Singer/Songwriter B. Iris Tanner debuts her newest CDSinger/Songwriter B. Iris Tanner debuts her newest CD
Somerville, MA / June 1, 2005 – Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theatre in Somerville, MA plays host to an exciting premiere on Sunday, June 26 as Boston area singer/songwriter B. Iris Tanner debuts her newest CD of original cabaret songs, Magnum Opuss. Iris will begin the show with a reprise of her popular solo cabaret show, The Trouble With Men. The second half of the show features several Boston area cabaret favorites performing Iris's original songs, as well as some of their own material. These artists - Jinny Sagorin, Jan Peters, Sophia Bilides, and Jon-Daniel Durbin - are featured on the CD, along with the vocal talents of Mary Scarlata-Rowe and Will McMillan.
The concert begins at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 26 at Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theatre, located in the basement of the Gorin Building at 255 Elm Street in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. Tickets are $15. For more information or to order tickets, please call (866) 811-4111 or visit www.jtoffbroadway.com.
In addition to her musical ventures, Iris has also bred and shown pedigreed cats for over 15 years and is now a licensed judge of longhair cats for the Cat Fanciers Association (the feline equivalent of the American Kennel Club). This may explain the title of Iris's new CD Magnum Opuss. Thanks to a joking suggestion from pianist/recording engineer Doug Hammer, the CD's cover photo features one of Iris's show cats posing with a magnum of champagne.
B. Iris Tanner's musical background encompasses many years of childhood piano lessons, accompanying experience for high school and college musicals, eight years of flute lessons, seven years of classical voice lessons and several solo concerts in her former incarnation as a lyric soprano. However, it includes no songwriting training whatsoever. This did not stop her from writing songs, which she began doing as a teenager. It was not until she reached her mid-thirties that these songs saw the light of day, first at Boston-area open mikes and at the Boston Songwriters' Workshop.
In subsequent material, she weaned herself away from torch songs and began to focus more on the everyday absurdities of life and love. Her music evolved from eclectic folk to cabaret-style songs, known for witty and quirky lyrics and touches of humor. Will McMillan performed one of her lighter works, Nevertheless at the 2002 Boston Cabaret Festival at Scullers. Since then, her songs have also been performed at TCAN (The Center for the Arts in Natick) and at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. In spring 2003, she was the guest songwriter at McMillan's Will and Company concert. Material from that concert was recorded for her second CD, Fresh-Cut Iris. Iris's song "Warning Labels" was selected for inclusion in the Boston Sings Boston III revue performed by Centastage at Club Café in fall 2003, and she recently became a member of ASCAP.
Iris will be joined in this concert by four talented Boston-area cabaret favorites. Vocalist Sophia Bilides received the 2005 IRNE Award for Best Female Cabaret Performer (Independent Reviewers of New England) for her show Young And Foolish / Are You Having Any Fun?, and was named one of Bay Windows' Top Ten Cabaret Performers of 2004. She has been reviewed nationally in Cabaret Scenes Magazine and Cabaret Hotline Online. Described as "a consummate interpreter" (Theater Mirror) who "spins gold" (Bay Windows), she performs annually at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston.
2003 IRNE Award Winner Jan Peters, (Best Female Cabaret Artist) and Bay Windows newspaper "Best Cabaret Performer Of The Year 2002" is a Eugene O'Neill Cabaret Symposium Fellow whose work draws from an extensive repertoire of Broadway and standard material. Recent performances include the prestigious Mabel Mercer Foundation's Annual Cabaret Conventions in New York and The Hamptons. Jan's show Old Fashioned, Please! was named one of "Boston's Top Ten" and was honored with a 2004 IRNE Award nomination.
Boston area audiences have seen veteran musical theatre performer Jon-Daniel Durbin in numerous musical leading roles, among them Frederik in A Little Night Music and in the title role of Sweeney Todd, both at the Publick Theatre of Boston. Other notable starring roles include Harold Hill in The Music Man, Michael in I Do! I Do! and The Beast in Beauty and the Beast at Washington's Kennedy Center. A second cousin of film star and singer Deanna Durbin, this Louisville, Kentucky native recently previewed his debut cabaret offering Listen To My Heart at a benefit for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford.
Musical theatre and cabaret performer Jinny Sagorin made her debut at Scullers Jazz Club in February 2005 with a sold-out performance of her show, It's For You, which launched her first solo CD to critical acclaim. Born in Durban in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Jinny recently became a U.S. citizen. Since moving to Boston, she was one of thirty-six performers selected from nation-wide auditions to attend the prestigious Cabaret Conference at Yale University in 2003, and has performed at Club Café, Encore, The Center for Arts in Natick, Blacksmith House, Amazing Things Art Center, as well as singing at private and corporate events throughout New England.
Click here to see photos of the show.
Contact: Tommy Hensel, (603) 755-3091 or TAHensel@aol.com