, Katie Hathaway, Joey Goldberg, Chris Silverberg, Jenny Rose Baker, Shannon Mullen, Yasmeen Audi, & Emma Hathaway

CenterStage Boulder performs 8 Velez/Hathaway Songs in "40 Degrees North"

This past Friday the CenterStage Theater Company in Boulder, Colorado performed 6 songs from Afterland and 2 more from other projects as part of their show 40 Degrees North: A Cabaret of New Work and Great Talent, Directed by Jeanie Balch and Music Direction by Daniel Graeber.

Katie and I couldn't make it out to Boulder for the concert, but it was truly an honor to have them performing our work, and luckily they filmed it and put them on their YouTube Channel.

Here's Chanel Karimkhani singing "Philly Philly Philadelphia" from Afterland and absolutely NAILING it. 

AFTERLAND Reading at the York Theater - Directed by Mark Brokaw

We feel incredibly lucky to have had our first NYC reading of AFTERLAND at the York Theater February 11th, 2016. Thank you to everyone at the York for making it possible, thanks to our year-long residency there through the NEO program. 

Check out the cast photo of our INCREDIBLE team, which included:

Director: Mark Brokaw
Music Director: David Gardos
Stage Manager: Sonja Thorson

CAST
Christy Altomare, Alex Boniello, Daniel Jenkins, Rebecca Luker, Jacob Ming-Trent,  Alexandra Socha, Alysha Umphress, and Donald Webber Jr. 

We were lucky enough to get a write up in PlayBill and Broadway World!

Columbia University Songbook at 54 Below - March 10th @ 9:30PM

I'm honored to be showcasing my work alongside some of Columbia's most talented songwriting alums, including Tom Kitt, Jeanine Tesori and Peter Lerman, as well as Legends like Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein/Lorenz Hart and John Kander and Fred Ebb.

The concert is being put together by Laura Pietropinto who is celebrating the Columbia tradition of theater writing largely indebted to The Varsity Show, the longest performing arts tradition at Columbia and where most of us got our first legs.

Katie and I will be doing two songs from Afterland with the help of Donna Vivino, Emily Walton and Michael Anthony Walsh. We couldn't be more thrilled and excited!

More info on the concert here: http://54below.com/artist/columbia-university-songbook/ I'll update with videos once I have them!

Afterland to be workshopped at YIMT in June!

Afterland was selected for a workshop this summer at the Yale Institute for Music Theater! We are incredibly thrilled to have the marvelous Mark Brokaw directing and Kim Grigsby music directing. We are so looking forward to further developing the piece with them and the team at YIMT!

http://drama.yale.edu/YIMT/2014-institute

New Afterland Song, "Before the End" at 54 Below

Katie and I are honored to be presenting a new song from our original musical Afterland at 54 Below on February 17th! We'll be showcasing it as part of the latest Cutting Edge Composers concert series with the incredibly talented Van Hughes (American Idiot) performing it.

Check out the event here and check back afterwards for a video link.

UPDATE: Check out the video from the concert on youtube, not the greatest quality, but Van killed it.

Van Hughes performing "Before the End" from the new musical Afterland as part of Cutting Edge Composers V at 54 Below, February 17th 2014.

Premiering 2 songs from Afterland at "The Platform" →

I'm really excited to be a part of this great concert put together by my talented friend and fellow songwriter Drew Gasparini, featuring several new musical theater writers and performers. 

The concert goes up this Sunday, December 2nd at THE FLUTE in Gramercy and I'm lucky enough to have the wonderful Beverly and Kirby Ward joining Katie Hathaway and I on "Old Country" and the mind-blowing Alexander Boikai on "Where Did the Wonder Go?", both from our new musical Afterland.

Will update with videos after the concert! In the meantime, check up the write ups at Playbill and BroadwayWorld.

***UPDATE*** Concert was a blast! Check out the video from "Old Country" below and find the rest of the performances at http://www.youtube.com/user/PlatformNYC

Kirby Ward, Bev Ward, Benjamin Velez and Katie Hathaway perform "Old Country" by Benjamin Velez and Katie Hathaway at the Flute Bar in NYC on 12/2/12 for Drew Gasparini Presents: The Platform! Filmed/Edited By: Christina Verde - cverde0312@gmail.com