On August 7th 2015, The Metropolitan Room in New York City presents vocalist Rebekah Lowin in ‘I Know You By Heart; the Songs of Eva Cassidy’ a powerful and intimate new show that highlights the life and legacy of the late singer, as well as her original arrangements. The 23-year-old Rebekah Lowin projects an aura of bittersweet, farsighted resignation.
‘For any singer, it is a challenge to put a strong enough personal imprint on songs as familiar as ‘Over The Rainbow,’ ‘What a Wonderful World,’ and ‘Blues in the Night’ that you are drawn to consider the personality behind the voice. In this show, directed by Lauren Fox, Ms. Lowin who last year earned a bachelor of arts degree in creative writing from Columbia, infuses a wistful authority into the lyrics and makes you hear the songs from her perspective. At times, it feels as though she has already absorbed life lessons that most of us don’t begin to consider until much later. In other words, she’s a natural,’ wrote the New York Times.
Connecting the songs is a running biography of Cassidy’s life that paints her as a fiercely independent artist who stubbornly resisted being marketed as one thing or another. Ms. Lowin’s clean-cut, unglamorous self-presentation and the stripped-down arrangements of her musicians — Peter Calo on guitar and Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf on cello — contributes to her portrait of Cassidy as a single-minded loner. The closest thing to a running theme is the impermanence of romantic love, contemplated in ‘Autumn Leaves,’ and in the traditional folk song ‘The Water is Wide,’ where love ‘fades away like the summer dew.’
The Metropolitan Room is located at 34 West 22nd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) in New York City. Nearest subways include the 1, 2, N, Q, R, F, M, PATH. The box office is reachable by phone at 212.206.0440.
Wish I could attend…..love Eva Cassidy and would love to hear this artist do her songs.
I have all Eva’s albums and share with everyone I know….her popularity increases,a rare gift to the world.bless her parents for sharing with us Eva’s beautiful music…..with love barbara