What’s Next After Boston?

In the Spring of 1967, graduating from the New England Conservatory in Boston with a Master’s Degree in Music/Voice, there were few auditions and questions as to what would I do next and where I would go from there? Author Whittemore and Jack Lowe, a piano duo, had been traveling the Columbia Artists Concert Circuit for quite a few years, decided to take a break and delve into something new, like forming a vocal ensemble with a small music group with a Harp, and calling it The Whit/Lo Singers. With Columbia Artists Management and Arnold Scassi Costumes, it would be called “The Birth of a Chorus” or How to Create a Major New Choral Group in one fell swoop.

Arthur and Jack picked 26 singers from a number of Music Schools across the country, and we started on a road tour which can never be forgotten. From Quogue, Long Island, down the East Coast up the Midwest to Flint, Michigan and ending with a final concert back in Quogue, where I, as one of the selected Whit/Lo Singers, was asked to come to NYC to understudy Leslie Uggams in a national co. of “Hallelujah Baby” by Arthur Laurents, their good friend. After our NY WNEW TV Whit/Lo Singers Special for Xmas, I stayed. Unfortunately, the National Tour was cancelled because Leslie had a Night Club Tour instead. So, there I was in New York City!  My new life after school and first professional gig added onto my resume, it was meant to be!

With the help of my New York mentor and longtime friend who knew the Advertising Business extremely well, Tony Furman, I became busy with TV Commercial work. By being prepared, focused and ready, life guided me to my first Broadway Show, replacing someone in the chorus and understudying roles in Hello Dolly with Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway at the St. James Theatre in New York City (WHAT A TEAM!) There I was on Broadway working with an incredible stage company of such Black talent and presence. What an unexpected dream come true or was it a dream to come true? What about destiny, as a friend asked recently? This was the beginning of my professional journey.

(Note: As I had been performing in my classical life, I had set up ART Song Concerts for the College Circuit and contracted, planned, programmed, rehearsed and performed with my accompanist and so had to fulfill those jobs. The David Merrick Organization had to let me out of the show for those dates. To this date, I believe I was the only chorister ever, to be allowed to do that).