Vocalist Rondi Charleston delivers fresh, new intoxicating treatments of The Great American Songbook and Broadway Standards, Pop Classics, compelling originals and exotic Brazilian grooves in her new CD/DVD set, Rondi Charleston - IN MY LIFE. Her sold out performances at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola and overwhelming audience response are captured here, as are spectacular studio tracks from the multi-Grammy-award winning Bennett Studios. Experience, firsthand, why this singer of distinction and poetic ingenuity has audiences and critics raving!
Her considerable poise, presence and sheer talent landed her in Juilliard's Drama Department at age 16 after an audition with the late John Houseman. By 18, she was accepted into Juilliard's Voice Department, graduating with a BM and MM in Music, instantly working internationally in lyric soprano roles. Says Rondi, “the interplay between actors is very much like the interplay between jazz musicians - spontaneous and immediate." Feeling hemmed in by repertoire, a youthful need to expand her horizons, and hungry for the breadth of a more liberal arts education, she sought to further discover the world around her and her place in it. She longed to be a cultural reporter for CBS Sunday Morning and work with the late Charles Kuralt. Her solution - a fellowship in the Master's program at the NYU School of Journalism, graduating two years later, after breaking a major cover up story of a Metro North train crash. It ran in the NY Times, prompting the Dean of NYU to call the head of ABC News to hire her. Virtually overnight, she became an investigative reporter for Prime Time Live, working with Diane Sawyer for the next 6 years, and garnering Emmy and Peabody Awards along the way for her medical investigations. "Don't ask me how I found the time, but I kept singing. One night in 1996 at a gig in the Village, Diane came to see me. After the show she said, 'Rondi, I came because I like you and like working with you, but you never told me you were really good. You could do this.'"
For Rondi, the search for the truth and the core of the story is paramount, whether delving into an investigative report or the lyric of a song. "I think of it as deep sea diving. My job is to dive down deep and bring back the shining pearl to share with everyone. What drives me is my passion to live and breathe my honesty, truth and integrity into every song and story. That's what I hope resonates through me to my audience."