Showboat: The Jerome Kern Songbook with Maud Hixson and Rick Carlson

Architect of American Musical Theater and Popular Song

A celebration of one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. His groundbreaking musical Showboat, and songs such as All The Things You Are, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, and The Way You Look Tonight, revolutionized American pop music. Music is shared with stories of his collaborations with great lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields and Johnny Mercer, among others.

Maud Hixson: Vocals
Rick Carlson: Piano

Hailed as “gently virtuosic” (All About Jazz), Maud Hixson is a devoted exponent of great songs, ranging from the classic Great American Songbook to the often unsung or forgotten compositions awaiting rediscovery. Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Maud made her Guthrie Theater debut in the Noel Coward revue Coward’s Women, also appearing in Park Square Theater’s The Soul of Gershwin. Permanent Moonlight: Songs of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, earned a 2024 Bistro Award. Rick Carlson taught himself to play the piano by studying the vast works of Count Basie and Duke Ellington and capitalizing on a long string of happy accidents. He has been the pianist for the Wolverines Big Band since 1980.

“She gives me that special magic I used to feel when Rosemary Clooney sang. Her vocal style is so warm, intimate and compelling–it’s clear that she cares about the words and telling the story, with clarity and without artifice–practically a lost art these days.” –Michael Feinstein

www.maudhixson.com