MICHAEL WINTHER, vocals and JOSEPH THALKEN, piano

Old Love & New Love & True Love

A “first-rate singer of unusual refinement” with “a voice that traverses genres” (New York Times), MICHAEL WINTHER joins forces with award-winning composer and music director, Joseph Thalken for a unique mix of classic, romantic standards and contemporary love songs as well as some discoveries from the contemporary musical theater.

MICHAEL WINTHER is a veteran of eight Broadway productions and has numerous Off-Broadway credits. He has headlined concerts in New York City – including the popular Feinstein’s 54 Below and Lincoln Center’s prestigious American Songbook Series – as well as venues across the country. Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote “Winther stakes out the most fertile artistic territory in American music: the high ground where show tunes, art songs and the singer-songwriter tradition merge. [He] has both the voice and the intelligence for the job.”

“Winther makes it look all so easy and relaxed. Never cloying or cute, he offers just the right tone. That he sings like a dream helps, too.”
— Frank Rizzo, Variety

“Michael Winther’s singing is strong but refined, with perfect intonation and a warm sound that becomes incandescent when he raises the volume. He has none of the blustery, flowery mannerisms of the typical theatrical baritone. Discreet understatement is his method, a raised eyebrow, a playful grin and an insinuating hesitation substituting for fist-shaking declamation and sobbing histrionics.”
– Stephen Holden, The New York Times

JOSEPH THALKEN is an award-winning composer, conductor and pianist whose theater and concert works have been performed internationally. His music has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Somerled Charitable Foundation and the Shen Family Foundation. Thalken is the composer of the musicals Harold and Maude, Was, Borrowed Dust, Inventions for Piano, and Fall of ’94, which is slated to be produced next year at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. His concert works encompass chamber, choral, orchestral, wind ensemble and vocal music. His chamber orchestra ballet, Chasing Home, commissioned by Bruce Wood Dance, is receiving a world-premiere recording by the Dallas Chamber Symphony, conducted by Richard McKay. He has served as music director and/or arranger for luminaries of Broadway and classical music, including Julie Andrews, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Renée Fleming, Rebecca Luker, Marin Mazzie, Kristin Chenoweth, Liza Minnelli, Polly Bergen, Faith Prince, Elizabeth Futral, Catherine Malfitano, Denyce Graves, Joshua Bell, Michael Crawford, Howard McGillin, Michael Winther, Jason Danieley, Nathan Gunn, Rodney Gilfry and Brian Stokes Mitchell, among many others. He performed with the New York Philharmonic for their 2019 Spring Gala, for which he also wrote several orchestrations. After graduating from Northwestern University, he spent five years in Germany and Switzerland working in opera houses as a coach, conductor and composer. He has taught music theater composition at Yale University and is a long-time resident of New York City.

Online ticket sales close 4 hours prior to show time. Tickets may still be available at the door. Call (570) 588-8077 for questions.