By David Thompson
Three For A Song, a trio specializing in songs from the 1920s and 1930s, has performed many times at Falls Church’s very own Creative Cauldron. They will be returning this Saturday, July 26, for a performance that’s a part of Creative Cauldron’s Summer Cabaret series.
“We’ve done multiple holiday shows together and have a semi-famous/infamous show in which we performed to a sold-out house by the light of flashlight after a storm,” said Three For A Song’s soprano Karin Paludan. “The Cauldron is a gem in Falls Church and we are delighted to have such a good relationship with them.”
Three For A Song came together in 2011 after Paludan, Alex Hassan, the group’s pianist, and Doug Bowles, the group’s tenor, were introduced by mutual friends, Jackie Anderson and Bill Ewing, at the National Symphony. The musicians discovered they all had a love for songs from the 1920s and 1930s and started performing shortly after realizing their shared musical tastes.
“After a few rehearsals we did our first performance together and then we hit the ground running,” Paludan said. “We performed in DC, NYC and LA in our first year as a group.”
Paludan is a Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Award winner and has sung at the Kennedy Center and with the New York City Opera National Company, the Annapolis Opera and the Utah Festival Opera.
Hassan and his wife, Sara, have amassed a collection of over 40,000 pieces of sheet music from the 1920s and 1930s. They are regulars at the Library of Congress, where they scour a database called “It’s Showtime” for more undiscovered songs. Three For A Song created its live show called “The Greatest Songs You’ve (N)ever Heard” from the sheet music Hassan and his wife gathered.
“Alex had just discovered this collection when we all met, and so it was serendipity once again,” Paludan said.
Bowles earned a Master of Music degree in vocal performance at The Catholic University of America and was the first recipient of the National Italian American Foundation’s Pavarotti Scholarship for the Voice.
After a year and a half of performing, the trio recorded 21 songs in two days last August at the home of Jackie Anderson and Bill Ewing for its first CD, which shares a title with the live show. The CD will be available for sale at the show on Saturday.
“In addition to having a fabulous music room where we’d performed, Jackie and Bill were responsible for bringing us together,” Paludan said. “It was so wonderful to record the show where it all began.”
Three For A Song will perform “The Greatest Songs You’ve (N)ever Heard” this Saturday, July 26, at 8 p.m. at ArtSpace Falls Church, which is located at 410 S. Maple Ave. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $18 for students and seniors.
• For more information about Three For A Song, visit threeforasong.wordpress.com.
