The Contributors

Participant Bios

Scott Alan wrote the book, lyrics, and music for Detour in Los Angeles and has released three CDs — Dreaming Wide Awake, Keys, and, most recently, What I Wanna Be When I Grow Up — featuring Christiane Noll, Darius de Haas, Patina Miller, and more. He has sold out concerts of his music in New York and around the world. His love for new talent helped conceive and produce the monthly series “Monday Nights, New Voices” at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre in New York City, which ran for seven years. His new musical, Home, written with Christy Hall, will open on Broadway in 2012. www.scottalan.net

Born and raised in Vancouver, Selina Alko moved to New York City to go to art school, fell in love with the city, and never left. Now, with her husband and two children, she lives in Brooklyn, which is the inspiration for her first book, I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother. She is also the illustrator of My Subway Ride and My Taxi Ride, which she calls personal love letters to New York. Her most recent book as a writer/illustrator, Every-Day Dress-Up, was called a “happy antidote to the princess plague” by Kirkus Reviews. Breast cancer has affected many friends and family members so she has a personal connection to the cause. She hopes her art “can help this project become a smash financial success to help increase breast cancer awareness — and more.” www.selinaalko.com

Kristen Anderson-Lopez has written songs for Winnie the Pooh, Finding Nemo, the award-winning, original a cappella musical In Transit, and many other projects. She is a recipient of the BMI Harrington Award for outstanding creative achievement, and a nominee for Drama Desk and Animation Annie Awards. Her collaboration with Julia Jordan and Lisa DeSpain on the original, full-length musical Storyville earned her a Dramatists Guild Fellowship. She is married to her frequent collaborator, Robert Lopez, with whom she is writing Up Here, commissioned by Roundabout Theatre Company. Kristen sings original, extemporaneous lullabies to her two amazing daughters every evening. She joined The Broadway Lullaby Project “to aid in the fight against this devastating disease, which takes too many of us mothers from our children far too soon.”

Julie Andrews is one of the most recognized and beloved figures in the entertainment industry. Her legendary career encompasses the Broadway and London stages, Hollywood films, award-winning television, album releases, concert tours, and publishing children’s books. A child star of the British vaudeville circuit, Andrews came to America at the age of 19 to star in The Boyfriend on Broadway. She subsequently received critical acclaim for her legendary stage performances in My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Victor/Victoria. Her many memorable film performances include Mary Poppins (which won her an Oscar for her very first motion picture appearance), The Sound of Music (the highest grossing film of all time), Thoroughly Modern Millie, 10, Victor/Victoria, and, more recently, The Princess Diaries and Shrek films. Her weekly TV series, The Julie Andrews Hour, won multiple Emmy Awards during its run in the 1970s. Andrews began writing books for young readers over 40 years ago (her acclaimed middle grade novels, Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, remain in print today), and she has co-authored over 20 picture books, novels, and early readers with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton. Her autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, was published in 2009 and was a New York Times bestseller. In 2000, the title of Dame Julie Andrews was bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II for lifetime achievements in the arts and humanities.

Barbara Aronica-Buck, a lifelong friend of the Glucksmans, is an award-winning book designer with more than three decades of experience. A Smith College graduate, she proudly serves on the boards of organizations that support public education and people with developmental disabilities. She has two children and three stepchildren. Twenty years ago she moved back to her hometown of Stamford, CT, where she lives with her husband Peter Buck. She is honored to have worked so closely on this project with her esteemed colleague David Wilk and with all of these generous artists. She herself is a proud and thankful cancer survivor. www.bookdesigner.com.

The daughter of an artist, Lynne Avril is from Montana and graduated from the University of Montana School of Art in Missoula, but has spent much of her life in Arizona and now lives in Phoenix. She has illustrated almost 80 books for children, including the latest titles in the beloved Amelia Bedelia series. Lynne has won awards from the American Library Association, the Junior Library Guild, and many more. She joined The Broadway Lullaby Project because she is honored to be included in a creative project that will increase breast cancer awareness, and because she has a granddaughter who is a cancer survivor, diagnosed at eleven months. “Here’s to you, Miss Ellie!” www.lynneavril.com

Wayne Barker was the Drama Desk Award Winner for Outstanding Music in a Play for Peter & the Starcatcher at New York Theatre Workshop, which opened on Broadway in April 2012. His other theatre scores include music for The Great Gatsby (which opened the new Guthrie Theatre) and Seattle Rep’s Twelfth Night and The Three Musketeers, as well as orchestrating Mark Bennett’s score for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at La Jolla Playhouse. Wayne also performed for five years with Chicago City Limits and served on the staff of the HBO Family series A Little Curious. His music is heard in virtually every episode. In 2000 he began his long association with international star Dame Edna Everage as her onstage pianist for her North American tours, and provided the music and wrote lyrics for Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance on Broadway, in which he also performed.

Sean Barry is a writer of fiction, poetry, and theatre. He wrote the book and lyrics for Saint-Ex (music by Jenny Giering), which was selected by the Sundance Institute for the 2008 Theatre Lab at White Oak. It was also awarded the 2010 Weston Playhouse New Musical Award and received a 2011 NEA grant and a NAMT New Musical Development Award. Sean’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including Boston Review and Mississippi Review. He is currently at work on a novel. He chose to participate in the project because, as the father of two children, he “is aware of the deep attachment both parents and children make to the lullabies that become a part of their nighttime routines.”

Acclaimed singer/actress Anastasia Barzee has appeared in diverse roles both on Broadway and off, ranging from Lady Mortimer in the Tony Award-winning Henry IV to Betty Haynes in the musical White Christmas. Her many performances also include Urinetown, Miss Saigon, and Napoleon. On television she has been seen in Law & Order, Blue Bloods, and Murder She Wrote, among others. Anastasia recently released her debut solo album, The Dimming of the Day. She is participating in The Broadway Lullaby Project because she has “lost a number of wonderful women in my life to this horrible disease. I also thankfully have seen a number of women in my life beat it!” She adds that “with two very young boys of my own, Henry and Gene, I know this album will get loads of play during the bedtime ritual.” www.anastasiabarzee.com

Stephanie Bast has appeared on many TV shows, as well as on Broadway in numerous productions, among them The Scarlet Pimpernel, King David, Miss Saigon, and A Christmas Carol. She understudied the role of Claudia in Nine and appeared in South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. In addition, Stephanie is an artist whose paintings hang on walls all over the world. She says, “My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor, my mother had a breast cancer scare, my aunt who is also my godmother is a breast cancer survivor, and my sister-in-law’s mother lost her battle to breast cancer. And I have many dear friends who have survived as well.” www.stephaniebast.com

Susan Birkenhead made her Broadway debut as a songwriter for the musical Working, for which she received her first Tony nomination. Her work on the highly-acclaimed Jelly’s Last Jam, providing lyrics to the classic jazz music of Jelly Roll Morton, brought her a second Tony nomination, a Grammy Award nomination, and a Drama Desk Award. She also won an Outer Critics Circle Award for her Off-Broadway musical What About Luv? and wrote lyrics for the Broadway musicals High Society and Triumph of Love. Regionally, her work was featured in the musicals Pieces of Eight, written with Jule Styne and Michael Stewart; Fanny Hackabout Jones, written with Erica Jong and Lucy Simon; and, most recently, The Night They Raided Minsky’s, written with Charles Strouse and Evan Hunter, which premiered at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Jeff Blumenkrantz began his career as an actor, performing on Broadway in Into the Woods, The Threepenny Opera, Damn Yankees, as well as on TV and film, and other mediums. Audra McDonald’s recording of his song “I Won’t Mind” (lyrics by Annie Kessler and Libby Saines) jumpstarted his songwriting career. Jeff received a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score for his songs in Urban Cowboy, and his one-act pieces, Woman with Pocketbook and Precious Little Jewel, have been performed at several regional theatres around the country. Jeff has won multiple awards and fellowships. His songs have been commissioned by Carnegie Hall and recorded by the likes of Sutton Foster, Rebecca Luker, Victoria Clark, and many others. www.jeffblumenkrantz.com

Raised on the Jersey shore and a graduate of Parsons School of Design, Paulette Bogan enjoyed her first “artistic experience” when encouraged by her mother to paint a mural on the playroom wall. Her children’s books include the Spike series, Goodnight Lulu, Lulu the Big Little Chick, and Momma’s Magical Purse. She has also illustrated the hilarious Chicks and Salsa and Buffalo Wings by Aaron Reynolds. Paulette lives in New York City with her husband, three daughters, and Spikey, the Portuguese water dog. Paulette is known for her lively school and bookstore presentations and she can draw the fastest chicken in New York City! www.paulettebogan.com

Beowulf Boritt’s recent Broadway designs include Kander & Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys for director/choreographer Susan Stroman, and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sondheim on Sondheim, directed by Mr. Lapine, for whom he also designed the set for The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He designed Alfred Uhry’s LoveMusik on Broadway for Harold Prince, as well as the current Broadway hit, Rock of Ages and Lynne Taylor Corbett’s 2011 production of the Brecht/Weill Seven Deadly Sins for the New York City Ballet. Beowulf has designed over fifty Off-Broadway productions, and regionally, he has designed for The Guthrie, The Old Globe, Trinity Repertory Company, The Alliance, The Geffen, and many others. His work has garnered many awards, including a Tony Award nomination, three Drama Desk nominations, and an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Set Design. He is “delighted to do a little bit to help out such an important cause.” www.beowulfboritt.com

Award-winning composer Jeff Bowen wrote the music and lyrics for and starred in the Broadway musical and web series [title of show] as well as Now. Here. This. recently produced by the Vineyard Theatre. He has written music and lyrics for Villains Tonight! for the Walt Disney Company, the Easter Bonnet competition for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the Actors Fund 125th Anniversary Gala, the Vineyard Theatre’s 25th Anniversary Gala, the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards, Broadway in South Africa, and Broadway Bares 18: Wonderland. Jeff has composed music for several shows at P.S. 122, including Avant-Garde-a-Rama in Sparklevision. His work was also featured in Sparklefest 2000 at Dixon Place, The A-Train Plays, and the film Boat Mime. As a writer/performer, he has developed and performed works at The O’Neill Center, Manhattan Theatre Source, Ars Nova, and the Vineyard Theatre. He recently developed the half-hour sitcom Glass Houses for ABC Television. Jeff loves “participating in creative ventures that also benefit fantastic causes.”

Over the course of a long and notable career, Sammy Cahn (1913–1993) was nominated for 23 Academy Awards — more than any other songwriter — and won four for his lyrics to songs that have since become standards: “Three Coins in the Fountain”, “High Hopes”, “All the Way”, and “Call Me Irresponsible”. He was also nominated for five Golden Globes, an Emmy, a Tony Award for the musical Skyscraper, and two Tony Awards for the musical Walking Happy. He wrote the scores to the Broadway musicals Glad to See You, High Button Shoes, and Look to the Lilies, all with lyricist Jule Styne. He received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show for the film Robin and the 7 Hoods. Cahn wrote hit songs for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Doris Day, among many others, that included “Come Fly with Me”, “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry”, “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow”, and “Love and Marriage”. In 1988, the Sammy Film Music Awards (aka The Sammys), an annual award for movie songs and scores, was started in his honor.

Versatile instrumentalist Larry Campbell plays not only guitar but mandolin, banjo, and violin, and his repertoire includes country, folk, blues, Celtic, and rock. A self-taught musician, he played with Bob Dylan’s live band for eight years, played on Dylan’s album Love and Theft, and appeared in his movie, Masked and Anonymous (2003). Larry has played with or appeared on recordings as a studio musician with such artists as Judy Collins, Sheryl Crow, Paul Simon, Emmylou Harris, B.B. King, Kinky Friedman, Willie Nelson, Little Feat, Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, Cyndi Lauper, and many more. He performs regularly at Levon Helm’s Saturday night Midnight Rambles in Woodstock, NY, where he also functions as bandleader. Larry tours with the band and was the producer of Helm’s two Grammy-winning records, Dirt Farmer (2007) and Electric Dirt (2009). He also performs with his wife, singer Teresa Williams. In 2008, Larry was recognized by the Americana Music Association with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lauren Castillo grew up in Maryland, and went on to study Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She later moved to New York City and received her MFA in 2005 from the Illustration as Visual Essay Program at The School of Visual Arts. Lauren has illustrated several critically-acclaimed children’s books, including What Happens on Wednesdays by Emily Jenkins (Frances Foster Books/FSG), Buffalo Music by Tracey Fern (Clarion Books), and That’s Papa’s Way by Kate Banks (Frances Foster Books/FSG). Henry Holt published her first author/illustrator title, Melvin and the Boy, in 2011. Her books have received starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Horn Book, and Booklist. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Lauren hopes The Broadway Lullaby Project will help “make a positive difference in the world of breast cancer research, support, and education.” www.laurencastillo.com

Michael Cerveris has won a Tony Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a New York Drama Critics Circle Citation. He is currently appearing as Juan Perón in the Broadway revival of Evita, directed by Michael Grandage, with co-stars Elena Roger and Ricky Martin. Previous Broadway appearances include Hedda Gabler, Cymbeline, LoveMusik, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, The Who’s Tommy, Titanic, and In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, and he appeared in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in London’s West End. His Off-Broadway and film credits are numerous. He has been seen on TV in Fringe, Treme, Fame, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and CSI, among other shows. He performed a solo concert at Lincoln Center, toured with Bob Mould, and plays in the country band Loose Cattle. Michael’s debut solo album, Dog Eared, is available on iTunes and he is currently developing a new musical, Nine Lives. www.cerveris.com.

Walter Charles recently celebrated his 43rd anniversary in the professional theatre. Some of the highlights include the original Broadway companies of Grease, Sweeney Todd, Cats, and La Cage aux Folles, playing the starring role of Albin. The versatile actor co-starred with Tyne Daly in the Encores! presentation of Call Me Madam; with Michelle Lee and Tovah Feldshuh in Hello, Dolly! (on separate occasions); and with Constance Towers and Judy Kaye in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. Walter also created the role of Scrooge in Alan Menken’s A Christmas Carol. Walter says, “I never love performing Steve’s music more than when it’s for a great cause. And breast cancer research is just such a cause.”

R. Gregory Christie has been freelancing as an illustrator for over 17 years. He is a three-time recipient of the Coretta Scott King Honor Award in Illustration and a two-time recipient of The New York Times 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year Award. Past clients and collaborations include: Warner Brothers, Moserobie Music, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, The Wall Street Journal, Vibe, Utne Reader, Rolling Stone, Montego Glover, and Pete Seeger. His book, Yesterday I Had the Blues, was animated and showcased on the PBS television show Between the Lions in 2008. Additionally, Mr. Christie’s paintings have been used with an animated HBO Kids’ short movie and for an educational DVD company, Sweet Blackberry. Mr. Christie has been commissioned by the Metro Transit Authority’s Arts for Transit program to create an image for display in New York City’s subway cars for all of 2012. www.gas-art.com

Seymour Chwast, born in 1931, is a co-founder of the innovative and highly influential Push Pin Studios. His designs and illustrations have been used in advertising, packaging, animated films, as well as editorial, corporate, and environmental graphics. In 1983, Chwast was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. He has designed and illustrated more than 30 children’s books and created more than 100 posters, many of which are in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress. A graduate of Cooper Union (1951), he was the 1975 recipient of the Alumni Council’s coveted Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for professional achievement in art, and was the American Institute of Graphic Arts 1985 Gold Medalist. In 1984, Chwast was inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame; he received honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from Parsons School of Design in 1992 and the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010. www.pushpininc.com

Victoria Clark, an actor, educator, and director, won the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her performance in The Light in the Piazza, and a Tony nomination for Sister Act. She has appeared in numerous other Broadway shows, including Guys and Dolls, Titanic, Cabaret, Urinetown, and How to Succeed in Business . . ., in which she had the pleasure of working with longtime friend and collaborator Jeff Blumenkrantz, who wrote the lullaby “I’ll Always Be There”. Victoria has starred in multiple Encores! productions, Off-Broadway plays, and concerts throughout the U.S., including The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall. She can be seen in film and on TV in Cradle Will Rock, The Happening, Harvest, Main Street, Tickling Leo, Archaeology of a Woman, as well as Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Mercy. Victoria is an active educator, and has taught all over the United States and Europe. She serves on the Board of Directors of New York City Center, and The Kurt Weill Foundation. This song is dedicated to my son T. L. and my brave friends and family who have lived with cancer. www.victoriaclarkonline.com

Ezekiel Cohen was born on August 31, 2011. He is a baby. Zeke is very excited to be making his recording debut. His other accomplishments include giggling, rolling over, eating solid foods, and sleeping through the night . . . thanks to this wonderful collection of lullabies!

Jed Cohen began performing professionally at the age of eight. During his 20-year career as a performer, Jed made his Broadway debut at the age of 15 as Dickon in the Tony Award-winning musical The Secret Garden, was featured as Rod McCallister in the hit films Home Alone and Home Alone II: Lost in New York, and appeared as a principal with New York City Opera. In 2009, he co-founded the popular crowdfunding website RocketHub.com and continues to work as the company’s COO. Jed is a graduate of Harvard University where he earned his degree in Astronomy & Astrophysics, and lives in New York City with his wife Kate, son Zeke, and little dog Sophie. Jed explains, “The Broadway Lullaby Project offered a poetic opportunity to combat a terrible disease with music.”

Playwright, composer, and lyricist Joshua H. Cohen joined The Broadway Lullaby Project because “it’s a lovely idea . . . to use songs to give voice to an important message.” His songs have won many honors, including an NEA grant and a MAC Award nomination for his song “The Sacrifice of Love”. He received a 2011 American Theatre Wing Jonathan Larson Grant for his work with Marisa Michelson, including Tamar and the River and Still Life with Toe Shoes. Joshua is a graduate of Amherst College and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. www.joshuahcohen.com

Bassist Scott Colley began studying his instrument at age 11. He won a full scholarship to the California Institute for the Arts, where he concentrated on jazz and composition; he also studied privately with Charlie Haden and classical bassist Fred Tinsley. He moved to New York in 1988, and was soon touring with Carmen McRae, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Jordan, Toots Thielemans, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, and Andrew Hill. He has appeared on more than 200 albums with a variety of musicians that include Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Chris Potter, Kenny Werner, Edward Simon, Brian Blade, Antonio Sánchez, Bill Stewart, and Roy Haynes. Scott is also a composer and bandleader in his own right. His recent recordings include The Magic Line (2000), Initial Wisdom (2002), Architect of the Silent Moment (2007), and, most recently, Empire (2010), which includes 10 original compositions and features musicians Bill Frisell, Ralph Alessi, Brian Blade, and Craig Taborn. During the last few years Scott has toured extensively with his quartet and trio in the U.S., Europe, and South America. He lives in New York City and is currently a professor of bass studies at the State University of New York at Purchase. www.scottcolley.com

Janet Dacal most recently created the role of Alice in the Frank Wildhorn musical Wonderland, and played the lead, Nina Rosario, in the Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights after having originated the role of Carla in the original Off-Broadway (for which she won a Drama Desk Award) and Broadway productions. She has appeared in numerous productions Off-Broadway and in regional theatre, including Good Vibrations, Byzantium, Frank Loesser’s Señor Discretion Himself at the Arena Stage, and Annie at the Actors’ Playhouse. Janet has appeared on recordings and tours for various Grammy-winning artists, including Gloria Estefan, Jon Secada, and Luis Enrique. She wanted to participate in The Broadway Lullaby Project because “Music is what makes me most happy” — and for her mother, a cancer survivor.

Kate Dawson made her Broadway debut in 1997 as Scrooge’s fiancée, Emily, in A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. She has also appeared in Wonderful Town, Carnival, and many other productions, both Off-Broadway and in regional theatre. In 2009 she wrote, performed, and produced her original one-woman show The A**hole in My Head, garnering much critical acclaim and four encore runs. Kate’s voice-over work can be heard in numerous movies and TV shows, including Sex and the City, Chicago, and The Devil Wears Prada.

Award-winning artist Jane Dyer began as a teacher and an illustrator of textbooks, then moved on to children’s literature. She has illustrated numerous children’s books and won many awards. Her books Time for Bed by Mem Fox, the poetry anthology Talking Like the Rain, and Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons have all been bestsellers. She is also the author of The Girl in the Golden Bower, Time for Bed, and Snow Ice Cream. Jane says that much of her work is inspired by her own childhood memories, as well as time spent with her children, and now her three grandchildren, all the joys of her life. The painting for the lullaby “All New” is of her oldest daughter and youngest granddaughter. She wanted to participate in The Broadway Lullaby Project because “I am a breast cancer survivor. My first grandchild was born two days after I finished my last radiation treatment. If there was ever a question about a balance in life, this was certainly proof that there is. My granddaughter is five now!”

Two-time Grammy-nominated artist and producer Dave Eggar has performed throughout the world as a solo classical cellist, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Barbican in London, and many others. A virtuoso in many styles, he has performed and recorded with artists that include The Who, Coldplay, Evanescence, Michael Brecker, Dave Sanborn, Tina Turner, Patti Smith, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Carly Simon. He has won awards from ASCAP, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and Time magazine, and was awarded the Sony Records Elevated Standards Award for Classical Music. www.daveeggarmusic.com

Author and illustrator Richard Egielski “has created some of the most quirky and original children’s books of recent decades” (Anne Quirk in Children’s Books and Their Creators) in collaboration with writers such as Arthur Yorinks and Pam Conrad, as well as in his own self-illustrated picture books. His many awards include a plaque from the Biennale of Illustrations Bratislava for It Happened in Pinsk (1985); Parents’ Choice Picture Book Award for Amy’s Eyes (1985) and The Tub People (1989); Caldecott Medal, American Library Association for Hey, Al (1987); and Best Illustrated Book designation from the New York Times for Buz (1995) and Jazper (1998). About contributing here, Egielski says, “Many times I have been asked to contribute an original illustration for a book whose proceeds benefit a cause: there was Home for Aid for the Homeless, For Our Children for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Wing of an Artist for the American Library Association, among others. If my schedule allows it and it is a good cause, I try my best. The Broadway Lullaby Project fit the criteria and, besides, what illustrator could resist the chance to illustrate a song by Michael John LaChiusa?” www.richardegielski.com

New York-based pianist and composer Taylor Eigsti was a child piano prodigy. He has released seven albums as a leader and has received two Grammy nominations, for Best Jazz Solo and Best Instrumental Composition. He has also been featured in numerous television specials and on NPR, and recently composed music for the motion picture Detachment, starring Adrien Brody. Taylor has performed or recorded with such luminaries as Dave Brubeck, Joshua Redman, Nicholas Payton, Esperanza Spalding, Gretchen Parlato, Julian Lage, David Benoit, Hank Jones, and Frederica Von Stade, among many others. He has also worked with various symphony orchestras, including the San José Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Youth Symphony, and the Tassajara Symphony, and multiple collaborations with the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, and has written a growing repertoire of music for orchestra and jazz ensemble. www.tayjazz.com

Actor/singer Raúl Esparza is currently starring on Broadway as Jonas Nightingale in Leap of Faith. He was born in Delaware to Cuban-American parents and was raised in Miami. He has a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2001, Raúl won a Theatre World Award for his Broadway debut as Riff-Raff in The Rocky Horror Show. He next appeared on Broadway as the Emcee in the hit revival of Cabaret. Since then, he has been nominated for and won numerous awards for his roles in such musicals as Taboo, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Company (which was broadcast on PBS’s Great Performances), and the plays The Homecoming, Speed-the-Plow, and Arcadia. He can also be seen on film, TV, and in concerts around the country. Raúl chose to participate in the project because “it is a good cause, because it is an important cause, because cancer has affected very deeply some of the people I hold closest in my life. Because it is an honor to use the small platform my talents have given me to do something that can help make someone’s life a little better. Because we are all connected somehow and the world is very large but we are actually pressed very, very close. And because all the action that matters is what you’ve done to pay it forward to someone else.”

Revered American artist and political satirist Jules Feiffer has created more than 35 books, plays, and screenplays. In 1986, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartoons in The Village Voice. He wrote the films Carnal Knowledge and Popeye, and won an Academy Award for his animated short film, Munro. His plays Little Murders and The White House Murder Case each won Obie and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 1995, Feiffer was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004. His acclaimed memoir, Backing into Forward, was published in 2010 and is now in paperback. Feiffer illustrated the children’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth, and his latest children’s book is No Go Sleep by his daughter, Kate Feiffer. www.julesfeiffer.com

Sutton Foster is a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Actress for her starring role as Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie and, most recently, as Reno Sweeney in Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes (for which she also won Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Awards). She also won Tony nominations for the roles she originated in Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Shrek the Musical, among other accolades. Sutton was also seen on Broadway in Les Misérables, Grease, Annie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Young Frankenstein. She was recently seen Off-Broadway in the play Trust and as Nurse Faye Apple in New York City Center’s Encores! presentation of Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle. As a solo artist, Sutton has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, Feinstein’s, and Joe’s Pub, among others, and can be heard on her debut CD, Wish. On television, she has appeared on Law & Order: SVU and Flight of the Conchords, and will be seen next starring on the new series Bunheads, debuting on ABC Family. www.suttonfoster.com

Composer/lyricist Michael Friedman wrote the music and lyrics to Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which recently played at the Public Theater and on Broadway. As an Associate Artist with The Civilians, he has written music and lyrics for Canard Canard Goose, Gone Missing, Nobody’s Lunch, This Beautiful City, In the Footprint, and The Great Immensity. Other works include Saved and The Brand New Kid. With Steve Cosson, he is the co-author of Paris Commune. Michael’s music has appeared at many New York and regional theaters. He was the dramaturg for the recent Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun. He is an Artistic Associate at New York Theater Workshop, and has been a MacDowell Fellow, a Princeton Hodder Fellow, a Meet the Composer Fellow, and a visiting Professor at the Princeton Environmental Institute. In 2007, Michael received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, and most recently, he gave a 2012 Ted Talk. Michael contributed to The Broadway Lullaby Project because “the cause behind the project is far too important — how could I not participate in such a beautiful and simple idea?”

James Genus is among the world’s most versatile and sought-after bassists, touring and recording with an array of top-shelf artists from across all genres. An accomplished player on both upright and electric bass, he was born and raised in Virginia and studied music at Virginia Commonwealth University, where his early mentors included iconic jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis. Moving to New York City in 1987, James quickly earned a reputation for his blend of earthy groove, melodic ingenuity, and chameleonic chops. He has played and recorded with a roster of musicians that includes Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Branford Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, and Dianne Reeves. Since 2000, he has also held down a gig as a member of the distinguished house band for Saturday Night Live. www.jamesgenus.com

Singer/songwriter Jenny Giering has an AB from Harvard/Radcliffe and an MFA from the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU. She is currently developing her musical, Saint-Ex, written with her husband, lyricist-librettist Sean Barry, which opened in 2010 at The Weston Playhouse in Weston, Vermont, and won the theatre’s New Musical Award, as well as reprising her collaboration with author Laura Harrington on the musical Alice Bliss, commissioned by Playwrights Horizons. Past projects include Crossing Brooklyn; Alice Unwrapped; Princess Caraboo with Marsha Norman and Beth Blatt; Songs from an Unmade Bed, a Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Musical; and Island of the Blue Dolphins, which was commissioned by Theatreworks USA and toured for two sold-out seasons. She has won the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award, the National Art Song Award, and the Frederick Loewe Award, among numerous others. Giering’s well-received debut solo album, Look for Me, was released in 2006. www.jennygiering.com

Jodi and Daniel Glucksman are co-founders of Luckimann LLC, a production company specializing in theatre and film. Together they sponsor Roundabout Underground, a not-for-profit program supporting the work of new playwrights in New York City. Jodi consults as a dramaturg, and Daniel is an award-winning editor with 60 Minutes. They are the proud parents of Tillie, Keegan, and Zi, who are featured in this collection. In honor of their mothers and grandmothers, in their battles with breast cancer, the Glucksmans hope The Broadway Lullaby Project will make a difference.

Tillie (age 10), Keegan (age 8), and Zi (age 8 ) Glucksman are thrilled to make their recording debut on this album premiering a song by the legendary Charles Strouse and Sammy Cahn. Their many varied activities include singing, dancing, fencing, sculpting, and skiing. They’ve performed rock concerts at the Lucky Break Café in Stamford, Connecticut, and The Highline Ballroom in New York City. They dedicate this recording to their Bubbe and Gama, both breast cancer survivors; their Aunt Linda, a breast cancer surgeon; and their Great Grandmother Tillie, who lost her battle with the disease before they could ever meet her.

Composer Zina Goldrich and author Marcy Heisler were the first women ever honored with the Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Songwriting. Their work has garnered high regard, earning a 2009 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Lyrics and Music for Dear Edwina, a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Theatreworks USA’s Junie B. Jones, and, most recently, a Helen Hayes Award nomination for their Kennedy Center production of Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred). Goldrich and Heisler have provided original songs for The Disney Channel, Disney Interactive and Feature Animation projects, Disney Theatricals, PBS, and Nickelodeon. As performers, they have toured domestically and internationally. November 2009 marked the release of Marcy & Zina: The Album on Yellow Sound Label, and their Songbooks: Volumes 1 and 2 are available from Hal Leonard. A number of new theatrical projects are in the works, including Ever After, in collaboration with Kathleen Marshall; Screaming Like a Fool, a collection of their romantic comedy songs; and The Great American Mousical, directed by Julie Andrews and premiering at Goodspeed Opera House in November 2012. They are involved in The Broadway Lullaby Project because cancer “is no match . . . for the love and connection forged between those who deal with it on a personal level, and those whose love is simply too strong to do anything but join in the fight.” www.marcyandzina.com

A quadruple threat, Gil Goldstein is a highly sought-after pianist, accordionist, arranger/composer, and producer. He has performed with, among others, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Martino, Billy Cobham, Lee Konitz, Manhattan Transfer, and the Gil Evans Orchestra. After playing with Evans, Goldstein branched out into film scoring (Simply Irresistible, Radio Inside), as well as putting his accordionist skills to use for composers such as Elliot Goldenthal (Frida, Across the Universe). An in-demand arranger, Goldstein’s skills have been called upon by artists including Chris Botti, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, and Al Jarreau. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he also co-arranged and produced bassist Esperanza Spalding’s acclaimed 2010 recording Chamber Music Society. He teaches jazz piano, arranging, and conducting at NYU. www.gilgoldstein.us

A prolific composer, Ricky Ian Gordon‘s credits include Sycamore Trees (Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award, Helen Hayes Award for Best Ensemble), Orpheus and Euridice (Obie Award), Dream True (Richard Rodgers Award), and My Life with Albertine (AT&T Award). Gordon is a leading writer of vocal music that spans art song, opera, and musical theater. His songs have been performed and recorded by such internationally renowned singers as Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Kelli O’Hara, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, and Betty Buckley, among many others. A recipient of a National Institute for Music Theater Award, a Stephen Sondheim Award, and a Carnegie-Mellon Alumni Award, Gordon’s work was celebrated in 2001 at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series with Bright Eyed Joy: The Music of Ricky Ian Gordon. He chose to participate in The Broadway Lullaby Project because “it is a good cause for which I am particularly concerned, as my sister, Susan Lydon, died of cancer that started as breast cancer and spread. It is an epidemic that we must stop. I love Judy Kuhn and Tony Kushner as well . . . and am always happy to bring their beautiful work into the world in any way.” www.rickyiangordon.com

Designer/illustrator Julia Gran has been drawing since she was four and graduated from Parsons School of Design. Her fanciful illustrations can be seen in books, magazines, newspapers, and advertisements, as well as greeting cards, sleepwear, and umbrellas. She received The Educational Press Association of America’s Distinguished Achievement Award for 321 Contact, among numerous other awards. Julia made her picture book debut Big Bug Surprise. She thrills many with her much-loved Princess Penelope series. She lives in New York City with her husband. www.juliagran.com

A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Adam Gwon is a composer/lyricist based in New York City. His musicals include Ordinary Days (Roundabout, London’s West End), The Boy Detective Fails (Signature Theatre; book: Joe Meno), and Cloudlands (South Coast Repertory; book/co-lyrics: Octavio Solis). His honors include the Kleban, Ebb, and Loewe Awards for Excellence in Musical Theater Writing, the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, and the MAC John Wallowitch Award, as well as commissions from Signature Theatre (Arlington), South Coast Repertory, Broadway Across America, and the EST/Sloan Project, and prestigious fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Dramatists Guild. Adam’s music can also be heard on the cast recording of Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records). About The Broadway Lullaby Project, he says, “As a new uncle, I was moved by the chance to write a song for and inspired by my little nephew, and having it benefit breast cancer research makes it that much sweeter. I hope that sharing it on this album gives someone somewhere more moments in which to cherish their loved ones.” www.adamgwon.com

Emma Walton Hamilton is a bestselling children’s book author, editor, educator, and arts and literacy advocate. She has coauthored over 20 children’s books with her mother, Julie Andrews, six of which have been on the New York Times Bestseller List, including The Very Fairy Princess series; Julie Andrews’s Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies; the Dumpy the Dump Truck series; The Great American Mousical; and Thanks to You — Wisdom from Mother and Child. She is also the author of the award-winning Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment. Emma teaches children’s literature courses for Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Creative Writing and online, and is Director of Southampton Arts annual Children’s Literature Conference, as well as the Young American Writers Project (YAWP), an inter-disciplinary writing program for middle and high school students on Long Island. A Grammy Award-winning voice-over artist, Emma has provided voicing for several children’s audio books, and as a former actress, director and producer, she co-founded the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York, where she headed up the educational and young audience programs for 17 years before turning her attention to writing. She lives in Sag Harbor, New York with her husband, producer/actor Stephen Hamilton, and their two children. www.emmawaltonhamilton.com

Jazz pianist and composer Kevin Hays has recorded more than a dozen CDs as a leader and has been featured on many more as a sideman, working with such artists as Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, Benny Golson, Roy Haynes, Chris Potter, Al Foster, Joe Henderson, and Joshua Redman. September 2011 saw the release of Modern Music, a piano duo recording with Brad Mehldau, featuring arrangements of music by both pianists as well as compositions from Ornette Coleman, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and the project’s producer, Patrick Zimmerli. Several of the arrangements along with new works had their world premiere at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Kevin’s 2011 solo piano CD, Variations (Pirouet Records), features three sets of improvised variations on several original themes, along with variations on a fugue by Schumann. Kevin’s recordings have been praised by The New York Times and listed among the Best of the Year by Musician Magazine and The New Yorker. He says, “It is an honor to be included on such a beautiful project with the wealth of talent that’s on this recording . . . and to feel the genuine love and care with which it was conceived and brought forth.” www.kevinhays.com

Born in Seattle, the son of two musicians, Aaron Heick began playing alto sax at age 10, marking the beginning of a lifelong passion and a stellar professional career. He arrived in New York City in 1984 and quickly became part of the city’s vibrant musical community. Throughout the ’90s he played with Chaka Khan and her band, touring in the U.S., Caribbean, Asia, and Europe, and then spent eight years touring internationally with bassist/singer/multi-instrumentalist Richard Bona. In 2006, Aaron began playing with Barbra Streisand’s 58-piece orchestra and appears on the live CD documenting their extensive tours around the globe. He has also performed or recorded with Sting, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, Randy Newman, Bette Midler, Tori Amos, Audra McDonald, Gil Evans, Willie Colón, and many others. Aaron is a longtime stalwart in Adam Holzman’s band Brave New World, with whom he has recorded five CDs, and is also a member of K. J. Denhert’s band, which plays regularly both in New York City and Italy at the Umbria Jazz Festival. Aaron recently recorded his first solo CD, Daylight & Darkness. www.aaronheick.com

Author Marcy Heisler, with composer Zina Goldrich, received the 2009 Fred Ebb Award for Outstanding Songwriting. She also received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for her Kennedy Center premiere of Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred) and was a co-recipient of ASCAP’S 2002 Richard Rodgers Theatre Award. Among her many other acclaimed projects are Dear Edwina and Junie B. Jones. She says, “I would like to dedicate ‘Over the Moon’ to my cousin Kevin, who basically became my sibling when my Aunt Susan died of breast cancer at the age of 40. Kevin had to move to Chicago from Honolulu at the age of 13 to live with me and my family. I remember so vividly him playing guitar to eight-year-old me at night, singing Beatles songs, but really . . . trying to make sense of it all. And when we grew up and Kevin had a child of his own, I knew what I wanted my gift to be. I could imagine him so clearly playing his guitar to his newborn daughter, trying to make sense of it all once more, but this time in the most beautiful of ways. I know all too well how cancer changes families — but I also know how it is no match at all for the love and connection forged between those who deal with it on a personal level, and those whose love is simply too strong to do anything but join in the fight. I’m proud to be part of a project filled with so many of those people who give their time and talent to that fight, no matter what their art. My deepest thanks to everyone involved. Thanks also to Zina, who was a new mother herself when this song was written. The lyric is for Kevin, the music is for the beautiful Rachel, and the song is for everyone who takes the time to rock someone they love to sleep.” www.marcyandzina.com

Actress, vocalist, and songwriter Nona Hendryx was a member of the trio LaBelle (with Patti LaBelle and Sarah Dash), the groundbreaking rock funk band of the ’70s, which earned three Gold albums and a #1 worldwide hit with “Lady Marmalade (Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi, Ce Soir?)”. She now sings with the group Daughters of Soul and is also well-known for her solo work and collaborations, including her 1987 hit single “Why Should I Cry?” and the song “Rock This House”, written and recorded with Keith Richards and nominated for a Grammy. Her other top-ten hits include “Bustin’ Out”, “Keep It Confidential”, “Transformation”, “I Sweat (Goin’ Thru the Motions)”, and “Winds of Change”. Hendryx has collaborated with artists such as Material, Arthur Baker, Prince, Peter Gabriel, Dan Hartman, and The Talking Heads. She scored and contributed 14 new songs to the film Preaching to the Choir and contributed songs to the award-winning film, Precious. She composed the music for Charles Randolph Wright’s Off-Broadway play Blue, and is currently collaborating with him on a multi-media cyber-musical based on Hendryx’s Private Music CD, SkinDiver. Hendryx is currently a Teaching Artist at Tisch Center for the Arts at NYU. www.nonahendryx.com

As a solo pianist, composer, bandleader, and theatrical conceptualist, Fred Hersch lives up to the praise of the New York Times, who, in a featured Sunday Magazine piece, aptly declared him, “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz — a jazz for the 21st century.” With three-dozen recordings as a leader/co-leader and numerous awards, including a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and five Grammy Award nominations, Hersch is among the most admired of contemporary jazz musicians, having collaborated with an astonishing range of instrumentalists and vocalists in the worlds of jazz (Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, and Bill Frisell), classical (Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Christopher O’Riley), and Broadway (Audra McDonald). He is also the first artist in the 75-year history of New York’s legendary Village Vanguard to play week-long engagements as a solo pianist. A noted activist, Hersch has produced and played on four benefit CDs for Classical Action/Broadway Cares. In 2011, he mounted My Coma Dreams, a critically-acclaimed full-evening multimedia work. www.fredhersch.com

Marva Hicks is an award-winning, versatile performing artist who has toured the world as a backing vocalist for Stevie Wonder, James Ingram, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson. She had her first record deal while she was still a student at Howard University. Her second deal, with Polygram Records, yielded the Top 10 R&B single, “Never Been in Love Before”. Marva’s first Broadway show was Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, after which she worked with Horne for more than two years. Subsequent stage work earned her the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical (Thunder Knocking on the Door). Marva has also appeared on Broadway in The Lion King and Caroline, or Change. Her regional credits include award-winning roles in the world premiere of The Women of Brewster Place and a jazz/blues adaptation of Porgy and Bess. She was recently commissioned by Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage, where she has appeared in five productions, to create and star in a solo musical piece about her life. www.marvahicks.com

Rupert Holmes was born in Cheshire, England. From what his father taught him about music and what his mother taught him about theatre and lyric writing, he was blessed by virtue of their gifts to have a career that has led to: three Tony Awards as a composer, playwright, and lyricist; three additional Tony nominations and five Drama Desk Awards, including Best Book for the musical Curtains; six Broadway shows and a dozen plays and musicals, including the Tony Award winner for Best Musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood; two award-winning mystery novels; two Edgar Awards from The Mystery Writers of America; the critically-acclaimed AMC TV series Remember WENN, which he created and wrote; Barbra Streisand’s platinum album Lazy Afternoon, which he wrote, arranged, and conducted; several contributions to the Golden Globe-winning score of A Star Is Born; the National Broadway Theatre Award (and a Tony nomination) for Best Play for Say Goodnight, Gracie; and Billboard top ten hits as a songwriter and singer. About joining The Broadway Lullaby Project, he says, “I did so in remembrance of my sensitive, wise and beautiful daughter, Wendy, whom I miss every second of my life, and to whom I sang lullabies for all of her ten brief years on this earth . . . and in support of this fine project, and all the heroic breast cancer survivors who have triumphed . . . and for my beloved mother, Gwen, who also bravely fought breast cancer, and left this life as she lived it: with courage, wit, and grace.”

Composer/lyricist/librettist Timothy Huang‘s musical, And the Earth Moved, was an official selection of the inaugural New York Musical Theater Festival’s Next Link Program, and a finalist for the National Music Theater Network’s New Voices Prize, both in 2004. His second full-length musical, The View from Here, garnered a Top 10 Cast Albums of 2006 acknowledgment from TalkinBroadway.com. Timothy’s other works include Death and Lucky (MacDowell fellowship), LINES: A Song Cycle (NYMF), Timothy Huang: Chinese or Crazy? (NYTB at the D-Lounge), Crossing Over (Prospect Theater, National Asian Artists’ Project), the shorts 2 to Wakefield and Changing Times (York Theatre), as well as Short Story Long: The Songs of Timothy Huang. Recent works include the short A Relative Relationship, and the full-length Costs of Living, which was a finalist for the 2011 American Harmony Prize. About joining The Broadway Lullaby Project, Timothy writes, “As an artist, there’s nothing more satisfying to me than eradicating something so wholly destructive with something so wholly creative.” www.timothyhuang.net

Dana Ivey has appeared on Broadway for over 30 years in productions such as The Importance of Being Earnest, Butley, Henry IV, The Rivals, Pack of Lies, Heartbreak House, Present Laughter, Sunday in the Park with George, Last Night of Ballyhoo, Indiscretions, Sex and Longing, Waiting in the Wings, Major Barbara, and The Marriage of Figaro. She has been nominated for five Tony Awards, and was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2008. Off-Broadway credits include originating the title role in Driving Miss Daisy, along with Mrs. Warren’s Profession, The Savannah Disputation, Hamlet, and countless others. Films include The Help, Sabrina, Ghost Town, Two Weeks’ Notice, Legally Blonde 2, The Addams Family, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Color Purple. Her television work includes Frasier, Law & Order, Sex and the City, and Boardwalk Empire. She says, “I was honored to participate in this project for several reasons: to be in such august company, to sing a new Sondheim song, and to remember my mother, who died of breast cancer.” www.danaivey.com

Performer/composer/lyricist Christopher Jackson won the 2011 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song for the Sesame Street song “What I Am”. In 2007, he won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance for the musical In the Heights, in which he played Benny. He has also performed in the Broadway productions of The Lion King and Memphis.

Brian d’Arcy James can currently be seen in the first season of the NBC/Dreamworks Studios TV show Smash, the HBO film Game Change, and the feature film Friends with Kids. He has been seen in a wide mix of plays and musicals on Broadway, such as Blood Brothers, Carousel, Titanic, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Apple Tree, Next to Normal, and Time Stands Still. Brian has received numerous awards and honors, including an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in the Broadway musical Sweet Smell of Success in 2002. He was also a 2009 Tony Award nominee for Best Actor in a Musical for his lead performance in Shrek the Musical, for which he also won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. www.briandarcyjames.com

In 2011, actress/singer Nikki M. James won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Nabulungi in The Book of Mormon. A native of New Jersey, she made her Broadway debut in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and has also appeared in New York City in House of Flowers, Bernarda Alba, Walmartopia, and All Shook Up. She played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Cleopatra opposite Christopher Plummer in Caesar and Cleopatra, both at Canada’s prestigious Stratford Festival, and starred as Dorothy in a revival of The Wiz at La Jolla Playhouse. Nikki has been seen on television on 30 Rock, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Third Watch, and The Jury. She holds a BFA in drama from NYU.

Brooklyn-born, New York City-based percussion artist Bashiri Johnson has added his highly sought-after style to a myriad of hit records, commercials, films, TV shows, games, and live performances across all musical genres. He has expanded his musical galaxy with his products, record label, productions, and songwriting; he also lectures, hosts seminars at his studio, and holds children’s workshops to inspire young people. Bashiri has performed or recorded with Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, Donald Fagen, Madonna, Steve Winwood, the Rolling Stones, Celine Dion, Rancid, Angélique Kidjo, Gloria Estefan, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand, The Spice Girls, Miles Davis, Mary J. Blige, Ray Charles, Jay-Z, Eric Clapton, Sade, Kenny G, Lionel Richie, Kenny Garrett, Aretha Franklin, Sting, Queen, Gypsy Kings, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock, Luther Vandross, and many other artists. www.bashirijohnson.com

Tom Kitt wrote the music to the Broadway hit next to normal for which he received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tony Awards, the 2009 Frederick Loewe Award for Dramatic Composition, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Score. Tom is responsible for the music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations for Green Day’s American Idiot on Broadway, as well as the show’s Grammy Award-winning cast album. He is also the composer of High Fidelity (Broadway), The Winter’s Tale and All’s Well That Ends Well (The Public Theater’s NYSF), From Up Here (MTC), The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons), and is the co-composer with Lin-Manuel Miranda for Bring It On, the Musical (National Tour). He is the proud leader of the Tom Kitt Band whose songs have been featured in film and on TV. Tom wrote “First Sonogram” for his unborn son Michael, “as an expression of the excitement and wonder I was experiencing as we were getting ready to bring him into the world.” He explains, “I can continue to show my children just how meaningful this world can be when I take part in projects like The Broadway Lullaby Project where courageous and passionate artists are coming together and truly making a difference in all of our lives.”

Henry Krieger, a native of New York City, is the composer of the acclaimed musical, Dreamgirls, which has been seen on Broadway, on film, and on stages around the world. For his work on Dreamgirls, he received a Tony Award nomination, three Academy Award nominations, and a Grammy Award; the soundtrack for the film version became a number-one bestselling album. He also wrote the scores for the Broadway musicals The Tap Dance Kid and Side Show, the latter earning him another Tony nomination. His other musicals includes Lucky Duck, a musical adaptation of The Ugly Duckling with lyrics by Bill Russell; Up in the Air, also with lyrics by Bill Russell; and the musical Romantic Poetry, on which he collaborated with John Patrick Shanley. www.henrykrieger.com

Marc Kudisch was most recently seen in Second Stage’s The Blue Flower and Lincoln Center Theatre’s A Minister’s Wife. He garnered critical acclaim as well as his third Tony Award and fourth Drama Desk Award nomination creating the role of Franklin Hart in the Broadway musical 9 to 5. He won a Helen Hayes Award for his performance in the Witches of Eastwick at the Signature Theatre. Marc was previously seen playing multiple roles in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of The Apple Tree, and as the Pirate King in New York City Opera’s revival of The Pirates of Penzance. He was also nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the role of Trevor Grayden in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and for the Tony and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his portrayal of Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. His additional Broadway performances include Assassins, Bells Are Ringing, The Wild Party, The Scarlet Pimpernel, High Society, Beauty and the Beast, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Audiences have also enjoyed Marc’s oft-nominated work Off-Broadway, in regional theatre, in opera, and in concert. www.marckudisch.net

Judy Kuhn has been nominated for three Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards for her work on Broadway in productions such as Rags, Les Misérables, Chess, and Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of She Loves Me. Additional Broadway performances include Two Shakespearean Actors, King David, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She has also performed Off-Broadway and around the country, including Passion at the Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Celebration, the U.S. premiere of Sunset Boulevard, Eli’s Comin’, the title role in The Ballad of Little Jo, Ricky Ian Gordon’s Sycamore Trees, and many more. Judy sang the title role in Disney’s hit film Pocahontas. She can also be seen on screen in My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies, In Performance At The White House, and more. Judy has performed on concert stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and The Royal Albert Hall in London. She can be heard on cast albums and solo CDs. About joining this project Judy says, “I know too many people who have battled breast cancer. I was thrilled to be offered the chance to do something that might in some small way help the fight against this disease. And it was fun!” www.judykuhn.net

Tony Kushner is the author of the critically-acclaimed play Angels in America (Parts One and Two) and others, among them A Bright Room Called Day, Homebody/Kabul, Caroline, or Change (a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori), and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. With Ms. Tesori, he also wrote the libretto for the opera A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck. Kushner has adapted and translated Pierre Corneille’s The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky’s The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Setzuan and Mother Courage and Her Children, and the English-language libretto for the opera Brundibár by Hans Krása. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’s film of Angels in America and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. His books include Brundibár, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Kushner has received a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy Award, and an Oscar nomination, among other honors. In 2008, he was the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.

Michael John LaChiusa is an acclaimed composer and lyricist of musical theatre and opera. His works include Hello Again, Marie Christine (Tony Award nomination), Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Tony Award nomination), and Bernarda Alba, all at Lincoln Center Theater; First Lady Suite, Broadway’s The Wild Party (Tony Award nomination) and See What I Wanna See (Drama Desk Award nominee), all at The Public; and, most recently, Queen of the Mist, seen Off-Broadway at The Transport Group. His latest musical, Giant, based on the Edna Furber novel, premiered at Signature Theatre in Virginia and is making its way to New York City. His opera work includes Bella, Belle of Byelorussia, Desert of Roses, From the Tower of the Moon, Tania, and Lovers and Friends (Chautauqua Variations). Michael’s work has also been featured at many cabaret and concert venues, including Joe’s Pub and Lincoln Center, and been recorded extensively, most notably by Audra McDonald, with whom he has had a long artistic collaboration. He currently teaches musical theatre writing at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

Hailed by All About Jazz as “a giant in the making,” virtuoso guitarist Julian Lage grew up in California and was the subject of an Academy Award-nominated documentary, Jules at Eight. He was a protégé of legendary vibraphonist Gary Burton, recording and touring with Burton on two projects: Generations (2004) and Next Generation (2005). Other recent high-profile sideman appearances include Lucky to Be Me and Let It Come to You, by longtime friend and close collaborator Taylor Eigsti. Having reunited with Gary Burton for live engagements beginning in 2010, Julian can also be heard as a member of the New Gary Burton Quartet on the CD Common Ground (featuring Scott Colley and Antonio Sánchez), which was named one of the Top Ten Jazz Records of 2011 by JazzTimes. As a leader, Julian has released two recordings on Universal Music: the Grammy-nominated Sounding Point (2009) and the highly-praised Gladwell (2011). www.julianlage.com

Genevieve LeRoy-Walton began her career as a very busy model, featured on several of Norman Rockwell’s iconic Saturday Night Post covers, before becoming a successful author whose work crosses many genres. She has published seven books for children and young adults, including Bridget, Emma’s Dilemma, Cold Feet, and Taxicat and Huey. She has also published four cookbooks with Anna Pump, including The Loaves & Fishes Cookbook, Country Weekend Entertaining, and Summer on a Plate. Her first play, Not Waving, starring Kyra Sedgwick and Sloane Shelton, premiered Off-Broadway at Primary Stages, and won the Carbonelle Award. Her second play, Missing Footage, has been seen at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre directed by Tony Walton (who also happens to be her husband) and at the Helen Hayes Theatre in Nyack, NY. Her television movies for Walt Disney Company include Leftovers and Rock ‘n’ Roll Mom, the latter starring Dyan Cannon. She spent two years as the staff cartoonist of the East Hampton Independent, and is a member of the Arts Council at the Nueva Center for Learning in San Francisco. She is also a proud mother, grandmother, and wife.

Betsy Lewin grew up in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Pratt Institute where she studied illustration, Betsy first designed greeting cards before she began to write and illustrate stories for children’s magazines. Her art is usually humorous, drawn in pen or brush with watercolor washes, as in Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (authored by Doreen Cronin), but she also paints in a naturalistic style as in Chubbo’s Pool (which Betsy also wrote). Gorilla Walk was Betsy’s first collaboration with her husband, Ted, and five more such collaborations followed. Many of Betsy’s books have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and she has garnered many awards, including a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators Original Art show for Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, and an Honor for the first-ever Ted Geisel Award given by the ALA, for the book she illustrated, Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa. www.betsylewin.com

Dan Lipton and David Rossmer are longtime collaborators whose original musical comedy, The Blonde Streak, is currently in development by Broadway Across America. Other projects include Matchbook (based on the bestselling memoir) for Araca Group, I Was a Teenage B-Movie King for producer A.J. Epstein, and the musical satire JOE! Their rock musical notes to MariAnne was seen at NY Stage and Film, the Eugene O’Neill Center (Holof Award for lyrics), and NAMT 2011. They’ve written original material for Kelli O’Hara (featured on her album Always) and Sutton Foster (heard at Joe’s Pub). Lipton and Rossmer co-created the Off-Broadway comedy improv hit Don’t Quit Your Night Job, and wrote music and lyrics for Rated P . . . for Parenthood at Off-Broadway’s Westside Theatre. www.trappedinamusical.com

Robert Lopez‘s first two Broadway musicals, Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon, have been critical and commercial smash hits, both winning the Tony Award for Best Musical. He also won two Tony Awards, for Best Original Score and Best Book, for The Book of Mormon alongside his collaborators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park). The Grammy Award-winning cast album for Mormon was the first in over 40 years to crack the top ten on the Billboard Pop chart. Robert also won a Tony Award for Best Score (with Jeff Marx) for Avenue Q, which has run on and off Broadway since 2003. With Kristen Anderson-Lopez, he co-wrote songs for Winnie the Pooh (Walt Disney Animation, 2011) and Finding Nemo: The Musical (Walt Disney World since 2006). Often writing for television, he shared two Emmy Awards for Music for Nickelodeon’s The Wonder Pets and an Emmy Award nomination for the musical episode of NBC’s Scrubs. Robert and Kristen live in Brooklyn with their two daughters, Katie and Annie. They wrote this lullaby for Katie shortly after her debut at Lenox Hill Hospital and contributed to The Broadway Lullaby Project because “it’s for a great cause, and it’s always wonderful to join in a project with so many other talented members of the community.”

Set designer Anna Louizos received Tony Award nominations for both In the Heights and High Fidelity. Other Broadway productions which, for many, she has designed in multiple cities and countries, include Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Curtains (which earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination), Avenue Q, Baby It’s You, All About Me, To Be or Not to Be, Steel Magnolias, and Golda’s Balcony. Her designs have been seen Off-Broadway in Sons of the Prophet, It Shoulda Been, Olive and the Bitter Herbs, In Transit, Vanities the Musical, Birdie Blue, Crimes of the Heart, The Foreigner, Speech and Debate, Based on a Totally True Story; Altar Boyz; and Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick… BOOM! Some regional productions include Disney’s Aladdin (5th Avenue Theatre); Arsenic and Old Lace (with Betty Buckley and Tovah Feldshuh) and Sarah Plain and Tall (both Dallas Theater Center); Minsky’s (Ahmanson); Disney Live! Winnie the Pooh (world tour). Anna has provided art direction for film and TV, including HBO’s Sex and the City and The Secret Lives of Dentists. About The Broadway Lullaby Project, she says, “If I can contribute something with my time and effort toward a worthy cause, then I am a happy participant. I hope this project touches many.” www.annalouizos.com

Rebecca Luker starred on Broadway in Mary Poppins, for which she received Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. She was also Tony Award-nominated for her performances as Marian in The Music Man, Magnolia in Showboat, and Lily in The Secret Garden. Her prolific Broadway career also includes Nine, The Sound of Music, and The Phantom of the Opera. Her many Off-Broadway performances include Indian Blood, Vagina Monologues, and Can’t Let Go, not to mention her regional theatre appearances. Rebecca has been seen on television and graced many concert stages across the country, including Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and with symphonies around the world. Her numerous recordings include: Greenwich Time, Leaving Home, Anything Goes, Rebecca Luker Sings Cole Porter, Aria, Aria 2: New Horizon, Aria 3: Metamorphosis, and more. She chose to be involved in The Broadway Lullaby Project because “we have to stamp out cancer in our lifetime, and projects like this help chip away at cancer’s devastating effects and give hope to people who are suffering.” www.rebeccaluker.com

Luke Kolbe Mannikus is ten years old and in the fourth grade. His first stage performance was a dance recital when he was three. He now holds the national title of “Little Mr. Dance Explosion 2010″. His first professional role was as Benji in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the Musical on Broadway. In March 2012 he appeared in The Music Man at the Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach, Florida. He’s happy to be part of the project because when he was a baby, his “Pop-Pop” died of cancer and he wishes he could have known him.

Born in New York City and a graduate of Yale University, Victor Mays served 28 years in the U.S. Naval Reserve, retiring as a captain. A freelance author and illustrator of magazines and children’s books from 1953–1978, he later devoted himself to painting maritime historical watercolors of U.S. and British shipping. Married for 54 years to the late Lynnabeth Olwin and father of three children, he lives on the Connecticut shore and still paints actively. Victor is a founding member of the American Society of Marine Artists. His celebrated paintings are in the collections of numerous museums, including the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Mystic Seaport Museum. Victor wished to contribute to The Broadway Lullaby Project in honor and loving memory of Jill Nicolette Izzi.

Emily Arnold McCully was born in Galesburg, Illinois, raised on Long Island, and graduated from Brown University. She has a Master of Arts degree in Art History from Columbia University. The author of two adult novels — one nominated for an American Book Award — and a sometime Equity actor, she has illustrated more than 200 children’s books since the mid-’60s. The first picture book she created entirely on her own was the wordless Picnic, for which she won a Christopher Award. For Mirette on the High Wire, she won the coveted Caldecott Medal and a place on the New York Times Best Illustrated List. Her book with Meindert DeJong, Journey from Peppermint Street, became the first children’s book to win the National Book Award. Over many years, she has dedicated herself to writing about brave girls and forgotten or under-appreciated women. www.emilyarnoldmccully.com

Audra McDonald is a four-time Tony Award winner for Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, and A Raisin in the Sun. She has also appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden, Marie Christine (Tony nomination), Henry IV, and 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination), and can currently be seen as Bess in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. The Juilliard-trained soprano’s opera credits include La Voix Humaine and Send (Who Are You? I Love You) at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at L.A. Opera. For the past four seasons she has played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice, and she has received Emmy nominations for the television films A Raisin in the Sun and Wit. Other TV credits include Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order: SVU, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years, and the 1999 remake of Annie. On film, she has appeared in She Got Problems, The Object of My Affection, Seven Servants, and Rampart, among others. A two-time Grammy Award winner, Audra has released four solo albums and maintains a major career as a concert and recording artist. Of all her many roles, her favorite is that of mother to Zoe Madeline. Audra’s mother is a breast cancer survivor, and the song is dedicated to Lovette George, her best friend, who died at a young age from ovarian cancer.

One of the most lyrical and intimate voices in contemporary jazz piano, Brad Mehldau has forged a path that embodies the essence of jazz exploration, classical romanticism, and pop allure. From critical acclaim as a bandleader to major international exposure in collaborations with Pat Metheny, Anne Sofie von Otter, Renée Fleming, and Joshua Redman, Mehldau continues to garner numerous awards and admiration from both jazz purists and music enthusiasts alike. His forays into melding musical idioms in both trio (with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums) and solo settings, has seen brilliant re-workings of songs from classic and contemporary repertoire, from Cole Porter and Gershwin to The Beatles, Radiohead, Paul Simon, and Nick Drake, alongside the ever-evolving breadth of his own significant catalogue of original compositions. www.bradmehldau.com

Marisa Michelson won a 2011 Jonathan Larson Award, and was the only woman to receive a 2009 American Musical Voices: The Next Generation Award from the Shen Family Foundation. Her musical theatre work includes book and music for Tamar and the River (Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA), Still Life with Toe Shoes (Old Deerfield Productions; Musical Theatre Society of Emerson College), Hotel Sarajevo (CAP 21, hotInk Festival, Smith College), The Lovers (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse; Prospect Theater Company), as well as her soon-to-come Scheherazade (commissioned with Jason Grote by Montclair University’s New Works Institute) and The Grid (winner of a 2012 NAMT Writer’s Residency at Millikin University). Marisa won the 2006 St. Botolph Award for Composition and a Global Arts Village Grant to study Hindustani singing in North India. Marisa joined The Broadway Lullaby Project because it “aims to support an end to the pain and suffering of breast cancer, through an effort that celebrates life, birth, warmth, care, and love.” She adds that “to be part of whole group of artists united in the same effort, feels inspiring.” www.marisamichelson.com

Award-winning illustrator Wendell Minor is nationally known for the artwork he has created for over 50 children’s books. He has collaborated with numerous authors, including Jean Craighead George, Charlotte Zolotow, and Robert Burleigh. His books with Mary Higgins Clark and astronaut Buzz Aldrin were New York Times bestsellers. In addition to children’s books, Wendell’s illustrations and designs have enhanced over 2,000 works by the likes of David McCullough and Pat Conroy, as well as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, to name but a few. Wendell Minor: Art for the Written Word, a retrospective of 25 years of his book cover art, was published in 1995. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues, including the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Bruce Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Boston Public Library, and the New Britain Museum of American Art. Wendell’s wife, Florence, lost her mother to breast cancer shortly after she was diagnosed in 1978. Sadly, she was but one of many family members and friends whose lives have been impacted by the terrible disease. Florence and Wendell both feel strongly about doing what they can to support research to find a cure, and organizations that provide support for those suffering from breast cancer. www.minorart.com

In addition to being an illustrator, Barry Moser is also a printer, painter, printmaker, designer, author, essayist, and teacher. The books he has illustrated and/or designed form a list of over 300 titles, including the Arion Press’s Moby-Dick and the University of California Press’s The Divine Comedy. Moser’s edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland won the National Book Award for Design and Illustration, and he has won a plethora of awards for even more illustrated books. Moser’s monumental work on the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible (1999) has been the subject of scores of articles in print, television, and radio, as well as the subject of a documentary film called A Thief Among the Angels. It was also featured in the only one-man exhibit ever to be mounted at the Library of National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC by a living artist. Mr. Moser has exhibited internationally in both one-man and group exhibits. His work is represented in numerous collections, museums, and libraries in the United States and abroad, including The National Gallery of Art in Washington, The Metropolitan Museum, The British Museum, The Vatican Library, and the Israel Museum, among many others. www.moser-pennyroyal.com

Donna Murphy continues to build a career of striking range and diversity in the theater, and on the large and small screens. Her extensive theatre work includes her Tony Award-winning performances in Stephen Sondheim’s Passion and The King and I, as well as her Tony-nominated performances in Wonderful Town (Drama League Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards), LoveMusik (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Awards), and The People in the Picture. Other theater credits include Helen (Drama League Award), James Lapine’s Twelve Dreams, Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello Again, and Song of Singapore (Drama Desk nominations), and the title role in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Ms. Murphy’s recent critically acclaimed performances on film include voicing Mother Gothel in Disney’s Tangled, Kathleen in Vera Farmiga’s Higher Ground, and Marie in Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse (US release 2012). Other film: Tony Gilroy’s Bourne Legacy (2012), The Nanny Diaries, World Trade Center, Spider Man 2, Star Trek: Insurrection, Center Stage; and television: Ugly Betty, Trust Me, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, CSI, Hack, and HBO’s Someone Had to Be Benny (Emmy, Cable Ace Awards). About The Broadway Lullaby Project, Ms. Murphy says, “It spoke to me as a mother, as a daughter, as an artist, and as someone who wants to join with others to make a difference.” www.donnamurphy.com

After working in comics for over 20 years, Jon J Muth children’s books have received numerous awards and critical acclaim. Stone Soup, a familiar tale that he set in China, won a National Parenting Book Award. The New York Times Book Review called Muth’s The Three Questions “quietly life-changing.” Books he has illustrated include Come On, Rain! written by Karen Hesse, which won the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators in 1999. Gershon’s Monster, written by Eric Kimmel, was an ALA Notable Children’s Book, winner of the Sydney Taylor Award, and a National Parenting Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. No Dogs Allowed, written by Sonia Manzano, was chosen as one of the Best Children’s Books of the Year by CHILD Magazine. Zen Shorts is a New York Times bestseller, as well as being a Quill Award nominee, and was awarded the 2006 Caldecott Honor. Kirkus Review said, “Every word and image comes to make as perfect a picture book as can be.” Hyperion published A Family of Poems, a collection of poetry that Muth illustrated for Caroline Kennedy, and they are currently preparing a second collection.

Christiane Noll starred on Broadway in the Kennedy Center revival of Ragtime, receiving Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations and winning a Helen Hayes Award. Her Broadway and national tour appearances include Urinetown (for which she won an Ovation Award), Jekyll & Hyde, and Miss Saigon, to name just a few. She is a frequent guest soloist with symphony orchestras around the world, including the National Symphony, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Boston Pops, Sinfônica Brasileira in Rio, and the China Philharmonic with concert pianist Lang Lang. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson, her Hollywood Bowl debut singing with Julie Andrews, and her opera debut with Plácido Domingo at the Kennedy Center. Christiane can be heard singing the role of Anna in the Warner Brothers animated feature of The King and I. She has made appearances with Town Hall’s Broadway by the Year and Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, and can be heard on many solo recordings. About The Broadway Lullaby Project, Christiane says, “I am the mother of a three-year-old daughter, and I am touched by the work and compassion behind the project.” www.christianenoll.com

Three-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara can currently be seen on Broadway in Nice Work If You Can Get It. She has starred as Nellie Forbush in the acclaimed revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theater, and appeared alongside Sam Waterston in the Public Theatre’s production of King Lear. Her many other Broadway credits include Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of The Pajama Game for which she earned Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations; The Light in the Piazza, for which she garnered Tony and Drama Desk nominations; and Sweet Smell of Success, to name just a few. Kelli has performed regionally and Off-Broadway in Sunday in the Park with George, My Life with Albertine, and as Ella Peterson in the Encores! Presentation of Bells Are Ringing at City Center. In addition to her critically-acclaimed performance in the New York Philharmonic production of My Fair Lady, Kelli’s concerts span from Carnegie Hall to Capitol Hill and everywhere in-between, most recently in the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Barbara Cook. Her film and television credits are numerous and she can be heard on many cast recordings. Her second solo album, Always, is currently available on Ghostlight Records. www.kelliohara.com

Laura Osnes was last seen on Broadway as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie & Clyde after originating the role at La Jolla Playhouse, where she garnered the San Diego Critics Circle Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. As Hope Harcourt in the Broadway revival of Anything Goes, she earned Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Award nominations. Playing Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theater’s production of South Pacific earned her Broadway.com’s Audience Award for Favorite Female Replacement. On NBC’s reality competition Grease: You’re the One That I Want, Laura won the role of Sandy in the Broadway revival of Grease. Her television appearances include the HBO pilot The Miraculous Year, Sondheim: The Birthday Concert, and the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Barbara Cook. Laura’s mother passed away from liver cancer this past summer, so this cause is very near and dear to her heart. “Mommy used to sing me to sleep all the time when I was little, and when she was sick this summer, I often sang to her. I know she still listens from Heaven and loves to hear me sing . . . so this is for her.”

With more than 25 years of diversified experience, both as a successful executive and a Grammy-nominated record producer, Matt Pierson has established himself as a true leader in the music industry. Pierson has produced over 80 recordings, including acoustic jazz classics (Joshua Redman’s MoodSwing, Brad Mehldau’s The Art of the Trio 1–5), contemporary jazz chart-toppers (Kirk Whalum’s Everything Is Everything: The Music of Donny Hathaway), and multi-artist soundtracks (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). His most recent productions include Nicole Henry’s Embraceable, Becca Stevens Band’s Weightless, and Sophie Milman’s recent acclaimed release, In the Moonlight. On the catalog front, he has produced more than 70 compilations and reissues for Blue Note, Rhino, Warner Bros., Mosaic, Apple/iTunes, and others that have sold in excess of three million units worldwide. www.mattpierson.net

Sean Qualls has created art for magazines, newspapers, advertisements, and children’s books. His work is a mixed-media combination of painting, drawing, and collage. Sean is the illustrator of Before John Was a Jazz Giant, which received the Coretta Scott King Honor award; The Baby on the Way (FSG), a New York Times Notable Book; Powerful Words (Scholastic); Poet Slave of Cuba (Henry Holt), a BCCB Blue Ribbon Book; and How We Are Smart (Lee & Low). His book Dizzy (Scholastic), about Dizzy Gillespie and written by Jonah Winter, won many honors including an ALA Notable Book, Kirkus Best Book, BCCB Blue Ribbon Book, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Booklist Editors’ Choice, Horn Book Magazine Fanfare Book, and a Child Magazine Best Book. Sean’s first book with Simon and Schuster was Little Cloud and Lady Wind (Spring 2010) by Toni and Slade Morrison. He lives with his wife, illustrator Selina Alko, and son in Brooklyn, New York. www.seanqualls.com

Harish Raghavan has played/toured with Taylor Eigsti, Ambrose Akinmusire, Eric Harland, Kurt Elling, Aaron Parks, Vijay Iyer, Logan Richardson, Dayna Stephens, Julian Lage, Gerald Clayton, Walter Smith III, and many others. At age eight, he began studying Western and Indian percussion, switching to the double-bass at 17. After a brief period, he was accepted at the University of Southern California, under the tutelage of John Clayton. While in Los Angeles, he also had the opportunity to study with Robert Hurst, among many others, and to record and play with many legendary West Coast musicians. In 2007, he moved to New York and has quickly become a rising star on his instrument.

Charles Randolph-Wright has a diversified career in directing, writing, and producing for film, television, and theatre. For the theatre, his directing credits include the record-breaking musical Sophisticated Ladies (starring Maurice Hines), the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined at Arena Stage, the international tour of the opera Porgy and Bess, Love/Life (starring Brian Stokes Mitchell) at Lincoln Center, Through the Night (starring Daniel Beaty), the national tour of Guys and Dolls, and They’re Playing Our Song (in Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro). Charles wrote the plays Blue (starring Phylicia Rashād), The Night Is a Child (starring JoBeth Williams), Cuttin’ Up, and co-wrote Just Between Friends (Bea Arthur) on Broadway. He directed the award-winning film Preaching to the Choir, and has written screenplays for HBO, Showtime, Disney, and Fox. Television credits include directing Lincoln Heights, South of Nowhere, the “Freestyle” soccer campaign for Nike, and producing and writing the series Linc’s. Charles has a three-year residency at Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute, and was the 2010 recipient of the Paul Robeson Award. About The Broadway Lullaby Project, he says, “Art is the salve that heals our wounds. I am thrilled to be part of this extraordinary project that heals and helps.” www.randolph-wright.com.

Cellist, composer, and vocalist Jody Redhage was called an “adventurous cello songstress” and “a fiery cellist” by Time Out New York. MusicWorks Magazine called her “a new music dynamo . . . Redhage is cultivating a growing repertoire of indie art song that breaches genre boundaries and makes for stirring listening.” Redhage holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of California, Berkeley. Her unique skills as a consummate musician have led her to participate in an array of cutting-edge, genre-defying projects, most recently as a member of 2010 Best New Artist Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding’s band, Chamber Music Society. The band recently returned from a 14-month tour of five continents, with performances at the world’s largest jazz festivals including the Montreal, North Sea (Rotterdam), Montreux (Switzerland), Cape Town (South Africa), and San Francisco Jazz Festivals. www.jodyredhage.com

Peter H. Reynolds is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator (The Dot, Ish, Sky Color, and The North Star) and co-founder of FableVision, an award-winning educational multimedia company co-located at the Boston Children’s Museum. Peter lives just outside Boston in historic Dedham, Massachusetts, where he also founded The Blue Bunny, a children’s book & toy shop. He immediately jumped at the chance to be a part of The Broadway Lullaby Project. “I love supporting stories that matter, stories that move. Move not only the emotional meter, but also move the audience to action — in this case, the search for a cure for breast cancer. Truly a story that matters!” www.peterhreynolds.com

Anika Noni Rose is a Tony Award-winning actress, earning that honor, a Theatre World Award, and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s musical Caroline, or Change. She was also seen on Broadway in Footloose and as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Her film work includes the role of Lorrell Robinson in the Academy Award-nominated film Dreamgirls with Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Jamie Foxx, and Eddie Murphy; and Yasmine in For Colored Girls. Anika provided the voice of Disney’s first African-American princess, Tiana, in the 2009 animated feature The Princess and the Frog, and was named a Disney Legend in 2011. On television, she starred in HBO’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and held a recurring role on CBS’s The Good Wife, among other appearances. Most recently, she was Sarah Tidwell in the TV mini-series Bag of Bones, based on the Stephen King novel, and has been a guest star on Private Practice. www.anikanonirose.com

Bill Russell received Tony Award nominations for the book and lyrics for Side Show and has written three other musicals with Henry Krieger: Lucky Duck (New Victory Theatre, NYC, March 2012), Up in the Air, and Kept (from which “Every Breath and Thought” is taken). Other book and lyric credits include Pageant, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (Theatre Le Ranelagh, Paris, March–June, 2012), The Last Smoker in America, Unexpected Joy, The Texas Chainsaw Musical, and Fourtune. He has directed productions in various venues in New York, London, and around America. Bill’s credits as a lyricist include the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, the official theme for the Gay Games, and songs for the women’s duo Jade and Sarsaparilla. His directing credits include John Augustine’s Generation X, the comedy team of Monteith and Rand, and Jeff Mandels’s And Somewhere Men Are Laughing. Bill has been honored with two Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Commendation Awards and honorary doctorates from both his first alma mater, Morningside College, and Boston Conservatory. Asked to join The Broadway Lullaby Project, Bill shares that “several friends have had breast cancer and, unfortunately, a couple have been lost to it.” www.billrussell.net

Actress/writer Sandy Rustin was most recently cast on HBO’s hit drama Boardwalk Empire and in Broadway’s Fat Pig. She wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Rated P . . . for Parenthood, which is based on her own experiences raising two children. Sandy appears regularly at The Upright Citizen’s Brigade in “Gravid Water” (named Best Improv Show by Time Out New York). Her many New York theatre credits include Modern Orthodox at New World Stages; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change at the Westside Theatre; Jolson & Company at the Century Center; Sarah, Plain and Tall at the Lucille Lortel Theatre; and Neil Simon’s Hotel Suite at Roundabout Theatre Company. She’s a player in Don’t Quit Your Night Job and an “undercover agent” for Improv Everywhere. Sandy has been seen on television in The Scariest Show on TV on Comedy Central, Law & Order: SVU, As the World Turns, All My Children, and Guiding Light. A graduate of Northwestern University, she is also the co-artistic director of Midtown Direct Rep in New Jersey. Sandy’s reaction to being asked to participate in the project: “Broadway? Lullabies? Great cause? Yes, please!” www.sandyrustin.com

Cellist Peter Sachon has performed all over the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has toured Europe and the U.S. with Pink Martini, and played for the Broadway shows Fiddler on the Roof, The Light in the Piazza, High Fidelity, Legally Blonde, and South Pacific. He’s also performed for the Donmar Warehouse productions of Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya at BAM. Mr. Sachon performs with Audra McDonald, Victoria Clark, Deborah Voigt, Rufus Wainwright, Dee Snider, Josh Groban, Judy Kuhn, and Billy Joel. He has participated in both the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and the Pacific Music Festival, where he was principal cellist. Mr. Sachon has performed with the Absolute Ensemble, SONOS Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra (Italy and U.S.), the Virginia Symphony, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. As a part of his concert series, The Cello Project, Mr. Sachon has premiered more than 30 new works for cello, all written for him by Broadway composers. His as-yet-untitled album of music from The Cello Project is currently being recorded, with plans for a Fall 2012 release. www.petersachon.com

Caesar Samayoa was most recently seen on Broadway in the critically-acclaimed productions of Sister Act and The Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway. His wide-ranging experience includes leading roles in film, TV, Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theatre companies around the country, such as La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Rep., Huntington Theatre, Les Freres Corbusier, Primary Stages, Urban Stages, The Play Company, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, and Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Mr. Samayoa has also appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and in various national and international concert tours. He explains, “I’m honored to be a part of a project that brings awareness and hope for a cure to a disease that has affected my family very personally. The incredible talent featured here has filled The Broadway Lullaby Project with such light and love and I am humbled to be one of its participants. I am overjoyed that this music will bring nothing but honor to survivors, tribute to our loved ones lost, and happiness and comfort to the millions who get lulled to sleep by one of these sweet sweet lullabies. Para mis familiares — nunca te olvidamos!” www.caesarsamayoa.com

Jill Santoriello is the award-winning author of the Broadway musical A Tale of Two Cities, which received nominations for three Drama Desk Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Musical. The sold-out world premiere at Florida’s Asolo Repertory won numerous awards, including Best Musical. In 2009, Jill wrote and executive produced the PBS special A Tale of Two Cities — In Concert and the show’s international studio cast recording. New stage productions of A Tale of Two Cities are scheduled for Korea, Germany, and Japan in 2012–2013. Jill is currently developing a musical, Outlander, based on the best-selling novel by Diana Gabaldon, and Pollyanna, based on the children’s classic. A self-taught musician who began composing in her early teens, Jill is an alumna of the distinguished BMI and ASCAP Musical Theater Workshops, and has received grants from the Arts Councils of Florida and New Jersey. Jill is proud to contribute to The Broadway Lullaby Project and be associated with the brave women, families, and medical professionals who are fighting the war on breast cancer. www.talemusical.com; www.jillsantoriello.com

Bassist, guitarist, singer Tony Scherr spent a couple of years on the road with the Woody Herman Band, landing in New York in the late 1980s. This led to a blizzard of bass gigs playing with many of New York’s finest jazz musicians, including Al Grey, Maria Schneider, Dakota Staton, John Scofield, Stanley Turrentine, and pianist Steve Kuhn. Tony has worked with the Bill Frisell Trio, Sex Mob, John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, Willie Nelson, Rickie Lee Jones, Ani DiFranco, Jason Collett, Rufus Wainwright, Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Jesse Harris, Richard Julian, Sasha Dobson, Shawn Colvin, The Abrams Brothers, Kevn Kinney, and Teddy Thompson, among others. He tours, records, and plays around town and can be heard on many albums, movie, and television scores. A Grammy-nominated producer, Tony has produced and engineered a diverse body of work that includes two records of his own music released on Smells Like Records: Come Around (2001) and Twist in the Wind (2008). He is also busy with his own band, the Tony Scherr Trio, singing original songs, performing steadily in the NY area, and touring the U.S., Canada, and Europe. www.tonyscherr.com

Stephen Schwartz‘s first musical was Godspell, for which he won several awards, including two Grammys, and which became one of the most-performed musicals in the world. On Broadway, he wrote the scores for the hit musicals Pippin and The Magic Show, adapted and directed a musical version of Studs Terkel’s Working, to which he also contributed four songs, and wrote the lyrics to “Rags”. His other musicals include The Baker’s Wife and Children of Eden. His most recent Broadway musical, Wicked, is currently in its ninth year, and is running in productions around the United States and the world. He collaborated with composer Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney films Pocahantas, for which he received two Academy Awards including Best Song for “Colors of the Wind” and a Grammy; The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Enchanted. He also provided songs for DreamWorks’ first animated film, The Prince of Egypt, for which he won an Oscar for the song “When You Believe”. His first opera, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, premiered in 2009 and was recently produced by New York City Opera. Mr. Schwartz has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into both the Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is President of the Dramatists Guild. www.stephenschwartz.com

John Patrick Shanley is from The Bronx. His plays include Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, Italian American Reconciliation, Welcome to the Moon, Four Dogs and a Bone, Cellini, Dirty Story, Defiance, and Pirate. For his play, Doubt, he received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize, among other honors. His theatrical work is performed extensively across the United States and around the world. Mr. Shanley has written nine films, including Five Corners (Special Jury Prize, Barcelona Film Festival); Alive; Joe Versus the Volcano, which he also directed; and Live from Baghdad for HBO (Emmy nomination). For his script of Moonstruck, he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Most recently, he wrote and directed the film adaptation of Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams, which was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. The Writers Guild of America awarded Mr. Shanley the 2009 Lifetime Achievement in Writing.

David Shire‘s Broadway musicals include Baby, which earned Tony Award nominations for Best Score and Best Musical, and Big, which was nominated for Best Score, both written with lyricist and longtime collaborator Richard Maltby, Jr. Off-Broadway productions include Starting Here, Starting Now, which earned a Grammy nomination; and Closer Than Ever, which garnered him Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Score, both also with Maltby. David’s most recent musical, Take Flight (with Maltby and John Weidman), has been produced internationally and at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre. His numerous television scores have garnered five Emmy nominations, and his many feature film scores include Norma Rae, for which he won the Academy Award; All the President’s Men; The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3; and Saturday Night Fever, for which he won two Grammy Awards and which became one of the bestselling soundtracks of all time. David Shire’s songs have been recorded by stars such as Barbra Streisand, Vanessa Williams, Johnny Mathis, Kiri Te Kanawa, and he had an international hit single, “With You I’m Born Again”, recorded by Billy Preston and Syreeta. Mr. Shire lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, actress Didi Conn, and their teenaged son, Daniel. Of The Broadway Lullaby Project, he says, “It is a great idea and the cause most worthy. I was honored to be asked and I always welcome an opportunity to write a new song.” www.davidshiremusic.com

Lucy Simon made her Broadway debut as the composer of The Secret Garden, which earned her nominations for both a Tony Award for Best Original Score and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. She also wrote songs for the Off-Broadway show A . . . My Name is Alice. Simon’s setting of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod has been recorded by many diverse artists, including The Doobie Brothers, Mitzie Collins, and The Big Three (Cass Elliot, Tim Rose, and James Hendricks). In the 1970s, Simon made two singer/songwriter-styled albums for RCA Records, the self-titled Lucy Simon, followed by Stolen Time. She composed the music for a musical version of the Russian novel Dr. Zhivago, with lyricists Michael Korie and Amy Powers, and book writer Michael Weller, which was produced at the La Jolla Playhouse and in Sydney, Australia. In 1981, Ms. Simon shared a Grammy Award with her husband, David Levine, in the Best Recording for Children category for In Harmony/A Sesame Street Record, and again in 1983 in the same category for In Harmony 2.

A three-time Caldecott Award winner, Marc Simont worked as a portrait painter, as a visual aids designer, and for magazines and advertising firms before becoming a children’s book illustrator in 1939. His lively interpretations earned him a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for The Happy Day by Ruth Kraus. He received the Caldecott Medal in 1957 for A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, and again in 2002 as author and illustrator of The Stray Dog. Simont has brought more than 100 books to life with his drawings and paintings, working with such diverse authors as James Thurber and Margaret Wise Brown. He also illustrated most of the Nate the Great books. In 1997, the Professional Association of Illustrators named him Illustrator of the Year. Marc Simont is also a political cartoonist. His own book, The Beautiful Planet: Ours to Lose, was published in 2010 and is an impassioned anti-war cartoon book. Internationally acclaimed for its grace, humor, and beauty, Marc Simont’s art is in collections as far afield as the Kijo Picture Book Village in Japan. He was chosen as the 1997 Illustrator of the Year in his native Catalonia and received the Hunter College James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism in 2008 as a “Cartoonist with a Conscience”. www.simontcartoons.com

Stephen Sondheim was born in 1930 in New York City. He won an Academy Award for the song “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)” from the 1990 movie Dick Tracy. He also wrote the score for Stavisky, and co-composed the score for Reds. He has won eight Tony Awards, for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963, Best Musical), Company (1971, Best Score, Best Lyrics), Follies (1972, Best Score), A Little Night Music (1973, Best Score), Sweeney Todd (1979, Best Score), Into the Woods (1988, Best Score), and Passion (1994, Best Score). In 2008, Sondheim was given a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. His eight Grammys include awards for Company, A Little Night Music (including a Song of the Year award for “Send in the Clowns” in 1975), Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Passion. The cast recording of the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story, for which Sondheim wrote the lyrics in 1957, won a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. He also wrote the lyrics for Gypsy. With James Lapine, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park with George. Aside from the theatre, he is a fan of puzzles and games, and in the late ’60s he created a series of cryptic crosswords for New York magazine. In 2010, the Stephen Sondheim Theatre opened in Manhattan’s Broadway theatre district.

Javaka Steptoe‘s debut work, In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African-Americans Celebrating Fathers, earned him the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, a nomination for Outstanding Children’s Literature Work at the 1998 NAACP Image Awards, a finalist ranking for the Bluebonnet Award for Excellence in Children’s Books, and countless other honors. His books, Do You Know What I’ll Do? authored by Charlotte Zolotow, and A Pocketful of Poems authored by Nikki Grimes, received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and the ALA Booklist. Hot Day on Abbott Avenue, written by Karen English, received the 2005 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. Steptoe is also the author/illustrator of The Jones Family Express. His most recent illustration projects include Rain Play by Cynthia Cotten, published in 2008, and Amiri and Odette: A Love Story by multi-award-winning author Walter Dean Myers. As both an artist and educator, Javaka challenges traditional notions of Black art, emphasizing the richness of our collective past through his use of family as a recurring theme and centerpiece. Steptoe explains, “I want my audience, no matter what their background, to be able to enter into my world and make connections with comparable experiences in their own lives.” www.javaka.com

Charles Strouse has written scores for more than 30 stage musicals, including 14 for Broadway. He won Tony Awards for the musicals Bye, Bye, Birdie; Applause; and Annie; and was nominated for many others, including Charlie and Algernon, Rags, and Nick & Nora. The cast recordings of these shows have won him two Grammy Awards. He has composed scores for five Hollywood films, including Bonnie and Clyde, The Night They Raided Minsky’s, and All Dogs Go to Heaven, as well as music for television, notably All in the Family‘s theme song, “Those Were the Days,” which launched every episode of the long-running show and won him two Emmy Awards. Strouse has written numerous orchestral works, chamber music, piano concertos, and an opera. He is a founder of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop in New York City, winner of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Awards for Lifetime Achievement, and is a member of both the Theater Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, the year he turned 80, Strouse published a memoir, Put On a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir. The following year, his latest musical, Minsky’s, based on the film, opened at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. www.charlesstrouse.com

Melissa Sweet has illustrated many award-winning children’s books including board books, nonfiction, and jacket covers. Her collages and paintings have appeared in the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, for eeBoo Toys, and on greeting cards, cookbooks, and posters. She has written and illustrated three books: Tupelo Rides the Rails; Carmine: A Little More Red, which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book in 2005; and her newest book, Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade. Melissa illustrated A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant, which was named a 2009 Caldecott Honor Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book, among other awards. When she is not in her studio, she can be found taking in an art class, hiking with her dogs, or riding her bicycle. She lives with her family in Rockport, Maine. Melissa joined The Broadway Lullaby Project to honor her friend, Cathy, “who conquered breast cancer with aplomb, and because the words Broadway and lullaby go so well together.” She says, “I dedicate this piece to the memory of my Dad.” www.melissasweet.net

Will Swenson currently stars on Broadway in the hit musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert. He earned Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for his performance as Berger in the Broadway revival of Hair. Previous Broadway appearances include 110 in the Shade, Lestat, and Brooklyn: the Musical. Off-Broadway, Will originated the role of Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages, appeared in Two Gentlemen of Verona for the Public Theatre, starred in Christopher Durang’s Adrift in Macao, and more. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, toured with Miss Saigon, among others, and has been seen on film and television in Gods Behaving Badly, The Switch, The Singles Ward, Law & Order, and more. Will wrote, directed, and starred in the film Sons of Provo, which won several film festivals. He has since directed Facing East, which premieres in 2012. Having lost his mother to cancer, Will understands “the world-shaking loss that the disease can bring.” He tries “to further the fight for a cure and to bring assistance to those who are suffering. I knew this was not only a way to contribute, but it was an honor to be asked to collaborate and be associated with such amazing artists.” www.willswenson.com

Pianist Kathleen Tagg enjoys a versatile international career as soloist, chamber musician, collaborative pianist, and music director. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Southern Africa, and India; has appeared on numerous recordings; and has been heard on WQXR, FMR, SAFM, SABC1, SABC3, and Zim Radio 3. She has also performed frequently at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, as well as cultural organizations across the country. Kathleen is a graduate of both the University of Cape Town and Mannes College of Music, and is the recipient of the Helen Cohn Award as the outstanding doctoral graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. She was a 2010 Stern Fellow for Songfest and is co-founder of the New York City-based ensemble SongFusion. Her musical, Erika’s Wall, co-written with Sophie Jaff, was produced by the Music Theatre Company of Chicago in 2010. www.kathleentagg.com

Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu are husband and wife, and have illustrated many books both in collaboration and separately. Cornelius studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Ying-Hwa studied at both Shih Chien College in Taipei, Taiwan, and at St. Cloud University in Minnesota. The couple lives in New York City with their daughter and son. They comment, “When we first heard of the project, we felt it was a very important and worthy cause. Learning of the breadth and depth of artists, writers, musicians, and organizers involved was icing on the cake.”

Neil Waldman‘s paintings and prints are included in many prestigious collections around the world, including the capitol buildings of more than a dozen nations. His works have garnered many awards and honors; notable among these is a gold medal from the United Nations where his artwork was selected as the official poster for the International Year of Peace. Waldman was commissioned by American Brands to paint the portraits of 20 famous Americans for “The American Achievers” collection, which traveled to museums, galleries, and exhibit halls around the country and was published in a book of the same name. He has designed postage stamps for 13 nations, written and illustrated more than 50 books for young people, and won numerous awards, including the Christopher Award, the American Library Association Notable Award, and a host of others. He has illustrated the covers of seven Newbery Medal winners. Waldman and his friend, Marc Broxmeyer, created the Fred Dolan Art Academy in the Bronx to provide motivated Bronx teenagers with the skills necessary for developing portfolios for entry into art college. He writes that, “It is a privilege and an honor to join the community of artists in this project, designed to help eradicate a deadly disease.” www.neilwaldman.com

Award-winning illustrator Nancy Elizabeth Wallace has a Master’s Degree in Child Development from the University of Connecticut and has worked with children throughout her career. She is also a self-taught artist and the author/illustrator of 25 picture books that encourage children and adults to be out in nature, to really look, to be filled with wonder, and to care about others and our environment. Her books are given to infants born at eight Connecticut hospitals through the literacy program “Books for Babies — Read to Grow”. Nancy lives in Branford, Connecticut, with her husband. She explains, “I worked with hospitalized children, from infants to adolescents, for many years and know the power of music, the arts, and play in healing. I also co-led support groups for the siblings of children with cancer. And no life goes untouched by cancer. Family members have experienced cancer; three dear friends are breast cancer survivors. I am honored and thrilled to be a teeny part of The Broadway Lullaby Project! It is inspiring and full of heart!” www.nancyelizabethwallace.com

Tony Walton is a director and designer for stage, film, and television. He’s been honored with 16 Tony Award nominations for his Broadway sets and/or costumes, winning three for his scenic designs for Pippin, The House of Blue Leaves, and Guys and Dolls. Among his 20 films, his designs for Mary Poppins, The Boy Friend, The Wiz, and Murder on the Orient Express each earned him Academy Award nominations, and he won for All That Jazz. He also won an Emmy Award for the television production of Death of a Salesman. Lately Tony has been directing — and frequently designing — many acclaimed productions of Shaw, Wilde, and Coward (plus new plays and musicals) at the Irish Repertory Theatre, Irish Arts Center, San Diego’s Old Globe, York Theatre NYC, and Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theatre, among others. He directed last summer’s celebrated production of Equus for East Hampton’s Guild Hall, starring the remarkable Alec Baldwin. He has illustrated over 20 books — 13 of them for his daughter, Emma, and her mother, Julie Andrews. In the 1990s, Tony was elected to both the Interior Decorators and the Theatre Halls of Fame. About The Broadway Lullaby Project, he says, “Having had my own dark adventure with cancer recently, this clearly invaluable project rang extra-specially strong bells with me.”

David Wilk, President and Publisher of Easton Studio Press, is also the founder of Booktrix.com, which provides a range of publishing services to businesses, nonprofits and authors. He has been an editor, publisher, distributor, packager and marketing consultant, and has worked closely with hundreds of publishers in sales, business development, marketing and author relations. He now helps independent publishers and authors publish and distribute their books, specializing in digital publishing and marketing. He podcasts interviews with writers and others at writerscast.com. David lives in Connecticut with his family.

Vanessa Williams is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers in the entertainment industry today. Having sold over 20 million albums worldwide, she is one of just a handful of artists to score number one and top ten hits on Billboard‘s Album and Singles charts in the areas of Pop, Dance, R&B, Adult Contemporary, Holiday, Latin, Gospel, and Jazz; the latter is where her latest Concord Records release, The Real Thing, debuted at #1 in June 2009. Her critically-acclaimed work in film, television, recordings, and the Broadway stage has been recognized by every major industry award affiliation, including four Emmy nominations, 17 Grammy nominations (of which 11 were for her individually), one Tony nomination, three SAG Award nominations, and six NAACP Image Awards; she ultimately won a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and an Academy Award for Best Original Song for her platinum hit single “Colors of the Wind” from the Disney film Pocahontas. Vanessa also achieved a career pinnacle when she was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is the mother of four (Melanie, Jillian, Devin & Sasha) and divides her time between homes in Los Angeles and New York. Her charitable endeavors are many and varied, embracing and supporting the Special Olympics and several others. www.vanessawilliams.com

BD Wong gained critical acclaim for his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly opposite John Lithgow, for which he won multiple awards. He is notable as the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. Wong returned to Broadway as Linus in a revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and starred in the 2004 revival of Stephen Sondheim‘s Pacific Overtures. He also starred in the one-man show Herringbone, in which he portrays 11 roles, at the McCarter Theatre and the La Jolla Playhouse. For ten years, he starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as FBI psychiatrist Dr. George Huang, and can currently be seen on the new series Awake. Wong has appeared in numerous feature films including The Freshman, the remake of Father of the Bride and its sequel, Jurassic Park, Executive Decision, and more. He provided the voice of Captain Shang in Disney’s Mulan and its sequel. In 2003, Wong wrote a memoir about his experiences with surrogacy titled Following Foo: the Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man. www.bdwong.com

Sara Wordsworth is a New York City-based lyricist, librettist, performer, and coach. Her work has been nominated for multiple Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Lucille Lortel Awards, including a 2011 Drama Desk nomination for Best Book of a Musical for the critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway a cappella musical In Transit. Other musical theatre writing credits include High School Confidential and the upcoming NYC premiere of an original family musical for Making Books Sing. Sara has also written book and theatre/cabaret/pop lyrics for Primary Stages, York Theatre, NYC Fringe, NYMF, DC’s Theater Alliance, WA’s Key City Public, Dillon’s, Caroline’s on Broadway, the Duplex, Yale, NYU, UC Irvine, University of Texas, the Algonquin Salon, and many more. About The Broadway Lullaby Project, Sara explains, “I have been personally touched by numerous family members and dear loved ones in their heroic battles against breast cancer. It is simply magical any time the Broadway community comes together to raise funds and awareness through song, and it is an honor and privilege to be involved. For Irene, Jane & Faith.” www.sarawordsworth.com

Maury Yeston is an internationally-acclaimed composer and lyricist whose work includes the Broadway musicals Nine, Titanic (both of which earned him Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Musical, as well as Grammy nominations), and Grand Hotel (Tony nomination, Olivier Award). The Broadway revival of Nine, starring Antonio Banderas, won an additional Tony Award for Best Revival. Yeston received Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice nominations for Best Original Song (“Take It All”) for the film adaptation of Nine, which featured Daniel Day Lewis, Sophia Loren, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, and Dame Judi Dench. His other musicals seen Off-Broadway and regionally include Phantom, Death Takes a Holiday, and In the Beginning. His symphonic Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts premiered in Kansas City, Missouri, and is the first full-length ballet created by an American composer and choreographer that is based on an American literary masterpiece. Yeston’s song cycle, December Songs, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall; his American Cantata, by the Kennedy Center (premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin). His Cello Concerto was premiered by Yo Yo Ma, and the concept album Goya — A Life in Song was written for Plácido Domingo. Yeston has a PhD from Yale and has held the post of Kayden Visiting Artist at Harvard; he is also the author of a groundbreaking text on the theory of rhythm. He joined The Broadway Lullaby Project as a tribute to his mother’s extraordinary courage in battling and surviving breast cancer. He resides in New York City. www.mauryyeston.com

Gary Zamchick‘s drawings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, and Business Week. He is the illustrator of Henry Beard’s best-selling French for Cats humor book series and contributor to Marlo Thomas’s Free to Be a Family. As an experienced designer, he uses drawings to design exhibits for the Walt Disney Family Museum, innovation labs for Coca-Cola, communication services for AT&T, educational environments for NYU, parades for Disney World, and retail experiences for Home Depot. Gary joined The Broadway Lullaby Project because “my kids are Broadway geeks and wouldn’t forgive me if I turned down this opportunity. My daughter, Sofie, has been the voice of Linny the Guinea Pig for eight years and worked with Bobby Lopez on his episodes for the Wonder Pets. I’m pleased that I’ve been able to bring his lullaby to life!” www.zamchickgroup.com

Paul O. Zelinsky‘s illustrations have won wide acclaim and many awards, including the Caldecott Medal for his retelling of Rapunzel and three Caldecott Honors for Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Swamp Angel. The latter’s 2010 sequel, Dust Devil, was a New York Times Notable Book, and he was the recipient of New York Times Best Illustrated Book Awards in 1981, 1985, 1994, 2001, and 2002. Zelinsky is known for the variability of style and genre in his books, which range from classical fairy tales to the much-loved movable book The Wheels on the Bus to illustrations for children’s novels, such as Beverly Cleary’s Newbery Medal-winning Dear Mr. Henshaw and the popular Toy trilogy by Emily Jenkins. Paul and his wife live in Brooklyn, New York, and have two grown daughters. About his participation in The Broadway Lullaby Project, he says, “I have a great admiration for theatre and I like theatrical music. But mostly I am happy to do what I can to fight breast cancer. My wife is a ten-year survivor of this disease; I know that it is a less hopeless diagnosis than it was many years ago, but it is still a terrible epidemic whose cure is important to pursue.” www.paulozelinsky.com