I was pleased to be interviewed for the program Two On The Aisle a few days after the show at Theater555. Please follow the link below to view the program. It begins with a review of a play by the hosts, then at 6:21 there is an interview with Eric Krebs the wonderful producer of Livin’ It, the revue using my songs, and then at 20:29 there is an interview with me!
Tune in to Between the Keys, with Jed Distler and Donna Weng Friedman on November 10 at 3pm, or November 11 at 6pm on WWFM
Steinway Hall, New York Women Composers Presents "Five Composers and a Pianist", a concert and panel discussion. Featuring Donna Weng Friedman, pianist, performing music by de Kenessey, Sherman, Moon, Nourbakhsh and Mandel. Panel discussion led by Jed Distler. Time to be confirmed.
The two performances of Livin’ It, the collection of 26 of my songs which were performed at Theater555 on W42nd Street on September 11th and 12th were wonderful, and the second was timed to land on my 100th Birthday. It was a terrific way to celebrate. I am very grateful to Denise Puriceli, who’s been such a staunch advocate of my work the past few years, to Mary Kunicki who introduced us, to Eric Krebs the warm generous producer (how often do you hear those words together?) who made this all happen, to Hannah Ryan who worked with Denise to whittle down from a very long list of hundreds of songs to a manageable number and weave them together into a compelling 80 minutes, and to the amazing cast - Erica Spyres, Cassondra James, Sydney Borchers, and Nikita Burshteyn - who did such an amazing job with these songs on just 20 hours of rehearsal! Thank You!
Chatting with the cast after the show.
From the press release…
A ONCE IN 100 YEARS EVENT!
PRODUCER ERIC KREBS TO PRESENT “LIVIN’ IT! – THE MUSIC AND LYRICS OF JULIE MANDEL” A MUSICAL REVUE
CONCEIVED BY DENISE PURICELLI & HANNAH RYAN, MUSIC DIRECTION BY DENISE PURICELLI DIRECTED BY HANNAH RYAN
FEATURING: CASSONDRA JAMES, SYDNEY BORCHERS, ERICA SPYRES, AND NIKITA BURSHTEYN
THEATER 555 (555 WEST 42ND STREET)
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 @ 4:30 PM and TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 @ 7:30 PM
Producer Eric Krebs will present LIVIN’ IT! – The Music and Lyrics of Julie Mandel for two (2) special performances - Monday, September 11 @ 4:30pm and Tuesday, September 12 @ 7:30pm at Theater 555 (555 West 42nd Street).
Composer/lyricist Julie Mandel has been writing music and lyrics (pop songs, musicals, children's records, opera, etc.) since the 1940's and in celebration of her 100th birthday on September 12, a musical tribute to this amazing woman will be presented to mark this auspicious occasion. LIVIN’ IT! – The Music of Julie Mandel, is a 4-actor revue, conceived by Denise Puricelli, who serves as music director, and directed by Hannah Ryan. Ms. Puricelli and Ms. Ryan are co-creators of "LIVIN' IT!"
The cast will feature: Cassondra James, Sydney Borchers, Erica Spyres, and Nikita Burshteyn. Production and media design is by Caite Hevner.
Julie Mandel’s life is a very interesting one in relation to the journey of women in the composers' and songwriters' world of the 1940's, 50's, 60's and beyond. Many of Julie's original songs have been recorded by prominent artists over the past 70 years. When Frank Loesser started his publishing company Frank Music, Julie was one of the first composer/lyricists that he signed, and he produced recordings of several of her songs. In her 100th year, Julie still works almost every day at her keyboard and her computer.
“Meeting Julie Mandel for the first time was a joyful moment,” shares Mr. Krebs. “At the time she was 98. When I became familiar with her hundreds of songs, her lyrics, her classical compositions, I was even more astounded. Here is a woman who has taken on so many dragons and conquered them all. I couldn't think of a better tribute than to present an entirely original musical revue in honor of her 100th birthday. Born September 12 1923, we will present LIVIN' IT! on the exact day of her 100th birthday, September 12, 2023 – with her in attendance. I hope the joy will spread worldwide."
I was deeply honored to be featured in the neighborhood’s local paper, the Forest Hills Times this week. Dear friend Mary Kunicki reached out to a lovely young reporter named Michael Perlman, who came to the house and interviewed me, and then produced an amazing three-page spread which can be seen online here!
Thank you so much to everyone who helped to prepare and present an evening of my songs on October 24th 2022 at Theater 555 on 42nd Street in NYC! Thanks especially to Denise Puricelli who really went to bat for my work and exhausted herself putting the evening together and performing it; to Eric Krebs who embraced my music and produced the evening at his theater; to the wonderful Mary Kunicki, without whom none of this would ever have happened; to Emily Maltby who directed the evening and who learned about my kind of music in the cradle; and of course to the five singers who took the time to learn and sing my work.
Me and Denise with the cast and the wonderful bass player.
Produced by Eric Krebs
Conceived by Denise Puricelli
Music Direction by Denise Puricelli
Directed by Emily Maltby
Producing Assistant - Mary Kunicki
Music and Lyrics by - me!
Performed by:
Melissa Victor
Bass - Mary Ann McSweeney
Back in the early days of Sesame Street I wrote some songs on spec and sent them in hoping that they’d be interested in some of them, or ask me to write for the show occasionally. I never heard from them.
This one for three - um, four muppets - still makes me laugh.
Joel Braun, Associate Professor of Double Bass at the University of Texas at Austin, recently posted this performance of my piece for Bass and Piano called Solitude In The City with pianist Alexandre Maynegre-Torra. Here’s the link to his youtube post. Enjoy! If you’d like the sheet music, please contact me directly through my site’s Contact link.
Just my luck. I understand why they had to postpone, but I am disappointed. Thanks to everyone who sent their well-wishes about this originally. I will let you know when there are new dates.
Amas Musical Theatre Postpones 'Dare To Be Different' Festival at A.R.T./New York Theatres
The festival was set to run January 27 – February 18.
by Stephi Wild Jan. 6, 2022
Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) announced today that due to the ongoing issues regarding Covid, they are postponing the fourth year of "Dare To Be Different," a festival of new musicals and special events which was to run from January 27 - February 18, 2022 at A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street - 10th Avenue & 53rd Street). For more information, please visit www.amasmusical.org.
In a statement, Donna Trinkoff, Amas Artistic Producer said: "As optimistic as we wanted to be, we cannot ignore the rising statistics that are currently beleaguering our city and our beloved industry. First and foremost, we want to keep our company and our artists safe and in good health. We want our audiences to feel safe as well and happy to return to the theatre and participate in the activities at Amas. We remain committed to presenting the shows that were represented in the Festival, and once things have settled down, we will reschedule these exciting new musicals."
Thanks to Mary Kunicki who introduced me and my music to pianist and music director Denise Puricelli, who loved it and introduced me to producer Eric Krebs who loved it, some of my work is being presented as a show at Amas Musical Theater’s Dare to be Different Festival. I’m very excited! For more information please visit the web site at https://www.amasmusical.org/2022-dare-to-be-different-festival . It will be at ART NY’s Mezzanine Theater on W53rd Street on February 17th and 18th.
I’ve forgotten the circumstances around the making of these two demos, on opposite sides of a slightly scratchy 78 RPM disk, but the label says Richard Mills, Mills Music. It must have been the early 1960’s. I have no idea who the studio singer was, but she did such a great job!
Two Little People, or Its A Miracle was from a very early show I wrote with my husband called Love From Sandy.
David, of course, was for my husband David Dachs.
Click the image above to jump to the recordings, or visit the Recordings page.
Marvin Rosen, long-time host of Classical Discoveries, says "I hope you will join me this Tuesday morning, August 10, 2021 from 7am till 10am for Classical Discoveries. Here is a list of some of the works and composers to be presented: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (2007) by American composer, Lee Actor (1952- ) Divertimenti In Italia (String Quartet No. 6) (2012) by American composer, Curt Cacioppo (1951- ) Concertino for alto saxophone and orchestra by Brazilian composer, Radames Gnattali (1906-1988) Moods for violin, viola and cello (2010) by American composer, Julie Mandel, Utopia Symphony for chorus and orchestra (2005) by Russian composer, Vladimir Martynov (1946- ) Plus music by: Priscilla Alden Beach, Betsy Jolas, Max Nagl, Cristina Spinei and others if time allows.
On 103.3FM Princeton NJ. or www. wprb.com Celebrating its 25th year on the air!".
In 1956 or 1957 I think Frank Music recorded demos of seven of my songs with several singers. Sadly, I don’t know who they were. The musical direction was a little more dated than some of the demo recordings that TRO and Mills Music would later make, but I’m very glad to have them anyway. Songs used to have intros, and many of these recordings include them - sometimes long ones! I hope you enjoy them. Just click here or the image above to jump to the recordings.
During my years stalking the Brill Building I kept getting told by one publisher after another that they loved my songs, but that “its just not commercial”. In one particular case I played them my song “David”, which they loved but they passed on, saying “David just isn’t a very popular name”. In a business driven by the sale of individual songs on 45’s and increasingly focussed on the youth market rather than music “for adults”, publishers were shifting from well-known vocalists singing standards and new material scored in lush orchestra or jazzy big-band arrangements by people like Nelson Riddle to teen-oriented pop songs for the boy or girl-groups that were taking over the recording industry. It was like the door was slowly being closed on a bunch of talented people and in my frustration I wrote a song called “Its Commercial”.
Sometime between 1956 and 1960, I think, Frank Music, my publisher at the time, recorded a demo of it. I wish I knew who the singer was, because he did a fantastic job. Its a great performance by a comic singer that sounds like he stepped out of a movie musical, or the Catskills in the late 50’s (he probably did!). Fabulous, right down to the NY inflections. Enjoy.
I’ve been having a lot of fun working with my son and webmaster Joshua expanding my home page. The previous short bio focused mainly on chamber music and we wanted to add more information about my background, my teachers, my pop songs and show scores. It was amazing what we’ve been finding the old file cabinets and on the shelves. I really hope you’ll enjoy all the new material and links to recordings.
Over the coming weeks and months we will adding more recordings. I want people to be able to hear this music, so much of which has been languishing in drawers!
Larry Coleman at TRO/Dartmouth who handled my work for a while produced several demo recordings on 10” 33 1/3 rpm discs and 45’s so he could shop my songs around to artists that might be interested. This could have been around 1965. This song, called My Blue Notes Have Never Been So Blue, is one of my favorites. It was also one of Frank Loesser’s favorites- when I finished the song I was still under contract to Frank Music and I made an appointment and played it for him. He had me play it a couple of times, and then he told me that he’d been thinking of teaming me as a lyricist with another composer, but after hearing Blue Notes he’d changed his mind. I should keep on writing both music and lyrics. I did. I would have anyway.
I’d written male and female variations (just a couple of words needed to be changed) and Larry had both recorded. He either used different pianists or the pianist was inspired to do a little something different in each case. Sadly I have no idea who the singers are, but they were terrific, and I’m so glad to have these recordings.. Please enjoy.
Well, as I slowly find and digitize old vinyl recordings, I come across things I wrote that I had completely forgotten, like this one from the mid 60’s. Clearly intended as special material for a duo like Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, a publisher named Larry Coleman at TRO/Dartmouth that handled my work for a while must have produced this studio-made demo so he could shop it around to artists that might be interested. On the unmarked paper sleeve in barely legible pencil are the names of singers John Gary and Gale Garnett (who both had their share of records and hits), and for some reason also trumpeter and bandleader Al Hurt (I have no idea why, since the track is recorded with just a piano, one of life’s little mysteries). I’m guessing that means that Gary and Garnett are the ones who sang on this demo, and if so, they did a great job! Then it took a day of searching around the house to find the sheet music. I did the music, and a friend from Forest Hills named Florence Miller did the lyrics, according to the manuscript I found. Its fun to hear it after all this time! Enjoy.
In 1969 my cousin Evelyn Waldman, who managed to succeed in Mad Men-era Madison Avenue advertising, landed me my one and only commercial, for a French suntan lotion called Ambre Solaire. I channeled my best cross between Edith Piaf and Jaques Brel, who was very au courante at the time., since his show had opened at the Village Gate the year before and was still running.
I wrote one tune with two different lyrics, one about sun, beach, and romance, and the other connecting to French cultural icons - and cheese. They surprised me by recording both. I found all the original material including drafts of my lyrics, tapes of my studio-recorded demo, and the final versions with a professional singer, an orchestra and a voice-over announcer! Very silly, but fun. Enjoy!
Blanche Abram
In 2016 the fantastic pianist Blanche Abram, who’s been a wonderful friend and supporter of my work, played four of my series of 24 Intervals pieces as a part of a LICA concert. She did a beautiful, heartfelt job with these, and I was really pleased to come across the live recording from that day and hear them again. I thought you might also enjoy hearing them.
The Intervals series came about when a musician friend of mine once told me that her favorite songs were those that began with the jump of an octave. Like “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. It got me to thinking about how the first two notes of any piece of music really set up what will follow. That octave jump, that interval, is only one of twenty-four possible intervals in a one-octave scale. That is to say, there are twenty-four different intervals with which to begin a piece of music. I wrote these twenty-four pieces with the idea of having the first two notes of each of them start with a different interval. Writing them has been like a series of adventures, each of which begins by taking the first two steps, and then discovering where they will lead.
I have been very pleased to have had so many performances of them by so many pianists around the world. Haddassah Guttman recorded all 24, which you can find here, and the sheet music is available as a collection or individually here.