|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Musical performance has been a constant in his life for Johnny Orenberg, even manifesting in unexpected and inspiring ways amid his recent career change.
The Foothill High School graduate, who made a go of it professionally back East before moving back to the Tri-Valley and shifting music to a side hustle, is scheduled to be back singing on his hometown stage this month in a new show he developed over several years while running his caregiver business.
“I found my passion in both music and in helping people,” Orenberg, 41, told me in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “Music sure gets me closer with my clients … This Andy Williams thing came out of (the music therapy).”
Joined by a six-piece band that features one of the mentors of his youth, Mark Aubel, on trombone, Orenberg will regale a likely nostalgic Firehouse Arts Center audience in “Remember: An Andy Williams Musical Tribute” on March 21.
It’s a theater Orenberg has performed in plenty of times before, but this time will be different.
Orenberg grew up in Pleasanton after his family moved here when he was in elementary school — “we were like the second or third family into Ruby Hill all those years ago,” he said.
A member of Foothill’s class of 2002, Orenberg earned a degree in musical theater through an intensive program at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Performing Arts outside Cleveland.
He recalled going straight from Ohio to New York City and working in the industry on the East Coast for about a decade, including developing musicals and performing at Disneyworld.
Orenberg moved back to Pleasanton in 2012 and remained involved with the arts — acting with Tri-Valley Rep, volunteering with the Pleasanton Civic Arts Commission and Livermore Valley Opera, and performing around the Bay Area — while giving professional bank management a try … “a different song and dance, as I tell people” that just wasn’t for him.
He also reconnected with a friend from youth, the woman who would later become his wife. Katie Orenberg, who now works at Pleasanton Middle School, is a reigning California History Teacher of the Year. The couple live in Dublin with their two young sons.
His career path diverged again in 2019 – but soon he’d realize it wasn’t straying away from music as much as he thought.
His wife’s grandmother had a stroke at 89 years old, leaving his in-laws with a difficult question many families face. “They didn’t know who was going to take care of her. My Care Life Services came out of a family need,” Orenberg said.
As relative caregiving expanded into more clients and a business, Orenberg began to recognize the impact of music therapy. “I’m going to make this transition to help incorporate the music into my caregiving,” he recalled.
One artist’s work his older clientele often responded to was Williams, the late singer who rose to fame in the 1960s on the radio and on television with his popular “The Andy Williams Show” variety program.
“I always knew of Andy Williams because of ‘Moon River’ and his Christmas specials as a kid … reruns,” Orenberg said, noting he hadn’t gone deep into Williams’ catalog but would sing his rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer” at church in Walnut Creek.
As Orenberg would sing the occasional Williams tune in his caregiving, he was struck by how the seniors “would light up when they heard those songs” and the memories rekindled: “I don’t see the 70- or 80-year-old; I see the 20-year-old dancing at their wedding, the kid experiencing their first kiss.”
He said Katie encouraged her husband, “‘You should start doing some research.’ And I put this show together, so it’s kind of a full-circle moment.”
Nearly three years in the making, Orenberg’s “Remember” tribute production debuted at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek in October and they have upcoming appearances booked in Castro Valley, San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area, plus Orenberg is pursuing possible dates in seniors haven Florida.
He’s excited to present it at the Firehouse in two weeks.
“The intimacy of the space is great, and it allows people to have that 1:1 feeling,” Orenberg said, extolling the black-box vibes of the venue he knows well. “It’s just a lot of fun.”
“This (show) is different. It’s not what they’re expecting … It is literally an evening of getting to know Andy on a different level through his music — and that’s what he wanted, for his music to live on,” Orenberg said, noting also he will be “going into some things that you wouldn’t necessarily know” like Williams’ friendship with Robert F. Kennedy and being in the Ambassador Hotel that fateful day in 1968.
“It’s nice to honor someone’s memory in my hometown,” he added.
“Remember: An Andy Williams Musical Tribute” is set for 7:30 p.m. March 21 at the Firehouse, 4444 Railroad Ave. in downtown Pleasanton. For tickets, go to firehousearts.org.
“Our audience will enjoy his hometown charm and artistry honoring Andy Williams’ legacy, with his quality vocals and love for the late, great singer,” city recreation supervisor Julian Mireles told me. “This show adds to the diversity of genres performed at the Firehouse Theater. This spring we tune in to some fan-favorite classics, bringing yacht rock, ’70s hits, and original artists like Tom Rigney and Flambeau, as well as another hometown artist, Lauryn Marie.”
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
