Margaret Cho is definitely one of the people, like just watching or hearing her stand up back in the days when stand-up albums were pretty prolific. Seeing her in Carnegie Hall was pretty revolutionary for me to be like, ‘Oh, this Asian person talking about her sexuality.’
Toting around a full orchestra on tour is very ambitious. I would consider doing a show now and then, like do a show at Radio City or Carnegie Hall with a full orchestra.
When you hear a great two-track of a performance in Carnegie Hall, let’s say, it sounds like you’re right there at that moment. It’s true to reality. And the closer it gets, once it gets too technical, it becomes very tinny to hear notes. It doesn’t sound right. It has to be natural.
Although we are being presented in Carnegie Hall, we have to furnish a budget for our guest stars, and for the music writing – which is a huge budget in any orchestra that plays popular music.
My wife, she is so good. She was a famous singer – had a show in Carnegie Hall, did a big city tour for RCA. Then she made the mistake of marrying me. The next year, another tour, but the third year, she had Mario and said, ‘Either I’m a mother or a singer.’
The most memorable performance was my appearance in concert in Carnegie Hall. The first standup to do so.
I’d be lying if I claimed that, in spite of our amiable afternoons, I don’t have an ache somewhere in my heart that my children will not be playing Carnegie Hall anytime soon.
I’ve been involved with Carnegie Hall for the last 13 years, and Chairman for the last six. I feel really good about what we’ve done growing our educational programs there, building a board that has made Carnegie Hall really a world-class institution.
You know the question: ‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall?’ Answer: ‘Practise?’ Well, in my case, I got there by not practising. I didn’t finish my music degree. And when I got into the pop world, I decided not to conform because I figured that the point of being an artist was that you shouldn’t be like anyone else.
My mother, Minuetta Kessler, was a concert pianist and composer who performed at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall.
My mother, Minuetta Kessler, was a concert pianist and composer who performed at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall.
You know the question: ‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall?’ Answer: ‘Practise?’ Well, in my case, I got there by not practising. I didn’t finish my music degree. And when I got into the pop world, I decided not to conform because I figured that the point of being an artist was that you shouldn’t be like anyone else.
My mother, Minuetta Kessler, was a concert pianist and composer who performed at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall.
I knew the full ‘Judy Garland Carnegie Hall’ double album set at age 2. And then my mother wondered why I was gay. I was like, ‘Are you nuts? You would make me get on the table to sing Judy Garland songs and you’re upset?’
On the corner of 57th and 7th Avenue sits the most famous concert hall in the world. No less a figure than when Tchaikovsky led the first performances in 1891. Virtually every major artist has performed there. There is simply no place like it. The first time I stepped foot in Carnegie Hall was in 1964.
I have to say that getting to tackle Maria in ‘The Sound of Music’ at Carnegie Hall was surreal. When I heard my voice, it was all I could do to keep myself from doing a British accent and sound like Julie Andrews!
The beauty of a Stradivarius is that you can play in Carnegie Hall without any amplification, and it has this – the sound has, inside it, has something that projects, and it has multifaceted sound, something that kind of gets lost when you use amplification anyway.
We played Carnegie Hall, and that was one time where I felt… Carnegie Hall as a legendary, very venerable place to perform. I’d never heard of anyone going into the Hall and kind of standing on the seats and playing throughout the aisles and having the audience stand on the seats. So when we did that in 2013, even for me it was a shock.
I not only play at the prestigious classical concert halls like Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, but also hospitals, churches, prisons, and restricted facilities for leprosy patients, just to mention a few.
I feel I have had a very interesting life, but I am rather hoping there is still more to come. I still haven’t captained the England cricket team, or sung at Carnegie Hall!
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