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Dec. 2, 2003
Freund Takes Flight
Foggy Bottom Neighbor Roz Freund Releases “Flying
Colors”
By Jane
Lingo
Important among the many artists, painters, writers and musicians living
in Foggy Bottom is Roz Freund of 24th Street.
Recipient of a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities,
Freund continues her interest in composing songs, both words and music.
The $1,000 grant from the commission is intended to aid in promoting Freud’s
music. Her lilting, polished melodies can be heard on the disc, “Flying
Colors,” produced and performed by singer Steve Ross, described by
The New York Times as “the crown prince of New York cabaret.”
The music was arranged by Broadway musician, Rod Derefinko, who has worked
with Tommy Tune and Twiggy.
Lionell Thomas, the commission’s legislative and grant program manager,
said of Freund, “She’s certainly, at her senior age (75), someone
we felt very refreshed by because of her zeal to change her career, and
her music is of very professional quality.”
A quick glance at Freund’s lyrics uncovers a capricious sense of
humor. From her tune “Friends,” comes Hiding giggles behind
some wiggles, that no one noticed. Freund’s “Ordered Me Love,”
offers up comical metaphors with Ordered me love, side dish kisses, Ordered
me love, It’s nutritious.
Although Freund did not finish college, she still landed a job with a
large Chicago public relations firm, Harshe-Rotman. “The man interviewed
over 100 women,” she recalled. “I was the only one without a
college degree. I wanted to be a writer. He said I could stay as his secretary
forever, but I would never cross over to be a writer. I left. I couldn’t
spell. I was no good at the other secretarial skills. I was an idea person
from day one.”
Freund came to Washington by way of Philadelphia and New York and, along
with her husband Abe, and has lived in the District for the past 10 years.
The pair met at a wedding in Philadelphia.
“We were fixed up for a date. His family and my family shared a friend.
He courted me by driving 900 miles on a weekend. He has always been my
No. 1 fan. He’s good for me. I’m not grounded. I fly easily.”
As a child in Chicago, Freund took dancing lessons for 25 cents and then
shared the new steps with her friends. “The guy I studied with was
a street dancer, Curly Shay,” she recalls. “Chicago was a center
of jazz and music. This filtered down to me. I always mingled with the
artists and musicians.”
Having studied cabaret singing with Steve Ross, Freund subsequently appeared
in New York at 88’s and Don’t Tell Mama. She also has done some
entertaining in retirement communities.
“Along the way, a number of people helped me,” she says, “among
them, Steve Ross, Garth Ross (no relation) at the Kennedy Center, and
John Pieffer of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.”
“Flying Colors” has been featured several times at the Millennium
Stage of the Kennedy Center. Pieffer, premiered the song “Ordered
Me Love” in the “Jazz in the Afternoon” series of the Corcoran
Gallery of Art.
New interests for her include photography and drawing simple sketches,
which she calls “funnies.” On life in general, she comments,
“My survival skill has been to see the humor in the brambles.”
Very much a person to reach out to others, Freund remarks, “My gift
of gab has brought me into contact with people whom I have moved into
places they didn’t think they could go.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
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