For twenty five years, Valerie Anastasio & Tim Harbold have invited audiences to their unique world of song, blending jazz standards, show tunes, and comic cabaret with their own distinctive musicianship and humor. Their shows encompass a trademark variety of styles, ranging from intimate renditions of Gershwin and Sondheim to torch songs to zany, crowd-pleasing performances of Cole Porter's "The Physician" and Barry Manilow's "Copacabana." Even classical art songs can enter the mix to keep the audiences surprised and entertained. Anastasio and Harbold perform frequently with the American Classics Smart Set, which also includes the duo of Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner. The Smart Set has produced three shows: "Noel & Cole - Together with Music" has received over twenty-five performances throughout New England, including sold-out performances at Don't Tell Mama (New York) and Scullers Jazz Club (Boston). The "Noel & Cole" CD reached Amazon.com's Cabaret Top 100, and received critical acclaim in Billboard and Show Music magazines. "Fred and Ethel - Great Songs of Astaire and Merman," the duo's second collaboration with Sears and Conner, was rated one of the top 10 cabarets of 2001 by Bay Windows, and was nominated for an IRNE award in the cabaret category. A third show and corresponding CD, "Marching Along with Time - Songs by Irving Berlin 1935-1945" were debuted in 2012. "Valerie is blessed with a keen sense of comic timing and a gorgeous soprano, as well as a masterful accompanist in Harbold...and she can growl out a sexy blues lyric, too. " -- Beverly Creasey, Theater Mirror "Anastasio hit her mark every time, whether delivering a tender ballad or causing comic chaos. One of the few sopranos around who sings from the heart, Anastasio seems to have stepped out of a 1930s black and white film." -- John Amodeo, Bay Windows "Harbold is excellent at the keyboard with his sensitive and jazzy playing." -- Phyllis Gordon Koppel, Cape Cod Times "[Anastasio is] a fine actress in the best sense of musical theater." -- Richard Duckett, Worcester Telegram and Gazette "Tim is an exciting, inventive pianist and Valerie ... simply knocked me out! … She is definitely an heir to [Gertrude] Lawrence's glorious legacy of charm and star quality." -- Susan Radovsky, post to the Marvellous Party (Noel Coward fan group) ----- Vocalist: Valerie Anastasio Pianist: Tim Harbold Backup vocals: Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner Steinway Piano Engineering, Editing, & Digital Mastering: Frank Cunningham Cover photo: Cheryl Clegg Hôtel: My room is like a cage. The sun reaches in through the window. But I want to smoke and make mirages, and so I light my cigarette on the sun’s fire. I don’t want to work, I want to smoke. Madrigal del peine perdido: There, there, my love. Your little comb, how green it was! You’ve lost the little comb made of green glass. There, there, my love. Sleep, for at sea, in that lost garden, your comb brushes the hair of a little green mermaid by the shore, while the shore comes and goes. Sleep, my love, because it comes and goes.