(Long Island, NY) The Art League of Long Island is hosting a free Cabaret Concert for the Holidays on Saturday, December 21 at 8:00pm. Great musical entertainment, wine, cheese, and holiday cheer will be served up in the Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery, featuring the instrumentation and vocals of Janice Buckner with Ben Boecker on backup keyboard.
Janice Bucker is an interpretive stylist and songwriter offering a festive cabaret celebration of song. She is known for her exceptional voice, her musical creativity, and the outstanding quality of her voice. From ballads, blues and Broadway to original pieces, Janice accompanies herself on acoustic and electric guitars, and acoustic and electric basses.
Janice began her career as a balladeer in England and traveled through Europe and Greece, returning to the states as an interpretive stylist and songwriter. She toured throughout the United States and abroad with performance highlights including two European tours, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the QE II Ocean Liner, the Reichold Center for the Performing Arts in the Virgin Islands, the Whitney Museum and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Janice studied songwriting with Holly Near, improvisational singing with Bobby McFerrin, music improvisation with David Darling (cellist, Music for People & Paul Winter Consort), Sign Language with Bernard Bragg (co-founder National Theatre of the Deaf) and drumming with Olitunji.
Ben Boecker, an accomplished baritone, musical/director, composer, and lyricist has studied voice for nine years with Metropolitan Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, pioneering voice scientist Jeanette LoVetri (the founder of Somatic Voicework and the Voice Workshop), Matt Shepherd Smith (NYU), and Ron Meixsell (Long Island Vocal Guru). He works frequently with schools and community theaters in NY and on Long Island. Ben most recently made his equity debut as a music director with Open Hydrant’s “Dani Girl” in October, and will next be working with Valley Stream Central High School on their production of “Godspell!” As a singer, Ben most recently appeared at the TADA Performing Arts Center in New York City—with “Ex*rcise This: The Musical.” He has performed on Broadway in the chorus of the Irish Repertory’s Gala Benefit of Camelot, and off-Broadway as a soloist in the World Premiere of Philip Springer’s “Trunk Songs.”
The event is free and open to the general public. The Art League is located at 107 East Deer Park Road in Dix Hills. For more information call (631) 462-5400 or visit www.artleagueli.org.
