Jeff Harnar is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

-based cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 singer and recording artist with an unusually smooth, baritone

Baritone

Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

 voice and a fondness for the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 repertoire.

Jeff Harnar was born in Manhattan Beach, California

Manhattan Beach, California

Manhattan Beach is the wealthiest beachfront city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, USA. The city is on the Pacific coast, south of El Segundo, and north of Hermosa Beach. Manhattan Beach is the home of both beach and indoor volleyball, and surfing. During the winter, the...

, on July 27, 1959. His family moved during his childhood to Dearborn, Michigan

Dearborn, Michigan

-Economy:Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn. In addition its Dearborn campus contains many research, testing, finance and some production facilities. Ford Land controls the numerous properties owned by Ford including sales and leasing to unrelated businesses such as the...

; Riverside, Connecticut; and to Kenilworth, Illinois

Kenilworth, Illinois

Kenilworth is a village in Cook County, Illinois, north of downtown Chicago. It is the newest of the nine suburban North Shore communities bordering Lake Michigan, and is the only one developed as a planned community...

. He attended New Trier East High School in Winnetka, Illinois

Winnetka, Illinois

Winnetka is an affluent North Shore village located approximately north of downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Winnetka was featured on the list of America's 25 top-earning towns and "one of the best places to live" by CNN Money in 2011...

, and Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...

 in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

. He graduated from New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 with a BFA

Bachelor of Fine Arts

In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 in Acting.

Jeff's performing career began in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 at age 10 as a television commercial jingle-singer. He performed in various community theater productions (Winthrop in The Music Man

The Music Man

The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with...

, Artful Dodger in Oliver!

Oliver!

Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....

), and majored in theater studies throughout his schooling. Jeff's early career included performing at Opryland USA

Opryland USA

Opryland USA was an amusement park located in suburban Nashville, Tennessee. It operated seasonally from 1972 until 1997...

 in I Hear America Singing. He was Little Chap in Stop the World - I Want to Get Off

Stop the World - I Want to Get Off

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley.Set against the backdrop of a circus, it focuses on Littlechap, whose first major step towards improving his lot is to marry Evie, his boss's daughter...

at Fairlane Mansion Dinner Theater in Dearborn, Michigan.

Jeff currently lives in Manhattan.

Theme shows

In 1983, Jeff's cabaret career blossomed in showcase rooms such as Mr. Sam's, Broadway Baby, Don’t Tell Mama, and Eighty Eights, working with musical director Alex Rybeck. Together with director Sara Louise Lazarus, Harnar and Rybeck created a series of theme shows whose critical success took them to major Manhattan venues such as The Ballroom, The Oak Room at the historic Algonquin Hotel

Algonquin Hotel

The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan . The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark....

, the Russian Tea Room

Russian Tea Room

The Russian Tea Room is a restaurant in New York City, located at 150 West 57th Street between Carnegie Hall Tower and Metropolitan Tower.-History:...

, The Firebird Café and The Café Carlyle.

Jeff's signature cabaret shows include “Carried Away: Jeff Harnar sings Comden & Green,” “The 1959 Broadway Songbook,” “Easy to Love: Cole Porter,” “Dancing in the Dark: Vincente Minnelli's Hollywood,” “Because of You: Fifties Gold,” “Gershwin's Hollywood,” “The Warner Brother's Songbook,” and “Sammy Cahn All The Way.”

Appearances

Jeff has toured the USA extensively, notably in Chicago (Davenport's), San Francisco (The Plush Room), Palm Beach (The Colony Hotel), Dallas (The Fairmont Hotel), St. Louis (The Grandel Theater). Jeff has also performed in Paris (The Piaf Awards), Norway (The Oslo Concert House) and London (Pizza on the Park).

Jeff can also be seen with Broadway star Shauna Hicks in “I Got Rhythm: Mickey & Judy's Hollywood,” appearing most recently with The San Diego, Spokane, North Carolina, Des Moines, and Albany Symphony Orchestras and at New York's Town Hall.

Television appearances include “The 1959 Broadway Songbook” (PBS), “Remember: Songs of the Holidays” with KT Sullivan (PBS) and as the singing narrator of “Gershwin on Ice” starring Dorothy Hamill (A&E

A&E Network

The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...

).

Jeff has appeared at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 in both the Cole Porter

Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

 and Noel Coward

Noël Coward

Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

 Centennial Galas, his own solo concert at Weill Recital Hall, “A Talent to Amuse” with Andrea Marcovicci and Steve Ross, and most recently as Michael Feinstein's special guest in a tribute to Jule Styne

Jule Styne

Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...

 at Zankel Hall. On June 9, 2011 Jeff joined Andrea Marcovicci at New York's Town Hall to celebrate Cole Porter's 120th birthday with "Easy to Love: The Words & Music of Cole Porter."

Under the banner "Jeff Harnar presents The American Songbook in London" Jeff presented three seasons of cabaret at The Jermyn Street Theatre in 2006 & 2007 and at Pizza on The Park in 2008. Artists presented included Julie Wilson, Andrea Marcovicci, Lilliane Montevecchi, Steve Ross, Tony DeSare, Karen Akers, Maude Maggart, KT Sullivan, Alison Jiear, Sian Phillips, John Standing among many others.

Jeff can be seen as the nightclub singer in the upcoming film release "Joshua Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean" (Iconoclast Films).

A personal career highlight was appearing with The McGuire Sisters

The McGuire Sisters

The McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters: Christine McGuire , Dorothy McGuire , and Phyllis McGuire...

 during their reunion tour. Jeff has also brought his performances to the high seas on such ships at the QE2

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2

Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as the QE2, is an ocean liner that was operated by Cunard from 1969 to 2008. Following her retirement from cruising, she is now owned by Istithmar...

, QM2

RMS Queen Mary 2

RMS Queen Mary 2 is a transatlantic ocean liner. She was the first major ocean liner built since in 1969, the vessel she succeeded as flagship of the Cunard Line....

, Crystal

Crystal Cruises

Crystal Cruise Lines, most commonly seen as Crystal Cruises, is a Japanese luxury cruise line founded in 1988 and notable for its two medium-sized, high-end ships, Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, which each hold about 1,000 guests. The line is a wholly owned subsidiary of the large Japanese...

 and Holland America Lines.

Awards

Harnar is a two-time winner of the Manhattan Association of Cabaret Award (MAC) as Best Male Vocalist and three times been honored with the BackStage Bistro Award (Newcomer, Male Vocalist, Best Show).

Albums

• 1959 Broadway Songbook (1991)
• Because of You: Fifties Gold (1995)
• Sammy Cahn: All the Way (2001)
• Dancing In The Dark (2005)

Featured on

• Finishing the Act (1999)

"The Mickey & Judy Show" (1999)

• Jule Styne in Hollywood (2006)

External links

• Jeff Harnar's home page

www.mickeyandjudy.com