Guitar, Performance
Chic Street Man is a uniquely talented artist with an international following. His music transcends cultural and attitudinal barriers, bringing home his message of harmony and ethnic diversity through acoustic bluesy ballads, funky rhythms and jazzy upbeat originals.
Chic has been a featured performer in the US, France and in other parts of Europe, including the Montreux, Paleo and Bern Jazz Festivals in Switzerland, and the United Nations Human Rights Center in Geneva. Whether singing at a United Nations conference on human rights or engaging students at a local high school assembly, he connects. He has the rare ability to engage all audiences; adults, teens, children, seniors and entire families to make them laugh, think and feel good inside.
Chic is also a celebrated communications facilitator and has presented for many organizations, including The Young Presidents Organization (YPO) in Austria, Switzerland, Australia and the USA. His world-class workshop "The Freedom of Expression" uses the stage to empower participants to strengthen their ability to connect with others.
Chic is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz with a B.S. Degree in Psychology. He served as Head of the Department of Psychodrama at a Community Hospital in Carmel, CA; the Executive Director of a Fair Housing program in Hayward, CA; and the instructor of a class titled The Creative Process at Occidental College in L.A. before deciding to focus exclusively on his music. He recorded his first album, Growing Up, in Paris, France. He toured throughout France and later landed in Santa Barbara, CA where he founded Chic Street Man's School of Performing Arts and where he released his second album, Make It Thru The Night. Chic was the Artistic Director of the Boston production of the international play, Peace Child, touring with the company in Russia and Poland. He was a featured performer at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York for the International Day of Peace, and gave benefit concerts for the United Nations Human Rights Center in Geneva. Chic later returned to Geneva as a featured artist for the United Nations Awards Celebration honoring indigenous caregivers.
Chic composed the music and starred in the off-Broadway hit show, Spunk, adapted by George C. Wolfe from three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston and performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival, The Crossroads Theater in New Jersey, The Royal Court in London, The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, The Berkeley and Seattle Repertory Theaters and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He received a 1990 Audelco Award and a 1992 NAACP Theater Arts Award for his music and performance in Spunk. Chic also composed the music for Permutations, a segment of PBS's “Great Performances” presentation of George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum. Chic composed the score and starred in the Berkeley Repertory Theater's production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. He was a contributing author, performer and musical arranger for the Denver Center Theater Company's It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues in 1995, and toured with the show in D.C., Arizona, Kansas City and Seattle. Chic composed the score for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's world premiere of A Lesson Before Dying. He composed the score and was the featured performer in the Cleveland Playhouse's world premiere of Touch The Names--Letters to The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. He wrote and performed A Black History of The Blues for the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Chic also co-authored and starred in Passing The Blues Along at the Crossroads Theater in New Jersey, and was the Arranger, Musical Director and Composer for the McCarter and Berkeley Repertory Theater’s production of Zora Neale Hurston’s Polk County, where he also won the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Musical Direction. In 2005 he played the role of “Slow Drag” at the Seattle Repertory Theater’s production of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In 2006 he composed the music and starred in Richard Wright’s Native Son at Seattle’s Intiman Theater. Chic was Professor Slick in Pullman Porter Blues at the Seattle Rep, Arena Stage in DC and the Goodman Theater in Chicago and Rev. Gary Davis in the Vineyard Playhouse production of Search: Paul Clayton. He starred in Low Down Dirty Blues at the Milwaukee Rep, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the Arizona Theater Company. In 1998 he starred in the Mark Taper Forum production of Lost Highway, the story of Hank Williams, and has appeared in the films Triple Bogey and Hangin' With The Home Boys. He is also the writer, singer and composer of several albums including: Lullabies, Growing Up, Make it Thru the Night, Everybody be Yourself, Guns Away and Beau-ti-ful. Chic is on faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, VA. www.chicstreetman.com
