BETTE BABS & BEYOND

from BETTE BABS & BEYOND

by Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

Friday, April 22, 2022 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 2:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Jason Seber, conductor

Carole J. Bufford, vocalist

Alex Getlin, vocalist

John Boswell, piano

PROGRAM ANNOUNCED FROM STAGE

The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours. All programs are subject to change.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Telarc, Koss Classics, Pro Arte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout recordings. MSO Classics recordings (digital only) available on iTunes and at mso.org. MSO Binaural recordings (digital only) available at mso.org.

Guest Artist Biographies

JASON SEBER

Jason Seber celebrates his sixth year with the Kansas City Symphony, beginning as assistant conductor in the 2016.17 season, and as associate conductor starting in the 2017.18 season. In this position, he has built a strong rapport with the Kansas City community, leading the symphony in over 300 concerts on the Classics Uncorked, Pops, Family, Film + Live Orchestra, Young People’s Concerts, KinderKonzerts, and Link Up series, as well as Christmas Festival, Symphony in the Flint Hills, and many other programs. In October 2019, he made his debut on the Classical Series and recently led another Classical Series program in the spring of 2021. He also serves as a co-host for the Symphony’s podcast, “Beethoven Walks into a Bar.”

Prior to his appointment with the Kansas City Symphony, Seber served as education and outreach conductor of the Louisville Orchestra from 2013 to 2016 and music director of the Louisville Youth Orchestra from 2005 to 2016. He has also served as assistant conductor of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra. Seber has guest conducted many leading North American orchestras, including the Charleston Symphony, Cleveland Pops, Colorado Symphony, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the Windsor Symphony. Upcoming engagements include the Houston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony.

A passionate advocate of music education, Seber recently led programs with the National Repertory Orchestra at concerts in Breckenridge and as part of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. He returns to conduct the NRO in July 2022. He has led the Honors Performance Series Orchestra in performances at Carnegie Hall (2018 and 2022), Royal Festival Hall in London (2019), and the Sydney Opera House (2017). In November 2019, he led the APAC Honors Festival Orchestra in Seoul, Korea. He has served as the All- State Orchestra conductor for Missouri and Georgia, and will be the conductor for the Pennsylvania and Kansas All-State Orchestras in 2022 and 2024, respectively.

Seber has performed with classical artists Jinjoo Cho, Paul Jacobs, Conrad Tao, and Joyce Yang, and a diverse range of pops artists including Patti Austin, Andrew Bird, Boyz II Men, Melissa Etheridge, Ben Folds, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lyle Lovett, Brian Stokes Mitchell, My Morning Jacket, Leslie Odom, Jr., Aoife O’Donovan, Pink Martini, Doc Severinsen, Bobby Watson, and Wynonna. He earned his master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music and his bachelor’s degrees in violin performance and music education from Baldwin Wallace University.

CAROLE J. BUFFORD

Carole J. Bufford has become one of the most sought after young performers in the New York cabaret & jazz scene, and in 2020, was awarded the prestigious American Traditions Vocal Competition Gold Medal. Her recent shows, Speak Easy (featuring the Grammy Award-winning Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks) and Body & Soul, earned her rave reviews across the board, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Bufford is the recipient of a Nightlife, Bistro and BroadwayWorld Award for Outstanding Vocalist. She has traveled all over the U.S., and recently made her London debut to great critical acclaim. She was featured in Michael Feinstein’s Great American Songbook series at Jazz at Lincoln Center and has been spotlighted in numerous Broadway By The Year concerts at NY’s The Town Hall and in California. Bufford starred in Scott Siegel’s 11 O’Clock Numbers at 11 O’Clock at Feinstein’s at The Loews Regency along with Christina Bianco and Scott Coulter for an incredible eight-month run, one of the longest in Feinstein’s history. Bufford originally hails from Lincolnton, Georgia, where she grew up on healthy doses of Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Dinah Washington, and Bessie Smith. She attended Ithaca College where she majored in Musical Theater. She is a firm believer in honoring, celebrating, and teaching the Great American Songbook, both material written yesterday and today. She’d also like someone playing a nasty slide trombone to follow her around punctuating her daily activities.

ALEX GETLIN

Alex Getlin is a New York-based singer and actress. Most recently she made her Carnegie Hall debut with Michael Feinstein in Hooray for Hollywood, as part of his Standard Time series. A native New Yorker, she has spent the last year performing around the country in concert tributes to Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber with Spot-On Entertainment. She has appeared Off-Broadway in the company of Anything Can Happen In the Theatre – The Songs of Maury Yeston, after being hand-picked by Yeston to interpret his music. In June 2017, Getlin made her symphonic debut with the Pasadena Pops under the baton of Michael Feinstein in Broadway: The Golden Age where she starred alongside Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey.

In 2016, after graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in theater, Getlin was a featured soloist in Broadway Rising Stars at Town Hall. She made her professional singing debut at 17, in a solo cabaret show at The Regency Hotel in New York, presented by Mr. Feinstein. The New York Times called her “a confident, engaging young singer with a big voice,” and BroadwayWorld hailed her as “a new and rare talent on the entertainment scene.”

She will be seen this summer as Fiona in Shrek, the Musical, at the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Colonial Theatre, where she previously appeared in the company’s production of The Music Man. Television credits include CBS’ Shades of Blue and Netflix’s The Break with Michele Wolf.

JOHN BOSWELL

Pianist John Boswell has served as musical director for Judy Collins, Andy Williams, Bob Newhart, Scott Coulter, Maude Maggart, Faith Prince, Carmen Cusack, Babbie Green, Jason Graae, and a host of other fine talents. John played the role of Moose in the national tour of Crazy For You and has appeared on The Tonight Show, Today Show, CBS This Morning, Regis And Kathie Lee, General Hospital, and was the piano playing hands of Nancy McKeon on the sit-com The Facts of Life. Recent concerts with symphonies have included Jerry Herman: The Broadway Legacy Concert, Blockbuster Broadway, Sheena Easton and Scott Coulter: The Spy Who Loved Me, and Music Of The Knights. John has been heard singing in the shows Three Men and a Baby…Grand, Cinema Toast, Broadway Today, Wiseguys, and the New York cult hit Cashino. Broadway/Off Broadway credits include Crazy For You, The Secret Garden, LIZA! Steppin’ Out At Radio City Music Hall, Back To Bacharach, and David and The Kathy And Mo Show: Parallel Lives. His monthly concerts in 2017 at The Gardenia in Los Angeles have been crowd pleasers. Boswell has eight CDs of original piano music and a ninth on the way. While a student at UCLA, Boswell received the Frank Sinatra Award for popular instrumentalists.