Happy New Years all!
She was back at the Top Tier Cabaret at Pianos Bar and Grill. She also directed "A Summer Teen Cabaret" for TLC, the Theatre League of Clifton. She enjoyed singing a set of private parties, the holiday season and a Holiday Cabaret at Pianos, with an all-star cast.
She sang in the Celebration of Life Concert in September, prior the Provincetown Harbor Swim for Life. She swam across the harbor the next day! You can shut off the music below to hear the video.
Janet was at the Holly Folly at the Fairbanks Inn in Provincetown,
She appeared at The Fairbanks Inn with Karen Grenier and Suede.
She appeared with the Somerset Jazz Consortium. Here's a picture in Bloomfield with Jim Jasion, Bob Baylough and Andrew Lohse.
Janet's second CD CHRISTMAS CARD, is out. It is available at Apple iTunes, CD baby and Amazon.
Janet turned her attention to her two favorite genres: Christmas music and jazz. She has sung for thousands during the Christmas season with cabaret shows,
school events and church solos. She has been exploring her other favorite musical style, jazz, and combined them into a Christmas jazz show. So during the hottest weeks of July and August, Janet found some of the hottest jazz musicians in New York and created this very cool Christmas CD.
Here are some pictures from the session:
Janice Friedman - Musical director, arranger, piano
Brian Glassman - double bass,
Barbara Merjan - percussion,
Jessica Jones - flute, saxophone,
Cover photo by Gregg A. Martin,
Produced by Step One Productions, Linda Heard, executive producer
Recorded at Second Story Sound, NYC, Associate producer: Scott Lehrer
Other recent stuff:
Here's Janet performing at the diva lounge in Montclair, NJ.
Career:
Janet Villas has been a member of the NY City Opera chorus for 20 years.
She's also sang lead roles with George Shirley in Transcendent Voices, and in Susanah and Suor Angelica. She is also an accomplished soloist in the classical repertoire.
She has sung many famous soprano solos at Christ Church in glamorous Glen Ridge, NJ, including the Mozart Ave Verum, the Faure Pie Jesu, a spiritual of
Were You There, Handel's Messiah, the Mozart Laudate Domine and the Alleluia. In addition she has appeared as both the Soprano and Mezzo soloist in the Bach "Magnificat" with the Grace Choral Society.
As a cabaret singer, She performed for the Frontrunner's benefit at the Pride Center in New York,
and performed with Dreamcatcher Rep theatre for their Holiday Cabaret. She also wrote and performed a tribute concert for Richard Rodgers' 100th birthday entitled, "Something Wonderful"
(interesting how the name matches the CD, huh?) at Oakeside Cultural Center in Bloomfield. Janet also performed a spring concert at Oakeside called "It might As Well be Spring".
She performed her third cabaret show "I Always Wanted to be A Fifth Dimension..." at Don't Tell Mama's in New York City in May, 2002. Neil Ginsberg was her musical director.
She performed her solo cabaret act"...but not for me!" at Don't Tell Mama's, in 2000. Her first show "Always" was performed at the Ballroom in NYC and was seen throughout New Jersey.
Her benefit performance at Drew University in Madison, NJ for the Names Project raised over $850 for the AIDS memorial quilt in 1994. She has also performed benefits for "Hearts and Voices, "the Jewish Guild for the Blind" and "The Race for the Cure".
Janet has appeared at many community events singing her jazz standards. She was a soloist at the Stonewall Chorale's holiday concerts at Merkin Hall in New York and in Ridgewood, NJ.
She has appeared at the Red Tower in Somerset, the Red Lion Cafe at the Rutgers University Student Center
with Jim Jasion on piano. She also performed with Jim at a benefit for the Third Riverbank Association, an environmental activist group in Bloomfield, at Oakeside Cultural Center in Bloomfield, at Trenton Q-night, and for GAAMC in Morristown.
She won the Stonewall Society Pride in the Arts award for 2003 for her CD Something Wonderful. She was given the nickname "la Villas" by Greg Moore during a chorus job in 1984, to help Janet feel the inspiration of "La Callas", Maria Callas!
Here she is during the recording session of "Something Wonderful"in 2002.
She has sung both the Canadian and American National Anthems for the NY Mets. She made 21 appearances at Shea Stadium. She's also graced the New Jersey Jackals with the anthems.
In addition to baseball and softball, she has opened several NJ statewide celebrations with the anthem, especially the Maplewood Domestic Partnership celebration and Jersey City Pride.
She's also sung the National Anthem at Continental Arena for The NJ Devils. You can see her singing between Randy McKay and Claude Lemieux (#22). Go Devils!
And here she is singing God Bless America on the dugout at Shea Stadium. Let's go Mets!
Other important things in her life:
Janet is a teacher at the Brooklyn Friends School. Here's Janet and her students on WNBC television with Janice Huff in May of 2001:
She was a triathlete, (she likes to put the "Try" back into "triathlete.") and is an ardent cyclist.
Janet will swim the "Swim for Life" in Provincetown for the 6th time this year. The 1.4 mile open water swim is a charity event benefitting people with AIDS and women with cancer.
She has completed the 130 mile Boston to Provincetown (in one day) bike ride three times. She has also completed the Harriman Park triathlon twice.
She has completed dozens of races in Central Park, eventually.
Stores:
Click on an icon to download songs, hear clips or buy the CD. You can listen to her on Rhapsody as well.
To purchase Something Wonderful, or Christmas Card, or download the album, see the stores below.
It is on CD Baby now or call 1-800-BUY-MY-CD with any major credit card.
She's also available for digital downloads on Apple iTunes, CD BABY and just about every download site. You can get her as a ringtone, too!
Here are Janet's links: "Help her out by boosting her listings! Every click helps!"
Janet's second CD CHRISTMAS CARD, is out.
