Album Notes

When you think of George Bernard Shaw, Jean Giraudoux, Alexander Ostrovsky, or Luigi Pirandello, music may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Well, TACT/The Actors Company Theatre is changing all that. Alone among New York theatre companies, TACT revives neglected or rarely seen plays of literary merit in "Concert Performance" - a style of presentation which focuses on the playwright's words, the actor's craft, and that magical connection with a live audience. Season after season, our sold-out audiences have delighted in our unique theatre offerings. And that delight derives from music as well as the spoken word. Why? Because, since our inception, every TACT production has included an original incidental musical score created and performed exclusively for us by the highly gifted musicians of the Manhattan School of Music. The result of this dynamic collaboration is a unique and remarkable body of musical work. Now, for the first time, we've brought together some of the very best music from the first eight seasons of past TACT productions. The composers featured here - Jonathan Faiman, David Macdonald, Yuzuru Sadashige and Jonathan Smith - are Adjunct Members of the our company, and have all become sought-after New York composers of contemporary classical music and musical theatre.

PLAY ON will entrance, entertain and sometimes dazzle you. And it will become a permanent part of your music collection - one brilliantly bridging the artificial divide between great theatre and great music.

Our thanks to Kathy Soroka, Robert Smith, and all the composers and musicians of the Manhattan School of Music, who, over the years, have made the TACT/MSM collaboration such an enormous success.

Acoustic guitar: Yuzuru Sadashige
Alto & soprano saxophones: Matt Hong
Bass: Conrad Korsch, Johannes Weidenmueller
Bass trombone: Julie Kalu
Cello: Peter Seidenberg, Ben Wolff
Clarinet: Tama Waipura
Electric guitar: Tim Moes
Flute & piccolo: Koaki Fujimoto
Percussion: Justine Hines, Jonathan Mele
Piano: Jonathan Faiman, Yuzuru Sadashige, Jonathan Smith
Trumpet: Ed Castro, Brian Prunetta, Jeff Smith
Tuba: Charles Giannelli
Viola: Liuh-Wen Ting
Violin: Katie Wolfe
Vocals: Amy Goldstein