ABOUT JIM & VAL

 

JIM RICE, of New York City and Boston, is an accomplished and diverse conductor, music director, arranger, pianist, and singer. Abroad, Jim has been Conductor of the European tour of Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera and nationally, Always Patsy Cline. He has been the Assistant Conductor for the international tour of Man of La Mancha and Camelot as well as the pianist for the Broadway production of Grease in Europe. Jim has performed in hundreds of theaters and concert halls throughout Europe and the United States and has performed in every state to date, except Hawaii.

 

He has worked with Tony award winners: Peggy Cass, Victoria Clark, Helen Gallagher, Joanna Gleason, Debbie Gravitte, and George Hearn. He has accompanied many accomplished Broadway and international singing sensations. He has played and accompanied and musically directed artists at Scullers Jazz Club, Ryles, Regattabar, Club Café, and Mechanics Hall; in NYC at The Metropolitan Room, Don’t Tell Mama’s, The Duplex, Danny’s Skylight Room; in PA at the Cosmopolitan Room; in Oguquit, ME he spent three seasons with Michael Holmes at The Front Porch and a variety of venues across Provincetown. He has worked at a number of theatres such as Stoneham Theatre (MA), Foothills Theatre (MA), The American Stage Festival (NH), Olney (MD), North Shore Music Theatre (MA) Kansas City Starlight (MO); The Tennessee Williams Fine Art Center (FL); San Carlos Opera House (FL), Ogunquit Playhouse (ME) as well as The Westside Arts and Westbank Theatres (NYC). He is currently the resident music director of the Artic Playhouse’s monthly Cabaret Club and plays frequently at Club Café.

 

His arrangements have been described as "marvelous" and "sophisticated and richly crafted”. His arrangements have been performed by many orchestras including The Key West Pops (FL), The Festival of the Atlantic (NJ), Thayer Symphony (MA), The Charlotte Symphony (FL), Las Vegas Philharmonic (CA) The Hartford Symphony (CT) Plymouth Symphony (MA) and the Albany Symphony (NY) and others.

 

VALERIE ROY is a native of Grafton, Massachusetts. Critics have raved about her “powerhouse vocals” and “beaming stage personality”. As a performer, Valerie is a formidable singer with a giant voice when she chooses to call upon it. She has an impressive vocal range and sings a wide range of material ranging from pop, rock, R&B, country, big band, show tunes and so much more. Her vocal is eclipsed only by her amazing connection with an audience. It’s one of those things you must experience to understand.

 

Valerie has performed nationally in a variety of concert venues and theatres in both concert formats and theatrical settings. Valerie has performed in close to 40 of the states. Some of the highlights of her career were singing at The Grand Ole Opry & Graceland. She has also been the opener for The Four Aces, Al Martino and a variety of Vegas and Broadway stars.

 

She is an IRNE and Donnie award-winning artist and singer who has a love for music, family, and friends. She feels that music and theatre make the world a better place. She has also worked extensively on the production/producer/presenter side of things and created, owned, and operated two successful production companies since the ‘90s: Valerie Sneade Productions out of MA and NYC and Turning Leaf Productions out of FL and NC.

 

After years of being on stage, Valerie’s biggest claim to fame is marrying the love of her life, Jason Tyler Roy, on 9/26/19 at The Dunkin’ Donuts, 990 Grafton Street, Worcester, Massachusetts where Jim Rice officiated the couple. Their love story ended up on the front cover of newspapers across the country and went viral on social media, internationally. Their romantic “second time around” love story caught the attention of Good Morning America where they were on a featured segment. Their relationship was compared to JLO and Ben Affleck, better known as “Bennifer”. Playing the wife of Jason and stepmom to his three beautiful children is Valerie’s favorite role to date.

 

 

 

This program is supported in part by a grant from The Worcester Arts Council, which was made possible with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funding from the City of Worcester.