Hello!
Ed is the primary force behind SAJE. His professional singing career began in 1992, and has taken him to dozens of countries around the world. He’s been a feature soloist at venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kimmel Center, The Academy of Music, St Stephens Cathedral - Vienna, Fortress Hohensalzburg, and the United Nations Building. He’s played jazz in venues from Nassau to the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center. He’s been the guest of the Archbishop of Austria, the Romanian Ambassador to the US, and the Mayor of Brno in the Czech Republic to name a few, and is also a soloist on nearly a dozen albums from Beethoven to Bach, and Brahms on major recording labels. And this is just the classical side of Ed’s music.
His love of Broadway, Jazz, Blues, Sacred, Folk, and Bluegrass music styles is equally strong. In fact, while he credits one teacher in particular, Richard Johnson of Bryn Mawr, PA with corralling and building his vocal skills, he credits his “second home” in the hills of Slainesville, WV with cultivating the core of his musical soul. All of this is added to his love of hymns and over 30 year career as a church musician. He moves easily from German Lieder to "Almost Heaven” to the theme from the “Love Boat”, and right into “Ain’t No Sunshine”. (Yes, he really did those in that order, and people LOVED it). His voice and performances have been hailed by scores of newspapers as everything from “...Deep, Rich and Powerful” (News Journal) to “...a hysterical blend of Holloway and Gleason.” (O.C. Sentinel).
He has a passion for live creativity and a deep understanding of Jazz chord structure and style which lets his music take him wherever the spirit leads in any moment—sometimes to the chagrin of his choir! One of his favorite things to do in performance is an intentional live improv of a song or hymn called out by the audience. They are never the same twice. He’s had a full musical theater career as well; performing in or conducting many dozens of shows. In all, he has performed well over 100 roles and easily over one thousand performances to hundreds of thousands of listeners, but his concerts never become “performative”. He connects to each audience, and tells stories like he would in your living room. His concerts are sometimes funny, sometimes informative, sometimes sentimental, but always incredible.