“New Worlds” – the pro­gram that show­cas­es the core of the A­mer­i­can val­ues in lit­er­a­ture and mu­sic was based in a friend­ship first. By start­ing to work to­geth­er, Mur­ray and Vogl­er dis­covered new ways to per­form to­geth­er. The performance pre­miered in spring 2017 in Ger­ma­ny. But the suc­cess­ful part­ner­ship with ac­tor Bill Mur­ray, cel­list Jan Vogl­er, pi­a­nist Va­nes­sa Perez and vi­o­lin­ist Mi­ra Wang was soon fol­lowed by an al­bum re­lease in 2017 and an A­mer­i­can tour, that merged in­to an in­ter­na­tion­al tour dur­ing 2018.

An­y­one ex­pect­ing noth­ing more than a se­ries of stand­up com­e­dy skits with light mu­si­cal back­ground is in for an eye­ and ear­-o­pen­er. New Worlds trac­es “an o­ver­all arc from u­ni­ver­sal art to some­thing more per­son­al,” ac­cord­ing to Vogl­er. “I think peo­ple will be sur­prised by the depth and mean­ing of this pro­gram. I do feel in to­day’s times that we need to re­mem­ber what the val­ues of our so­ci­e­ty and our coun­try are. It’s mean­ing­ful to see this in vi­sion­ar­ies like Mark Twain or Gersh­win, who cre­at­ed art way a­head of his­tor­i­cal de­vel­op­ments.”

Ernest Hemingway
“Did You Ever Play a Musical Instrument?”
THE ART OF FICTION NO. 21 / PARIS REVIEW

Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude - Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007

Walt Whitman
Excerpts from “Song of the Open Road” and
“Song of Myself”

James Fenimore Cooper
Excerpt from “The Deerslayer” with music by
Franz Schubert
Andante un poco mosso - Trio in B-flat Major
for piano, violin and cello D 989

Ernest Hemingway
“Group Feeling”
THE ART OF FICTION NO. 21 / PARIS REVIEW

Maurice Ravel
Blues - Sonata for violin and piano No. 2

Astor Piazzolla
La Muerte del Angel
Arr. Jose Bragato

George Gershwin
“It Ain’t Necessarily So” - PORGY & BESS
Arr. Jascha Heifetz

Astor Piazzolla
Oblivion

Billy Collins
“Forgetfulness”

Stephen Foster
“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”

Tom Waits
“The Piano Has Been Drinking”

Van Morrison
“When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God”
Arr. Stephen Buck

Mark Twain
“Jim & Huck on the river one night”
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN with music by
Henry Mancini
“Moon River”
Arr. Manfred Grafe

Dimitri Shostakovich
Allegro - Sonata for cello and piano
in D minor, Op. 40

James Thurber
“If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox”
WRITINGS AND DRAWINGS, THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA

Leonard Bernstein
“Somewhere”, “I Feel Pretty” and “America”
WEST SIDE STORY
Arr. Stephen Buck

 

Bill Murray, vocals & recitation
Jan Vogler, cello
Mira Wang, violin
Vanessa Perez, piano