So You Want to Sing Cabaret: A Guide for performers

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This time we willl dive into: So you want to sing Cabaret — A Guide for Performers by David Sabella and Sue Matsuki. Our discussion will include authors David Sabella and Sue Matsuki and be moderated by Beth Falcone. Scroll down for more information about these scholars.

Digital book can be purchased here: AMAZON BOOKS.

2D Location (via Zoom): Cafe D, Holidayopolis.

Cabaret performances are often known for bringing alive the Great American Songbook from the 1920s through the 1950s for contemporary audiences. But modern-day cabaret does much more than preserve the past—it also promotes and fosters the new generation of American composers and creates a uniquely vibrant musical and theatrical experience for its audiences. So You Want to Sing Cabaret is the first book of its kind to examine in detail the unique vocal and nonvocal requirements for professional performance within the exciting genre of cabaret.

With a foreword by cabaret legend Lorna Luft, So You Want to Sing Cabaret includes interviews from the top professionals in the cabaret industry, including Michael Feinstein, Ann Hampton Callaway, Roy Sander, Sidney Myer, Jeff Harner and many others. There are also chapters devoted to crafting your show, lyric connection, “do-it-yourself” production and promotion, and working with your musical team. David Sabella and Sue Matsuki have crafted the perfect one-volume resource for both the aspiring cabaret singer and the singing teacher who seeks to learn more about this unique art form.

The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Cabaret features online supplemental material on the NATS website.

David Sabella may be best known for his years on Broadway, in the co-starring role of “Mary Sunshine,” in the 1996 revival of CHICAGO, The Musical with Bebe Neuwirth, Ann Reinking, and Joel Grey.

Sabella also made history during the 1995 Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition when Maestro Pavarotti publicly declared him to be “Excellent… not good, Excellent!”

In addition to Broadway, Sabella appeared with Chita Rivera at Mandalay Bay (Las Vegas) and later returned to the Broadway company of CHICAGO with Melanie Griffith as Roxie Hart, where he remained until 2004. He worked on The Visit, Kander & Ebb’s last collaboration, for which John Kander wrote the role of Luis Perch especially for him.Off-Broadway, Sabella received an “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play” award for his work in The Phillie Trilogy. He also starred as Julian Eltinge in Jules, and dazzled audiences in dueling leads in Kiss and Makeup (written specifically for him) at the New York International Fringe Festival.

As a solo concert singer, Sabella has appeared at such illustrious venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall (AKA David Geffen), Jazz at Lincoln Center (Rose Hall), City Center, Town Hall, Feinstein’s/54 Below, Birdland Theater, Laurie Beechman Theatre, Urban Stages, Pangea, Judy’s Chelsea, and Don’t Tell Mama. And, as a voiceover artist, his voice can be heard on several network television cartoon series, including Peter Pan and the Pirates for FOX, with Tim Curry, and Teacher’s Pet for Disney, with Nathan Lane.

As a classical singer, Sabella starred as the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Virginia Opera, recorded on Koch International Label), Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Utah Opera), and Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Lincoln Center).

He also appeared numerous times at both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as principal alto soloist and was a winner of The New York Oratorio Society Competition at Carnegie Hall, and The Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition.

In addition to his extensive and diverse performance career, David Sabella is internationally recognized as a master teacher in music theater and contemporary commercial music voice techniques.

He served as a two-term president of the New York Singing Teachers’ Association (NYSTA) and as both Music Director and an Executive Director of Ann Reinking’s Broadway Theatre Project (Artistic Director, Deb McWater’s).

Since 2012 he has served on the faculty at Fordham University (Lincoln Center campus) as the Technical Voice and Performance Coach for the Music Theater Summer Intensive, and more recently for the Solo Vocal Performance (Cabaret) Workshop.

He has also taught at Montclair State University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, CAP21 Studio, the New School-Mannes Precollege program, and SUNY at Purchase College, and New Paltz. Additionally, Sabella has been a faculty member / workshop presenter at the Voice Foundation annual symposium, and has conducted masterclasses, faculty training workshops, and music theater pedagogy seminars throughout the contiguous United States, Alaska, and South America. Sabella is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and serves on the Board of Directors for the NYC chapter of NATS.

In 2012 he presented a groundbreaking research study “Beyond Belt: Acoustics and Mechanics of the Contemporary Commercial Belt” at the NATS National Conference, which has since been widely cited in other research studies and doctoral theses. He holds certification in NYSTA’s Professional Development Program, as a Distinguished Voice Professional, and is regarded as a Singing Voice Specialist, working in tandem with several New York otolaryngologists and speech-language pathologists who specialize in care of the professional voice.

Sue Matsuki is the author of a popular, on-line performers blog called Sue’s Views, she teaches classes in Cabaret and Jazz performance, lyric connection, jazz phrasing, and the business of self-producing and self-promotion. She is the producer of Urban Stages’ Winter Rhythms annual show producing 21 shows over 11 days with over 200 performers and she co-produces the NATS Musical Theatre Competition. She, along with Gregory Toroian, host a Pop Up Open Mic and she also host an on-line vlog called Sue’s Muse on NiteLife Exchange.

Artistically, Matsuki is a multi-award-winning singer and songwriter. Her most cherished awards come from winning the Bistro Award for Outstanding Jazz Collaboration celebrating her 25th year of working with Gregory Toroian; getting her poster up on the “Wall of Fame” for How’s that for Openers? on the 33rd Anniversary of singing at Don’t Tell Mama and being selected personally by the late Julie Wilson as the very first 2004 Julie Wilson Award Recipient, given by the Mabel Mercer Foundation.

She is an 11-time MAC Award Nominee and a 3-time Winner (in 8 different categories) as follows: 2002 MAC Award Winner for Female Jazz/Pop/R&B Vocalist; 2002 MAC Nominee for Best Female Recording for her first Jazz CD, A New Take; 2004 MAC Nominee for Duo/Group (with Marcus Simeone); 2006 MAC Award Winner for Jazz Duo/Special Productions for 10 Years in the Making with her Musical Director Gregory Toroian; 2007 & 2010 MAC Nominee for Female Vocalist; 2008, 2011 & 2012 MAC Nominee for Duo/Group (with Edd Clark); and the 2008 MAC Award Winner for Specialty Song, “One Stop Shopping” (Matsuki/Toroian/Page); the 2020 MAC Nominee for Major Female Vocalist and the 2021 Nominee for Open Mic Host.

This veteran Cabaret/Jazz singer and comedian has played Crazy Coqs in London; ACT2 in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico; legendary jazz clubs: The Village Gate, Birdland, The Iridium, Sweet Rhythm; she’s played Carnegie Hall and every New York City Cabaret including: Feinstein’s 54 Below, Feinstein's at the Regency, The Birdland Theater, The Algonquin, The Metropolitan Room, The Cutting Room, The Laurie Beechman, Pangea, Town Hall, Arci’s Place, Don’t Tell Mama, 88’s, Judy’s, Danny’s, Jan Wallman’s, The Duplex, The Triad, Caroline’s Comedy Club, Gotham Comedy Club, Stand Up NY Comedy Clug, Helen’s Hideaway Room and Broadway Baby in New York; The Cosmopolitan Room and Odette’s in PA; The Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska; The Gardenia Room and Feinstein’s in LA; The Palace (Waterbury), The Magnolia Room (Norwalk), the Westport Library (Westport) and The Standing Room Only Cabaret (Hartford) in CT; The Hackensack Cultural Arts Center, Voices for Charity, Trumpets & Le Dome at The Manor in NJ; Maureen’s Jazz Club, The Rockland Cultural Arts Center & Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway Series in Nyack & Town Hall in Tarrytown, NY; the CabaretFest in MA; Boothsbay Harbor Opera House in Maine and The Four Seasons in Las Vegas where she produced a show for the Special Warriors Foundation (now the Wounded Warriors). Ms. Matsuki was named a “Best of Connecticut” by The Connecticut Magazine and, as such, did a benefit for the March of Dimes at the Foxwood’s Casino.

Matsuki has 2 CDs: her MAC nominated, jazz CD, A New Take and Sue & Edd’s FABULOUS Christmas (with Edd Clark). She also sings on folk singer, Christine Lavin presents Christmas Angel featuring her original song "Christmas Angel" (Sue Matsuki/Paul Stephan) and on Miranda Music’s A New York Holiday CD with the incomparable bassist, Tom Hubbard. All CDs may be purchased at: www.amazon.com or downloaded on iTunes.

She was a Super and “Diva Double” at the Metropolitan Opera where she was featured in Moses und Aaron (Voice of God); Tristan und Isolde (Braganea double); Norma (Druid Princess); and Il Trovatore (Court Lady & Leonora double). She was also invited to sing with the Met chorus in a special presentation of After the Ball by Noel Coward starring the late, great Irene Worth.

Matsuki has served on the Board of Directors for MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) as the Treasurer; was on the Board of The Salon and is on the Board of BellaVox. She is often affectionately referred to as “The Godmother of Cabaret” for all the support that she gives to the community.

Ms. Matsuki currently lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with her beloved husband of 41 years, Kenro Matsuki. For more information please visit:

www.SueMatsuki.com