But now it is time to talk about Mr. Heller's brand new offering. Frankie Laine gave us a song more than 50 years ago and not too many have recorded it since. Laine's recording was the definitive version of "I Believe"...until now that is. Andrew Heller recorded "I Believe" with such emotion and impact...that he will make you a believer that good music has survived the test of time.
I guarantee you'll have the same feeling that I did when you hear Andrew Heller's "I Believe," the new, "definitive version!" "I Believe" is on DiamonDisc Records from the forthcoming album..."I Believe in Angels." Thank you Mr. Heller for making us all believers that good music is still here!
Trained as a light opera singer, Heller has a lovely tenor voice. His fine singing receives superb support from Riley Osborne (piano), Larry Chaney (guitar), Dony Wynn (percussion), Chris Maresh (bass), members of the Austin Symphony orchestra, and members of local choirs. The mood is, for the most part, joyously upbeat, casual, and fun.
Christmas Wonder features 11 tracks, all well-known holiday numbers, including a terrific medley ("Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," and "Home For The Holidays"). Three tracks have a more somber tone; these are the more reverent "Do You Hear What I Hear," "Oh Holy Night," and "Silent Night." Although the entire album is strong, my favorite numbers tend to be these more classical pieces, in part because the artist's opera-trained voice especially shines in these settings. Moreover, the orchestral accompaniment (particularly the strings) in "Do You Hear What I Hear" is particularly moving.
As for the more casual pop numbers, "Winter Wonderland" possesses a mellow, samba soul, and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" has a marvelous ragtimey, almost Cajun zydeco zip--very fun! And as the album nears its close, Heller sings "White Christmas" with emotion and warmth; the listener can imagine Bing Crosby or Andy Williams smiling just off-stage.
Pining for a traditional, easy-listening holiday album that presents stylish pop and turns back the clock? Just following the bouncing ball to Heller's Christmas Wonder!
Dear Andrew & Mary Ann,
I can't tell you how much Miller and I enjoyed Wednesday evening! I love the records we have, but in person you are sensational! Many, many thanks for a wonderful evening!
Love,
Liz
Andrew,
Just a quick note to say BRAVO! The performance Wednesday evening was splendid and Stephanie and I enjoyed it very much!
Best,
Jerry
Andrew,
Congratulations on your concert at the McCullough Theater this week! I had no idea that you possess such a strong voice. The theatre was also a terrific venue for the concert. As we exited the event, my wife and I overheard a remark how wonderful it is that those songs continue to be sung. The image was inescapable of you sitting on a bar stool singing those songs in a black turtleneck with only a piano as accompaniment. Thank you for the wonderful evening.
Allen Green
Dear Andrew and Mary Ann,
What a great concert! We were delighted!--and very proud of both of you. Mary Ann, remember the first time Andrew sung a bit when I was playing the piano? We both had to coax him to do it!--and look at him now! Such a fine voice. Congratulations to both of you. I enjoyed meeting Cheryl and her darling daughter before the show.
Love,
Jojo & Wayne
High-tech guru goes low-tech with concert
Entrepreneur Andrew Heller sings as part of UT music series
By Randy Harriman
"We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams..."
--from "Ode," by A.W.E. O'Shaughnessy
Thomas Jefferson played the violin, as did Albert Einstein. Charles Ives, one of this country's great composers, founded the insurance company Mutual of New York. Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan plays jazz clarinet.
These "avocational musicions," and millions more like them, are part of the family of music-makers. Their dreams have encompassed an active involvement in music as a major secondary element in their lives--the thing they do "after 5."
Locally, some of those millions have found musical homes in groups such as Austin Civic Orchestra, Austin Symphonic Band, Chorus Austin and others that actually provide most of the classical music heard in Austin.
From among that multitude steps Austin high-tech entrepreneur and singer Andrew Heller, who will be appearing in recital in University of Texas' McCullough Theatre Wednesday as a part of the Performing Arts Center's "After Five" series.
Heller's concert, which contains folk songs, show tunes and "standards," is the second concert in a series of three such events. The third, on March 22, brings to Austin Rosa and Joe Perez, schoolteachers, self-taught musicians and creators of National Public Radio's Mexican roots music program "North of the Border."
In Wednesday's concert, Heller will be accompanied by pianish Robert Freeman, dean of UT's college of fine arts, who came up with the idea for the series as a way of making known the fact that there is a post-graduation musical life for those who don't land a job teaching or playing in some major orchestra.
As Freeman puts it, "I've always thought (we needed) to say to the students, 'Some of you will go on into all kinds of interesting careers, and some of you will do the arts and take great pleasure from that. That creative spark ought to be nurtured throughout your life.'"
Heller has done that nurturing. "There have always been three very important parts to my life," he says. "(The first is) physical things, like running and skiing. The second is built around music. From the time I was a child I competed in talent shows, sang in summer stock. My third love has always been things involving mathematics and physics. I think that's part of what bridges my music and science--underneath it all is a love of mathematics."
Heller comes with a sterling background in music: "I won the junior Metropolitan Opera auditions in the early 1960s and actually got a chance to work with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein and meet (composers such as) Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland."
Heller goes on to say that had his parents been willing to pay for it, he would have made music his vocation; but they made it pretty clear that if he did so it would be on his own hook. "So I got a degree in mathematics," he says, " and that's probably the linchpin that decided the course of my life for the next 40 years. I sang at parties, charity events and churches to earn money, but then I decided eating was an important part of my life."
He taught mathematics at Columbia University, started working for IBM around 1966-67 and cam eto Austin in the early 1970s.
According to his biography, he was the youngest person ever appointed to the prestigious post of IBM Fellow, and received numerous other technical and business honors as well. All that came a t a price with respect to Heller's musical activities. As he puts it, "I stopped singing professionally once I became a 110-hour a week employee."
The mathematician-entrepreneur-musician left IBM in 1969, and has since been involved in activities relating to venture capital and startup companies such as Rambus Inc., S3 and Smart Technologies. Through his own firm, Heller Associates, he serves as a consultant for major corporations and government entities.
Amid all that activity, he has found time to start singing again. In fact, he has released three CDs on Heller Records, a label that began life as a present from his wife of 39 years, Mary Ann, who had a specific reason for the gift: "About four or five years ago," Heller relates, "my wife said to me, 'You're going to die because you're crazy, and I want to have something to remember you by.'"
Both of the Hellers are actively involved in supporting the arts in Austin. Freeman says that without their help, the recently formed Texas Piano Quartet wouldn't have been possible. And if you're driving down Barton Springs Road, you may notice a building at the corner of Bouldin Avenue that bears the name "Mary Ann Heller Center for the Austin Lyric Opera."
Given all that he has done and is doing, why go through the effort and stress of public performance?
"There's nothing more fun that looking out at people who are actually enjoying somthing you can do that is uniquely part of you," says Heller. "When you can do something that adds to other people's lives, you're very lucky."
Cherished memories, songs of love
By Rose Betty Williams
A capacity crowd filled the McCullough Theatre at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas for a concert by Andrew Heller. He sang selections from his CS, "Be My Love," "El Paso," "Christmas Wonder" and "Broadway Love."
He called the first half of his performance, "Songs from My Early Years and For My Wife" and after intermission, "Songs from A Christmas Gift."
A computer software guru, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, mathematician and the youngest person ever to be appointed to the position of IBM Fellow, a lifelong title, Heller's career began with music. He won the Junior Metropolitan Opera auditions in the early 1960s, worked with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, sang in musicals, light opera and in church solos. He said that music helped him "to earn much of his way during his university years," during which time he studied mathematics.
Now he sings at charity events when his schedule permits.
