Lea DeLaria Performs Holiday Favorites
“She swings hard and scats and bends notes in a style that suggests a no-frills Betty Carter on steroids.”—New York Times
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— Returning to Bard Fisher Center after sell-out performances at the SummerScape Spiegeltent, star of Orange Is the New Black Lea DeLaria performs an extra-sassy concert of holiday favorites with her all-female jazz ensemble. Oh F*ck It’s Christmas will be performed one night only in the Sosnoff Theater on Saturday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $25; for additional ticket information contact the Fisher Center box office at fishercenter.bard.edu or call 845-758-7900.An award-winning jazz singer, actor, writer, and stand-up comic who “talks like a coffee grinder, and sounds like a cross between Ella Fitzgerald and a Broadway diva” (Guardian), Delaria will perform a selection of holiday favorites from her album Be a Santa, such as “Winter Wonderland,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “What Are You Doing This New Year’s Eve?” The evening features Miki Hayama, piano; Endea Owens, bass; and Sylvia Cuenca, drums.
About the Artist:
Lea DeLaria seems to have achieved overnight stardom with her three-time, SAG Award–winning, stand-out role as Carrie “Big Boo” Black in the Netflix hit series Orange is the New Black. However, DeLaria’s multifaceted career as a comedian, actress, and jazz musician has, in fact, spanned decades.
DeLaria was the featured vocalist at the 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, and has performed in some of the most prestigious houses in the world including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Chicago Symphony, Hollywood Bowl, Royal Albert Hall, and Sydney Opera House.
She has five records on the Warner Jazz and Classics label, and her book Lea’s Book of Rules for the World is in its third printing at Bantam Doubleday and Dell. Her sixth record, House of David DeLaria+Bowie=Jazz, was released in summer 2015 to
critical acclaim.
DeLaria holds the distinction of being the first openly gay comic on American television which led to countless television and film roles portraying police lieutenants, PE teachers and the lesbian who inappropriately hits on straight women.
About Bard Fisher Center
Bard College has distinguished itself as a leader in the field of liberal arts and sciences for more than 150 years by providing a first-rate undergraduate education for its students. The College is known for its pioneering ideas in education, its passionate commitment to the highest standards of artistic inquiry and practice, and for its vigorous advocacy of liberty, citizenship, individual dignity and tolerance of differences.
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by architect Frank Gehry, illustrates the commitment of the College to bringing performing artists of the highest rank to perform and work with its students, faculty, staff and the public. Bard Fisher Center creates moments that inspire curiosity, learning, and civic participation, believing that artists are uniquely able to lead discourse on the most urgent questions of our time, and that substantial, long-term investment in artistic innovation is vital to a well-balanced society. Bard Fisher’s programs in opera, dance, theater, music, jazz, and cabaret, along with its world-class facilities, provide an outstanding venue in which to create and learn.
Together these institutions provide an exceptional environment for artists to create and inspire students’ thinking and practice. As a central multi venue arts platform in our region with a core program of a trailblazing global liberal arts college, Bard Fisher realizes Bard’s commitment to the arts as a cultural and educational right for all.
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