On Sunday, March 26, I spent an afternoon at the Bryant Library in the company of Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter and a host of other perhaps lesser known, but equally talented, composers; but the real star of the afternoon was the singer who performed their songs, East Hills resident Susan Winter, known to her friends as Susan Zacherman. The concert was advertised as, "Songs I learned on the Million Dollar Movie, but despite the fact that the advent of the VCR in the late 1970s eventually made The Million Dollar Movie unnecessary, even archaic, as prime time entertainment, to assume that this was an afternoon of nostalgia is to miss the point completely. Ms. Winter obviously knows the difference between oldies and, for lack of a better word, standards. Granted, we've all heard these songs many times before but, using her style, her delivery, her humor and her timing she was able to keep them current.

The standing-room-only audience, whom I estimated to be about 200 people, was treated to one hour of pure contemporary professionalism couched in the most intimate of settings in the Helen Glannon meeting room on the second floor of the library; a room with surprisingly good acoustics that is ideally suited for a show such as this. Ms. Winter was accompanied at the piano by her musical director, Kim Oler, whose unpretentious arrangements allowed the spotlight to fall precisely where it belonged, on the singer herself.

She opened her performance with a jumping medley of George M. Cohan songs, obviously selected to give the show just the right amount of energy, as she alternated between ballads and bounce to glide through such great numbers as The Trolley Song (Ralph Blaine and Hugh Martin), Pick Yourself Up (Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields), It Might as Well Be Spring (Rodgers and Hammerstein), and my two personal favorites, Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin and Makin' Whoopee, by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn. Her rendition of the latter, a song about marital infidelity that is as relevant today as it was when it was written in 1928, was sheer delight. Before each song Ms. Winter engaged, even teased, her audience with an introduction that displayed her voice and enthusiasm for her material. We wanted to hear them as much as she wanted to sing them - perhaps even more. It was a Sunday afternoon in perfect balance.

As far as I know, Ms. Winter has not performed regularly in public for quite some time. But perhaps last weekend's concert will be just what she needs to begin her first career all over again. Judging by this performance, it will simply be a labor of love, so when you see that she is performing again locally, I'd suggest that you get your tickets early.