
Celia Berk is an award-winning vocalist whose recordings have attracted listeners around the world. She has made memorable appearances at Carnegie Hall, Jazz At Lincoln Center, Birdland Theater, The Town Hall and the National Arts Club. Celia has been praised by some of the most prominent champions of The Great American Songbook.
She just released of her widely anticipated third album, Now That I Have Everything. Arranger/pianist Tedd Firth brings a Nat King Cole Trio feel to the recording, which explores the ways we try – successfully and unsuccessfully – to connect our heart to someone else’s. Co-Produced by Tony and Grammy Award-winning sound designer Scott Lehrer, it features the kinds of hidden gems by great songwriters that are Celia’s trademark. Many of those songs were featured in COMES LOVE, a 2019 show Celia created with pianist Sean Gough.
In his Liner Notes, author and journalist Will Friedwald writes, “Celia Berk makes us realize, in a way few singers can, that love is, in fact, never ever the same.”
When asked about the album, Celia says, “The story of this album really begins and ends with my friend Debbi Bush Whiting, daughter of Margaret Whiting and granddaughter of Richard Whiting. She had given me recordings of her mother’s appearances on a radio show, including Irving Berlin’s NOW IT CAN BE TOLD. The premise of that song is that the real story of a great romance has yet to be written. As I listened, I asked myself, ‘So what exactly can now be told?’ And then I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to do an album about love!’ So I set out to find songs about the ways we try – successfully and unsuccessfully – to connect our heart to someone else’s.”
The songs cascade from a jazz silhouette of toe tapping to rain on a rooftop. This album is like sipping a nice cup of tea on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It encompasses the Broadway jazz element all the way down to songs reminiscent of Moon River. “Boum!” Is a fun loving dance number that incorporates feelings from your head to your heart and personifies the emotions. “Right as the Rain” brings a melancholy and somber feeling that captivates the whole body. The title track “Now That I Have Everything” dances on the piano keys and takes the center stage of the whole album in this show stopping number.
Listen here:
Celia debuted her new cabaret show, ON MY WAY TO YOU: Improbable Stories That Inspired An Unlikely Path, directed by Mark Nadler with music direction by Tedd Firth. Marilyn Lester of Theater Pizzazz called it “An enchanting show, executed with abundant smarts, humor and grace, and terrific choices of music known and unknown.”
Celia’s accolades include the album MANHATTAN SERENADE in which she received the 2017 LaMott Friedman Award. It was arranged and conducted by Alex Rybeck and co-produced by Scott Lehrer, the team behind her debut album YOU CAN’T RUSH SPRING. Lyricist David Zippel (whose “The Broadway Song” written with Cy Coleman received its first commercial recording) wrote in the album notes, “A tribute to her hometown, this collection is anything but renditions of the obvious New York songs. MANHATTAN SERENADE is curated: a connoisseur’s compilation of one exquisite, undiscovered musical gem after another.” YOU CAN’T RUSH SPRING and Celia’s solo cabaret debut, directed by Jeff Harnar, earned Celia a 2015 Bistro Award: Vocalist; 2015 MAC Award: New York Debut – Female; 2015 BroadwayWorld Award for Best New York Cabaret Debut; and The 2015 Margaret Whiting Award.
We have no doubt that “Now That I Have Everything” will follow suit brining about awards and notoriety to the ever so talented soul that is Celia Berk.
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