Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, Michael Bolton Saturday, June 7th 8PM

LEHMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS presents

Songs of Time, Love & Tenderness

MICHAEL BOLTON

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is proud to present the debut performance of the multi-Grammy Award winning Singer and Songwriter MICHAEL BOLTON on Saturday, June 7^th, 2014 at 8pm.  Experience an unforgettable evening as the internationally renowned vocalist who has sold over 53 million albums and singles worldwide performs his blockbuster hits like “When A Man loves a Woman”, “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You”, “Georgia On My Mind”, “Go the Distance” and his poignant homage to Luciano Parvarotti, “Nessun Dorma”.

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is on the campus of Lehman College/CUNY at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468. Tickets for MICHAEL BOLTON on Saturday, June 7^th, 2014 at 8pm are$125, $100, $85, and $65, and can be purchased by calling the Lehman Center box office at 718-960-8833 (Monday through Friday, 10am–5pm, and beginning at 12 noon on the day of the concert), or through online access at www.LehmanCenter.org.  Lehman Center is accessible by #4 or D train to Bedford Park Blvd. and is off the Saw Mill River Parkway and the Major Deegan Expressway. Low-cost on-site parking available for $5. This concert is also part of the 2014 Blue Note Jazz Festival.

A special Preconcert Benefit Reception will be held in Lehman Center’s lobby from 6 to 7:30pm with a performance by the accomplished jazz pianist Chris Gillespie. Presented by Max Tucci, Brie Bythewood, Milton Santiago, Eva Bornstein, Lehman Center’s Concert Committee and the Board of Directors, the benefit reception will feature food and wine from The Original Arthur Avenue Italian Deli, Mike’s Deli, who has been serving the Bronx since 1948.

MICHAEL BOLTON, known for his soulful voice, poignant lyrics and timeless style, was born Michael Bolotin in 1953 in New Haven, Connecticut. He picked up the saxophone at age seven and began singing and playing to the songs of his older brother’s record collection of popular soul and R&B greats which included Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. Michael started writing songs when he was 12 and by the time he was 14, he had taught himself the guitar. Bolton spent much of the 1970’s playing in a heavy metal rock band called the Nomads and writing jingles for  companies like Dr. Pepper and “Be All You Can Be” for the U. S. Army. 

In 1983 he changed his last name to Bolton and released his self-titled debut album – on Columbia Records – which went gold and reached 89 on the Billboard chart. That same year was also a turning point for Bolton as a songwriter, when “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” which he co-wrote with Doug James, was recorded by Laura Branigan and blasted to the top of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, holding that position for three weeks. Choosing to save his hard rock songs for his own recordings, he was soon earning more income as a songwriter than as a recording artist, writing pop ballads for superstars like Kenny Rogers (“Just the Thought of Losing You”), Barbra Streisand (“We’re Not Makin’ Love Anymore”), Joe Cocker (“Living Without Your Love”), KISS (“Forever”), Kenny G (“By the Time This Night is Over”), and Cher (“I Found Someone”). When his 1985 rock album Everybody’s Crazy went nowhere, his musical direction became clear, especially when his 1987 romantic ballad “That’s What Love Is All About” rocked to the top of the singles chart. His next single, a cover of the Otis Redding classic “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” charted at number 11, and both appeared on his next album The Hunger, which went double platinum. He followed up with 1989’s six-times platinum albumSoul Provider which featured the hit songs “How Can We Be Lovers?”, “Georgia On My Mind” and “When I’m Back on My Feet Again” as well as his own cover of his song “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” which once again became a number one selling single and earned Bolton his first Grammy Award, for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Having found his niche with a new audience that was more mature and decidedly female, Michael began to concentrate on ballads and soul standards. Time, Love and Tenderness, released in April 1991, was even more successful, spawning  four Top-40 hits including his Grammy Award winning cover of Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman” that made it to number one, “Missing You Now” with Kenny G, also a #1 hit, “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” (#4) and “Time, Love and Tenderness” (#7). Now a certified super-star, he recorded Timeless: The Classics in 1992, also a number one selling album that was made up entirely of classic cover songs, two of which charted in the top ten: “To Love Somebody” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There”. With the 1993 release of The One Thing, an album of original material containing the smash hits “Said I Loved You…But I Lied” and “Completely”, Bolton had sold more than 25 million albums worldwide.

Michael Bolton continues to tour the world every year, all the while writing, recording and taping for a wide variety of projects spanning music, film, television and theater. In addition to his Grammy awards, he has won 6 American Music Awards, 24 BMI & ASCAP Awards, 9 Million-Air Awards, the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame Hitmakers Award and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.