Valerie "Val" Vigoda is an American electric violinist and singer-songwriter. She is best known for writing and starring in musicals including ''

Striking 12 ''Striking 12'' is the music group GrooveLily's off-Broadway holiday musical, based in part on Hans Christian Andersen's 1845 story "The Little Match Girl". The cast recording was released in 2004 by PS Classics PS Classics is a record labe ...

'' and ''

Ernest Shackleton Loves Me Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor *Ernest, M ...

'', the latter of which opened Off-Broadway in 2017, touring internationally with

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

, Joe Jackson, and the

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is an American rock band founded in 1996 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill, who brought together Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli (both members of Savatage) and keyboardist and co-producer Robert Kinkel to ...

, and for her one-woman concert "Just Getting Good" which has toured nationally.

Early life and influences

Vigoda was admitted to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

at the age of 14, withdrawing after one year to complete her classical violin training. She returned after a few years, graduating with honors and a degree in sociology.

Career

Vigoda founded the musical trio

GrooveLily GrooveLily is an American musical trio based in New York CityPhil Gallo, March 6, 2008, Variety‘Toy Story’ musical debuts at sea Accessed Sep 13, 2013 notable for creative songwriting in different pop genres, such as rock, folk, jazz, and show t ...

in 1994, originally naming it The Valerie Vigoda Band, along with Brendan Milburn and Gene Lewin. Vigoda has a

one-woman show A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show or one-woman show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including auto ...

Just Getting Good in which she both sings and plays the six-string

electric violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

while utilizing live-looping. Her work has received positive feedback, with

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 ...

calling it "exhilarating",

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

describing it as "a thrilling trip",

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

praising Vigoda for "unleashing a diva-worthy torrent of passion", and

Palo Alto Weekly The ''Palo Alto Weekly'' is a weekly community newspaper in Palo Alto in the U.S. state of California. Owned by Embarcadero Media, it serves Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Stanford, East Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills. It was e ...

crediting her as "truly amazing, an awesome vision of embodied musicality, moving as one with her violin, making it sing and singing along with it in a voice both smoky and angelic." She is the lyricist and star of the musical ''

'', which has been produced at Emerson,

George Street Playhouse George Street Playhouse is a theater company in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the city's Civic Square government and theater district. It's one of the state's preeminent professional theaters committed to the production of new and established ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, and

Seattle Repertory Seattle Repertory Theatre (familiarly known as "The Rep") is a major regional theatre located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget Sound Beautiful Poison Beautiful, an adjective used to describe things as possessing beauty, may refer to: Film and theater * ''Beautiful'' (2000 film), an American film directed by Sally Field * ''Beautiful'' (2008 film), a South Korean film directed by Juhn Jai-h ...

'', ''

Sleeping Beauty Wakes ''Sleeping Beauty Wakes'' is a musical with book by Rachel Sheinkin, who won a Tony Award for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and a pop score by composer Brendan Milburn and lyricist Valerie Vigoda, two members of the indie music trio ...

'', ''

Long Story Short (musical) Long Story Short may refer to: Fiction and poetry * ''Long Story Short'', short-story anthology by Elyse Friedman at Toronto Book Awards * "A Long Story Short", by Shirley Hazzard in ''The New Yorker'', July 26, 1976, O. Henry Award * ''Long Sto ...

'', ''

Midsummer Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe. The undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian mart ...

'', '' Toy Story: The Musical'', and '' Wheelhouse''. Vigoda has also co-written and contributed the music for tracks in

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

films and television shows including '' Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue'', ''

Pixie Hollow Games ''Pixie Hollow Games'' is a 30-minute television special broadcast on November 19, 2011, on Disney Channel. Based on the '' Disney Fairies'' franchise, it was produced by DisneyToon Studios and animated by Prana Studios. It features the voices of ...

'', and ''

Secret of the Wings ''Secret of the Wings'' (originally titled as ''Tinker Bell and the Mysterious Winter Woods'' or alternatively ''Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings'') is a 2012 American computer-animated fantasy film, and the fourth installment in the ''Disn ...

''. In addition to her solo career, Vigoda has toured with

, Joe Jackson, and the

. Vigoda is an artist mentor with the "Electrify Your Strings" program, a musical education experience created to introduce and encourage young string musicians and choral singers to perform rock 'n' roll. She has taught at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

, and the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

Discography

Albums

Singles

Awards and nominations

Along with Brendan Milburn, Vigoda has won the Jonathan Larson Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, the LA Ovation Award for Best Musical, and the ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award for her work. They were also nominated for a

Lucille Lortel Award The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatre ...

for Outstanding Musical (

) in 2006. Vigoda was nominated for an Annie Award in 2012 for Music in a Television Production (

) and in 2013 for Music in an Animated Feature Production (

References

External links

Val Vigoda Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigoda, Val Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women singer-songwriters American singer-songwriters Princeton University alumni 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American violinists 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American violinists Women violinists