Performing Arts

John Mauceri at Woolsey Hall

Still standing after a sold-out Woolsey Hall performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Yale Symphony and a total number of performers of some 200 —including the Greater New Haven Community Chorus and brass players in the balconies (and the Newberry organ).

Dedicated to his medical doctors (many of whom attended the concert), the concert was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation. Yale President McInnis attended, along with Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis and School of Music Dean Garcia-Leon.

John first conducted the epic Mahler symphony with the Yale Symphony Orchestra fifty-five years ago, when he was 25. The concert celebrated the orchestra’s 60th anniversary and John’s 80th birthday.

Update: “Save the Palace” Performances

SHERMAN PLAYHOUSE has selected “Save the Palace” to celebrate their 100th anniversary. They will present a staged reading of “Save the Palace” on Friday and Saturday August 21 and 22 at 8:00PM and on Sunday August 23 at 2:00PM.

Missy Alexander, President of the Sherman Players, discovered “Save the Palace” at the show’s concert presentation in Washington Depot, CT last summer and made arrangements with the playwright, Roy O’Neil, to present it at the Sherman Playhouse in Sherman, CT.

This comfort‑rock musical keeps winning hearts across Connecticut. This is your chance to see the story of Eddie, Gracie, and The Palaceades as they battle corrupt politicians to save the Palace. The Sherman Players are getting ready to shake the rafters with a four-piece band and a staged reading of this original musical that blends 1990’s nostalgia with a story full of heart. It’s intimate, it’s joyful, and it’s packed with songs that stay with you long after the final chord. Come experience the show in its most revealing form — the actors, the music, the story — no production bells and whistles, just pure connection.

Roy O’Neil and the Saga of Developing a Musical

It’s not easy to develop a musical. Just ask classmate Roy O’Neil.

Roy has written a musical called “Save the Palace,” about the fallout from efforts to save a fading theater in his hometown. The seed for the show was planted over 20 years ago when a few of his original songs were included in a local musical revue “Broadway on the Green.” The musical became stage-ready in 2013, when Roy hired a 23-year-old Yale music student, Stephen Feigenbaum ‘12, MUS ’13, as music and writing coach.

The show website describes “Save the Palace” as “a roller coaster ride of emotional moments with endearing songs to make you sing and dance, and a crew of corrupt politicians who will make you laugh ’til you cry.” It’s also been called, “Up-tempo, feel-good fun for baby-boomers (and their kids).”

By the spring of 2013 the script was ready for submission to showcase and festival opportunities in New York City, where it won some awards in 2013 and 2014, and garnered some positive reviews. Dave Richards attended the 2014 Midtown Theatre Festival show and declared, “It was better than I expected.” In 2016 and 2017, community theaters in Connecticut and on Cape Cod performed the show, again drawing positive reviews.

In fall, 2024, Roy’s was named 2024 Songwriter of the Year by the Austin Songwriters Group International. The songs from “Save the Palace” that won awards were Bangarang, Fires of Spring, She’ll Never Leave Plano, Marriage on the Rocks, Meet Me at the Palace, She’s Too Darn Busy for Me, and Eagles & Anchors & Snakes. These songs are available on various streaming sites and listening channels. To download “Bangarang” for free, go to https://eddieandthepalaceades.com/dl and enter the code rva3-3g4b

Roy discovered the Austin, TX songwriters’ group while visiting his daughter’s farm outside of Austin over the past few years, and began to participate in their annual song-writing competition.

Roy continues to seek commercial production and would love to see his characters come alive again on stage. Broadway is a dream, but with pre-opening capitalization running $15 million+ and operating budgets over $750,000, he admits he is too timid to ask for money on that scale for such a high-risk proposition (unknown show, unknown writer). Still, he keeps pitching and rewriting, as you can gather from the videos linked below.

You can get a feeling for the show from this video excerpt of a 2021 industry reading at Theatre Row in NYC: Save The Palace Opening

The show website is here: Save The Palace Musical

And more on the development of the show: A History of the musical’s development and a bio of Roy O’Neil.

Keep on creating, and ‘Break A Leg,” Roy!

John Mauceri

Hope you’ll Watch – here’s the promotional video for the upcoming broadcast of Tchaikovsky’s classic, modernized to “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” with performance by narrator Alan Cumming, and conducted by our own John Mauceri. A holiday favorite with a twist. Tune in on Tuesday, December 14th, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time on PBS. Sorry, no cool bespoke jacket this time, just a tuxedo, but it’s John performing his musical magic on national television.

Oct. 29, 2022: Here is John’s first ever “Guest Essay” in the New York Times: Classical Music Still Plays in the Theater of War

Rich Eittreim

And now, for your listening pleasure, a delightful video of Rich Eittreim playing his own arrangement of the Fats Waller classic “Ain’t Misbehavin.’”

And another! “It’s my arrangement of the ballad ‘Two for the Road,’ recorded a few years ago,” he says.

Peter Ecklund

Our friend and classmate, Peter Ecklund, died on April 8. Linked below are a few videos of some of Peter’s performances. Hear for yourself how great he was.

Try A Little Tenderness (Peter on cornet)

Black Bottom Stomp (Peter on cornet)

Bullfrog Blues (Peter on cornet)

Sweet Sue (Peter on ukulele and lead whistler)

Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Peter on ukulele)

Ain’t She Sweet (Peter on cornet)

The Whistling Song (Peter is lead whistler)

Can’t We Be Friends (Peter on cornet)

Jeff Fuller

Jeff Fuller

Jeff Fuller has spent his life in music, as a jazz and Latin performer, bassist, composer, and teacher. His group’s performances draw music fans from New Haven, New York, and beyond. But, starting at Yale, he had his doubts.

His career got its start when he declared sophomore year as a major in music, then wondered, “I’m not preparing myself for anything else than music. Is this going to work?” (See “How Jeff Fuller Built a Career One Note at a Time” at the New Haven Independent.)

It worked. After a Master’s in Music from Yale, he developed a unique and distinguished career as jazz bassist, Latin jazz (Afro-Cuban and Brazilian), composer, performer (Jeff Fuller & Friends), and music educator (Yale School of Music Jazz Initiative, local high school and neighborhood ensembles, private lessons). (See his “About” page on his website.)

Jeff’s performance group, Jeff Fuller & Friends, has just released “a new CD of jazz originals, ‘Round & Round,’ featuring my working trio, with myself on upright bass plus Darren Litzie on piano and Ben Bilello on drums. This is our fourth CD since 2014, and it features my original compositions ranging from bebop to Brazilian and ballads. The intimacy of piano trio jazz is a classic sound which, I think, stands the test of time in an increasingly electronic world.” Music critics agree that the new CD offers inspiring, sophisticated jazz and ‘tropical’ music with “much to celebrate.” (See “Jeff Fuller And Friends Take A Spin” at the New Haven Independent.)

Jeff Fuller and Friends

Classmates can catch up with Jeff and his exciting music and performances at JeffFuller.net.

Update! Good news for jazz buffs, especially if you live within striking distance of New Haven: On September 18th, 2026 our own Jeff Fuller will lead his jazz group, Jeff Fuller & Friends, at the Ellington Jazz Series at Yale School of Music’s Morse Recital Hall. The group of seven musicians, all either established or emerging artists, and will play a mix of Jeff’s original compositions and some standards from the American Song Book. We’ll send you another reminder when the date gets closer.

Bob Allison

Many of us know Bob Allison as the guy who (along with Paul Lamar) has enlivened our last three reunions with piano and vocal renditions of popular music classics before dinner. Before that, he had an impressive career in public service with the National Bureau of Economic Research and the United Nations. But he’s a piano man now, and, under his stage name, Barnacle Bob, here he is for your entertainment pleasure:

The Jim Bourne interview with Duke Ellington

On March 5, 1965, the great Duke Ellington, YC 1967 (Hon.), came to New Haven to play at the Yale Prom, and Jim Bourne, ace reporter for WYBC, went off to Commons to interview the Duke.

“Lugging a decidedly non-portable Ampex 602 tape recorder, I found him relaxing on the mezzanine on the side of Commons away from Woolsey Hall. What I could not find, after much searching, was an electrical outlet! He was most gracious (I was awestruck and not a little flustered) and suggested that I see him on the other, Woolsey-end mezzanine at the next break. Whether he already had intended to switch ends or had decided to do so on my behalf, I have no idea. At any rate, come the break I found both the Duke and an outlet, and the interview was done.”

Jim has saved the recording of this interview all these years, and he shares it now with us, along with this modest caveat: “Please remember that I was not yet twenty years old and that I was in the presence of greatness.”

Be sure to listen all the way to the end of Part 2, when the Duke gives Jim a message to pass on to all of us. And check out Jim’s amazing nature photographs on the photographs page.

Epilogue: Two years later, Ellington returned to Yale to accept an honorary degree at our graduation, along with (among others) historian Barbara Tuchman, historian/diplomat Edwin Reischauer, philanthropist Paul Mellon, Talmudic scholar Louis Finkelstein, British educator Lord Fulton of Falmer, and the now-disgraced zoologist Konrad Lorenz.
Then, as now, the names of the honorees were kept secret until the commencement itself. But as we lined up in our caps and gowns to enter the Old Campus, Maury Yeston, who worshiped Ellington, sneaked past the front of the line to see who the recipients were. Suddenly, he came running back to us, his academic gown and the tassel on his mortarboard flying behind him, shouting, “It’s the Duke! It’s the Duke! It’s the Duke! It’s the Duke!”

Maury Yeston

An assortment of songs from two of Maury Yeston’s musicals: Nine, a musical version of Fellini’s 8½, which won Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Musical Score in 1982, and Titanic (not to be confused with the James Cameron movie, which had better special effects but worse music), which won Tonys for Best Musical and Best Musical Score in 1997.

From Nine: Barbra Streisand performing “Unusual Way” at a live concert in London’s Hyde Park in July 2019, which she sang to Antonio Banderas, the star of the original Broadway production, who was sitting in the audience.

From Nine: The same song sung by Nicole Kidman in the movie version.

From Nine: Kate Hudson performing “Cinema Italiano” in the movie version.

From Titanic: The entire opening scene from the 2004 concert version at Lincoln Center.

“The Titanic concert was a huge event because it reunited the original cast of 1997 and it was accompanied by a chorus of 200 High School students,” says Maury.

“Though I’d been performed in Royal Festival Hall in London, and twice in Carnegie Hall, it meant a lot to me to be onstage at Lincoln Center since I remember how excited I was as a kid when Bernstein led the very first concert there, which was the North American premiere of Mahler’s 8th Symphony.”