Concert: Alles Schwindel (It's all a Swindle): The Songs of Berlin's Gritty Goldenjahren

ALLES SCHWINDEL (It’s All A Swindle): The Songs of Berlin’s Gritty Goldenjahren

Music of Kurt Weill, Mischa Spoliansky and Friedrich Hollaender performed by Chanteuse Artemisia LeFay and pianist Renée Guerrero.

Berlin in the 1920s saw an explosion of performing art movements celebrating the decadent and the disgusting in equal measures, and cabaret was no exception to that. The uniquely progressive music, art, philosophy, writing, and human rights movements seemed to have no end— that is, until the pendulum swung the other way with the fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933. Witness these musical gems of bohemianism culled from authentic 1920s and 1930s cabarets, musical revue and vaudevilles. Chanteuse Artemisia LeFay and pianist Renee Guerrero will team up to conjure up the ghosts of Weimar past.

Pianist Renée Guerrero was introduced to music at an early age by her father who taught her to read music. Her grandfather, Longinos Guerrero, began his musical career as a traveling troubadour throughout Texas in the 1930s. Renée received her undergraduate degree in Piano Performance from Texas State University and then attended the Manhattan School of Music where she received a Master's Degree and Professional Studies' Certificate in Piano Performance. She made her NYC solo debut in the Yamaha Young Artists Showcase and since has appeared at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, Faust Harrison and venues throughout Italy. Renée is a member of the piano faculty at The Westchester Conservatory of Music and Music Director of Leonia Presbyterian Church. This past year, her program Rhapsody in Love debuted in the US and Canada. For more information, www.reneeguerrero.com.

Artemisia LeFay, chanteuse and composer based in the Bronx was raised in the audition and dressing rooms of opera productions by her classical musician parents. When she was 18 years old, she was selected by the Anthony Quinn Foundation to study opera and Italian at the Bel Canto Institute in Firenze, Italy. Miss LeFay's original cabaret shows Ghosts of Weimar Past, Phantoms of the Cabaret and her latest one Wasted Girl have all received critical acclaim locally and internationally at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Rochester Fringe Festival, Birdland Jazz Theater, Don't Tell Mama, the Triad Theater, the Laurie Beechman Theater and more. As a classical singer she has sung on stages in Canada, Italy and Turkey and has sung with the opera company Teatro Grattacielo since 2022. Artemisia teaches voice and piano at St. Luke's School. Broadway World Cabaret Awards recently nominated Artemisia for Best Show, Best Original Song and Best Vocalist and also featured her show Wasted Girl as one of their picks for Best Cabaret Shows of 2024. For more information, www.artemisialefay.com