J&R Welcomes Barbara Cook for an Autograph Signing on September 27th
J&R MUSIC WORLD is proud to welcome legendary singer Barbara Cook for an autograph signing on September 27. It was recently announced tha Cook will be receiving the Kennedy Center Honors this December.
On Tuesday, September 27th at 1pm at 23 Park Row (Door number 6) for a signing of her new CD “You Make Me Feel So Young.” Barbara Cook’s silvery soprano, purity of tone, and warm presence have delighted audiences around the world for more than 50 years. Considered “Broadway’s favorite ingenue” during the heyday of the Broadway musical, Miss Cook then launched a second career as a concert and cabaret artist soaring from one professional peak to another.
As a young ingénue, Ms. Cook starred in hit shows like The Music Man and She Loves Me. Whether on the stages of major international venues throughout the world or in the intimate setting of New York’s Café Carlyle Barbara Cook’s popularity continues to thrive – as evidenced by her 1997 birthday concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Albert Hall in London, a succession of triumphant returns to Carnegie Hall where she made a legendary solo concert debut in 1975 , and an ever-growing mantle of honors including the Tony, Grammy, Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, her citation as a Living New York Landmark and her induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Miss Cook made a triumphant return to the Café Carlyle, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the famed nightspot, with her new concert titled Tribute. A recording based on the critically acclaimed concert has just been released on DRG records.
“Barbara Cook is the greatest singer in the world,” wrote the Financial Times’ Alistair Macauley in 1994 after her performance at the Sadlers’ Wells Theatre in London. “Ms. Cook is the only popular singer active today who should be taken seriously by lovers of classical music. Has any singer since Callas matched Cook’s sense of musical architecture? I doubt it.”
A native of Atlanta, Barbara Cook made her Broadway debut in 1951 as the ingenue lead in the musical Flahooley. She subsequently played Ado Annie in the City Center revival of Oklahoma!, followed by a national tour of that hit show. In 1954 her performance as Carrie Pipperidge in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel led to the role of Hilda Miller in the original production of Plain and Fancy. Ms. Cook went on to create the role of Cunegonde in the original production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide.
This was followed by her creations of two classic roles in the America musical theatre — Marian the Librarian in the premiere production of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, a performance which earned her the Tony Award, Amalia in the Bock-Harnick-Masteroff musical She Loves Me. In addition to starring roles in The Gay Life, and The Grass Harp, Ms. Cook played Mrs. Anna in the legendary City Center revival of The King and I and appeared in a second production of Carousel at City Center, this time playing the role of Julie Jordan.
Some time later she played Magnolia in the New York State Theatre’s production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s fabled Showboat. Ms. Cook originated the role of Patsy in Jules Feiffer’s Little Murders, and in 1972 she again returned to the dramatic stage in the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center’s production of
In 1974, Ms. Cook began a creative partnership with musical arranger, accompanist, composer, dance arranger and conductor Wally Harper, a shining model of artistic collaboration and enduring friendship, which lasted for nearly thirty-one years until his death last year. Numerous recordings mark the journey of this unique partnership, beginning with Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall, a live recording of their legendary 1975 Carnegie Hall debut, now freshly re-released by Sony Records. A subsequent engagement at Carnegie Hall in September 1980 was captured on It’s Better With a Band, produced and arranged by Mr. Harper. Ms. Cook and Mr. Harper traveled the world together and performed a number of times at the White House – for Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton.
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