This Moment features the artistry of Rebecca Karpoff in remarkable, live performances of North American music, ranging from the poignantly touching songs of Bucchino and Sondheim to laugh-out-loud interpretations of works by Bernstein, Bolcom, and Greer.  Audience laughter is ever-present and the listener is captivated by Karpoff’s charisma and story-telling ability, as she infuses each vignette with dramatic intensity, a wide range of vocal colors, and impeccable timing.  From the opening, “So, where do ya wanna go, first?” (in Bernstein’s “Come Up to My Place”) it's a fun, rollicking ride of great music—with occasional turns toward tender, affecting moments.

 For its recorded premiere here, John Greer’s hilarious song cycle, “A Sarah Binks Songbook,” deserves special citation:

 “There is no doubt,” writes Paul Hiebert of his whimsical creation, poetess Sarah Binks, the Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan, “that some of Sarah’s finest work still lies buried among the Tax Sales and Mortgage Foreclosures.  Known, among other things, for her ‘almost perfect’ translations of German poetry, honours were showered upon her throughout her life from Quagmire to Hitching, from Pelvis and Detour to Oak Bluff and Cactus Lake, culminating in that highest award in bestowal of her province's people, the Wheat Pool Medal.  No other poet has caught in deathless lines so much of Saskatchewan's elusive spirit, the baldness of its prairies, the alkalinity of its soil, the richness of its insect life.”

 Mr. Greer has wonderfully captured the spirit of Miss Binks' "deathless lines" with a wide variety of outlandish and uproarious humor.

Cover Art: New York City Skyline #1, private collection, Watercolor painting by Ron Csuha; © 2001 Ron Csuha.  All rights reserved.

CD Producer: Fred Karpoff

 Renegade Classics, Fayetteville, NY

Recording Venues:

Skaneateles Festival, Skaneateles, NY; Jim La Ronde, Recording Engineer, Track 1

 Setnor Auditorium, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY; James S. Abbott, Recording Engineer, Tracks 2-3, 6-7, 17-23

 First Unitarian Meeting House, Madison, WI, Don Sylvester, Recording Engineer, Tracks 4-5, 8-16

 Wellin Auditorium, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY Tracks 24-27

[1] BERNSTEIN: “Come Up to My Place” (On the Town)

[2] BERNSTEIN: “What a Movie!” (Trouble in Tahiti)

[3] SHIRE:  Back on Base (Closer Than Ever)

[4] BUCCHINO:  This Moment 

[5] BUCCHINO:  Temporary

[6] BERNSTEIN: “My House” (Peter Pan)

[7] BERNSTEIN: “A Little Bit in Love” (Wonderful Town)

     BERNSTEIN: La Bonne Cuisine

[8]        Plum Pudding

[9]        Queues de Boeuf (Ox Tail Stew)

[10]      Tavouk Guenksis           

[11]      Civet à Toute Vitesse (Rabbit at Top Speed)

       BOLCOM: from Cabaret Songs

[12]      Satisfaction

[13]      Toothbrush Time

[14]      Lady Luck

[15]      Waitin

[16]      Amor

[17] SONDHEIM:  Losing My Mind (Follies)

       GREER:  A Sarah Binks Songbook (1988)

[18]       Reflections while translating Heine

                     (Fantasia on a theme of Schumann)

[19]       Hi Sooky, Ho Sooky (Valse serenata)

[20]       Ode to a Star (Arioso di camera)

[21]       The Song of the Chore (Canzone rustica)

[22]       Elegy for a Calf (Lamento pastorello)

[23]       Square Dance (Hoe-Down)

[24] KINGSLEY:  The Green Dog

[25] BENSHOOF:  The Cow

[26] ROREM:  The Serpent

[27] DUKE:  Penguin Geometry