“It’s called cabaret--singing at the piano in a very intimate setting--but to me it’s all music……all types of vocal communication.”
Ann Chase has been a singer of consummate skill for thirty years, and she’s been breaking the boundaries of musical style all of that time: song recitals that combine German lieder with protest songs, and American art songs with Tin Pan Alley songs; finding that combination in which songs mean something more than the songs themselves. Cabaret sets include jazz and classical songs, sung and played to tie up the cultural seam between them.
Steeped in classical singing, with a penchant for stimulating music, Ann has performed oratorio and concert arias with various orchestras as well as contemporary music in settings like the Los Angeles Monday Evening Concerts, the Sacramento Chamber Music Society, Piccolo Spoleto and the Nevada Symphony. She was co-founder and artistic director of the chamber ensemble, Camarada, with whom she performed chamber music from Bach to Berio as well as numerous premieres. Recently, she created the role of Rosamaria in the premiere of the children’s opera, Mice and Beans.
But most of her creative energy now focuses on the most intimate of singing art: her own form of cabaret. With her extraordinary pianistic skills, she condenses that intimacy to pure communication, playing and singing every kind of song, from Gershwin standards and Sondheim theatrical medleys to dark, little-known Kurt Weill and the artful tango music of Astor Piazzolla.
Ann Chase is redefining cabaret.
LOVE SONGS FOR A MAD WORLD, February, 2010