Friendly Tim cropped
By Alice Telios
Tim Schall, the producer and cofounder of the Fourth Annual St. Louis Cabaret Conference, is eager to give the rundown for the upcoming August event, where the tables will be set, the piano will be tuned and the cocktails will flow at The Jazz Bistro at Grand Center. Local and national artists will not only treat St. Louisans to performances, but will offer classes for local cabaret artists; this year’s teaching ensemble includes Lina Koutrakos, Rick Jenson, Alex Rybeck and Jason Graae.
Are a lot of the performers who come in for the conference already established performers, or do you get a lot of newcomers?
We have a great mix over the four nights. We have award-winning New York cabaret performers, we have a Broadway performer and then we have people who are taking the conference. All of the participants who take the conference will be performing on Sunday night, which is the final showcase, and everybody does a song. It is a great culminating event of the weekend. Then on Saturday, I am kind of moving backwards here, the faculty performs. Lina Koutrakos will perform a show; she’s an award-winning New York cabaret performer, and Jason Graae will perform a show. He is also one of the teachers. He has Broadway credits, television credits, film credits, [and] does a lot of concert and cabaret work around the country and in Los Angeles where he resides. Then Friday night I will be performing, doing a show on my own as the producer of the event. I have performed around the country. I make my home in St. Louis, but I will be performing a new show especially created for the conference. And on Thursday night the conference performance component opens with something called Highlights, which is a look back at the year in St. Louis Cabaret. So, I have got about ten people who have done solo shows throughout the year doing highlights from their shows…We have got everybody from the St. Louis artists, to a Broadway performer and everywhere in between. It is a tremendous mix.
Are a lot of the conference attendees local talent, or do you have some people throughout the Midwest who come to St. Louis for the conference?
I have got somebody from Houston coming and I have got another singer from Palm Springs coming. In the past we have had folks from Chicago, Washington D.C., Seattle, I might be forgetting a city, Boston…We have had people come form all around the country. Eighty percent of the people although are residing in St. Louis, so they are local.
Do a lot of the performers who come to learn have similar styles, or do they all have their own unique flair?
Everybody has their own unique flair. Cabaret, really what it is, is just the art of song performance. It’s coaching on song performance for intimate settings, in a very personalized way, an intimate relationship with your audience. That’s what cabaret is. People who are coming, Lina has a very pop bluesy style. She does the old standards also, but she does a lot of contemporary work and she writes her own material. She is a pop singer in a lot of ways. Jason, who is the other teacher, is a Broadway singer. He does a lot more Broadway show music and he is also a brilliant comic. He is absolutely hilarious. In one evening you will be laughing yourself sick and then you will hear some great pop and blues too. Then what I am doing on Friday night is my show. I am celebrating the male singer-songwriters of pop music: Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Harry Chapin—those kinds of singers. On the other two nights of the showcases you are going to hear a wide variety of music from current pop music, to standards that were written in the ‘20s and ‘30s and then everything in between.
What would you say the people who attend the conference classes expect to learn from the four teachers?
They really learn about being themselves on stage and connecting in a personal way with their material. A lot of singers who come in to this, not all, but a lot of them are from theater backgrounds where you act and portray a character on stage. In cabaret it is you. You are yourself on stage. So it is about being yourself on stage, connecting emotionally, connecting honestly with your material and having a very up front intimate relationship with your audience.
The guest teachers that you have brought in, have they performed in St. Louis outside of the conference?
They both have performed here last year as part of the conference. But prior to that, Jason Graae, he performed at the Edison Theater a few years back with Liz Callaway, who is a Broadway star. Lina Koutrakos performed in St. Louis this spring at the Kranzberg as part of Cabaret St. Louis’ series. So yeah, they have performed here beyond the conference. And Alex Rybeck, who is one of the music directors who is coming in, he has performed here in St. Louis probably for 12 years supporting a wide variety of singers who come in to St. Louis to perform.
How do you think bringing in professionals from around the country affects the cabaret scene in St. Louis?
Oh, It has defined the cabaret scene in St. Louis, the local cabaret scene. There wasn’t a local cabaret scene, really to speak of. A few isolated events now and then, but there really wasn’t the kind of cabaret scene even a few years ago that there is now, and it is directly related to the training that people have received at the St. Louis Cabaret Conference.
What do you hope the conference can do for St. Louis cabaret in the future?
Oh, I think it is just going to keep expanding it and inspiring it. You know I have 25 people training at the conference this year. Fifteen of them are returning for the second, third and sometimes fourth time. So people keep coming back because it’s an enriching experience. They get inspired to do their shows. People come in new, come in and see this training, and they see people have come through it before who are now out doing their own shows, so those new people get inspired to do their own shows. It keeps, how can I put this poetically? It is really an inspiration for the local cabaret scene, I feel, in my opinion. It is the inspiration, motivation and training for the local cabaret scene.
2009 St. Louis Cabaret Conference
Tickets: $15-$35
Interested participants should contact Tim Schall, RNI Productions at 314-721-4634 or at tjschall@sbcglobal.net.
