The Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project (TPAAPMP) will present Tin Pan Alley Holiday Songs, starring Gabrielle Lee, at the Madison Square Park Holiday Tree Lighting on Wednesday, December 6, from 5:30-6 PM.
Caroling precedes the event from 4-5:30 PM.
The festive event at the Northern Reflecting Pool—a partnership of Madison Square Park Conservancy and TPAAPMP—stars guest vocalist Lee with Broadway pianist and musical director, Alvin Hough Jr. This special performance presents a selection of holiday standards with traditional arrangements of Yuletide favorites and more, in Tin Pan Alley fashion.
The first public Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the country’s history took place in Madison Square Park. This tree lighting marks the 111th year of that event, which occurred in 1912. In that same year, on Tin Pan Alley, songwriters were producing the music that became foundational for jazz, the Great American Songbook and the Christmas standards we still sing today. This concert honors the rhythms of ragtime and early jazz and beyond during the most wonderful time of the year.
Gabrielle Lee is at home in theater, TV, film, concert and cabaret performance and American Songbook. She has provided backing vocals and featured performances with the New York Pops, Cab Calloway Orchestra, Ray Charles Orchestra, Aloe Blacc, Angelique Kidjo, Common, Steely Dan, Marvin Hamlisch and Natalie Cole among others. Lee began her career touring the country with the late Harry Belafonte. Sals holds title roles in Broadway National, European tours, Off-Broadway and Regional Theater, including the world premiere of “Bricktop” Legend of the Jazz Age (co-creator), Intimate Apparel, Chicken & Biscuits, Little Shop of Horrors, All Night Strut, Once on This Island, Beehive, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Showboat, Ain’t Misbehavin, Dreamgirls and more.
Alvin Hough, Jr. is originally from Washington DC. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, at the Capitol for Mother Teresa’s Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony and at the White House. He is currently the Music Director of Merrily We Roll Along, featuring Daniel Radcliffe. Other Broadway credits include: New York, New York; The Piano Lesson (featuring Samuel L. Jackson), where he provided both music direction and original incidental music; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, the recent revivals of Once on This Island, The Color Purple and Motown. Hough has also worked on numerous films and TV series
