This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Jan Svendsen: Welcome to the Broadway Gives Back Podcast.

[0:07] Jan Svendsen: I'm your host, Jan Svendsen.

[0:10] Jan Svendsen: This podcast spotlights Broadway actors, shows, and organizations in their pursuit of social impact and philanthropy.

[0:17] Jan Svendsen: Join us as some of the brightest lights on Broadway share their stories about their favorite charities and how they got involved and the people on the causes who benefited from these philanthropic efforts.

[0:33] Jan Svendsen: Broadway fans might not immediately know her name, but Soprano Sharon Azrieli has enjoyed international success and numerous awards, recognizing not only her as a performer in her native Canada, but around the world.

[0:47] Jan Svendsen: In addition to opera, she is working in the Broadway genre as well.

[0:51] Jan Svendsen: The reason I wanted to talk to her on this podcast was about all her philanthropic work in arts education, in her support of American Israeli culture, and in creating her own foundation.

[1:01] Jan Svendsen: Sharon, welcome to the Broadway Gives Back Podcast.

[1:05] Sharon Azrieli: Thank you.

[1:05] Sharon Azrieli: Thank you so much for having me.

[1:09] Jan Svendsen: So a lot of times I have old friends on the podcast, but you're someone that I haven't met before.

[1:14] Jan Svendsen: So I was thinking that I guess you as an artist, as a singer, have to do warm-up exercises.

[1:21] Jan Svendsen: So I figured let's do a little warm-up where I ask you a few rapid-fire questions and you answer them so I can get to know you better.

[1:27] Sharon Azrieli: Okay.

[1:28] Jan Svendsen: Okay, so with the first thing that comes to your mind, if you could be part of any fictional family from a Broadway show or a movie, an opera or a television show, what family would you want to be a member of?

[1:41] Sharon Azrieli: Oh, I love that question.

[1:44] Sharon Azrieli: Oh, I the first you're probably, I don't know the I don't know why this comes to my mind. But I would want to be a member of the Adams family.

[1:56] Sharon Azrieli: Do do do do.

[1:57] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah. And then you have to ask yourself, like, who do you want to be in that family? I just love uh, and you know, and this is terrible because now I forget the names of everybody, but I love the the um Angelica Jolie, you know, um, right?

[2:15] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah, I just think she's fabulous. I just love her, and you know, she has such a great relationship with her husband, right? And they're just madly in love after all those years. I just I think that's ideal. I just love that okay.

[2:28] Jan Svendsen: I love this answer. No one has ever said that before. So thank you for that.

[2:36] Jan Svendsen: Sharon, what are three words that you would say describe you?

[2:39] Sharon Azrieli: So uh, well, I think the first one would be persistent, right? Persistent. Uh because I've I've been in this uh business or career for a really long time. And uh you have to be persistent, right? In order to to do that. The second one is, you know, yeah, I don't know if it's either stupid or not stupid, depending on the day, right? Because you have to be smart in some ways, and then I would say, so maybe that's the first one, but then on the other hand, you have to have blinders on. You know what I mean?

[3:15] Sharon Azrieli: In another way, so that you ignore the difficulties in a certain way. I I don't mean stupid, but I mean pointedly willfully ignorant. If you were aware or if you choose to be aware of all the difficulties, you'd probably give up, right?

[3:26] Jan Svendsen: Right, right.

[3:26] Sharon Azrieli: Right. Right. Right. Right. So I think that goes with persistent. So yes, I see it. I see the pattern here. I'm sorry.

[3:42] Jan Svendsen: No, that's good.

[3:43] Jan Svendsen: No, no, no, that's good. I think we're going to go with persistent, persistent and persistent.

[3:49] Sharon Azrieli: Well, yes, but a smart kind of a persistent because you have to choose your, you know, choose your battles and you have to uh choose your um you know your your road.

[4:00] Jan Svendsen: So where's your happy place?

[4:02] Sharon Azrieli: My happy place. I have a few. I think you have to have more than one. So happy place can be you know half an hour of meditation. Happy place could be half an hour in the you know giving my grandson I have a new grandson.

[4:17] Sharon Azrieli: Oh can so yeah my son got married very early and then he had a baby right away. And so now I have a a baby grandson and so giving him a bath is one of my best happy places.

[4:36] Jan Svendsen: I like the I like the grandson happy place.

[4:38] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah yeah that sounds wonderful.

[4:40] Sharon Azrieli: One of the best yeah so being an artist I have to ask you what is your favorite music or song or is there something special where you just hear something and it's like that's it. So that's the ultimate for me or that makes you that touches you more than anything else.

[5:00] Sharon Azrieli: So that's you're asking all these wonderful questions and I would have to say does it depends on what am I working on at the moment? And I'm so lucky that I have gotten to work on such great music throughout my career. And also I'm lucky that at each moment or each uh you know time in my life, what I have gotten to work on has been what I have loved.

[5:25] Sharon Azrieli: And or let's say I have loved everything that I've gotten to work on. But I've also, you know, chosen, like I remember when I was first starting, I just had graduated from Juilliard, and um I was offered uh to to sing Lulu by Berg, you know, at the Canadian opera. And I said no, you know, because I didn't love it. And I was lucky enough, or maybe arrogant, I don't know.

[5:50] Sharon Azrieli: I just said, you know what, that's not why I went into opera. And I was so so lucky that the next thing that they offered me was um to cover Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Mimi in La Bohem. And I was like, yeah, that's that's more like it. And so I was so lucky that I got to sing those kind of roles. And and so um at each at each uh step, I would say I was lucky that I loved the music that I got to sing.

[6:19] Sharon Azrieli: And so recently, just now I just made an album of uh Michel Le Grand music. So I'm I'm moving into jazz now, and I love it. I always have loved jazz, and I just love this music, it's wonderful. Or I just made this album with uh legendary Frank Wildhorn, and I'm gonna be making another album with him this year coming up. So I'm I'm lucky. I I just I love this music.

[6:47] Jan Svendsen: That's awesome.

[6:48] Jan Svendsen: Yeah.

[6:49] Jan Svendsen: What do you most give a damn about?

[6:52] Sharon Azrieli: Oh I mean, these days there's a lot to give a damn about.

[6:55] Jan Svendsen: Yeah.

[6:56] Sharon Azrieli: Well, you don't want me to get started.

[6:58] Jan Svendsen: Well, no, I'm sure these are the short questions. We'll get into the longer questions later. So is there one thing where you just go, I care most about this right now, you know?

[7:08] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah, well, if you had to if I I don't want to get into a whole political conversation with you, but you know, I was the first female cantor in Montreal and so if you had to make me you know take a stand on something it's probably going to be uh women's rights so if we're I but I I don't want this to be because we're talking about arts and philanthropy but um it is somewhere in the women's rights uh discussion great and what would you say you're most grateful for today.

[7:08] Sharon Azrieli: Oh I I think I've had I have had had the luckiest life in the world I'm so grateful that I was able uh to lead a life in the arts yes yes thank God yeah.

[7:08] Jan Svendsen: Well I was reading about your background and I'm so impressed because it seems that whatever you do you really dig in um whether it's you know you know professionally artistically and you also philanthropically you dig in and you do the work um you don't just put your you know your money into it you you put all your energy into the causes that are important to you so before we jump in and talk about that I want to talk to you a little bit about your background and your childhood because typically that informs so much of why a person does become an activist or a philanthropist.

[8:31] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah so can you tell us a little bit about the young Sharon?

[8:34] Sharon Azrieli: Thank you thank you well you know uh my father was a Holocaust survivor and um my mother was my mother was too by the way oh wow uh my dad was born in Poland.

[8:46] Sharon Azrieli: Where was your mom?

[8:47] Sharon Azrieli: Vienna.

[8:48] Sharon Azrieli: Oh, wow.

[8:49] Sharon Azrieli: Wow. Yeah. So I don't know, maybe you have a similar experience to mine, but uh growing up, you know, my father didn't like to talk at all about his experience. And I think I didn't even know that my father, I think we thought that my father was born in Israel, actually, until he was we until I was 16. And we only found out like by accident, it was this big drama. He just didn't like to talk about it. But we were, I was not brought up with money at all.

[9:17] Sharon Azrieli: Um, my dad didn't, you know, really become successful until a little bit later in my life. And so and he didn't want me to be a singer. So that was the big sort of uh sort of uh story of my life that he didn't want me to be a singer. Being a performer is not a valued uh sort of profession in my family. Architect, you know, Indian chief, doctor, lawyer.

[9:43] Jan Svendsen: Right.

[9:44] Sharon Azrieli: That that would have been much better. So he said to me, um, you know, I'll give you voice lessons if you get into Juilliard, and that's a bit of a catch-22, because you know, in order to get into Juilliard, you sort of have to already know how to sing. So my first degree was art history, my second degree was uh I could draw, I could have probably been an architect, but I really had that thing in my belly, you know, that fire in my belly that I really wanted to sing.

[10:12] Sharon Azrieli: So I left, I went to New York City, and I made jewelry in the streets, I ran from the cops, I worked a few jobs, and it did. It took me three auditions to get into jewelry art, which you know, personally, persistent, persistent. That's why I was saying that. Um, so my parents were very philanthropic. Um, you know, and my we are as a family, we do give back in terms of education, education, education, and we um, you know, we have this very large foundation now. And so, uh, but I would say that our focus is absolutely on education. And me personally, my focus of my personal philanthropy is absolutely education, and I love to teach, and um women, women and children.

[11:09] Jan Svendsen: We're gonna come back to that in a minute, but I wanted to talk a little bit about your career first. So Juilliard, that's so impressive and so interesting. Um, yeah, but I was accepted to Manhattan School of Music. I was accepted to Indiana, all these other places, but that wasn't good. I wasn't good enough.

[11:27] Sharon Azrieli: Well, I have to tell you, like my mother was a huge opera fan. I mean, she loved it and she played it all the time. I um, it's a bit foreign to me. Um, so you're gonna have to take me sort of through, you know, your career in opera. And then of course I really want to hear about your work in Broadway as well.

[11:46] Sharon Azrieli: I don't think there's that much to tell. I mean, I got out of school and I immediately, I was lucky. I immediately started a career, Canadian Opera Company, Sarasota, Opera de Paris à la Bastille, you know, and I was I was very lucky and I started a good career. I loved opera is wonderful. Opera is, you know, well, if you love Broadway, it's very similar, except no microphones, huge orchestra, and um even bigger egos, I would say.

[12:22] Sharon Azrieli: Except that the egos are mostly the conductor, not merely the singers. The singers I would not say have the biggest egos in opera because you're a team, you know, you're it's a team sport, right? Right? Every and it's has much less leeway than in Broadway, right? In Broadway, I think the conductor actually accompanies the singers, but in opera, it's like everybody's on a riding a huge, huge horse, and the horse has to go, and you're on the same, you're absolutely bound by that rhythmic train, and you cannot be a fraction of a beat wrong or off.

[13:14] Sharon Azrieli: It's like you know, when you're jumping rope and you gotta get in, you've got to get in exactly right, and depending on the opera, it can be extremely complicated. Not to mention that the orchestra can look at their music, but the singers are all memorized in their music, they're memorized in their language, they're memorized in their words, and they have to be totally precise, you know.

[13:36] Jan Svendsen: That's so interesting because you're right, like Broadway, it's very collaborative, right? With the people on stage, but also with the band or the orchestra, depending on the show. Um, so this I understand that now, like your wave that you're surfing is the music, right?

[13:53] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah, yeah. But in opera, you know, I don't think people understand. And so some of the larger opera houses, like the Met or you know, the ones in Europe, they still have a prompter, right? Who is under, it's like this person, this wonderful person who knows every word of every, like, for example, the Metropolitan Opera is such a huge house, it's 5,000 seats, right? And by the time you're singing all the way back there, there's actually acoustically a lapse in time so that you're singing, and by the if you look at the conductor's little hand all the way, maybe it's like a quarter of a mile, okay, by the time you reach them, you're gonna be late.

[14:37] Sharon Azrieli: So you actually can't look at the conductor, you have to look at the prompter. And the prompter, this little person in their little booth under the stage is telling you when to actually sing, and they're giving you thank god, they're giving you the first syllable of your word, because you want to be actually in the timing with the prompter, not the conductor. Because the conductor is conducting the orchestra who's actually way far ahead of you.

[15:03] Jan Svendsen: Do you understand what I'm saying?

[15:05] Sharon Azrieli: Yes, I do. This is fascinating. I didn't expect to learn so much today. This is great.

[15:10] Sharon Azrieli: Right, but yeah, but in a Broadway production, in a Broadway production, you actually you don't know where the band might be. The band might be up above you, they could be on either side of you. They could split up the um, they can split them up, but you have a mic on you and you have ears in you, and you, you know, and you have prompter uh teleprompters, right, on either side of you. So you have a much more collaborative feel. You're like inside of the band, right?

[15:34] Jan Svendsen: Right.

[15:34] Sharon Azrieli: And you and nobody's gonna really go on without you. But in opera, if you screw up by one half of a beat, one corner of an eighth note, whatever you do, bam, they're going on without you. They don't care.

[15:46] Jan Svendsen: Wow.

[15:48] Sharon Azrieli: That's like the show must go on.

[15:49] Jan Svendsen: Uh-huh.

[15:50] Sharon Azrieli: In opera.

[15:52] Jan Svendsen: That's so much more applies than. Do you know what I mean?

[15:56] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah, that's so interesting. Tell us a little bit about your Broadway work.

[15:59] Sharon Azrieli: So in Broadway, I mean, I have not been lucky enough to be actually on Broadway yet. It is a dream. It is a really big dream of mine. Um, played in Atlanta in uh in uh Southeastern Savoyards, you know, in a in Gilbert and Sullivan. I loved it. I did uh actually with Atlanta Opera, we did uh Gilbert and Sullivan. I did do a lot of recording for Off Broadway in the uh Fiddler on the Roof recording. And I've done Broadway recording with great, brilliant, wonderful conductor Marvin Laird. And with the Frankly Sharon uh recording with Frank Wildhorn and the orchestrator for that just had his show on Broadway, Jason Howland, amazing, wonderful orchestrator and arranger and composer. And uh I'm about to make my second uh Frank Wildhorn album. So and I have things that I can't say yet, but I hope I no spoilers will happen.

[17:00] Jan Svendsen: So I'll I'll be back, I hope to talk about it.

[17:02] Sharon Azrieli: I hope so, yeah. Let's talk, let's talk a little bit about your philanthropic work.

[17:07] Sharon Azrieli: So let's go back to education. It's you know, it's interesting because people get um involved in different causes and charities, and there's usually like a reason. It either it touches them because they had or they didn't have it, or a family member is you know is impacted by something. Um, but education seems to be one of those things where you know pretty much everybody can rally around the fact that education is really important. Um, arts education, you know, not everybody values that the same way as we now hear in the world.

[17:34] Sharon Azrieli: It's so true. But but I'm a huge, you know, arts education to me is just so important because it informs so much of who you are as a person, right?

[17:42] Jan Svendsen: Yeah.

[17:43] Sharon Azrieli: Um whether you have, you know, I mean, I have no talent whatsoever. So, but you know, don't say that.

[17:48] Jan Svendsen: Well, you know what though, my mom, you know, again, Holocaust survivor came here, but for her, you know, culture and arts were really important. So growing up in Los Angeles, we went to the opera, we went to hear, you know, orchestras, we went to Broadway shows that were on tour here, we went to art festivals. So she felt like arts education was part of sort of my cultural diet and that was really important. And I'm, you know, there's proof that that does make you a more well-rounded person, a more empathetic person that helps you with your other parts of education.

[18:20] Jan Svendsen: So tell us why and how you came to, you know, focus on education in your philanthropic endeavors.

[18:26] Sharon Azrieli: Well, first of all, I want to say that I do also support, like, for example, this past year, especially with COVID, uh gave uh there's a wonderful organization in Canada called Shade Doors, which is homeless shelters for women. That's very important to me. Uh, they do it's really and I was thinking about that, like there's places that I'd like to know more about that give uh shelter to women. This is very important.

[18:54] Sharon Azrieli: Um, but very much like I just created a program in Montreal, uh, which is a collaborative pianist uh education. So for example, singers need pianists, right? And but who teaches the pianists, right? So for example, for opera, we singers, we need to learn French, we need to learn Italian, we need to learn German, we need to learn all these languages. So who's gonna teach us those? Well, normally it's a coach. Or if you're a jazz singer, you know, who's gonna be the who's gonna teach us those songs? That's the coach. Who teaches the coach, right? How do this how do the pianists learn?

[19:36] Sharon Azrieli: So I created a program for pianists, right? That's gonna bring the best of all the coaches to teach the pianist. Then the pianists are gonna go out there and teach the singers. So that's a collaborative program between University of Montreal and McGill. I think it's the first of its kind actually in Canada. So I'm really proud about it. I created a program for the Azrieli Foundation, which is a the first of its kind composition prize for new Jewish music, and the idea is to get composers to create new music.

[20:13] Sharon Azrieli: The first prize was for new Jewish music, and then the second prize is Canadian music, actually. So the question is, well, what is Jewish music? Which has sparked a whole debate, which is very interesting. And what is Canadian music? Exactly. Yeah, so it's a fascinating question, but you have to go on to the Azrieli Foundation website. Now the third one that, uh, fourth and last final prize that we're gonna be launching this year is an international prize. So anybody from anywhere can go onto the website and apply for this prize. And it is so if you're Ukrainian, write Ukrainian music. If you're Viennese, write Viennese music, you know, whatever is your affiliation, whatever is in your heart, uh, write that. So I'm very excited. And these are all through your foundation.

[21:05] Jan Svendsen: Yeah.

[21:06] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah. So when did you establish your foundation?

[21:09] Jan Svendsen: That's the family foundation, the Azrieli Foundation.

[21:12] Sharon Azrieli: I think it was established in 1989. And the mission, what's the mission for the foundation?

[21:18] Jan Svendsen: It's I'm not gonna, it's too big to tell you here on the website.

[21:22] Sharon Azrieli: No, everybody can just go on azrielifoundation.org. You know, as far as the programs, as you just mentioned a few, but I know that you're involved in so many other things. And I just wondered, you know, sort of looking at the bigger picture, it sounds like arts education, particularly music, women's rights. These are things that really touch your heart, right? That are passion points for you and your philanthropy. Any other causes?

[21:46] Sharon Azrieli: Uh, children. I think that, oh, so another thing that I really got into this past two years, uh, there's a program that was started in Venezuela. Um, and now a big proponent, a big, the biggest sort of success story is Gustavo Dudamel. I'm sure you've heard of that.

[22:03] Jan Svendsen: Yes, absolutely.

[22:05] Sharon Azrieli: So it's called El Sistema, right? And they took these kids, you know, off the street and they gave them like, you know, basically toy instruments, and they made musicians out of them. And so we've been trying to do that in Canada. I sang in Miami, uh, two years ago, I think right before COVID. And the, uh, conductor was a very big, uh, proponent of this, and it's something that I'd really like to, I'd really like to get more involved in. So the idea is to offer children after school programming to enhance their arts education, their music.

[22:39] Jan Svendsen: Music, yeah.

[22:40] Sharon Azrieli: Music, yeah. Yeah, I love that idea. I know that we've got, you know, here in the US, there are lots of organizations that do that as well, um, particularly for, you know, students who are at risk and don't have those services as part of their curriculum in school. Um, you know, philanthropy though, it seems to me something that obviously is a big part of your family. Do you all sit around and discuss, hey, here are the things that are important or hey, let's focus on this strategy or you know, how do you decide what you're going to support? Is it like a family meeting?

[23:13] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah. Oh well actually it, the foundation is quite a large foundation. Yes, actually we have uh quarterly meetings. It's not just uh the family, there are four outside directors and people will bring organizations that have to be charitable organizations. You know, they have to meet certain criteria. They have to be good and they have to be vetted and we really do a lot of work, we really look into them and we, so you're not just, you're not just writing a check, you're actually...

[23:38] Jan Svendsen: No, no, no, you actually dig in and...

[23:38] Sharon Azrieli: Oh yeah. And not only that, but for example in the program that I created, I mean I actually, well I sit on an advisory council and we have juries for each of the prizes and I spend, I spend many, many, many hours per month. I mean the applications for the compositions come in and I have to actually go through each one to see do they meet the criteria?

[24:16] Jan Svendsen: No, it's a huge job.

[24:18] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah, it sounds really, yeah, and making the commitment to, you know, that time commitment, that's a big time commitment.

[24:23] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, yeah. You know, the listeners to this podcast, they often ask, you know, we don't have a big bank account where we can write lots of checks. Um, and we don't have a social media platform where we can talk about things that are important to us. What advice would you give people listening to this podcast, um, about how they could become more philanthropic?

[24:41] Sharon Azrieli: I often hear people say, just get involved in some organization that you like as a volunteer, you know. So, for example, one of my favorite orchestras that I've tried to help is a local orchestra, you know, where I actually grew up because my father was friends with the uh first violinist when he was young. And then when I was first becoming a singer, the uh conductor actually gave me one of my first jobs singing. And so I kept in touch with that orchestra. And then as I became more philanthropic, I started to help them. And I got onto their board and I tried to help them to raise money. And I noticed that they have a wonderful cadre of volunteers. And so, uh, what I would say is to people who don't have a lot of money to help, you know, in terms of just money, find something that you love.

Like if you love going to the opera, then maybe they need volunteers in your local, if you have a local opera company, or if you love going to theater, maybe there's a local theater that needs people to help, I don't know, give out programs or to help to be on their PR. I think every organization locally can use volunteers. That's what I would say. Give local, participate locally.

[26:11] Jan Svendsen: Yeah.

[26:11] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah. A lot of people, that's a really, that's really good advice. Give, give time. If you don't have money, give time.

[26:19] Jan Svendsen: Oh, nice.

[26:19] Sharon Azrieli: And plus, it's a beautiful, uh, community building exercise. And I think, you know, another thing that happened with COVID, everybody has been in their house, you know, for three years. Everybody's been, you know, uh, quite say like stuck at home. And I think that, um, everybody's dying to get out a little bit, you know, but also afraid. So maybe people are afraid to go into the theater, but maybe there's a way sort of an in-between step, you know. So maybe the local theater has a meeting, you know, where it's not, you know, hundreds of people, but maybe it's just 10 or 20, and you can get involved in their board. Do you know what I mean?

[27:02] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, well, also, yeah, I mean it's funny because we've been talking about this. So re-entry into the real world, you know. I mean, some people are just like, okay, I'm ready, and they just, you know, boom back in. But I know that I, you know, have, um, I had to go slow to get back into the world again. Um, because I was so used to sort of my, this different life, this different beat to my life, right?

[27:25] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah.

[27:25] Jan Svendsen: Um, and, and different cadence. So it's taken me a little bit of time to sort of jump back into the, you know, New York crazy scene again.

[27:34] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah, a lot of people are not ready to go into a closed room with, uh, 300 people. They're just not like I noticed in performances, like especially older people, you know.

[27:45] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, so but, but yet they crave, uh, you know, the community.

[27:50] Sharon Azrieli: Absolutely, and doing it locally is smaller and maybe more manageable. So I mean, I think the idea of giving locally and being part of your community is definitely something I keep hearing as a theme about people wanting to give back, starting locally, starting smaller. And you're right, after COVID, I that could be a nice first step. Some, uh, one of my local philanthropies, uh, that I help with, uh, was doing small concerts, going to people's houses and performing in their backyards. And performing like a few neighboring, uh, people would, uh, they would perform in backyards for like little neighborhoods, you know?

[28:28] Jan Svendsen: That was really nice.

[28:29] Sharon Azrieli: That's really nice.

[28:30] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, that's very nice. Um, any last words about the idea of giving back and philanthropy and just doing good in the world?

[28:37] Sharon Azrieli: Yeah, they say that, uh, the more that you do, the more it helps you yourself. I don't know. I think it's probably true.

[28:46] Jan Svendsen: I think it's probably true too.

[28:47] Sharon Azrieli: So in which case, you do a lot, so I hope you feel really good about yourself because you should.

[28:52] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, I think and I, and I, and the other thing I would say is do what you love.

[28:56] Sharon Azrieli: Thank you.

[28:57] Jan Svendsen: Well, I loved having you on the podcast. Thank you so much.

[29:00] Sharon Azrieli: Thank you so much.

[29:02] Jan Svendsen: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Broadway Gives Back Podcast. Broadway Gives Back is part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Special thanks to my producing partner, writer, editor, and friend Jim Lochner. And thank you to everyone at BPN, including Dori Berinstein, Alan Seales, and Kimberlee Garris. I'd also like to thank Julian Hills from the Bulldog Agency and Eric Becker from Broderick Street Music. If you like what you hear, don't forget to subscribe and rate this podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. You can also follow Broadway Gives Back on Facebook and Instagram at Broadway Gives Back Podcast and on Twitter at Broadway Gives. To learn more, visit bpn.fm slash Broadway Gives Back. Thanks so much.