While I’m Here is a specially priced two-CD celebration of the extraordinary life and career of Theodore Bikel, the Austrian-born American artist whose more than 70-year career encompassed stage and film acting, folk music, Broadway, songwriting, and activism. A towering figure in American cultural life, Bikel performed Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof more than 2,000 times, co-founded the Newport Folk Festival, recorded for labels including Elektra and Reprise, and became a mentor and inspiration to generations of folk artists, including Judy Collins and Peter Yarrow. Beyond the stage, he was a passionate advocate for human rights, organized labor, Jewish causes, and Israel.More than a conventional career retrospective, While I’m Here offers an intimate portrait of the man behind the remarkable public career. The first disc is devoted entirely to spoken word, featuring Bikel reflecting on his life, travels, friendships, artistic experiences, and the extraordinary people and events he encountered along the way. His stories provide a firsthand account of a remarkable era in theater, film, and folk music, told with the intelligence, warmth, humor, and conviction that defined Bikel himself. The second disc presents a 17-song musical retrospective spanning his earliest recordings through his final performances. Drawn from rare, obscure, out-of-print, previously unreleased, and newly recorded material, the collection traces Bikel's extraordinary range as a performer. The repertoire moves effortlessly across folk, Broadway, and traditional music, with songs performed in Yiddish, Hebrew, English, and French. Highlights include "Edelweiss," the beloved song from The Sound of Music associated with Bikel's Broadway performance as Captain von Trapp, alongside selections that showcase his lifelong connection to Jewish, European, and American folk traditions. The final recordings were captured during Bikel's 90th birthday concert at the Saban Theatre in Los Angeles in 2014, giving the collection a particularly poignant sense of completion. Rather than presenting Bikel simply as a figure from the past, these performances reveal an artist who remained musically and intellectually engaged throughout his final years. Produced by Michael Stein, Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, and Eric Peltoniemi, While I’m Here was assembled as a true labor of love. The lavish 22-page color booklet includes extensive liner notes, interviews, photographs, and reflections that place the recordings within the broader story of Bikel's remarkable life. Together, the two discs form a deeply personal portrait of an artist who refused to separate music from humanity, using his extraordinary voice and platform to entertain, educate, advocate, and bring people together. As Judy Collins reflected, Bikel would remain “a star” in her life and a blessing to those who knew him. Peter Yarrow similarly remembered the extraordinary emotional range he brought to his performances. While I’m Here stands as a fitting testament to that legacy: a celebration not only of an exceptional performer, but of a lifelong artist, activist, storyteller, and cultural bridge-builder whose influence continues to resonate.
