Carnegie Hall

John Monsky—the creator, writer, and narrator of the American History Unbound series—is a lawyer and historian who lectures at the New-York Historical Society. He returns to Carnegie Hall after sold-out lectures, The Vietnam War: At Home and Abroad in 2018, and We Chose to Go to the Moon in 2019.

Monsky’s reverence for historical ephemera is at the core of his productions, with his meticulous research of flags and other tangible objects driving his narratives that expore landmark events in our history.

In 2019, Monsky was honored by the New-York Historical Society, where he has developed and workshopped many of his lectures and serves as a Trustee. He recently appeared on CNN and wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times, providing historical perspective on current events. The flag collection, which Monsky began as a child with a kerchief carried by President Theodore Roosevelt, has been reported on in both The New Yorker and Art & Antiques Magazine.

Monsky graduated from Yale College as a history major, where he was awarded the White Prize in History and the Deforest Oratory Prize. After attending Harvard Law School and working as a law clerk, he served as an attorney for the US Senate Congressional Committee that was investigating the Iran-Contra affair.

Today, Monsky is a partner and general counsel of Oak Hill Capital, an investment firm. He lives in New York City with his wife, and their four children and two dogs, Flag and Flyer.

Ian Weinberger is excited and honored to make his Carnegie Hall debut this evening. He is the music director of Hamilton on Broadway and currently performs as a member of the hip-hop improv group Freestyle Love Supreme. New York credits include A New Brain, Titanic (Lincoln Center), and Nobody Loves You. Other new works include The Secret of My Success (Paramount Theatre) and Titanic (Hangar Theatre). His arrangements and orchestrations of Titanic and Disney’s Moana Jr. have been heard in productions around the world. Other Broadway and Off-Broadway orchestras as a conductor and/or keyboardist include The Book of Mormon, Kinky Boots, Rocky the Musical, Side Show, Chaplin: The Musical, and Little Miss Sunshine. Television credits include the 74th Annual Tony Awards, Fosse/Verdon, Peter Pan Live, and The Sound of Music Live. He is a proud graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied percussion performance and music education. For my grandfathers: First Lieutenant Martin I. Weinberger, 121st Infantry Regiment, 8th Division, First Army; and Private First-Class Carol C. Goodman, Company F, 393rd Infantry Regiment, 99th Division, First Army.

Lilli Cooper is thrilled to be making her Carnegie Hall debut! Her Broadway credits include Tootsie (Tony nomination), SpongeBob SquarePants, Wicked (Elphaba), and Spring Awakening (original cast). Other theater favorites include Mack and Mabel (City Center Encores!); Tick, Tick ...Boom! (Keen Company); Sundown, Yellow Moon (WP Theater); The Wildness (Ars Nova); Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (American Repertory Theater); and The Threepenny Opera (Atlantic Theater Company). On television, Cooper has been seen on Dynasty, NCIS: New Orleans, Bull, Instinct, Elementary, The Code, and The Good Fight. She is an alum of LaGuardia High School and Vassar College. For more information, visit lillicooper.com.

Adam Jacobs is best-known for originating the title role in Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway, for which he received Drama Desk and Grammy nominations. Other Broadway credits include Simba in The Lion King, and Marius in Les Misérables. Favorite regional credits include the US premiere of Zorro at Alliance Theatre, Once On This Island at Paper Mill Playhouse, and Something Rotten! at the Marriott Theatre in Illinois. His television credits include Soundtrack, Chicago Med, The Bachelorette, Good Morning America, and the 68th Annual Tony Awards. Jacobs is a graduate of New York University. His debut solo album, Right Where I Belong, is available on iTunes and Spotify. @AdamJacobsNYC

A celebrated actress and vocalist, Kate Rockwell has been performing in American History Unbound presentations and lectures for nearly a decade. She recently concluded her acclaimed two-year run in the Broadway musical Mean Girls, originating the role of Karen Smith, and earning Helen Hayes and Drama Desk nominations. Rockwell’s previous Broadway credits include originating the role of Skylar in Bring It On: The Musical, Sherrie in Rock of Ages, Margot in Legally Blonde, and Hair. Among her favorite regional credits are Maria in The Sound of Music at The Muny, Mabel Normand in the world premiere of Hollywood at La Jolla Playhouse, and Carrie in Carousel at Arena Stage (Helen Hayes nomination). Her television and film credits include Blue Bloods, Almost Family, High Maintenance, Deadbeat, and Sex and the City: The Movie. She will also be seen in the upcoming Amazon streaming series Harlem. Born in Connecticut and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Rockwell is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University.

Daniel Yearwood can currently be seen starring in the Broadway production of Hamilton. Prior to that, he was in the Tony-nominated play INK at Manhattan Theatre Club right after returning from a run in the Jerry Mitchell–directed musical My Very First British Invasion at Paper Mill Playhouse. Other theater credits include Broadway’s Once On This Island, City Center Encores! production of Grand Hotel, and the reading of Tarell Alvin Mccraney’s Choir Boy directed by Trip Cullman.

Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) grew from a group of virtuoso musicians performing chamber music concerts at Greenwich Village’s Church of St. Luke in the Fields in 1974. Regular seasons see OSL perform diverse musical genres at New York’s major concert venues, drawing on an expanded roster for large-scale works, and collaborating with artists ranging from Joshua Bell and Renée Fleming to Bono and Metallica. The orchestra has commissioned more than 50 new works and has given more than 175 world, US, and New York City premieres; in addition, it has participated in 118 recordings, four of which have been recognized with Grammy Awards. Internationally celebrated for his expertise in 18th-century music, Bernard Labadie was appointed OSL’s Principal Conductor in 2018, continuing the orchestra’s long tradition of working with proponents of historical performance practice. Built and operated by OSL, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music opened in 2011. New York City’s only rehearsal, recording, education, and performance space expressly dedicated to classical music, it serves more than 500 ensembles and 30,000 musicians each year. Learn more at OSLmusic.org or @OSLmusic on Instagram, Facebook, and Spotify.

Peter Flynn is a New York–based award-winning director who specializes in the development of new works as well as staging classic American musicals both in New York and with some of the most notable regional theaters in the country. His New York directing credits include the Off-Broadway premiere of Smart Blonde by Willy Holtzman starring Andréa Burns; the Off-Broadway premiere of Curvy Widow by Bobby Goldman and Drew Brody; Rhapsody in Seth starring Seth Rudetsky; Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms; the 75th anniversary performance of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town with Adriane Lenox, B. D. Wong, and S. Epatha Merkerson; On the 20th Century with Douglas Sills and Marin Mazzie; Chess with Josh Groban and Julia Murney; Funny Girl with Bebe Neuwirth, Whoopi Goldberg, and Lillias White; Skippyjon Jones; and Junie B. Jones (two Lucille Lortel nominations). Other credits include Andrea Martin’s one-woman show, Final Days! Everything Must Go!; Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop; Gypsy at The Muny; Kiss Me, Kate for the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, where he also directed productions of Man of La Mancha, Born Yesterday, and Other Desert Cities; and Into the Woods and Ragtime (Helen Hayes nominations) for Ford’s Theatre, where he is an associate artist. He was artistic director of Ithaca’s Hangar Theatre for five seasons, overseeing a variety of large-scale productions, intimate plays, and the development of new work. A graduate of Northwestern University, Flynn is the founding artistic director of the Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. An associate professor of musical theater at Montclair State University, Flynn has been directing American History Unbound lectures for nearly a decade.