Erv Raible Announces Cabaret Conference at Yale

The conference, planned as an annual event, is being developed in conjunction with the Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theater; several sessions will be held in Yale venues, including the University Theater and the recently opened New Theater. Already named to the faculty are Tovah Feldshuh, Carol Hall, George Hall, Julie Halston, Lina Koutrakos, Marilyn Lovell Matz, Sally Mayes, Fred Voelpel, Thommie Walsh, and cabaret legend Julie Wilson. The piano faculty includes Tex Arnold, Christopher Denny, Rick Jensen, Jeff Klitz, and Shelly Markham. Among the conference's consultants/lecturers will be Matt Berman (light and sound technician), John Hoglund (cabaret reviewer for Back Stage), and Michael Kerker of ASCAP.

According to Raible -- a fixture of the New York cabaret community as owner, booker, and/or manager of such clubs as Eighty Eight's, Don't Tell Mama, the Duplex, and the FireBird Café -- the conference will offer an intensive look at the art of cabaret and performance technique. It will focus on the Great American Songbook from its origins in the late 19th century through the standards of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s and on through contemporary cabaret, musical theater, and pop songs. The faculty will guide 36 students in classes and lectures on acting for singers, lyric interpretation, material research, press and public relations, management and personal networking, etc. The conference will culminate in an evening of student performances, "The Cabaret Conference Curtain Call."