On Friday, May 29, the Jacob Sears Memorial Library in East Dennis, MA, presented “Americans in Paris, Russians on Broadway,“ a program of songs and piano solos developed by baritone John Murelle. A celebration of the music of two of America’s finest songwriters, the performance was given in a cabaret setting in the library’s beautiful late nineteenth-century reading room. Murelle, a top-notch baritone and vocal coach from East Sandwich, was joined by William Merrill, one of Boston’s most sought-after and distinguished collaborative pianists. On bass was the well-known Cape Cod-based musician Brian Sandlin.
Guests were treated to the music of George Gershwin and Vernon Duke, two seminal figures in the history of Broadway. The diverse musical influences and broad musical range of the two composers helped to shape this distinctively American cultural asset, loved and respected by generations of people around the world. Murelle, himself a versatile musician whose interests range from Bach to Broadway, had selected for his audience some of the two composers’ most engaging songs and piano solos.
The unique program delighted the library's guests, while taking them back to an era rich in musical creativity and history. America was a haven from oppression for both composers---Jacob Gershowitz’s family having escaped the persecution of Jews in tzarist Russia and Vladimir Dukelsky’s family having escaped years later when their noble background made them refugees during the Russian Civil War. George Gershwin and Vernon Duke met in New York and became friends, and each collaborated with the great lyricist, George’s brother Ira. Both composers were also drawn to the creative scene in Paris during this period and they poured their sentiments about the City of Light into such sensations as Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” and Duke’s beloved “April in Paris.”
The prodigious talents and diverse interests of the two composers included classical, as well as popular, music and broad cultural sensibilities and sophistication are evident in all they wrote. John Murelle selected for his cabaret audience a string of gems from Vernon Duke such as April in Paris, Taking a Chance on Love, Autumn in New York, and I Can’t Get Started, along with Gershwin standards like A Foggy Day (In London Town), Love Is Here To Stay, Love Walked In and much more.
For more on John Murelle, please visit http://www.johnmurelle.com.