About GrooveLily:
Rock Band? Musical Theater? The Best Of Both.
New York City trio GrooveLily inhabits that contemporary space where creative musicians ignore the boundaries laid down by words like rock, folk, jazz, and pop. Intelligent original songs with no shortage of wit connect lush musical textures and soaring vocals with the blazing sixstring electric violin of Valerie Vigoda, the lightning-fingered piano of Brendan Milburn, and the joyful drums of Gene Lewin. With backgrounds in classical music, musical theater, jazz, and rock, the three members of GrooveLily are making a new music that’s all their own. Buoyed by the success of their critically-acclaimed holiday concert-musical “Striking 12,” GrooveLily looks forward to making your acquaintance.
Valerie Vigoda, electric violinist and singer, is the founding member of GrooveLily. Originally from
McLean, VA, Valerie is a classically-trained musician, honors graduate of Princeton University, and
former Army lieutenant. She has toured the world with Cyndi Lauper (opening for Tina Turner and
Cher), Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She founded GrooveLily (originally “The Valerie
Vigoda Band”) in 1994, with a critically-acclaimed CD called “Inhabit My Heart.” Dirty Linen Magazine
wrote:“to call Valerie Vigoda talented barely seems to do her justice. She has a great voice, is an
intelligent lyricist ... and an ace violinist. Methinks we’ll hear more of her.” Winner of a 2006 Jonathan
Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award for excellence in writing for the theater, along with her
longtime collaborator and husband Brendan Milburn, Valerie is delighted to be spending less time in the
GrooveLily van, and more time creating new projects with her bandmates.
Brendan Milburn (keyboards/vocals) graduated from Pomona College and NYU's MFA program in
Musical Theatre Writing. He does a lot of arranging for GrooveLily, and he’s an accomplished record
producer as well. He often yearns for his native San Francisco. Seth Rogovoy wrote: “Milburn was a deft
pianist, his nimble fingerwork doing double-duty as the band’s bassist and provider of its harmonic
foundation, delivered with the jazzy sophistication of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and the rock and roll
theatrics of Billy Joel.” Brendan's music and/or lyrics have been/will be featured in a growing number of
off/on-Broadway shows, and he's always on the lookout for new projects/productions which will add
more slashes (“/”) to his bio/credits.
Gene Lewin plays the drums and sings, and hails from Princeton, NJ. Like many of his heroes (Jack
DeJohnette, Russ Kunkel, Vinnie Colaiuta), Gene joyfully blurs the lines between jazz and rock,
supporting and complementing the music but unafraid to instigate when the time is right. After
graduating from Princeton University, Gene earned a Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of
Music. He has toured with Audra McDonald and has appeared on CDs with George Coleman, John
Patitucci, and many others. “His gift lies in his frenzied dynamo attack of cymbals and skins. Think Tony
Williams sits in with Weather Report.” (Mark Corroto, All About Jazz)
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Underground Hotline:
(973) 762-0119
Website:
http://www.groovelily.com
Venue
Maplewood Middle School
7 Burnett Street
Buy tickets
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