This article may contain wording that promotes the subject through exaggeration of unnoteworthy facts .(December 2023) |
Russ Lorenson | |
---|---|
Birth name | Russ Gangloff |
Born | Upland, Pennsylvania, U.S. | July 5, 1963
Genres | Jazz, pop standards, cabaret |
Occupation(s) | Singer, actor |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Years active | 1970–present |
Labels | LML Music |
Website | https://www.russlorenson.com |
Russ Lorenson (born July 5, 1963, birth name Russ Gangloff) is an American singer and actor. Though a stage actor since childhood, since the mid-2000s Lorenson has established a reputation as an interpreter of jazz standards. With a retro crooner style, Lorenson's sound and approach are an amalgam of Broadway, jazz, and pop.
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(December 2023) |
Born in Upland, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, Lorenson's career began as a youngster, making his stage debut at the age of seven. He continued singing and acting in the theatre throughout his early school years, moving with his family to San Diego, California when he was nine years old. At Patrick Henry High School he performed and toured with a classical vocal ensemble. He also gained experience as both a choral conductor and composer, winning a young artists' competition in his school district for his composition work.
At 18 years old, he adopted the stage name of "Lorenson", in honor of his teacher and mentor, Loren Salter, who had helped Lorenson develop as a singer and actor throughout his teen years.
After college, he continued his work as a choral conductor and voice coach, working for five years as Associate Conductor of the California Youth Chorale, founded by Salter. He also returned to theatrical performing, appearing in musical productions with San Diego's Diversionary Theatre, Starlight Musical Theatre, and Lyric Opera San Diego.
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(December 2023) |
In the late 1990s, Lorenson took a major detour away from life on the boards. He moved to San Francisco to be close to the Silicon Valley tech scene and began working in start-ups. He traveled extensively in this period, overseeing contact centers across the globe for his various employers.
Although continuing in high-tech, Lorenson found himself unfulfilled creatively, and in the mid-2000s began to explore a return to performing. He began appearing with San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon, one of four theatre groups in the U.S. whose mission is to present staged concert revivals of 'lost' musicals from Broadway's Golden Age. He has appeared in their productions of Finian's Rainbow , Minnie's Boys , Cole Porter's Red, Hot & Blue! , and in 2006, he appeared in the company's first foray into opera, with their production of The Golden Apple . He also appeared locally with The Willows Theatre Company in 1776, The Secret Garden, and two sequels to the wildly successful Nunsense by Dan Goggin.
In 2005, Lorenson left the corporate world. With his band, under the musical direction of jazz pianist Kelly Park, Lorenson quickly established a reputation as one of the San Francisco Bay Area's leading interpreters of jazz standards, with regular appearances at San Francisco's top nightclubs, including The Empire Plush Room and Feinstein's At The Nikko.[ citation needed ] [1]
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(December 2023) |
Lorenson's first nightclub show, A Little Travelin' Music, was based on his world travel during his corporate career. His debut CD of the same name, was released in May 2006 on the LML Music label and featured songs from the show and duets with guests Shawn Ryan and Klea Blackhurst.
A passionate champion of The Great American Songbook, Lorenson created and performed a series of shows featuring the music of great composers in this genre as told through the stories of some of his idols. Select shows in his oeuvre include Benedetto/Blessed: Celebrating the Life and Music of Tony Bennett,As Long As I'm Singin': Russ Lorenson Celebrates the Music of Bobby Darin, and Fanilow: One Man's Search for Music and Passion. For ten years, his annual holiday show, Christmas in San Francisco with Russ Lorenson & Friends, was a tradition at venerated venues around the San Francisco Bay Area. Along the way, Lorenson has shared the stage with icons such as Broadway and cabaret star Karen Mason (Mamma Mia, Hairspray, Sunset Boulevard); the "Queen of Cabaret," Andrea Marcovicci; Broadway stars Teri Ralston (The Baker's Wife, Follies) and Dale Kristien (Phantom of the Opera); the late jazz diva Wesla Whitfield; and the legendary Eartha Kitt.
His second CD, What I Want for Christmas, was released in September 2006. His third CD, In The Holiday Spirit was released in November 2015, was awarded four stars by the editors of Downbeat and included in the magazine's prestigious "Best Albums of 2015" list. All three CDs were included on the Nominating Ballot for the Grammy Awards in the category of "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album" in their respective release years.
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(December 2023) |
Downbeat calls Lorenson, "A showman of taste and discretion, [who] admires Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin without imitating them or adopting a Rat Pack smugness."[ citation needed ] TalkinBroadway.com stated that Lorenson "has a voice that is reminiscent of some of the great singers like Tony Bennett, Chet Baker and a little of Mel Tormé." The Los Angeles Times said that he brings "a supple voice and strong sense of characterization to all his songs."[ citation needed ]
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(December 2023) |
In late 2021, Russ Lorenson began to experience worrisome medical conditions. He found it difficult to swallow, and one of his tonsils had swelled to an alarming size. After some frustrating and painful diagnostic procedures, Lorenson was diagnosed with HPV-positive tonsil cancer. Fortunately, he lived close to a world-class cancer treatment center and found a great oncologist. He endured weekly chemotherapy and 35 daily sessions of radiation over 7 weeks. Though he is cancer-free today, the effects of the treatment remain. "I don't have saliva. When I speak, I lose my voice quickly, and I can no longer sustain a note," he says.[ citation needed ]
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(December 2023) |
Lorenson no longer actively performs, opting for a life of domestic bliss with his husband and spending more time at his Mediterranean getaway in Alicante, Spain.
Lorenson's latest album is Standard Time: Live In New York, co-produced by René Wieland, a Dutch music producer and engineer, and radio host of The Great American Songbook Radio Station. Originally planned for a 2009 release, the album is culled from 2008 live recordings at the Metropolitan Room nightclub in New York. The album features Lorenson and his jazz combo, including longtime musical arranger and pianist Kelly Park.
Standard Time: Live In New York will not be the final curtain for Lorenson; there will be a series of children's books, beginning with a Christmas book in 2024, and other special offerings in the future. Looking back on his career, Lorenson is pensive and honest. He says: "After my bout with cancer, I saw how short and fragile life can be, and that made me think about my legacy. I am not going to have children, but in 50 years these albums and books will be here. Hopefully, they will ensure that my impact here has been positive and lasting."[ citation needed ]
Year | Cover | Album |
---|---|---|
2006 | A Little Travelin' Music | |
2006 | What I Want For Christmas | |
2015 | In The Holiday Spirit | |
2023 | Standard Time: Live In New York |
Production | Role | Company |
---|---|---|
Nunsense Jamboree | Father Virgil | Willows Theatre Company, Concord CA |
The Secret Garden | Archibald Craven | Willows Theatre Company, Concord CA |
1776 | James Wilson | Willows Theatre Company, Concord CA |
The Golden Apple | Doc Macahan | 42nd Street Moon, San Francisco CA |
Red, Hot & Blue! | Reynaldo | 42nd Street Moon, San Francisco CA |
Minnie's Boys | Hochmeister | 42nd Street Moon, San Francisco CA |
Finian's Rainbow | Buzz Collins | 42nd Street Moon, San Francisco CA |
Pinchpenny Phantom of the Opera | Phantom/Gaston | Coronado Playhouse, Coronado CA |
Phantom | Wigmaster | Starlight Musical Theatre, San Diego CA |
The Desert Song | Captain Paul Fontaine | Lyric Opera San Diego, San Diego CA |
The Wizard of Oz (RSC Version) | Winkie General | Starlight Musical Theatre, San Diego CA |
Rose Marie | Jim Kenyon | Lyric Opera San Diego, San Diego CA |
Lorenson was nominated for a 2007 MAC Award (given by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) for New York performances of his show, Benedetto/Blessed: A Tribute to the Life and Music of Tony Bennett. [2]
John Harold Kander is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb, Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York".
The culture of San Francisco is major and diverse in terms of arts, music, cuisine, festivals, museums, and architecture but also is influenced heavily by Mexican culture due to its large Hispanic population, and its history as part of Spanish America and Mexico. San Francisco's diversity of cultures along with its eccentricities are so great that they have greatly influenced the country and the world at large over the years. In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek voted San Francisco as America's Best City.
Marti Pellow is a Scottish singer. He was the lead singer of the Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet for 28 years: from their formation in 1982 until their split in 1997, and again from their reformation in 2004 to his departure in 2017. He has also recorded albums as a solo artist, and performed as an actor in musical theatre productions in both the West End and on Broadway.
Adelaide Louise Hall was an American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer. Her career spanned more than 70 years from 1921 until her death. Early in her career, she was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance; she became based in the UK after 1938. Hall entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world's most enduring recording artist, having released material over eight consecutive decades. She performed with major artists such as Art Tatum, Ethel Waters, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fela Sowande, Rudy Vallee, and Jools Holland, and recorded as a jazz singer with Duke Ellington and with Fats Waller.
Michael Jay Feinstein is an American singer, pianist and music revivalist. He is an archivist and interpreter for the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs. Feinstein is also a multi-platinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated recording artist. He currently serves as the artistic director for The Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana.
Robert Alexander Scobey Jr. was an American jazz trumpet player of traditional or Dixieland music based originally in the San Francisco area and later in Chicago, Illinois. He was born in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and died in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Jason Graae is an American musical theater actor, best known for his musical theater performances but with a varied career spanning Broadway, opera, television and film. He has won four Bistro Awards, two Ovation Awards, two New York Nightlife Awards, the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Joel Hirschhorn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre.
Justin Hayford is a Chicago-based singer and pianist. He performs jazz and cabaret music and specializes in reviving obscure and forgotten songs from the past. Justin writes and presents cabaret shows at various venues in Chicago, and has released a number of albums.
Ken Bloom is a New York-based, Grammy Award-winning theatre historian, playwright, director, record producer, and author.
Todd Murray is an American cabaret singer and songwriter.
Tucker Smith was an American actor, dancer, and singer who performed the role of Ice in the movie musical West Side Story.
Marilyn Maye McLaughlin is an American singer, musical theater actress and masterclass educator. With a career spanning eight decades, Maye has performed music in the styles of cabaret, jazz and pop music. She has received one nomination from the Grammy Awards and had commercial success as a recording artist.
Portia Nelson was an American popular singer, songwriter, actress, and author. She was best known for her appearances in 1950s cabarets, where she sang soprano.
Johnny Rodgers is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, Broadway star, and recording artist whom The New York Times described as an entertainer "[who] can't be found anywhere else" with "fused elements of Billy Joel, Peter Allen and Johnny Mercer."
Stephen Gaboury is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and musical director. In 1988, he created Livewire Production & Recording, a full production digital studio located in Manhattan's Tribeca district. Since 2001, Gaboury has toured internationally with Cyndi Lauper, with whom he received a Grammy nomination for best arrangement in 2004. Gaboury also collaborated on selections in Lauper's Broadway musical, Kinky Boots, which earned thirteen Tony nominations and six wins during its first run in New York City in 2013.
Steven Richard Ross is an American cabaret singer and pianist, known for his interpretations of the Great American Songbook, particularly the music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Noël Coward. He is a revivalist of popular compositions from the early-to-mid 20th century, including ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, show tunes, musical theatre and patter songs. Ross has been dubbed "the Crown Prince of Cabaret", and his personal style described as "the epitome of sophisticated 'cafe' cabaret". Regarding his interpretations of Cole Porter, fellow cabaret pianist Michael Feinstein noted that Ross has, "an ability to create a reserve or an 'arch' quality that certain of his songs require and that eludes" other performers.
Wesla Whitfield was an American singer who recorded more than a score of albums and performed at Carnegie Hall and the White House, among other sites. She used a wheelchair for the last four decades of her life, after surviving a gunshot injury. She specialized in the American standards genre of music.
Mary Cleere Haran was an American singer known for her work as a cabaret artist. Her skills in performing popular music and jazz enabled her to entertain audiences with either genre or a combination of the two. A review in the magazine Variety described her as having "an easygoing earthiness that glows in the velvet textures of her voice ..."
Joan Ryan is an American actress and singer, who played Judy Denmark/Ginger Del Marco in the Los Angeles production of Ruthless!, and Miss Tina Paladrino on Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the television series that became Saved by the Bell.