We're excited to announce that on September 16th we will release While I'm Here, the two-CD retrospective and music celebration of Theodore Bikel. The legendary Austrian-born, American artist whose over 70-year career emcompassed stage and film acting, songwriting and performance played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof over 2000 times. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote their classic "Edelweiss" especially for Theo in his Broadway role as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Along with co-founding the Newport Folk Festival and mentoring generations of younger folk artists such as Judy Collins and Peter Yarrow, Bikel was a passionate human rights advocate, labor leader, Jewish activist and supporter of Israel.
Disc one is entirely spoken word and is dedicated to Bikel's reflections and remembrances of his rich and eventful life. Disc two is a 17-song career musical retrospective spanning his early work in the 1950s to his last recordings made during his 90th birthday concert in Los Angeles. Most of the records are exclusive to this release with some songs previouslsy unreleased, some newly recorded, and some obtained from obsure and long out-of-print sources.