Words & Music: A Master Class for Vocalists in NJ

Laurel Massé is a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning group Manhattan Transfer, and for seven years toured internationally recorded five albums with the group. Laurel has toured her solo concerts in the US and Europe. She has released four acclaimed solo CDs Alone Together, Easy Living, Again, and Feather and Bone. In the course of her career Laurel has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium, Salle Pleyel de Paris, the Hollywood Bowl, the Smithsonian Institute; jazz festivals in Montreal, Chicago, Syracuse, Detroit and Saratoga Springs; Birdland and the Blue Note in New York City, the Roxy Nightclub and the Cinegrill in Los Angeles, Chicago's Green Mill, and Harrah's, Caesar's Palace, MGM Grand and the Hilton in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. She was the host and resident artist of The Laurel Massé Jazz Show, a monthly live concert performance program broadcast by WAMC Northeast Public radio. Laurel has taught Master Classes and workshops nationally, and is a member of the teaching faculties of the Cabaret Conference at Yale, Ashokan Fiddle and Dance, and the Singer's Forum.

Wendy Lane Bailey has performed in a variety of renowned venues around the country including Symphony Space, The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Blues Alley, The Duplex, Danny's, the Emelin Theatre, Helen's, The Cabaret at Odette's, Don't Tell Mama, New York City's Town Hall, the Blue Room of the Fairmont Hotel In New Orleans, Signature Theatre, The Roslyn Spectrum Theatre, Source Theatre, The Lyceum, Metrostage and various corporate and private functions. Her voice can be heard both onstage and in the recording studio backing up a diverse group of singers including Broadway's Susan Egan, and Jason Graae, and Pop Legend Lesley Gore. In addition to her work as a performer, she has expanded her work into teaching, directing and coaching performers. Her teaching credits include private coaching and master classes for such venues as Loyola University in Baltimore MD and The Theatre Lab of Washington, DC. She was the Associate Director of the Cabaret Conference at Yale University. She is the recipient of a Backstage Bistro award and in 2007 was nominated for a WAMA award from the Washington Area Music Association.

Tex Arnold is a pianist, arranger, conductor and composer, whose credits include music director, arranger and conductor for the legendary Margaret Whiting's radio, television, recording and symphony orchestra performances, for over 25 years. Tex has also played and/or conducted for Larry Adler, Sally Mayes, Ruth Brown, Sally Ann Howes, Marilyn Michaels, Julius LaRosa, Rita Moreno, Four Girls Four (Rose Marie, Helen O'Connell, Margaret whiting and Rosemary Clooney), Carol Hall, Dick Shawn and most recently Melissa Erico. After leaving Michigan State, Hubert "Tex" Arnold began his professional career in the late 60s as a staff arranger for the US Military Band at West Point, while subbing on keyboard for the Broadway musical Company, joining the national tour following his leaving the military. Tex served as the musical supervisor, vocal arranger and orchestrator for the London production of The Betrayal of Nora Blake. Prior to this Tex was the 2001 musical director for the Off-Broadway show Pete 'n' Keely, the musical director for the 2000 O'Neill Theater Center's concerts in St. Petersburg, Russia, featuring the songs of Johnny Mercer performed by a company of American artists including Sally Mayes and Julie Wilson. Tex has written orchestrations for the Lincoln Center American Songbook Series and the Carnegie Hall tributes to the songwriting teams of Comden & Green and Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and arranged and conducted the Johnny Mercer Tribute at the 92nd Street Y's Lyrics & Lyricists series for Margaret Whiting, Julius LaRosa, Carol Woods and Marlene VerPlanck. Tex's concert music has been commissioned and recorded, including performances of his trumpet concerto by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the CBC Enterprise release of a work commissioned by the New York Saxophone Quartet.

Photos of Laurel & Wendy Lane by Bill Westmoreland