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Igor Butman Club
April 29, Thursday
Ty Stephens (vocal)/USA
Oleg Butman (drums)
Natalya Smirnova (piano)
Anton Davidyants (bass-guitar)
Club's address: Tchistie Prudi, or Turgenevskaya metro station, Ulanskiy pereulok, 16 (in the building of "Ulanskaya" hotel)
To book a table, please call (495) 632-9264
The concerts start at 20.30
I was mesmerized by dance shows, like SoulTrain and American Bandstand; Variety Television shows and Movie Musicals. I knew
all the latest dances, and created productions in my mind and performed shows for my family with my sister, brothers and cousins,
singing---not lip-synching---to the latest records. My parents saw this creativity in me and I was fortunate to have a Mom who
followed-through on what she saw by enrolling me in a Summer Fine Art Program when I was 13, and a Summer Youth Theatre
when I was 14. And, the rest, they say, is history! .
Born and raised in Philadelphia, TY STEPHENS, started his journey in the entertainment business majoring in Fine Art and
performing in school productions at Overbrook High School (the same school as famed alum Will Smith, but years earlier), and
studying theatre and dance with the Philadelphia Youth Theatre at Society Hill Playhouse. He went on to Temple University s Stella
Elkins Tyler School of Art, only to quit in his sophmore year to pursue dance full time, dancing with John Hines Dance
Theatre of Philadelphia until his move to New York City to join the Rod Rodgers Dance Co., and study at the Alvin Ailey
School, sharpening his skills as a dancer.
After 2 years on the concert dance scene, he began to audition for and perform in musical theatre, with touring shows like SATIN
SWEET and THE WIZ , before landing his 2 Broadway shows: the original casts of SOPHISTICATED LADIES (with Gregory
Hines, Phyllis Hyman and Judith Jamison) and MARILYN, AN AMERICAN FABLE (with Scott Bakula and Allison Reed). While on
Broadway, Ty began performing in local piano bars and night clubs, finally focusing on his voice and, subsequently, his songwriting.
It was a difficult transition for me to make in the theatre world . I had to eliminate or minimize my dance background in order to
be taken seriously as a vocalist and songwriter. So, I spent a lot of time away from the Broadway scene as part of that
re-invention . I continued to write and sing in clubs, and you could find my voice on so many demos, it wasn t funny! I had no formal voice training, but my natural talents carried me far. I had really studied the recordings I listened to, and it showed when I went up to sing. I learned from Donny Hathaway; Stevie Wonder; Roberta Flack; Al Jarreau; Jeffrey Osborne; Chaka
Khan; James Taylor; Joni Mitchell, and Nat King Cole, to name a few.
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