Performer Interviews, Q & A, and performance excerpts
with Marsh and MarshStream founder Stephanie Weisman

Sylvie Simmons

The New York Times bestselling author of the international hit book
I’m Your Man: The Life Of Leonard Cohen, comes out a singer songwriter herself!

Thursday, August 27 at 7:30pm PDT

in conversation with Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman

Sylvie Simmons is an award-winning writer, the author of fiction and non-fiction books, and a leading music journalist since the late 1970s, when she left rainy England for California and a life in rock. One of very few women included among the predominantly male music writing elite, the BBC made a documentary on Sylvie called The Rock Chick. Her books include biographies of the French enfant terrible Serge Gainsbourg (which J.G Ballard named one his favorite books); and the hugely-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international hit I’m Your Man: The Life Of Leonard Cohen. In her fifties, after touring the world with her Cohen book and her ukulele, Sylvie came out as a singer-songwriter. In 2014 she signed a record deal and released her debut album, Sylvie, which the UK Guardian hailed as “one of the most beautiful albums of the year” and the Times called, “Poetic, guileless, reminiscent of a female Leonard Cohen.” After the book she wrote with Debbie Harry, Face It, was published last year, Sylvie finished recording her second album of all new songs, Blue on Blue. It will be released in August on Compass Records. Sylvie is currently sheltering in place in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Instagram: sylviesimmons1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SylvieSimmonsWordsAndMusic/

Twitter: @sylviesimmons

Stephanie Weisman founded and has been the Artistic/Executive Director of The Marsh since its inception in 1989. Under her leadership, The Marsh has grown from a one-night-a-week performance series to producing 600-700 shows annually on its four stages. In addition to its developing work performance series, The Marsh’s programs include: artist-in-residencies, after-school and summer workshops for youth both onsite and in 5 SFUSD, and performance development classes, workshops and Performance Initiatives. In 1996 Stephanie spearheaded the drive to successfully buy their 12,000 sq ft facility on Valencia Street in San Francisco. This increased The Marsh’s programs four-fold as well as provided for a stable Bay Area arts organization. In 2010, The Marsh added a second venue in Berkeley. In 2020, Stephanie initiated MarshStream. She is currently at work developing her opera, Aphrodisia, with dancer, Wei Wang.