Announcing 2021 winter/spring classes
Audition: If you have particpated in the St. Louis Cabaret Conference in past years, you do not have to audition. If you are new to us, please provide a short video or audio of your work. Not more than two years old.
Please send all questions, correspondences and audition materials to info@stlouiscabaretconference.org or call 314-359-0786.
5 week jamkazam Format Class
Saturdays 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Central Time
February 20, 27 and March 6, 13, 20
Class Size: Limited to 5 singers. Each singer receives at least 30 minutes coaching each class.
FACULTY: Christopher Denny, Tim Schall TECH DIRECTOR: MATT BERMAN
What is JamKazam? JamKazam is an online platform that eliminates the delay (also called latency) found in platforms such as Zoom that makes it impossible for singers and musicians to work togehter virtually in real time. JamKazam opens up your world to working with whomever you want – from anywhere AS IF YOU WERE IN THE SAME ROOM TOGETHER! No more singing with recorded tracks that cannot be adjusted. Change keys, change tempos, change arrangements to fit YOUR interpretation of the song.
Why Get Comfortable Using It? JamKazam will be around long after we are able to gather in person, continuing to allow singers from anywhere with musicians from any location. Eliminate the time and cost of travel and expedite your projects. Investing in learning the very manageable process of making this platform part of your creative arsenal today will open up new worlds for the future!
How Does This Class Differ From The 8 Week Zoom CLass? This is a song performance coaching class with an emphasis on increasing the singers ability to collaborate with their musical director. You will do the same type of performance work, but because of working latency free (no delay) we will be able to adjust keys, tempos, and in some cases begin the process of arrangments. The purpose of the class is not to hand you a complete arrangment, but to empower you to an active participant in the arrangement process via acting choices, lyric interpretation and how the song will be used in a performance, etc.
Instructors: Award winning music director Christopher Denny and St. Louis Cabaret Conference Artistic Director Tim Schall will lead the class. New York tech guru Matt Berman will monitor the platform for ease of use during each class so the focus can be on your work. BIOS BELOW
Cost: $695 for 5 class sessions. This class is at more of a premium because it requires more tech support and additional equipment needed for latency free use. But it is manageable! What you will receive in the long run makes it more than worth the investment. You will need additional equipment required by JamKazam to ensure there is no delay/latency. In many cases singers may already have this equipment. Depending on what you already may have, this could range from an additoinal $50-$200 for equipment. But this equipment will set you up for working on JamKazam and can also be used for future performance and rehearsal work. We will advise you on the equipment you need based on your set up. Ethernet cable connection to your internet is also required unless you are certain you have highspeed connection in the room you will be working in.
You will receive:
A two month Gold Level subscription to JamKazam included in your fee.
An ndividual one hour consultation with Matt Berman that includes a configuration of your home studio set up and a tutorial on JamKazam use for the class. This is prior to the starting date of the class and does not use up the 5 classes.
5 three hour classes that offer 30 minutes of “stage time” per singer that give you skills on personalizing your music and collaborating with musicians and directors to make the songs setting your own.
Recordings. JamKazam offers seperate recorded files of the piano tracks and vocal tracks for your use as raw recordings or to be put into recording software for post production work that creates a higher level polished recording.
Charts can be made of any desired piano tracks for future use via separate services such as ww.tunescribers.com
Here’s how JazKazam has transformed one singers work:
”JamKazam has become my lifeline to musical collaborators -- accompanists, arrangers, performers -- during COVID, and while sequestered in the Vermont countryside. With it, I can develop arrangements, rehearse and interact just as if we were in the room together -- even if my musical partners are thousands of miles away; and each in a separate location. The lag or latency that comes with Zoom or FaceTime is non-existent; and the ability to adjust on the fly is back. No more recorded tracks playing through a BlueTooth speaker on Zoom! And it is easy to set up with excellent tutorials available on-line. The small price is well worth it!” – Bob Wetzel, multiple St. Louis Cabaret Conference attendee
FACULTY
CHRISTOPHER DENNY has served as musical director, arranger and pianist for such theater, cabaret and opera luminaries as Karen Mason, Julie Wilson, Brent Barrett, Gregg Edelman, David Campbell, Tammy Grimes, Andrea Marcovicci, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Loudon, Judy Kaye, Kaye Ballard, Jeff Harnar, Steven Brinberg and Tommy Femia. He has earned two Back Stage Bistro Awards and four Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Awards for Outstanding Musical Direction. His thirty-year career has taken him to virtually all of the major venues in New York and throughout the U.S., notably including Carnegie Hall, the New York Pops as well as to Barcelona’s great opera house, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, to Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Paris and London’s West End. He produced the recording sessions of Placido Domingo for Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar- winning musical film, Moulin Rouge.
Denny was musical director for following theatrical works: Norman Mathews’ musical, You Might As Well Live, starring Karen Mason, in the New York Music Theater Festival; the New York premiere of Bob Merrill’s, The Prince of Grand Street; Barry Kleinbort’s hit revue, Big City Rhythm; The Songs of Kurt Weill, starring Kitty Carlisle Hart and many others.
As a private vocal coach, he has worked well-established stars, including Boyd Gaines, Ethan Hawke, John Cameron Mitchell, Melissa Errico, Anthony Rapp, T.R. Knight, Jack Noseworthy, Austin Pendleton, among many others. His teaching credits includes serving on the faculty for professional French musical theater performers in Paris, under the auspices of the French organization, giving master classes and individual coaching to the B.F.A. students at the University of Indiana (Bloomington), seven years on the faculty of Perry-Mansfield in Steamboat Springs, CO; The Cabaret Conference at Yale University; The Cabaret Symposium at Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, CT. His work can be heard on about 30 CD’s of performers including David Campbell, Brett Barrett and Karen Mason, among many others.
TIM SCHALL recently performed on stage at Lincoln Center during the New York Cabaret Convention’s salute to composer Frank Loesser. Tim has been called “a consummate cabaret performer” by Cabaret Scenes Magazine. He is a singer with over a dozen solo shows to his credit. KDHX St. Louis refers to his performances as “madly entertaining”. He has headlined his shows at the prestigious St. Louis venues The Sheldon Concert Hall, The Bistro at Grand Center, Gaslight Cabaret Festival, among many other clubs and performing arts centers. Regionally/nationally he has performed in Colorado, Iowa aand at Davenports (Chicago), Geist Cabaret (Santa Fe), in addition to venues in Boston, Colorado, Iowa and Washington DC. St. Louis’ Riverfront Times says of his cabaret work, “expect great things”. Tim is co-founder of The St. Louis Cabaret Conference and is solely responsible for choose faculty, curriculum and students. Under Schall’s guidance The St. Louis Cabaret Conference has developed into one of the top song performance training programs in the country with a renowned, award winning guest faculty that attracts more than 30 singers each year from all over the nation. Additionally, he has taught numerous Advanced Performance classes and directed nearly 30 full length cabaret shows and showcases for various singers, including Tony nominee Lara Teeter’s acclaimed New York cabaret debut at 54 Below in 2014. Tim has served as adjunct faculty at Webster University teaching their Cabaret Styles Performance class to seniors in the University's Musical Theater Conservatory. Schall is also the Executive Director of The Cabaret Project of St. Louis (TCP), a non-profit with a mission to support, develop and sustain the art of cabaret. Under the banner of TCP, Schall serves as has presented such talents as Christine Ebersole, Ann Hampton Callaway, Faith Prince, Norm Lewis, Rachel Bay Jones, Marilyn Maye, Billy Stritch, Jason Graae, Liz Callaway, Andrea Marcovicci, Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock. Cabaret Scenes Magazine highlighted his work as a cabaret force in a 2009 feature article. Tim owns and operates a private vocal performance studio in St. Louis. A veteran actor, he was nominated for a St. Louis Theater Circle Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor for his performance in The Normal Heart. He has appeared with multiple theaters in St. Louis and Chicago. He has sung with both the Chicago and St. Louis Symphony Choruses and was a soloist with Webster University’s Opera Scenes evening in 2015. He is a Missouri Arts Council Touring Artist and has performed and taught song performance workshops throughout the state.
MATT BERMAN has been one of the most valued sound and lighting professionals in New York for over two decades. Matt has worked at nearly every night club in New York including Birdland and 54 Below, among many others. Matt currently serves as the personal sound /light person for Tony winner Kristen Chenoweth’s touring performances and did that same for Liza Minelli for many years. He is the lead sound/light person for LIncoln Center’s American Songbook series. Here are two links to Matt’s full resume and to his website:
Director Richard Jay-Alexander introduces you to Matt Berman (BroadwayWorld.com)
Matt’s Tech Box website: https://www.mattberman.com/