Eric Yves Garcia and Maria Abous Bring Rodgers and Hart to Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea

• Eric Yves Garcia and Maria Abous perform "Beyond Blue Moon, And Before the Broken Hart" at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Saturday, July 25, 2026, at 7:30pm.

• The program is produced and hosted by David Alpern and explores the songs of lyricist Lorenz "Larry" Hart and composer Richard Rodgers.

• The evening features standards including "Falling in Love with Love," "Isn't It Romantic?," "My Funny Valentine," and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," plus one Oscar Hammerstein song.

• The performance continues the third season of Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea, produced by Donna Rubin and LTV Creative Director Josh Gladstone, with the 2026 season running through an August 29 finale featuring Donna McKechnie.

Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea, the live concert series bringing leading Broadway, cabaret, and American Songbook performers to the East End, continues its third season with Eric Yves Garcia and Maria Abous performing "Beyond Blue Moon, And Before the Broken Hart" at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Saturday, July 25, 2026, at 7:30pm.

Produced and hosted by David Alpern, the evening explores the wit, ache, and sophistication of lyricist Lorenz "Larry" Hart, whose partnership with composer Richard Rodgers produced more than 500 songs and helped define the sound of American popular music. The program takes inspiration from "Blue Moon," the tart, sad screen tale of a famous musical divorce and the broken Hart behind it, filling the musical space around the title song with Rodgers and Hart treasures.

Garcia and Abous will bring audiences into the world of Rodgers and Hart with beloved standards including "Falling in Love with Love," "Isn't It Romantic?," "My Funny Valentine," and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." The night will also include one song by Oscar Hammerstein, plus lyric sheets for the audience to sing along, for better and verse.

Garcia, one of New York's most popular and award-winning singer-pianists, brings a cabaret veteran's command of timing, style, and musical storytelling to the evening. A recipient of the Margaret Whiting Award and a Bistro Award for singer-instrumentalist, he most recently won the Donald F. Smith Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation during its annual Cabaret Convention at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Mentored by Jean-Claude, the adopted son of Josephine Baker, Garcia was a longtime favorite at Chez Josephine, later enjoyed a two-year residency at The Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, and performs afloat for the Silversea cruise line. He also brings music to young children and elders with memory loss at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan and works as a narrator and voice actor for Audible and other publishers.

Abous, a crossover soprano whose voice Rolling Stone UK described as one that "begs for lush orchestration," has performed on iconic New York stages including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 54 Below, The Triad, and Birdland. Praised by Woman Around Town as "the embodiment of a leading lady," Abous holds a B.A. in Music from Columbia University and a Master's in Voice Performance from the Longy School of Bard College. Her first album, Crescendo, reimagines classic jazz and theater standards as love songs from mother to child; a mother of three herself, she is a passionate advocate for the support of new mothers. Her second CD, Merry Little Christmas, brings an ethereal twist to Christmas classics.

The performance is produced and hosted by David Alpern, a Sag Harbor resident whose career has moved across journalism, broadcasting, and the performing arts. A former New York correspondent for United Press International starting in 1963, and later a reporter, writer, and senior editor at Newsweek, Alpern hosted Newsweek On Air for more than 30 years, an hour-long domestic and overseas radio broadcast later continued independently and nonprofit as For Your Ears Only. The program featured conversations with newsmakers, policy experts, and top entertainers, including Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Graham, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Walter Cronkite, Robert Caro, John le Carre, Nora Ephron, Rosemary Clooney, and Barbara Cook, roughly 10,000 interviews in all, most still posted at the nonprofit archive foryourearsonly.

The July 25 performance continues the spirit of Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea, which pairs world-class performers with the intimacy of LTV Studios' black-box setting, cafe-style seating, superb acoustics, and an up-close concert experience. The 2026 season continues with "A Swell-egant, Elegant Party," hosted by Laurence Maslon and starring Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, on August 1; KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler joined by Stephanie Pope and Christine Pedi in a program co-sponsored by the Mabel Mercer Foundation on August 22; and a season finale with Tony Award-winning "A Chorus Line" star Donna McKechnie on August 29. Hamptons Summer Songbook by the Sea is produced by Donna Rubin and LTV's Creative Director Josh Gladstone, transforming LTV's industrial-chic television studio into an intimate performance venue complete with state-of-the-art lighting, modular staging, and a Baby Grand piano. LTV is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.