Sunday February 9, 2020
Three for a Song
Alex Hassan, Douglas Bowles & Jennifer Timberlake
P R O G R A M
To Be Announced
Biographies
Alex Hassan has been in total immersion 1920s/30s Tin Pan Alley Popular Piano Styles therapy for over 40 years. A pupil of a pupil of a pupil of a pupil of Franz Liszt (well…it SOUNDS impressive?!), he has been a torchbearer for the melodies of between-the-wars Broadway and Hollywood (and European equivalents), devoting himself more specifically to collecting and resurrecting the great “late Romantic with a beat” popular songs that really never had a chance.
His archival collection of [mostly] popular piano solo and vocal sheet music numbers around 45,000 titles, entirely 1920s/30s. It is a tribute to those heady musical times that there is still so much left to find.
Alex has performed internationally at such venues as England’s Aldeburgh Festival, Husum (2007 & 2015–“Piano Rarities Festival”), Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, the Coolidge Auditorium (Library of Congress), various Manhattan/Baltimore/Washington night spots, and national ragtime festivals. He has recorded prolifically for England’s SHELLWOOD PRODUCTIONS, Los Angeleno label OPERETTA ARCHIVES, and Pennsylvania’s STOMP OFF, and has produced/annotated several reissues of the virtuoso popular pianists of the 78RPM period, for both Shellwood and the Pittsburgh company, RIVERMONT (for which he has also recorded, along with two brilliant singing friends).
Doug Bowles serves on the musical theatre faculties of Howard University and the Catholic University of America, teaches private voice and is active as a performer on stage and at the piano. With Alex Hassan, Doug has created THREE FOR A SONG and has appeared around the country and internationally performing newly discovered songs by the major established 1930s composers from Harold Arlen to Fats Waller to George Gershwin. They have appeared on National Public Radio’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and BBC INTERNATIONAL. Doug appears on three CDs: NEW DEAL RHYTHM (with Alex Hassan) for Shellwood Records; THE GREATEST SONGS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD (with Soprano Karin Paludan) for Rivermont Records and most recently on SUBLIMITIES: A CY WALTER TRIBUTE on Harbinger Recorders for the Musical Theatre Project in NY. Doug also appears on Wax Cylinder, recorded at the Edison National History Site by Peter Dilg. Doug’s work has received enthusiastic reviews from Michael Feinstein, Leonard Maltin, Vince Giordano and Ethan Morrden (noted author and expert on the American Musical Theatre).
Check out Doug’s activities at www.dougbowles.com and on facebook at Doug Bowles: Classic American Entertainment and Three for a Song.
Jennifer Timberlake is a native Washingtonian and graduate of The Catholic University of America with a Bachelors of Music in Musical Theatre. She has performed all over the DC area including at The Kennedy Center, Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre, The Washington Stage Guild and Adventure Theatre which holds a special place as it’s where she met her husband. Favorite roles include Patsy in “Always…Patsy Cline” and Carrie in “Carousel”. She is thrilled to join Doug and Alex And THREE FOR A SONG.