Sparks from the Fire

This is Part 3.  If you haven’t yet read Part 1 & 2, I highly suggest you do so first.

For a little more than five years when I was in my late 20s and early 30s I was composer-in-residence at the NY Shakespeare Festival (The Public Theater) working with producer Joseph Papp in what was, at the time, the most creative theatrical hot spot in the country.  Joe Papp and his plays and musicals had an amazing run of success during the 70s that we haven’t seen the likes of from a theatrical producer since.

It was at The Public where I learned my craft having the opportunity to work on some 40 shows in those 5+ years working as composer for Joe.  Besides many other theaters in The Public complex, the NYSF also produced two Shakespeare plays per summer at the outdoor Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  I created incidental music for a number of these productions and I remember one particular production of Shakespeare’s Comedy Of Errors where I was backstage standing in the wings one night.

An older actor was on stage in a scene with one other actor one night when the older actor simply stopped in the middle of one line and kind of slumped over, still standing, into a frozen position.  The long pause brought us all to quick alert.  His fellow actor fed him his cue again to no response.  The stage manager in the wings downstage of me also fed him his lines in a stage whisper several times to no avail.  The audience began to buzz and we all quickly realized that there was something very wrong with the older actor.

Truth is, he had had a small stroke.

The stage manager, taking charge, simply walked out on stage calmly, and taking the arm of the older actor, led him slowly off stage.  Then the stage manager went back on stage and announced to the audience that we would take a short intermission and resume the play after 15 minutes.  The audience, still abuzz, did as they were told to do peacefully.

Backstage it was anything but peaceful.  Rather, it was a pretty wild scene as the older actor was addressed and cared for, an ambulance was called and his understudy was frantically preparing to go on in the older actor’s place.

The costume mistresses scurried about preparing the understudy’s costume changes, I got in his face discussing his musical cues and the stage manager ran through a litany of reminders for the young, inexperienced understudy. (more…)

This article has been reprinted from an article first appearing in the Principia Purpose, Peter’s High School and College Alumni Magazine in December of 2010.

Peter Link’s music career flowed naturally from his days at the College. After serving under Jack Eyerly as assistant choir director his sophomore year, Peter went on to be its main director until he graduated. “Jack believed in my ability, mentored me, and provided opportunities,” Peter recalls. “I really learned my craft from him!” Peter also directed a College production of Carousel. After seeing it, a parent told him, “If you directed this production, you can make it in New York.” With that encouragement, Peter packed for the Big Apple soon after graduation.

During the next two years, Peter studied acting under Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. From there, he landed a lead role in the TV soap opera As the World Turns as well as a lead role in Hair on Broadway. “Doing Hair and the soap was an incredible two-year ride as an actor, but I soon found that my real interest was composing for the musical theatre,” Peter says. During Hair he wrote the hit musical Salvation. Out of that score came a gold record that sold two million copies. “This was a whirlwind start for a young guy!” Peter notes.

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Christmas in Central Park

Christmas in NYC!  There’s nothing quite like it.  Truly beautiful, but sometimes a bit too much about Santa and not enough about Jesus.  Each year I go back to the same moment years ago when I first wrote this song to try to rediscover the essence of Christmas.

I’ll share it with you now:

Christmas In My Soul

Music and lyrics by Peter Link

It looks as though

There won’t be snow on Christmas

And the holly and the mistletoe

Were sold out long ago

The midtown rush was just a little too much

And this year Santa and his reindeer

Never left the pole

Suddenly it just don’t seem like Christmas

Suddenly it don’t seem so natural

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Closing out the 2010 Series of the WFM Listening Room was Jenny Burton with guest artist Kevin Osborne.  A magical sold-out night indeed!  Actually, we sold out 2 weeks before the gig itself and even had to move the show to a larger venue to accommodate the demand.

As it was, many people were disappointed who thought they could get reservations at normal times.  There are no longer normal times.  Get ‘em early!

You’ll be glad to know that we’re planning many more Listening Room concerts in the coming year with Julia Wade, Jenny Burton and a host of other terrific talent.  Stay tuned.

Kevin Osborne kicked things off in great style.  Accompanied by David Keyes on acoustic bass, Al Fritsch on piano, and ­­­­­­­­­­­Keith Robinson on acoustic guitar, the whole group tore into Orleans’ infectious 70s hit Dance With Me, and immediately got the room rockin’. (more…)

I’ve known Jenny Burton for many moons now.  And during those many moons, we’ve made a lot of music together.  Watchfire Music is one of the leading companies in the world today in the genre of Inspirational Music and you might say that Jenny and I discovered and developed this genre together during one of those moons.

I first met Jenny when I saw her at an, at the time, famous NYC club called Reno Sweeney’s.  She came out of the audience as a plant and sang James Taylor’s Fire And Rain and I got so excited by her performance that I ended up standing on the table during the crowd’s standing ovation for her.  I’ve been standing on that table shoutin’ her praises ever since. (more…)

Yet another great evening of music!  Last Thursday at new and expanded venue Shetler Studios Penthouse 2 both Julia Wade and guest artist, Jimmy Roberts, established a splendid new look and feel for this revolutionary laboratory entertainment.

Not only did the new venue prove to be a giant step in the right direction, but also the audience continues to grow faster than we can expand and CD sales at the show beat all previous records.

The new space has less of a “house concert” feel and more of a concert atmosphere with theatrical lighting and NYC mid-town accessibility – 54^th Street right around the corner from the Dave Letterman show.  Two doors down from the storied Studio 54, the world famous disco in the 70s and 80s and now the home of the Roundabout Theater, there couldn’t be a more prestigious location. (more…)

Pardon my absence, but I’ve been up to my eyebrows in music.

Just this last weekend I had the great privilege to produce and direct a concert of Inspirational music for TMC Youth, an organization dedicated to opening up the horizons of spirituality for the youth of today.

In a 3-day weekend gathering of over 200 young people from mainly the East coast, but also from as far away as Africa and Europe, my task was to put together and spearhead an hour and a half of Inspirational music entertainment for their Saturday night blow-out.

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Certainly one of my favorite projects of my life has been my work with The Jenny Burton Experience. This truly inspirational group broke all box office records and played to packed houses in their more than seven year run at one of New York City’s top clubs.

In 1996 The Jenny Burton Experience swept all the major music awards in New York City for best vocal group including the MAC Award, The Back Stage Bistro Award and The Critic’s Choice Award. Named as one of Theater Week Magazine’s Top Ten Acts of the ’94/’95 season, they also won the CAB Award for Entertainers Of The Year.

I had the great privilege of being the principle writer, director and producer for this amazing act and gladly sat through hundreds of their performances over that 7 year span. People would come up to me all the time after shows and say things like, “This is the 9^th time I’ve seen the show” or “ This is my church.”

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