The Song is You! – Jazz Vocal Workshop Series at Hoff-Barthelson Music School

The Song is You! – Jazz Vocal Workshop Series at Hoff-Barthelson Music School

Jazz Vocalist MJ Territo Leads Three Friday Night Vocal Workshops

Hoff-Barthelson Music School will host a special series of jazz vocal workshops with guest vocalist MJ Territo, on three consecutive Friday evenings, November 6, 13 and 20, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. The Song is You! – an Introduction to vocal jazz – is open to the public and free of charge. Jazz lovers of all ages are welcome to attend one or all three sessions at the School, located at 25 School Lane, Scarsdale, New York.

Topics to be covered in the workshop series include:

• What is the Jazz Vocal Repertoire?
• How the Song is You
• Why “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”
• Where Did Jazz Come From?
• When You Want to Sing Jazz

For additional information: 914-723-1169, hb@hbms.org, www.hbms.org.

About MJ Territo:
Jazz stylist MJ Territo performs regularly in venues throughout the tri-state area. She enjoys organizing her musical sets around a theme, such as “Strictly for the Birds” or “Heavens Above”. Her sets are known to feature specific composers and or lyricists and she has dedicated programs to Alec Wilder, Johnny Mercer, Fran Landesman, Peggy Lee, and Dave Frishberg. Her performances regularly feature the work of women jazz composers and lyricists.

From deep roots in writing and theatre, MJ sings with the words out front, choosing her two-hundred (and counting) song repertoire from the Great American Songbook; instrumental jazz compositions; rock; folk; pop; and world music. Beyond the lyrics, the songs she is drawn to have memorable melodies and tell some nugget of truth about life.

As a lyricist, MJ collaborates frequently with composers, and also pens words for instrumental jazz standards. When writing her own songs, it’s the words that almost always come first. Even in her improvisations, with or without incorporating words, she focuses on telling a story.

Her first CD, Down With Love, was released in 2010. The inspiration for it came one day while she was thumbing through some songbooks looking for fresh material. “Why are all the songs about love?” she wondered. “There really is more to life!” A little research revealed that, of course, not all the songs are about romantic love. In short order, she came up with Jobim’s Waters of March, about the unstoppable rush of spring and life, and Dylan’s Gotta Serve Somebody, which reminds us that no matter who we are, we all answer to someone. Besides these two great tunes, she also found and arranged eight other “unlove” songs for the CD.

Ms. Territo is a Teaching Artist for ArtsWestchester. She works with private jazz singing students and is also an early childhood music expert and advocate. She currently teaches children attending a Head Start program in White Plains, and has presented workshops on the benefits of music in early childhood throughout the US.

About Hoff-Barthelson Music School:
One of Westchester County’s most cherished and active cultural resources, Hoff-Barthelson Music School has achieved national recognition as a premier community music school for its unsurpassed leadership in education, performance and outreach for more than half a century.

The Jazz Vocal Workshop Series is made possible, in part, by ArtsWestchester with support from Westchester County Government, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.