By Aspen Matis

Columbia University psychiatry professor Galina Mindlin, MD, PhD, studies neuron connections and how such brain links can be strengthened by listening to the right music. Her new book, Your Playlist Can Change Your Life (co-authored by Joseph Cardillo and Don DuRousseau), distills her brain-training findings into playlists for the mood you want to be in.

Our Town spoke with Mindlin about music’s potential to alter mood, productivity and happiness, the existence of side-effect-free medicine and the North Pole’s hold on her mind.
Our Town: We’ve all resolved to be better versions of ourselves in 2012. What role can music play in that resolution?
Galina Mindlin: Positive stimuli affect the brain in a positive way. You can use music as positive stimuli to improve your mood or relieve stress. First, you choose the piece you like and you think of the mind-state you desire. For instance: Do you want to relax, study, get motivated, focus—think first about what you want. Second, you really need to practice, play and play the piece, so your brain will remember it. Your brain is like a muscle.

What if I get sick of the song?
Then you have to leave it for a while, find something else. Stop playing it. Start gently replacing it with something else. Encourage your brain to withdraw from it.

What’s the value of playing the same song again and again?
To train the brain, help the cells forge more connections. But then you do have to update your playlist. Our brains respond to variation.

If you really want to train your mind, you have to stimulate your brain in unpredictable ways—unpredictable frequencies. You want to check the beats per minute—you want to synchronize your brain waves with those of the music, the beats per minute. You become your own boss with this prescription. We can practice personalized medicine.

Do you think the use of music as medicine will grow popular?
All New Yorkers go for the quick fix. A pill. Want to fall asleep faster? Benzo. These things have side effects. Instead: Push the button. You can be your own doctor.

How did you first become interested in music’s effect on the brain?
I went to music school. Now, I record brain waves and translate them into musical frequencies, so your brain plays the music. I give you a CD with your brain’s music.

And what happens when someone listens to her own brain music? What’s the effect?
It’s like listening to your mom’s voice, your daughter’s voice.

Do people ever hate the music of their brain?
Sometimes they don’t like it. But it helps with focus, motivation—anything—85 to 90 percent of the time. You can add it to your playlist.

How does someone determine the frequency of music that is best for what he is trying to do?
If you’re very nervous and you want to calm yourself down, you want to listen to something of a lower frequency. To get motivated or excited—to stimulate your brain—listen to something of higher frequency, generally.
If you want to determine the ideal frequency for you and what you’re trying to do—something more accurate than just “I like this”—buy the book.

What is your song? What do you listen to to train your brain?
I was born in the North Pole, I moved to Moscow when I was 5. You’re a little kid, and everything is white—whiteness and white noise. I’d get confused; kids would sometimes wander outside in the night, because it was always light. I and the other kids would play with a little white fox and a baby polar bear.
For me, to focus, I have to go back to my childhood, into that white-noise space. Silence. Complete silence. And then I can go into my playlist.

By Paulette Safdieh

“Why do people love music? That’s an age-old question,” said Richard Russell, the associate director of the Mannes College the New School for Music Extension Division. “It speaks to something in the soul. People have a calling for it.”

The extension division at Mannes, located on West 85th Street, is a continuing education program for adults looking to strum strings, play keys, blow horns and sing. Russell himself is a composer who has worked for the department since 1999. Throughout the years, he has seen New Yorkers from all backgrounds come through the doors of Mannes with the hope of learning a new instrument—the most popular classes they offer are acoustic guitar and jazz piano for beginners.

Piano classes in Manhattan.

“This is not the best program in the world if you want to learn ‘Mozart wrote this and Beethoven wrote that’,” said Russell. “It’s about doing. We’re a very hands-on division.”

The interactive group classes at Mannes have no more than 10 students per class, with some beginner courses even capping off at five. “Teachers will give you their home phone number,” said Russell on the personal attention offered to each aspiring musician. Russell works personally with prospective students, eager to put them on the road to instrumental success. “People who fit in best are those who used to play, fell out and are looking to start up again,” he said.

Igal Kesselman, director of the Lucy Moses School at the Kaufman Center on West 67th Street, finds the same is true in his music department. “We have people from all walks of life and all levels, but the majority are adults who used to play when they were kids,” said Kesselman. “They think, ‘Now I have the time! Now I know it’s exciting!’” Lucy Moses is the largest community arts school in the city, with students ranging in age from 18 to 90. Despite the growing number of students—approximately 300 join the program each year—class and workshop sizes rarely exceed 12.

While guitar and piano classes are the biggest hits at these institutions, each offers one-on-one instruction for other instruments as well. Once students grasp the basics, they can move up to ensemble classes like Mannes’s flute ensemble, where 60 people play collectively. The schools make sure that, once in a larger setting, students are placed with others on the same level. “We don’t want anybody to be frustrated,” said Russell. “We do our best to accommodate everyone’s needs.”

The most exciting time for the schools is performance season, when students can showcase their talents. “We have great resources for performing opportunities,” Kesselman said of the Lucy Moses recital halls. Each semester is wrapped up with a much-anticipated concert on campus.

For those whose work schedules and other time constraints make signing up for a semester a difficult commitment, schools like Encore School of Music and Turtle Bay Music School can offer similar instruction and chances to perform for an audience.

Located on East 52nd Street, Turtle Bay offers 5-week introductory courses in the instrument of your choice, along with monthly performance nights. Encore has locations in Brooklyn and Queens as well as the Upper East Side and offers lessons in saxophone, bass, clarinet and others. Students looking to brush up on old skills or take their talent to a new level can choose the style of their instruction—from blues guitar to rock ‘n’ roll drums.

“It’s about people dipping their toes in the water, stepping out of their comfort zone,” said Russell. “It’s the joy of playing music and challenge of trying something new that keeps the programs running each year.”

Manhattan music classes:

Turtle Bay Music School 244 E. 52nd St., 212-753-8811; 5-week introductory course, $245. Begins October.

Mannes College the New School for Music Extension Division 150 W. 85th St., 212-580-0210; 15-week semester, $450.

Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Center 129 E. 67th St., 212-501-3300; 12-week semester, $335.

Encore School of Music 315 Madison Ave., 800-417-4620; Prices vary by location.

By Jay Nordlinger

The Metropolitan Opera has a new production of La traviata, though it is not really new: It is simply new to New York. This production, by the German director Willy Decker, debuted in Salzburg in 2005. The principal singers were Anna Netrebko (Violetta), Rolando Villazón (Alfredo) and Thomas Hampson (Germont). It was the sensation of the summer, maybe even the sensation of the year. The following summer, someone involved in that production said to me, “There was an awful lot of hype surrounding that show, wasn’t there?” I said, “Maybe. But I have to tell you: I have never been more moved in a theater.”

Marina Poplavskaya in a scene from the Met’s La traviata. Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

At the time, I wrote enthusiastically about the production, as well as about the singers. But perhaps I was grading on a curve: In Salzburg, when you don’t see out-and-out trash, you’re grateful. The production is modern, in that the stage is largely bare and the clothing the latest fashions. (Not that I’m up on the latest fashions.) It is modern in this way, too: Decker toys with the opera, making it his own. This means that it is less Verdi’s. Sometimes, Decker’s action doesn’t match the libretto, is at odds with the story. Also, the production has a few gimmicks, a few tricks. They are quite interesting on first viewing. But on the second viewing, after you know them…

At the Met, the principal singers are Marina Poplavskaya, Matthew Polenzani and Andrzej Dobber. Poplavskaya is a “genuine singing actress,” to use a cliché. She proved this earlier in the season in another Verdi opera, Don Carlo. The night I heard her as Violetta, she suffered many technical imperfections. Her pitch was approximate, often sharp (in the tradition of Russian singers, singing in languages other than their own). Also, the voice was a little small for Violetta. A phrase like “Amami, Alfredo”—not that there are many like that—requires much more sound. But smaller voices have pride of place these days. Last month, the New York Philharmonic had Ian Bostridge, the light English tenor, sing in Mahler’s Knaben Wunderhorn. Go figure.

In any case, Poplavskaya’s sheer musical and dramatic ability overcame all imperfections. From her portrayal emerged something like truth. Still, I think Decker has her doing too much: too much running around, too much acting. His Violetta is so busy. Sometimes, it’s OK for a performer in an opera simply to stop a little and sing.

Matthew Polenzani can certainly sing. How long will his voice retain its youthful sweetness and freshness? Forever? And the voice is not only sweet and fresh, it can ring out. We heard this in Don Pasquale last fall, and we heard it again in Traviata. Polenzani’s lyric instrument can turn into a lyric trumpet (or at least a cornet). And I will offer one detail, related to technique and suppleness: Polenzani’s diminuendos in Alfredo’s music were uncommon and superb. As for the Germont of Andrzej Dobber, it was stern, tender and noble. Dobber, a Pole, is full of operatic savvy, and he has a special affinity for Verdi.

So does Gianandrea Noseda, the conductor on this evening. He led the opera with a sure hand, keeping Verdi’s pulse, following his thread, doing nothing too obvious, and nothing too subtle, either. This was both learned and stylish conducting. From the orchestra, I wish to single out the principal clarinet, Stephen Williamson. His playing was gorgeous, nimble, searing—what Verdi asks for.

It seems that the Met has ditched Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Traviata, as it is ditching his productions in general. This pleases most critics, who find him elephantine, conservative and embarrassing. I’ll tell you this, however: When I saw the Zeffirelli production of Traviata—which I did maybe seven times—I did not see Zeffirelli. I saw only Verdi, only the opera. When I see the Decker production, I see Decker. I’ve seen this production only twice, six years apart. But I’m already sick of it. One of the problems with artiness is that it lacks staying power.

In any event, the Decker Traviata runs through January 29. I recommend that you see it. The first time, no doubt, it packs a wallop. And, despite my griping, there’s wallop the second time, too.

A Conservatory Contributes

The Manhattan School of Music makes a contribution to opera in this town. They educate students, of course. They also give the public a chance to see operas that otherwise might remain out of view. Last year, they did Fauré’s Pénélope. And the school has been quite kind to Lee Hoiby. He has been quite kind to it, too: His operas are a treat to sing, play, see and hear.

Hoiby was born in Wisconsin in 1926. He now lives in Long Eddy, N.Y., about 130 miles from Manhattan, on a pretty property with a waterfall. He is a very good pianist—trained by Egon Petri, no less—but he has made his name in vocal music: as a composer of operas, choruses and, especially, songs. On meeting him, Dalton Baldwin, the accompanist, said, “Your songs are for the ages.” In 2004, the Manhattan School staged the Hoiby opera A Month in the Country, which is based on the Turgenev play. Last month, they staged Summer and Smoke, based on Tennessee Williams.

In 1964, Williams asked Hoiby whether he would like to set one of his plays. “Sure,” said Hoiby, “which one?” Williams said, “Take your pick, sweetheart.” Hoiby considered A Streetcar Named Desire, of course, but ultimately passed over it. For one thing, he couldn’t figure out how you would give music to Stanley’s bellowing of “Stella!” Some 35 years later, André Previn set Streetcar—and simply had Stanley bellow it, rather than sing it. Hoiby remarked in an interview with me, “That’s a perfect solution.”

With Summer and Smoke, the Manhattan School did a commendable job. Still, it would be nice to experience this opera, and A Month in the Country, sung and played by pros. In the meantime, the Manhattan School will do us the favor of showcasing little-staged works. This spring, they will present Nina, by Paisiello, and La vida breve, by Falla. Some orchestral excerpts from the latter are very well-known. The opera itself, hardly at all.

Hoiby’s latest opera is Romeo and Juliet—based on whose play, again? The name escapes me. Anyway, this piece is still awaiting its debut. The composer is not especially worried. First, he comes from a long-lived family—a great-aunt recently died at 108. Second, he knows the important thing is to have written the piece. It exists. Posterity will do what it will. Hoiby told me, “If I never hear certain pieces performed, I have written them, which is something wonderful. I have had the thrill of writing music.” There’s a real musician.

It’s being billed as The Ecstatic Music Festival, but it might be more apt to call it a euphoric marathon. Running through March 28 at Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center and featuring 150 composers, songwriters and performers working together, this celebration of the area between classical and popular music is nothing if not sprawling.

According to festival curator Judd Greenstein, co-director of New Amsterdam Records and managing director of NOW Ensemble, there’s no better way to make a splash.

“People don’t know what to expect from this kind of show,” Greenstein explains. “My hope is that as we move along, people will realize that these are shows that are vital and bringing something completely new to the already flooded New York music scene, the later shows will benefit from the success of the earlier ones.”

Buke And Gass.

The line-up is impressive the entire way through, from the seven-hour concert Jan. 17 featuring Brooklyn’s own Buke & Gass and the American premiere of a new work by John Matthias, Adrian Corker and Andrew Prior, to a March 9 collaboration between Nadia Sirota, Thomas “Doveman” Bartlett and Owen Pallett.

It’s Greenstein’s commitment to new partnerships and attention to the intersections of different types of music that made him a strong candidate to run what promises to becoming a pillar of The Kaufman Center’s programming.

“The focus of the festival should not just be on music in that border area between genres but should center on collaborations between people working in slightly different spheres,” he explains. “It was a matter of finding people who wanted to do things that they weren’t being given an opportunity to do. What’s interesting for me as a curator is to provide a forum for something authentically new to happen… to find a way to give them that opportunity.”

Celebrate Brooklyn!
Prospect Park proves it’s more than just a pretty space by housing one of the best summer concert series in the city. Slather on some sunscreen and go see Sonic Youth and Talk Normal July 31, The Roots July 11 or Kid Koala June 25, as well as an opening night kick-off concert by Norah Jones June 9.
June 9 through Aug. 8, Prospect Park Bandshell, ener park at 9th St. & Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, 718-855-7882; Free.

A summer tradition: the Philharmonic in the park.

Madison Square Music
When you’re not in Madison Square Park filling up on burgers, try catching one of its free concerts. Offer to bring a blanket and let your friend stand in line for snacks before seeing soul singer Ruthie Foster, who opens up the park’s Oval Lawn Series June 16, or the David Bromberg Quartet July 14.
June 16 through Aug. 4, Madison Square Park, enter park at Madison Ave. & E. 26th St., www.madisonsquarepark.org; Free.

River To River Festival
From the must-see rock shows at Pier 17 to the early evening concert series at Rockefeller Park, a July 4 concert in Battery Park and the Bang On A Can Marathon, River to River is an exhaustive behemoth of Downtown summer music. Check the website for a full schedule.
June 22 through Aug. 11, various locations, 212-732-7678, www.rivertorivernyc.com; Free.

RiverRocks
See more than the swells break at Pier 54 during Hudson River Park’s annual music series featuring indie rockers like series headliners Phosphorescent & Dawes July 8, The Antlers July 22 and Real Estate Aug. 12.
July 8 through Aug. 12, Hudson River Park, Perry & West Streets, 212-627-2020, www.riverrocksnyc.com; Free.

New York Philharmonic in the Parks
Starting July 13, city parks will be great places for something other than staring at sunbathers; something more classy like a free orchestra concert, including pieces from Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Bernstein and Mozart, in Central, Cunningham and Prospect parks.
July 13 through 16, various locations, 212-875-5656, www.nyphil.org; Free.

Lincoln Center Out of Doors
It’s not officially summer until Lincoln Center Out of Doors opens, because this annual festival of live music is the touchstone telling us now it’s time to bust out the short shorts, sunglasses and zinc. Make sure to see, on July 31, “The Detroit Breakdown,” featuring The Gories, Dennis Coffey, Melvin Davis, Spyder Turner and more.
July 28 through Aug. 15, various locations, www.lincolncenter.org; Free.

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
Head to Tompkins Square Park in the East Village and Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem to hear some of jazz’s biggest musicians perform for this two-day celebration of the music Parker held so close to his heart. The Frank Wess Quintet and Cedar Walton Quartet headline.
Aug. 29 & 30, Marcus Garvey Park, enter park at E. 120th St. & Madison Ave. and Tompkins Square Park, enter park at E. 8th St. & Ave. A; 3, Free.

“It’s the only TV show I’m aware of that focuses exclusively on independent music,” explained David Schumacher, NYCMusicShow producer.

Read more about the new program here.

“These bands, in my experience, tend to have a pretty wide appeal. Everybody from suit-and-tie to artists to hipsters,” Sobel said. “It tends to be pretty eclectic.” He anticipates plenty of indie rock fans migrating from as far away as Brooklyn for the event.

Haakon’s Fault, winners of last year’s Upper East Side Music Festival, will be performing again this year.

Sobel supports fledgling bands by booking a lot of rooms around the city, giving them a variety of venue options, and by putting together sets with bands that mesh stylistically.

“If you’re a folk rock band playing after a death metal band, chances are the metal fans aren’t going to like your folk rock, and vice versa,” Sobel said.

For the festival, Sobel booked a set of hard rock and metal bands for Feb. 6, but that’s the only night he would classify as fitting into any single genre.

“A lot of the bands today, they aren’t so specific, they pull from a lot of different influences,” from folk to progressive to techno, he said.

Last year’s winner, Haakon’s Fault, will be performing again. Bass player Doug Berns said the band is excited to perform at Bar East, where the small space provides an intimate setting for music.

“It felt like a real communal environment,” he said.

The unsigned band, which describes its sound as “epic,” got a big morale boost from last year’s triumph.

Sobel especially wants to help out Bar East, which has been struggling financially.

“Live music is a labor of love,” Sobel said. “There’s no doubt that DJs spinning hip hop, that kind of thing, tend to make more money for clubs.”

He cites places like The Continental, an East Village bar now known for its five-shots-for-$10 deal, which stopped hosting live music in 2006 due to the expense; it recently held a one-night reunion concert of live bands Jan. 17.

Despite the cost, Sobel said, “The ironic thing is that more and more clubs doing live music seem to keep popping up.”

That’s why he’s hoping this year’s festival will draw people to Bar East.

“It’s important for people on the Upper East Side to come check this out,” he said.

the progenitor and exporter of democratic ideals. But you wouldn’t suspect this based on how the national (and New York) Democratic Party has been behaving lately.

Democracy, by our definition, offers citizens strong choices and vibrant debates on ideas and policies, not uncontested primaries or people appointed to high office by one unelected leader.

Democracy requires—Sobel said.

For the festival, Sobel booked a set of hard rock and metal bands for Feb. 6, but that’s the only night he would classify as fitting into any single genre.

“A lot of the bands today,they aren’t so specific, they pull from a lot of different influences,” from folk to progressive to techno, he said.

Last year’s winner, Haakon’s Fault, will be performing again. Bass player Doug Berns said the band is excited to perform at Bar East, where the small space provides an intimate setting for music.

“It felt like a real communal environment,” he said.

The unsigned band, which describes its sound as “epic,” got a big morale boost from last year’s triumph.

Sobel especially wants to help out Bar East, which has been struggling financially.

“Live music is a labor of love,” Sobel said. “There’s no doubt that DJs spinning hip hop, that kind of thing, tend to make more money for clubs.”

He cites places like The Continental, an East Village bar now known for its five-shots-for-$10 deal, which stopped hosting live music in 2006 due to the expense; it recently held a one-night reunion concert of live bands Jan. 17.

Despite the cost, Sobel said, “The ironic thing is that more and more clubs doing live music seem to keep popping up.”

That’s why he’s hoping this year’s festival will draw people to Bar East.

“It’s important for people on the Upper East Side to come check this out,” he said.

–
Upper East Side Music Festival
Bar East nightclub
1733 First Ave.
(betw. 89th and 90th streets)
212-876-0203
Feb. 3 to 27
$10 cover charge

“When I first started conducting, I did a Rossini opera at BAM in the early ’90s, and Caramoor asked me to develop opera productions in their Music Room,” said Crutchfield, an Upper West Sider. “We did that for a few years, then brought a good production to the Caramoor Festival in 1996: Rossini’s  La Cenerentola with mezzo-soprano Viveca Genaux. It got a great response and the following year we made ‘Bel Canto at Caramoor’ official—we’ve been going strong ever since.”

Conductor Will Crutchfield leads the Bel Canto at Caramoor series, featuring revivals of 19th-century Italian operas by Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini.

That strength is especially evident in this summer’s opera events: Donizetti’s popular comedy The Elixir of Love  was performed July 18, and Rossini’s dramatic—and rarely performed—Semiramide is scheduled for July 31. Since opera singers’ schedules are planned years in advance, operas at Caramoor are performed whenever Crutchfield’s ideal casts are assembled.

“One example is this year,” he said. “We wanted tenor Lawrence Brownlee, but his schedule is very full and getting fuller. He could finally sing for us this summer, and we gave him a role he has not done before: Nemorino in Elixir of Love. He’s in such demand for other roles that he has not sung this one. So he was the starting point for that opera, and the starting point for Semiramide was soprano Angela Meade, whom I first heard two years ago, and wanted to sing the title role, which would be a real showcase for her.”

Rounding out the Semiramide cast is Viveca Genaux, who is coming back to play Arsace, and Brownlee, who will return to sing Idreno.

“So we have the world’s three best Rossini singers in one Rossini opera!” the conductor said.

Crutchfield doesn’t see any disadvantages to performing operas at the festival’s outdoor Venetian Theater.

“The atmosphere is great, of course, and it also has good natural acoustics,” he said. “We use no amplification at all, and the sound is fresh and pleasant—we can perform as if we’re inside a concert hall with good acoustics. Happily, we are able to avoid the frustration of many outdoor spaces.”

This October, Caramoor plans to hold its first Fall Festival, a weekend of concerts that begins with the New York Philharmonic and culminates with a solo recital by soprano Sumi Jo, whom Crutchfield is accompanying on piano. He hopes that opera will also become a part of future Fall Festivals.

“We may do some small-scale operas in the fall, perhaps even returning to The Music Room,” he said.

His Caramoor conducting career would then come full circle.

–
Bel Canto at Caramoor, on July 31, is part of the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, N.Y., which runs through
Aug. 5. For information about round-trip bus service from Manhattan, call 914-232-5035 or visit caramoor.org.

So is taking on the title role in Alceste, a baroque work by Christoph Willibald Gluck that will be performed by The Collegiate Chorale on May 26, a true departure for her?

“That would be absolutely correct!” the Upper West Side resident laughs in response. “I learned this role nearly 20 years ago when I understudied for Jessye Norman at The Lyric Opera of Chicago. She seemed to be sick every day, but she never got quite ill enough to cancel, so I never sang the part.”

Making her role debut in Alceste came about because Voigt was asked what opera she would be interested in singing with the Collegiate Chorale, and she didn’t hesitate to mention this Gluck work.

“And it has a lot of choral parts, which fits the Chorale perfectly, so it works for everybody,” she said. “It’s quite a dramatic role for me: even though it’s not like the Wagner or Strauss roles I usually do, it’s a vocal challenge and I enjoy singing it. Temperamentally, Alceste is similar to those other heroines I play. She’s sacrificing her life for her husband—it doesn’t get much more dramatic than that.”

Deborah Voigt, a regular with the Metropolitan Opera, takes a break to sing with the Collegiate Chorale.

When asked whether she prefers the original Italian version or the French revision that Gluck prepared in 1776 (which is what she will be performing on May 26), the singer responded, “It makes absolutely no difference because I’ve had to relearn the whole thing! But my French teacher tells me I’m très bon, which helps.”

Usually, when Voigt sings operas in New York, it’s on the Metropolitan Opera stage, where she’s been a regular for several years. And next season, she returns there to sing operas by—whom else?—Strauss (Elektra) and Wagner (The Flying Dutchman).

“I was the first one who sang Chrysothemis in the current Met production of Elektra, so that will be a nice trip down memory lane,” Voigt said. “I’ve also recorded it with Maestro Levine and his band. However, doing Dutchman will be a first for me there, and Senta is a role I’ve not sung a lot, so it will be interesting to finally do that at the Met.”

The Chicago-born soprano wants to be known for more than the heavy-duty roles that have made her famous.

“I thought that at this point in my career, I’d be on autopilot and singing my same five roles around the world,” she joked. “No, really I would like to do more cabaret and American Songbook-type concerts,” she added, referring to the Lincoln Center song series in which she performed last season. “The luxury of having that microphone to croon into is always a wonderful thing, but it’s hard to balance all of this music—to be a Wagner and Strauss soprano takes up a lot of my time and my voice.”

But a girl can continue to dream: “I’m hoping to finally put out my Voigt Where Prohibited CD of cabaret songs,” she says. “Someday!”
–
Gluck’s Alceste
May 26, 8 p.m.
Rose Theater,
Jazz at Lincoln Center
For tickets ($25 to $120), visit www.collegiatechorale.org

How about this storyline: the nice, multi-tasking Jewish girl from affluent Tenafly, N.J., went on to graduate from Sarah Lawrence College (major: English and American Literature) and rack up another two dozen or so hits. When that gig waned, she turned to acting in summer stock, singing on the club circuit and discovering that she’s gay. At 29, she and younger brother Michael co-wrote “Out Here on My Own,” an Oscar-nominated song from the 1980 hit movie Fame.

After that, there was a quieter stretch of singing and songwriting. Until 2005, that is, when she came out publicly during the release of “Ever Since,” a collection of yearning ballads that showcased her sultry, mellow, grown-up voice. It was her first album in 30 years.

Now Gore, who turns 63 on Sunday, is getting ready to write the second act of her life. Literally. Her dream is to complete a one-woman performance piece for Off Broadway.

“I’d like to get the second act done by summer and present it in the fall,” she said during a recent phone interview.

Staying fresh by exploring new material is crucial to Gore’s reinvention. It would have been easy enough, she notes, to simply perform in oldies-but-goodies concerts from here to Vegas, with her yoga and meditation tapes in tow. But over the years, she’s also sought out smaller, more intimate places for all her songs.

Her newest venue will be Feinstein’s at Loews Regency. For her first time at this fancy supper club, she’s bringing new arrangements and works for her four-piece band and three back-up singers.

Of course, she’ll perform “It’s My Party.” But it won’t be the version created by her original producer; back then, he was a newcomer named Quincy Jones. Gore says he pushed her to sing at ever-higher octaves in search of a “young” sound. This is how he knew when Gore had hit the right key: “Quincy wanted to see the veins in my neck.”

That would be a good story for Gore’s one woman-show. Her project could also benefit from new buzz over Fame. A remake is scheduled to reach movie theaters in September. (Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which is the new name for the original Fame school, holds its annual fundraiser on May 3. One of the items to bid on in the silent auction is lunch with Gore.)

Next, Gore says she’ll focus on writing that second act in the Upper East Side home she shares with Lois Sasson, her partner of 25 years and a jewelry designer with an exclusive men’s line at Bergdorf Goodman.

And if she decides not to work on the one-woman show after all, surely there will be other projects.

“This is a business—and life is a business—where you always have to challenge yourself,” Gore said.
–
Lesley Gore
May 5 to 9
Feinstein’s at Loews Regency
540 Park Ave. at 61st Street
$60 to $75 cover with $40 food/beverage minimum
For tickets call 212-339-4095 or visit www.ticketweb.com