Jewish Culture Day on the South Bank
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26 November 2006
8.00pm - 10.00pm Queen Elizabeth Hall

A cavalcade of songs from the Yiddish theatre, via Broadway and Tin Pan Alley to the East and West Ends of London performed by outstanding West End stars.

Gina Murray, Melinda Hughes, Steven Leas and Loren Geeting with Children of the Sylvia Young Theatre School and Musical ensemble directed by Tansy Aked.
£27.50 / £22.50 / £17.50

Melinda Hughes graduated with Honours from The Maastricht Conservatory, Holland and was a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music, London . She was a finalist in the Yamaha Kemble Competition 1994, Concour de chant de Verviers 1997 and Citta di Roma Concorso 1999. For two years Melinda toured Europe as a soloist with André Rieu often appearing on Television and Radio. She has sung many opera and light opera roles and has toured to thirty countries. Concert performances include Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream ( Madrid ), Britten’s War Requiem (Norwich Cathedral), Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Handel’s Messiah in Cordoba , Spain . Melinda wrote and produced From Love to Decay a musical comedy at The Jermyn Street Theatre in February 2002 and has appeared with her own comic opera cabaret show at Pizza on the Park. She has previously worked with Tansy Aked and tonight’s singers in the songs of Broadway and the West End .

Gina Murray
Gina trained at Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead, continuing the showbiz tradition in the family. Her father, Mitch, was a successful songwriter, Grazina Frame, her mother, was a successful recording artist and TV/Film actress. And her sister Mazz is currently wowing audiences as ‘Killer Queen’ in We Will Rock You. The Full Monty marked Gina’s fifth appearance in a leading role in the West End . She was also proud to have been invited to appear in the Vivian Ellis Prize showcase at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1998. Gina recently completed another season in the West End , at the Arts Theatre, in Fuddy Meers. Her TV credits include ‘Gina’ in Teenage Kicks for Sky One; ‘Kim' in The Bil for Carlton TV and ‘Linsey’ in Crimefile for Granada TV. She is about to appear in Judge John Deed as 'WPC Berry'. She has appeared in several movies, including “Hope & Glory”; Santa Clause – The Movie ; Julie & The Cadillacs and Gina played 'Jo'in Brit-movie Sorted alongside Tim Curry and Jason Donovan. She recently appeared with Ian Glen in the short movie The Gift. Gina enjoys regular studio session singing and voice-over work. She is also writing comedy for Endemol and Baby Cow with Mazz.

Steven Leas at the age of 12, was singing in choirs and performing in stage productions including The Sound of Music and The King and I in his native South Africa . He officiated as Cantor of a major synagogue in Johannesburg for six years. He was the lead singer of a very successful band Moodswing and formed a successful recording studio and music company. He was selected by the SABC to explain the role of a Cantor to the South African Television Public. He was invited to sing with the Kwazulu Natal Orchestra to an audience of 7000 people. Steven moved to London in 2002 joining the English National Opera The Knack Programme. He is Cantor of the prestigious Central Synagogue in London and the principal soloist of the London Jewish Male Choir. The BBC took him to Auschwitz where he appeared, together with Maxim Vengerov, Emanuel Ax and John Axelrod and others, singing the memorial prayer El Male Rachamim for the BBC, Canadian and Polish Television, to mark the 60 th anniversary of its liberation. He sang this again accompanied by the Central Synagogue choir conducted by Michael Etherton at Westminster Hall in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen for the National Holocaust Memorial Commemoration in January 2005. Other highlights include performances together with Willard White and Helmut Lotti.

Loren Geeting recently competed in BBC Radio 2’s Voice of Musical Theatre worldwide competition against very talented people!… AND WON!!! So from now on you may refer to him as 'Mr. Voice of Musical Theatre', or simply 'Your Voiceness' will suffice. Just kidding! Although an avid surfer from Los Angeles, since coming to this end of the pond, Loren has played numerous roles in the West End including Dean Martin in The Rat Pack, Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast , Enjolras in Les Miserables, Boone in Whistle Down The Wind, and Dexter in Beautiful and Damned . For Opera North, Loren starred in the recent critically acclaimed production of One Touch of Venus and prior to that played opposite Janie Dee in the European Premier of Shostakovich’s Paradise Moscow . Loren has also played the title role in Phantom Der Oper (German National Tour), the title role in the new musical Courtenay, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus for Rome Festival Opera and is also a very popular guest singer on BBC Radio2’s “Friday Night Is Music Night.” He can ride a horse backwards, showers every day, and knows what the word “Brobdignagian” means.

Children of the Sylvia Young Theatre School
The Sylvia Young Theatre School, based in Marylebone NW1, offers full time academic/vocational tuition for students aged 9-16 years along with part-time and Summer School programmes for 4-18 year olds. The school’s alumni include Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company actors, and many well-known faces from TV and music including: Billie Piper, Letitia Dean, Nick Berry, Keeley Hawes, Denise Van Outen, Emma Bunton and Tom Fletcher (McFly) amongst many others. Students have appeared in Charity Royal Galas and have performed at Buckingham Palace and the Royal Albert Hall on many occasions. The Sylvia Young Theatre School was recently the subject of a six-part BBC series called When Will I Be Famous? and Sylvia Young herself has been the subject of This is Your Life. The aim of the school is to offer all talented children opportunities to develop and promote their gifts. The school is at: Rossmore Road Marylebone London NW1 6NJ, Tel 020 7402 0673 www.sylviayoungtheatreschool.co.uk

Tansy Aked musical director and piano
Tansy has been involved in over 40 shows as a Musical Director, Pianist and Keyboard Player, in the West-End, at The National Theatre, and on UK and European tours. Credits include, for the National Theatre; The Prince's Play , Amy's View, Closer, Money, Volpone, in the West End; Phantom of the Opera, Beauty & the Beast, Scrooge, Fame, Hard Times, Dr Dolittle, Prisoner Cell Block H, and numerous tours such as Evita, Les Miserables, Superstar, La Cage aux Folles, Cats, Me & My Girl, Summer Holiday, Pirates of Penzance, The Goodbye Girl, Puttin on the Ritz, and Ruthie Henshall’s concert tour The Magnificent Musicals to name a few. Tansy is also Musical Director for the West-End cabaret show Too Darn Hot, and for the last 4 years has been Musical Director for Hever Castle ’s hugely popular showbiz concert series. Tansy’s recordings for TV have ranged from appearing on the Lottery with Michael Crawford to playing late-night cabaret on Channel 4. Tansy is also part of Scherzo Music, which composes for Theatre, TV and Film, and has recently written and recorded an album for EMI. Tansy was Musical Director for I Write the Songs the hit show of the 2005 Jewish Culture Day at the South Bank Centre.

Too Darn Hot (The Tansy Aked Band)
Tansy Aked Musical, director and Piano
Dominic Barlow, keyboards
Steve Richardson, bass
Sebastian Guard, drums
Stewart Curtis, flute, clarinet and sax

Robert Dallas, director
Robert started his career as a performer in the early eighties, appearing on television , where he appeared in Brookside on Channel 4 and the stage in West End musicals such as From a Jack to a King, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Wonderful Town , where he met and got to know Leonard Bernstein. In 1990, he opened a commercial production facility and theatrical management/agency and for the last ten years, Robert has been writing, recording, directing and producing works for television, film, theatre and the pop market, including : Music for, and co producing GMTV’s boy band series The One, Wayne Sleep’s summer show and Gala for the Birds (in the presence of the late Princess Diana ) Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and sound producing a concert performance of Bohemian Rhapsody, for the voice of British theatre, Elaine Paige. In 1996, (in association with Dan Crawford and the Kings Head theatre ) Robert wrote the music for, and assisted in staging and directing a production of Enid Blyton’s "The Famous Five", which successfully toured England ’s No 1 Theatre circuit.

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Box office

T: 08703 800 400
www.rfh.org.uk
Concessions - £2.50 off each ticket if booking more than one show (except Jewish Schools Choir Festival)

Presented by JMI and Central Synagogue
Supported by the Jewish Chronicle

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