Thanks!

Thanks first to the amazing musicians who have worked with me to make this vision come to life: Carla, Regina, Gwen, Akua, Steve, Donny, John and Alvester – you are the best!

Thanks to Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Foundation for the commission to write and perform this piece through the New Jazz Works Program.

Thanks to the Bluestein Foundation for a generous grant that allowed us passage through these challenging times and the means to foster our creative vision of the piece.

Thanks to the Amherst College Music Department (Music at Amherst), Professor Darryl Harper, Valley Jazz Shares and Bombyx for presenting the premiere of this piece.

Thanks to the Byrdcliffe Guild and Laura Hartmann for the Woodstock concert in the Byrdcliffe Theater and to City College (CCNY) at Aaron Davis Hall – two historic venues.

The Byrdcliffe concert was sponsored by Danny Melnick and Absolutely Live Entertainment and the Wood Doc Foundation.

Thanks to New Music USA for a grant to help record this piece!

Thanks to Laura Hartmann at LVanHart Artist Productions who helped to organize the nuts and bolts and push this project along to fruition.

Thanks to maestros Emilio Solla and Darcy James Argue for their musical input and coaching at our rehearsals. And thanks to maestros Andy Jaffe and Bill Banfield for their artistic guidance during the initial stages of the composition.

Thanks to the wonderful help I had with Spanish translation from: Elsa Borrero, Natalia Bernal, Edwin Israel Montes Roldan, John Benitez and Beatriz Hernandez.

Thank you to Jay Clayton and Dominique Eade for their invaluable advice and council on vocal technique but especially to Natalia Bernal whose weekly vocal coaching was transformative, inspirational and life-changing!

Thanks to Paul Hiam for creating this website dedicated to Upper West Side Love Story that will also be the QR (paperless) program for all of our performances!

Thanks to Zoe Mathiesson https://www.zoematthiessen.com/
for her wonderful recreation of the Fire Engine playground!

Nick Carter https://www.nickcarterweddings.com/ for his continued artistic help and to
Warren B. Lee (and Barbara Lee) for his beautiful photo of Upper West Side children and friends that is the banner on this home page.

Thanks to the multitude of wonderful neighbors, especially Eric Rosenfeld who has supported me since the beginning of this journey and friends that I interviewed before writing the lyrics to this song cycle. You have added your perspective to my vision of the neighborhood and given me insight that contributed immensely to the historical, philosophical and aesthetic foundation of this piece:

Ruth and Hettie Cunningham
Fred and Jocelyn Jerome
Marika Hughes
Ed Byrne – my teacher in high school who lived on 88th street!
Peter Bernstein
Adam Rogers
Ben and Frank Perowsky
Phoenix Rivera
Sam Burtis
Michael Cochrane
Ron McClure
Hap Beasley
Jimmy Madison
Deborah “Debo” Davis
Ira Coleman
Alan White
George Sen Morillo

AND THANKS to Heather White, my muse and goddess!