Jason Henderson First NZer to Make US Cabaret

Dunedin-based singer Jason Henderson is the first New Zealander to be accepted to attend the St Louis Cabaret Conference from 17-23 July, after which he plans to relocate to New York City, the home of Cabaret.

St Louis Cabaret Conference artistic director Tim Schall said the conference was the largest training programme of its kind in the United States.

“We are very excited to welcome Jason Henderson as the first New Zealander accepted to attend our programme,” Schall said.

American Idol vocal and performance coach Peisha McPhee and associate musical director, pianist and arranger Michael Orland are two members of the teaching faculty.

Henderson said he was looking forward to meeting and working with the team.

“All of the faculty are amazing – their performance credits are eye-watering,” he said. “I’m particularly looking forward to working with Jeff Harnar whose Carnegie Hall appearances include both the Cole Porter and Noel Coward Centennial Galas.”

Nominated Most Promising Emerging Artist at the 2016 New Zealand Fringe Festival, Henderson is also known to Dunedin audiences for his show Coward in the Office at Arts Festival Dunedin in October 2016, when he teamed up with Terence Dennis to transfer Noël Coward’s classic songs into the fluorescent glare of the 21st-century office.

He is a University of Otago Master of Music graduate.

Original article by Rebecca Fox, Otago Daily Times, June 12, 2017.