{"id":1130,"date":"2022-10-30T17:03:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T21:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=1130"},"modified":"2022-10-30T17:03:45","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T21:03:45","slug":"idina-menzel-star-of-stage-and-screen-loves-reaching-out-to-new-audiences-with-pops-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/idina-menzel-star-of-stage-and-screen-loves-reaching-out-to-new-audiences-with-pops-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Idina Menzel, star of stage and screen, loves reaching out to new audiences with pops music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cleveland Orchestra<\/strong><\/p>\n

What:<\/strong> Steven Reineke conducts a special program with Idina Menzel.<\/p>\n

When:<\/strong> 8 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Where:<\/strong> Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls.<\/p>\n

Tickets:<\/strong> $23-$75. Go to clevelandorchestra.com <\/a>or call 216-231-1111.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

If there’s one thing classical musicians are always talking about, it’s rebuilding the audience. Unless they reside in a bubble, welcoming and holding onto new listeners constitute two of their highest priorities.<\/p>\n

But classical artists aren’t the only ones having that discussion. Pops presenters, too, are beginning to realize they need to keep it fresh if they want to have listeners for the long term.<\/p>\n

Hence the onset of concerts such as the Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Festival opener Saturday, featuring vocalist Idina Menzel, a star of Broadway and television whose eclectic act with orchestra may be just what the pops doctor ordered.<\/p>\n

“I do get to reach new people,” said Menzel in a recent telephone conversation. “There seems to be a really beautiful spectrum that shows up.”<\/p>\n

“There are literally screaming kids in the audience,” added Steven Reineke, the Ohio-born conductor and composer leading the event. “And they’re there because they want to hear her<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

And why wouldn’t they? Who wouldn’t want to hear her? You don’t have to be a teenager to appreciate Menzel’s talent.<\/p>\n

Menzel first began gaining attention in the 1990s as the original Maureen in the Broadway hit “Rent,” where she starred alongside her now-husband, actor Taye Diggs. So strong was her performance that she was nominated for a Tony Award.<\/p>\n

“She has such an outgoing personality,” said Reineke, music director of the New York Pops. “She’s just a force of nature.”<\/p>\n

Later, after several other roles and her first solo album, called “Still I Can’t Be Still,” Menzel struck it big again and won a Tony with “Wicked,” originating the role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Six years later, she continues to be recognized for that, even sans the witch’s green makeup.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing like that kind of experience,” Menzel said.<\/p>\n

More recently, Menzel has been venturing further off-Broadway — not just back into the recording studio for two more solo albums, singles and various soundtrack work but also into the world of television. Lately, she’s been starring as Shelby Corcoran on “Glee,” the hit Fox series about high school show choirs.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the biggest turn in her career came last year, when Menzel began appearing with classical ensembles, standing before such venerable groups as the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. Suddenly, an actress used to performing with others found herself alone onstage, and loving it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“It changed my life in a lot of ways,” Menzel said. “I was reborn after that. I feel like I’ve really come alive. It’s a different kind of endurance, but it challenges me as an artist and makes me a better performer.”<\/p>\n

Part of the challenge, at venues such as Philadelphia’s Mann Center and Northeast Ohio’s Blossom Music Center, also lies in singing outdoors, for vast audiences, in contrast to the studios and theaters she was used to.<\/p>\n

But to her delight, Menzel said so far she’s been victorious in the contest with nature, overpowering wind, birds and sirens.<\/p>\n

“The energy is more dispersed, and I have to work harder to bring people in,” she said. “But I’m able to maintain that intimacy with the audience. . . . It feels like everything’s clicking.”<\/p>\n

\n
Menzel’s program Saturday is a mish-mash sampling of not only her diverse career to date but also the expanding face of pops music. On tap, of course, are selections from “Rent” and “Wicked” — but she’ll also explore her own creations, the standard literature and patriotic music in honor of Independence Day.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Word is there’ll also be a Lady Gaga arrangement, a bit of audience participation and a performance of Reineke’s own “Celebration Fanfare,” composed during his work at the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, under the late, legendary Erich Kunzel.<\/p>\n

“We really do get to cover a lot of ground,” Reineke said cheerfully. “The Great American Songbook is ever-evolving.”<\/p>\n

It’s fitting that Menzel’s concert — actively designed to appeal to listeners of all stripes — also serves as a fundraiser for the Cleveland Orchestra’s new Center for Future Audiences.<\/p>\n

Ever since its establishment last year, the center’s first order of business has been to provide free Blossom tickets this season to young adults under 18, thereby making it easier than ever for the orchestra itself and pops artists such as Menzel and Reineke to find new fans.<\/p>\n

“I wish more groups would do things like this,” Reineke said. “We all need to make ourselves more accessible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cleveland Orchestra What: Steven Reineke conducts a special program with Idina Menzel. When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Where: Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls. Tickets: $23-$75. Go to clevelandorchestra.com or call 216-231-1111. If there’s one thing classical musicians are always talking about, it’s rebuilding the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/9745970-large.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-ie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions\/1131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}