Maude Amber McAfee-Maggart (born February 24, 1975) is an American

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

singer and recording artist who performs throughout the United States and Europe, but most often in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.Q&A: Fiona Apple’s Sister Sings Her Own Tunes
from

MSNBC.com MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

Biography

Maggart was born in New York City to

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

veterans Brandon Maggart and Diane McAfee and is the sister of singer/songwriter

Fiona Apple Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She has released five albums from 1996 to 2020, which have all reached the top 20 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart. Apple has received numerous awards an ...

. Growing up going by the name Amber, she changed her stage name at the age of 20 to Maude, after her paternal great-grandmother, Maude Apple. Maggart's brother,

Garett Maggart Garett Maggart (born May 24, 1969) is an American actor. He is the son of fellow actor Brandon Maggart and half brother of singers Fiona Apple and Maude Maggart. He and his wife, Cynthia, have one son. Filmography Film Television ...

, starred in the TV series '' The Sentinel''. In addition, her maternal grandparents were Millicent Greene, a dancer with the

George White's Scandals ''George White's Scandals'' were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modeled after the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W. C. Fie ...

, a series of 1920s musical

revues A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

similar to the

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...

, and Johnny McAfee, a

multireedist A multireedist is a musician capable of performing on more than one reed instrument. Many reed instruments are similar enough that if a musician plays one, they are expected to be able to play the other. Examples of this are the oboe and Engli ...

and vocalist of the

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

era. Her grandparents met while touring with

Johnny Hamp Johnnie Hamp (sometimes referred to as John Hamp, or Johnny Hamp) is a British television producer, now retired. He is responsible for the early British television appearances of such acts as the Beatles, Burt Bacharach, Cannon and Ball, Paul Dan ...

and his Orchestra. She went to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, in

. Her 2001 cabaret debut in Los Angeles prompted critic Les Traub to write that she is "destined to become a major cabaret star." She has been described as a "strikingly beautiful and poised performer," and has been widely praised for her vocal talent, her intelligent, emotional, witty interpretations, as well as for her taste in song selection primarily from the American popular song book featuring the works of

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russi ...

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over ...

Harold Arlen Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallich ...

Vernon Duke Vernon Duke ( 16 January 1969) was a Russian-born American composer/songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940), "I Can't ...

, and

Rodgers and Hart Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart ...

. She has paid vocal tribute in her concerts to such popular singers and predecessors as

Helen Morgan Helen Morgan may refer to: *Helen Morgan (singer) Helen Morgan (née Riggins; August 2, 1900 – October 9, 1941) was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in ...

Annette Hanshaw Catherine Annette Hanshaw (October 18, 1901 – March 13, 1985) was an American Jazz Age singer. She was one of the most popular radio stars of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Over four million of her records had been sold by 1934. In her ten-y ...

Ruth Etting Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes ...

Alice Faye Alice Faye (born Alice Jeanne Leppert; May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as ''On the Avenue'' (1937) and ''Alexander's Ragtime B ...

Helen Forrest Helen Forrest (born Helen Fogel, April 12, 1917 – July 11, 1999) was an American singer of traditional pop and swing music. She served as the "girl singer" for three of the most popular big bands of the Swing Era (Artie Shaw, Benny Goodm ...

and lyricist

Marshall Barer Marshall Barer (born Marshall Louis Barer; February 19, 1923 in Astoria, Queens – August 25, 1998 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was a lyricist, librettist, singer, songwriter and director. Early career Barer began his career as a lyricist and songw ...

. Her 2006 concerts have featured established standards as well as exquisite renditions of songs by

Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...

and

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

. Her first album ''

Look For the Silver Lining "Look for the Silver Lining" is a 1919 popular song with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by B.G. DeSylva. Background The song was written in 1919 for the unsuccessful musical ''Zip, Goes a Million''. In 1920, it was publishedSuskin, Steven ...

'' focuses on songs of the 1920s. The selections on her second album, '' With Sweet Despair'', range in era and style. Her third album features a repertoire of standards and is titled '' Maude Maggart Sings Irving Berlin'', which included "

When I Lost You "When I Lost You" is a song with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It was written in 1912 after his wife of five months, the former Dorothy Goetz, died of typhoid fever. In it he poured out the grief of his loss; it was the only song that he e ...

," Maggart's rendition of which is featured in the movie ''

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

''. In 2007 she released '' Maude Maggart Live''. Her latest recording is a collaboration with

Brent Spiner Brent Jay Spiner (; born February 2, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the android Data on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', as well as four subsequent films. In 2019, he reprised the role for ...

, entitled '' Dreamland''. Embraced as a protégée and colleague of such other performers as

Michael Feinstein Michael Jay Feinstein (born September 7, 1956) is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an archivist and interpreter for the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for cele ...

and

Andrea Marcovicci Andrea Louisa Marcovicci ( ro, Marcovici; born November 18, 1948) is an American actress and singer. Life and career Marcovicci was born in Manhattan, to Helen Stuart, a singer, and Eugen Marcovicci, a physician and internist of Romanian descen ...

, she has been profiled on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and ''

Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...

'' and has appeared on such shows as ''

Prairie Home Companion Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

''. In 2005, she received the Backstage Ira Eaker Award, The

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

for Outstanding Achievement in Cabaret and the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (M.A.C.) award for Best Female Debut. She has performed regularly at the Oak Room of the

Algonquin Hotel The Algonquin Hotel is a hotel at 59 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 181-room hotel, opened in 1902, was designed by architect Goldwin Starrett for the Puritan Realty Company. The hotel has hosted numer ...

in New York, the Gardenia in Hollywood and the Plush Room in San Francisco.

Discography

Albums

*''Maude Maggart Sings 1920's Broadway'' (2002) *''Look for the Silver Lining'' (2003) *''With Sweet Despair'' (2005) *''Maude Maggart Sings Irving Berlin'' (2005) *''Maude Maggart Live'' (2007) *'' Dreamland'' (2008) with

*''Here Come The Dreamers'' (2017) limited edition release - only 100 copies (CDs) pressed

Cabaret shows

Each Maude Maggart show has a theme running through the show. The songs are put together to tell a story from the beginning of the evening to the end. * ''Shaking the Blues Away: A 1920s Cabaret'' (2003/4) * ''Irving Berlin: The Songs of Irving Berlin'' (2006/7) * ''Good Girl Bad Girl,'' explores the emotional complexities of songs written for both naughty and nice, and others open to interpretation (2007/8). * ''Speaking of Dreams,'' love and dreams are connected in song (2008/9). * ''Parents and Children'' (2009/10) * ''Three Little Words,'' songs with three-word titles (2010). * ''Everybody's Doin' It'' (2011) * ''Into the Garden,'' inspired by the recent centenary of the

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

(2012). * ''The Door Opened'' with John Boswell on piano (2014) * ''Music That Lasts: Maude Maggart and the American Songbook,'' as part of the

Chicago Humanities Festival The Chicago Humanities Festival is a non-profit organization which hosts an annual series of lectures, concerts, and films in Chicago. There are two seasons each year, including a spring festival from April through May, and a longer fall festival ...

, view th
entire concert
(May 4, 2019).

Other notable appearances

* "Pale September", backing vocals on

's 1996 album ''Tidal'' * "The Very Thought of You / When I Fall on Love", a duet with Tim Draxl on his 2001 album ''Insongniac'' * "Moonlight", "I'm Outta Here" and "Please, Don't Let It Be Love" with

Ray Jessel Raymond Jessel (16 October 1929 – 17 July 2015) was a Welsh songwriter, screenwriter, orchestrator, and musical theatre composer. Born in Cardiff, he moved to Canada in 1955 and started a career as an orchestrator and composer for CBC Radio ...

on his 2003 album ''The First Seventy Years'' * "The Bends" (backing vocals) with

Christine Lavin Christine Lavin (born January 2, 1952) is a New York City-based singer-songwriter and promoter of contemporary folk music. She has recorded numerous solo albums, and has also recorded with other female folk artists under the name Four Bitchin ...

on her 2005 album ''Folkzinger'' * "Baby", a duet with John Lithgow on his 2006 album ''The Sunny Side of the Street'' * "My Ship", "The River Is So Blue", "Buddy on the Nightshift" with

& vocal ensemble on her 2007 album ''Kurt Weill in America'' * ''Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me,'' Television special, 2009 (Turner). On the associated album 'Clint Eastwood Presents: Johnny Mercer "The Dream's On Me" - A Celebration of His Music', Maude sings "Skylark" with Jamie Cullum * "Finding Words for Spring" with Ray Jessel on his 2009 album ''Naughty or Nice'' * "Find Your Song", "Not the Star You Thought I'd Be" with David Lucky on his 2011 album ''Kill 'em with Kindness'' * ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (NPR) *

's '' The Idler Wheel...'' on the track "Hot Knife" (2012) * "Hushabye Mountain", "Sing for Your Supper", "Save Your Sorrow / Look for the Silver Lining", "Ready for the River", "Was That the Human Thing to Do?" as guest vocalist on the Molly Ryan album ''Swing for Your Supper'' (2013) * "I'm in the Middle of a Riddle" with Fiona Apple on the Starbucks-sponsored album '' Sweetheart 2014'' (2014) * "The Poor People of Paris" with Howard Alden on the 2016 album ''Trip the Light Fantastic'' by Swami Júnior, Manu Lafer & Howard Alden * Guest vocals on all but one track on the 2017 album ''The Word'' by Manu Lafer * "Newspaper" (as Maude Maggart) and "Ladies" (as Amber Maggart - her real name) from Fiona Apple's 2020 album "Fetch the Bolt Cutters", credited as background vocals * "While There Is Still Time" - honouring frontline medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic (music by Michele Brourman, lyrics by Hillary Rollins) (April 2020)Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine

References

External links

*
NPR interview with Maggart
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maggart, Maude 1975 births Living people Bennington College alumni Singers from New York City Torch singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers