Michelle Citrin

Aspiring musical composers and lyricists, take note: Using YouTube to show your performance chops and creativity could lead to gigs on Broadway!

The creators of a musical adaptation of “Sleepless in Seattle,” the 1993 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan date flick, said on Wednesday that they had brought the songwriter Michelle Citrin onto their team after becoming fans of the YouTube performance clip of her song “20 Things to Do With Matzah.”

David Shor, an entertainment executive who holds the rights to make a musical based on “Sleepless in Seattle,” said that he began sending “20 Things to Do With Matzah” via e-mail to friends as a holiday greeting, and then began corresponding over the Facebook Web site with Ms. Citrin, who is part of the Brooklyn indie music scene and whose other popular YouTube pieces include “Rosh Hashanah Girl.”

He eventually tapped her to help write the music and lyrics, and she brought in a colleague, Josh Nelson, a musician who is a former director of jazz ensembles at Boston University.

The book writer for the project, Jeff Arch, who was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay for “Sleepless in Seattle” (with Nora Ephron and David S. Ward), has also recruited a classmate of his from Emerson College, Michael Garin, as a member of the music-and-lyrics team, Mr. Shor said.

To direct the production, Mr. Shor has recruited Joel Zwick (“George Gershwin Alone,” “Dance With Me”). He hopes to open on Broadway on Valentine’s Day 2011 — a very optimistic goal given the years that most musicals take to develop, rehearse and test in workshops and try-out runs out of New York.
- New York Times

Citrin performs soulful folk rock music
November 18, 2004

Rowan University Press
By Lauren Camel

"It's just her and her guitar?" asked Krystle Gnatz, a senior history major who came to Turned Up Tuesday this week to check out the soulful folk rock music style of Michelle Citrin. "Cool."

"Cool" seemed to be the attitude of many in the audience as the 23-year-old dread locked singer/songwriter from New Jersey took the stage on Tuesday with nothing more than her electric acoustic guitar and a radiating voice. Citrin was quick to let her audience know that she would not be the only one making music as she threw several shakers out into the crowd.

The shakers, which were interestingly enough in the shapes of an avocado, an apple and two eggs, provided a light percussion for Citrin's opening number, a vibrant rendition of Stealers' Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle."

In case listeners were too awe-struck by Citrin's talent on the guitar to notice her vocalization during the first song, the soulful beauty of her voice was apparent during her second song "Who I Am," a self-written tune inspired by the constant nagging question she was faced with in college, "What do you want to do with your life?"

Citrin introduced all of her songs before performing them and provided the audience with information pertaining to her inspiration when writing each piece.

"She was very successful in getting the audience to partake in the music, and I like how she gave background information for each song," said Andrew Baker, a freshman RTF major.

For Citrin, one of the most beneficial aspects of being a songwriter is the ability to express her feelings toward others through song, even if the feelings are negative and the people are unaware that the song is about them. "Oblivious to You," her third song, which had a touch of blues quality, was dedicated to anyone who keeps a journal or has talked about someone behind their back.

Citrin is an avid traveler who spent several months in Israel after graduating from Rutgers University in 2003 with a degree in Political Science. While visiting, Citrin volunteered for the Israeli Army, taught English and worked on a kibbutz (a self-sufficient communal farm) picking dates. And of course while visiting she was inspired to write songs such as "Dark Refrain," a piece that was written while camping in the desert under the canopy of a star-filled sky. The songs Citrin performed were creative and well-compiled. Her inner self shined through her bright eyes and smiling face as she bounced to the rhythm of "1:52," a song, Citrin explained to the crowd, she began to write at 1:52 a.m. and continued to work on throughout the early hours of the morning because she could not sleep and was possessed by thoughts about her interim feelings toward her dislike for love.

In addition to being influenced at a young age by classical musicians such as Beethoven, Citrin is inspired by many classic rock groups.

Her chords and soulful voice rocked the Pit as audience members clapped along to her powerful versions of AC/DC's "You Shook me All Night Long" and George Michael's "Faith."

"She [Citrin] is awesome and played really well. I'm glad she played cover songs because I knew them," said Adam Chazen, a freshman RTF major who shouted out a request for Citrin to play a cover of Rick Springfield's "Jesse's Girl," but Citrin reluctantly informed him that she did not know the song.

When Citrin is not touring on the road, she works odd end jobs that have educational value, such as tutoring children or working in politics.

She said she would like to begin incorporating more instruments into her music because in addition to guitar, she can play piano, drums, bass, harmonica and the didgeridoo (a hollowed-out branch that makes a deep drone, popular with Australian Aborigines). She has a goal to one day perform at the Newport Folk Festival.

Citrin is currently on a national college campus tour and said she enjoys playing at colleges because she finds it very inspirational to be in a young atmosphere.

"That's what college is," said Citrin. "It's a cool opportunity to work, grow, live and learn."

Before packing up her Subaru Forester to head home to Manhattan, Citrin expressed her remorse that her red egg-shaped shaker had not been returned.

She asked that if any audience member is in possession of this item that they return it, as it was a momentous souvenir from San Francisco. - Rowan University Press

Sounding Off: Bridging the gap
Published in the Home News Tribune 2/04/05

Michelle Citrin strives for peace in the Middle East through song and service

Sounding Off
By Chris Jordan

Michelle Citrin is an outgoing, witty and talented singer-songwriter.

A singer-songwriter who has come a lot closer to terrorism than most of us.

Michelle Citrin: Good things come in small packages.

Citrin, whose mom is Israeli, has visited Israel several times both before and after the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising that started in September of 2000 and has killed thousands on both sides.

Things are different over there.

"I was on a bus, and there was a bag, and no one was sitting next to it," said Citrin of a visit to Israel. "My heart was dropping because nobody claimed the bag and this was going on for 30 seconds. Finally, a guy came up and got the bag -- he was sleeping."

The bag was not a bomb.

The violence in the Middle East is based on religion and territory.

Citrin takes a thoughtful, questioning look at religion in her song, "Dark Refrain," which is available on her CD, "Four Songs For you."

"We all work and hope and dream, and we have aspirations, but we're not promised anything, and there are no guarantees," said Citrin of humanity's commonality. "That's where the song is coming from. It's pretty much saying, 'If you believe in something, the answer is not to be a rebel, but work within the system. Don't just blow yourself up because things aren't working out your way.' "

Citrin, who has volunteered in Israel several times in the past, volunteered for duty in the Israeli army in the summer 2003. She went through basic training, and worked on an air force base.

"The army was cool because it gave me an opportunity to help out but not be on the front lines shooting at people," Citrin said. "It was an amazing opportunity to see what it was like on the inside. The soldiers will stand there and have stones thrown at them, then they raise their rifles to shoot a warning shot in the air and somebody takes a picture of that, and the soldiers look like an aggressive Israeli army."

Far from aggressive, Citrin's folksy, jazzy music is a warming experience, yet slightly provocative. The aforementioned "Dark Refrain" is certainly the most pointed song on the CD, but even the fun "Who I Am" does not have a whithering point of view.

Citrin, a Fair Lawn native, studied piano while growing up, but found an old guitar while looking for her hamster in her parent's basement. Citrin performed around New Brunswick while attending Rutgers University. She's an '03 Douglass College graduate and former class president who majored in political science and minored in psychology.

More recently, Citrin starred in the burlesque revue "Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad," which has played in New York City and toured around the country. No, Citrin wasn't the stripping human dreidel in the show. She sang her songs.

Expect to hear more about Citrin in the future. As for the future of the Middle East, that's not so certain.

But there's hope.

"I think there's a path you can take to open lines of communication," Citrin said. "A path where you can be looking toward the future. There are these amazing summer camps where Palestinian and Israeli kids work together and play games and they see they're not so different from each other.

"You have to be thinking toward the future."

Michelle Citrin, 8 tonight, Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St., New York City. $6. (212) 673-7030 or www.bitterend.com. Visit www.michellecitrin.com to purchase a CD.

Chris Jordan:
(732) 565-7275;
cjordan@thnt.com - Home News Tribune

Michelle Citrin Performing at Dominican University’s
Mazzuchelli Hall on March 15, 2005
© Oak Park Journal

Review by Ed Vincent

Michelle Citrin is a talented writer/singer in today's wild world.
She is spirited, funny, and a damn good talent. Her writing is
pensive and reflective of all of our lives. Her first album has
but four songs on it, but they are all good songs and more tunes
are already out-just waiting for some recording sessions. Her
work is so good when compared with some of the pop music
that is produced, that we are all hoping that she is soon signed
to a major label and given the stage she should have.

She is an accomplished guitar and harmonica player, but her
singing and writing are her forte. She has the will to suceed,
and the drive (though a small car) to make it all happen.

She bills herself as short, but her height is the only small measure
of this young woman...

We can't wait for her next album, it should be a smash hit.
Good luck on your travels Ms. Citrin and all our best wishes. - Oak Park Journal

by Jacob Berkman
Published 03/8/2006 | Arts & Leisure |
--------------------------------------------
Michelle Citrin isn’t your typical Jewish girl from Fair Lawn. But stereotypes aren’t her thing anyway.

While most young Jewish women are trying to figure out how to make it in the world of business or science — or motherhood if they so choose — Citrin, 25, spends about half of each month trekking across the country trying to jumpstart a career as a folk singer/songwriter.

And most Jewish women these days don’t have dreadlocks.


Citrin

Though to date she’s cut only an independent four-song Extended Play single, Citrin has met a degree of metered musical success. Her dusky voice, which seems to slide over her guitar as she finger-picks earthy pop tunes, has earned her a following on college campuses around the country. And her name is plastered all over www.myspace.com, an Internet community on which members — many of whom are musicians, artists, and the young people who love them — post personal profiles and often list the musicians and artists they admire.

She’s been the opening act for pop singer Michelle Branch and her song, "If I Fall" will be used in the soundtrack on an upcoming episode of A&E’s show "Rollergirls."


Citrin

Though she cites songstresses such as Aimee Mann and the Indigo Girls as influences, Citrin sees herself as a songwriter in the vein of Bob Dylan and James Taylor, icons who used folk tunes and lyrics to enact change by describing in verse what it’s like to struggle with personal and political strife and to deal with the beautiful and frustrating parts of life and love.

She did come upon music in typical Jewish fashion. Her grandmother noticed that Citrin had an ear for music at a young age, so her parents enrolled her in group piano lessons at 3, and group lessons turned into private lessons. But her shidduch with the guitar was very much bashert.

At 10, her hamster Junior escaped its cage and took up residence in the family’s basement. One day, while Citrin was searching for Junior, she decided to look for him behind an old rolled up piece of carpet. She pulled out the carpet from its nook, and behind it found an old Tempo guitar with three strings. Though Junior did pop out of the rolled up carpet as well, it was the guitar that caught Citrin’s attention.

"I have never put it down," she said of her instrument last week in an interview. "I spend most of my life looking forward or looking back, but when I’m playing music, that’s the only time that I feel in the present."

But the trouble with being a young musician on the verge is that you never know what the future holds.

"It’s humbling because you can see your goal, and you can envision what you want out of this journey, but there is no right or wrong way to get there. You’re just stuck in the middle," she said. "It’s not like other jobs where you can have your goal and vision, and you have teachers or schools that can point you in the right direction. This is a roller coaster. It’s frustrating at times. It’s not for wimps."

Half of the struggle for success is being taken seriously as a petite woman performer, she said, which is why articles that focus on her personal life, (and whether or not she feels her biological clock ticking) are defeatist, says the self-named "Lil Grrl big sound."

The other half of the battle is making that right connection that can help her break through and find a record deal.

She got a nice break a couple of years ago when she hooked up with Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad, something of a burlesque variety show featuring offbeat, in-your-face, and sometimes outlandish women performers that has been traveling the country for the past few years trying to buck that typical notion of what is a Jewish woman.

Though quirky, Citrin isn’t particularly offbeat, and she seems more mellow than in-your-face, but "she just goes against the grain. She’s a sort of unconventional girl and not what you think of when you think about who Jewish women are," said the group’s founder, Susannah "The Goddess" Perlman. "There’s this stereotype that a lot of Jewish women are weak and whiny and spoiled or even superficial…. I knew Michelle would fit [with Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad] the first time I saw her perform. A lot of women songwriters are very weepy. But in terms of her craft, her songs have a lot of depth to them."

Citrin said that NJGGB allows her to draw on her background as a song leader at Jewish camps, a gig that she has each summer, most recently at a camp in Malibu.

Her songs are not distinctly Jewish, but Citrin herself is plenty Jewish, having grown up in a Conservative household in Fair Lawn; her mother is Israeli, her grandparents Holocaust survivors.

Aside from her primary day job as a photographer’s assistant in Manhattan — photography is something of a co-love for her in terms of art and possible career — she works as the youth director for fourth- t - The Jewish Standard

JPost.com » Arts & Culture » Music » Article
Jun 25, 2008 9:42 | Updated Jun 25, 2008 10:04
Jewish 'it' girl in the US
By KELLY HARTOG
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The first thing that strikes you about Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Michelle Citrin isn't her tiny 5'1" frame, her trademark dreadlocks or the huge sound that pours out of her mouth when she sings. Rather, it's how incredibly warm, welcoming and effusive she is, even when approached by complete strangers. She has an engaging smile, a ready hug and an openness about her that is instantly reflected in her music.
ROSH HASHANA GIRL. Michelle...

ROSH HASHANA GIRL. Michelle Citrin says there's a lot of Jewish wisdom and tolerance that can be taught, but you don't have to be Jewish to understand it or learn from it.'
Photo: Courtesy

Citrin has an unusual husky, whisky-and-cigarettes timbre to her voice, but it's definitely not the result of indulging in vices.

Despite a performance the night before, she happily agreed to an early-morning meeting at a café. She removes her sunglasses and sips freshly squeezed orange juice, confessing she's already had a cup of coffee and doesn't want to overdo it.

Unless you've been living under a rock recently, Citrin has two of her songs - "I've Got to Love You Rosh Hashanah"(a parody on I've got a crush on Obama) and "20 Things To Do With Matza" - making the YouTube rounds, with "Matza" garnering over a million in the past couple of months.

"The lil grrrl with the big sound," as she has been dubbed and as her business card proclaims, is all over the map these days. "People come up to me on the subway and say 'You're Rosh Hashana girl!'" she exclaims.

Here's a singer who is on the cusp of making it big, really big. Some time in the very near future, it's unlikely you'll be able to pull up a chair and interview Citrin without going through a slew of publicists, agents and managers first. Citrin laughs at the idea and assures me she'll still take my phone calls. She even agrees to be photographed sans makeup, despite protestations that she looks "terrible."

Recently in Los Angeles for Israel's "60 at 60" celebrations, she popped up unannounced and uncredited at the Kodak Theatre's Israel at 60 Gala Celebration and took the stage with Rami Kleinstein, Rita, Idan Raichel and Habanot Nechama during the closing moments of the show, where she sang a verse of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

At the after-party, when asked how she suddenly appeared on stage as part of the gala, she shrugged and said "Craig [Taubman, a local musician who helped coordinate the evening and the whole '60 at 60' event] asked me the night before."

CITRIN'S THAT kind of woman, willing to pitch in at the last minute, happy to perform at the drop of a hat. It's that openness, tenacity and drive that has seen her spend a decade touring the country to get her music out there.

To date, she's only released four songs, but she's currently putting the finishing touches on her first full album. She's spent years in the trenches garnering support on college campuses around the country, kick-started by an opening slot for Michelle Branch. She then fell in with a troupe of women called Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad, a quirky part-improv, part-stand-up, part-variety show that traveled the US addressing what it was like to be a Jewish woman.

So it's no surprise that she has somehow become the national Jewish "it" girl, and that Birthright approached both her and cartoonist William Levin (her cowriter on the Obama girl parody) to create a Rosh Hashana video card for them.

With the success of "I've Got to Love you Rosh Hashanah," Streit's Matzos then approached her to create a song for Pessach in the same vein.

Yet Citrin did not always consider herself a "Jewish" singer. Check out her MySpace page and you'll find some dark, moody songs - the antithesis of the funny, bubbly YouTube videos. Citrin says it took her "a while" to figure out that she didn't have to lead two separate musical lives: There was, in fact, a way for her to merge her indie folk singing with her Jewish identity, and it's now a niche she's comfortable with. Indeed, her song "Dark Refrain," about searching for peace in the midst of war, came about as a result of her Birthright trip when she was 20.

"Birthright was a really great starting point for me," she says. "It was just serendipitous that I happened to be in Israel. I was in the middle of the desert and as I became aware of my surroundings, I incorporated that into [Dark Refrain]."

BORN IN Fair Lawn, New Jersey to an Israeli mother, Citrin grew up on a diet of Israeli folk music, listening to the likes of Ofra Haza, eating Israeli food and do - Kelly Hartog

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/michelle-citrin/


ArtsBeat - New York Times Blog
March 3, 2010, 1:05 pm
Road to Broadway Is Paved With ‘Matzah’
By PATRICK HEALY

Aspiring musical composers and lyricists, take note: Using YouTube to show your performance chops and creativity could lead to gigs on Broadway!

The creators of a musical adaptation of “Sleepless in Seattle,” the 1993 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan date flick, said on Wednesday that they had brought the songwriter Michelle Citrin onto their team after becoming fans of the YouTube performance clip of her song “20 Things to Do With Matzah.”

David Shor, an entertainment executive who holds the rights to make a musical based on “Sleepless in Seattle,” said that he began sending “20 Things to Do With Matzah” via e-mail to friends as a holiday greeting, and then began corresponding over the Facebook Web site with Ms. Citrin, who is part of the Brooklyn indie music scene and whose other popular YouTube pieces include “Rosh Hashanah Girl.”

He eventually tapped her to help write the music and lyrics, and she brought in a colleague, Josh Nelson, a musician who is a former director of jazz ensembles at Boston University.

The book writer for the project, Jeff Arch, who was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay for “Sleepless in Seattle” (with Nora Ephron and David S. Ward), has also recruited a classmate of his from Emerson College, Michael Garin, as a member of the music-and-lyrics team, Mr. Shor said.

To direct the production, Mr. Shor has recruited Joel Zwick (“George Gershwin Alone,” “Dance With Me”). He hopes to open on Broadway on Valentine’s Day 2011 — a very optimistic goal given the years that most musicals take to develop, rehearse and test in workshops and try-out runs out of New York.
- New York Time

JPost.com » Arts & Culture » Music » Article
Jun 25, 2008 9:42 | Updated Jun 25, 2008 10:04
Jewish 'it' girl in the US
By KELLY HARTOG
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Talkbacks for this article: 0
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The first thing that strikes you about Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Michelle Citrin isn't her tiny 5'1" frame, her trademark dreadlocks or the huge sound that pours out of her mouth when she sings. Rather, it's how incredibly warm, welcoming and effusive she is, even when approached by complete strangers. She has an engaging smile, a ready hug and an openness about her that is instantly reflected in her music.
ROSH HASHANA GIRL. Michelle...

ROSH HASHANA GIRL. Michelle Citrin says there's a lot of Jewish wisdom and tolerance that can be taught, but you don't have to be Jewish to understand it or learn from it.'
Photo: Courtesy

Citrin has an unusual husky, whisky-and-cigarettes timbre to her voice, but it's definitely not the result of indulging in vices.

Despite a performance the night before, she happily agreed to an early-morning meeting at a café. She removes her sunglasses and sips freshly squeezed orange juice, confessing she's already had a cup of coffee and doesn't want to overdo it.

Unless you've been living under a rock recently, Citrin has two of her songs - "I've Got to Love You Rosh Hashanah"(a parody on I've got a crush on Obama) and "20 Things To Do With Matza" - making the YouTube rounds, with "Matza" garnering over a million in the past couple of months.

"The lil grrrl with the big sound," as she has been dubbed and as her business card proclaims, is all over the map these days. "People come up to me on the subway and say 'You're Rosh Hashana girl!'" she exclaims.

Here's a singer who is on the cusp of making it big, really big. Some time in the very near future, it's unlikely you'll be able to pull up a chair and interview Citrin without going through a slew of publicists, agents and managers first. Citrin laughs at the idea and assures me she'll still take my phone calls. She even agrees to be photographed sans makeup, despite protestations that she looks "terrible."

Recently in Los Angeles for Israel's "60 at 60" celebrations, she popped up unannounced and uncredited at the Kodak Theatre's Israel at 60 Gala Celebration and took the stage with Rami Kleinstein, Rita, Idan Raichel and Habanot Nechama during the closing moments of the show, where she sang a verse of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

At the after-party, when asked how she suddenly appeared on stage as part of the gala, she shrugged and said "Craig [Taubman, a local musician who helped coordinate the evening and the whole '60 at 60' event] asked me the night before."

CITRIN'S THAT kind of woman, willing to pitch in at the last minute, happy to perform at the drop of a hat. It's that openness, tenacity and drive that has seen her spend a decade touring the country to get her music out there.

To date, she's only released four songs, but she's currently putting the finishing touches on her first full album. She's spent years in the trenches garnering support on college campuses around the country, kick-started by an opening slot for Michelle Branch. She then fell in with a troupe of women called Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad, a quirky part-improv, part-stand-up, part-variety show that traveled the US addressing what it was like to be a Jewish woman.

So it's no surprise that she has somehow become the national Jewish "it" girl, and that Birthright approached both her and cartoonist William Levin (her cowriter on the Obama girl parody) to create a Rosh Hashana video card for them.

With the success of "I've Got to Love you Rosh Hashanah," Streit's Matzos then approached her to create a song for Pessach in the same vein.

Yet Citrin did not always consider herself a "Jewish" singer. Check out her MySpace page and you'll find some dark, moody songs - the antithesis of the funny, bubbly YouTube videos. Citrin says it took her "a while" to figure out that she didn't have to lead two separate musical lives: There was, in fact, a way for her to merge her indie folk singing with her Jewish identity, and it's now a niche she's comfortable with. Indeed, her song "Dark Refrain," about searching for peace in the midst of war, came about as a result of her Birthright trip when she was 20.

"Birthright was a really great starting point for me," she says. "It was just serendipitous that I happened to be in Israel. I was in the middle of the desert and as I became aware of my surroundings, I incorporated that into [Dark Refrain]."

BORN IN Fair Lawn, New Jersey to an Israeli mother, Citrin grew up on a diet of Israeli folk music, listening to the likes of Ofra Haza, eating Israeli food and do - Kelly Hartog