Bernie Williams, a beloved member of the Yankees, and Jonathan Tetelman, an international tenor and opera singer, are a surprising duo at first glance.
Especially when it comes to Tetelman’s baseball fandom, “a filthy Phillies fan,” as he put it.
“There wasn’t so much love for the Yankees in my household,” Tetelman told The Post, while sitting beside Williams, a Latin Grammy-nominated guitarist, inside the famed Carnegie Hall.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” the four-time World Series champion interjected with a laugh.
But the Phillies fan and Yankees great will share a stage at Carnegie Hall for a night that blends sports and music – a passion Williams and Tetelman both share – performing alongside members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on Jan. 13.
The night will also include appearances by Mets great José Reyes, former Knicks star Stephon Marbury and violinist and viral sensation, Katia Reguero Lindor, who is also the wife of Mets star Francisco Lindor.
“It means the world to me,” Williams told The Post about his performance at the iconic music venue in Manhattan. “I think as a musician, you kind of tailor your success on the people you play with and the places you play at. I mean it can’t get any better than this, playing with John at this sanctuary of great music. You cannot not notice all the pictures of the great performers that have performed here over the years, from Louis Armstrong to Maria Callas to and everybody you know in between, even to this day.”
Williams’ transition from baseball great to bona fide musician has been well documented over the years.
After No. 51 spent 16 years in the majors patrolling center field at the original House that Ruth Built, Williams went to school for guitar and composition at SUNY Purchase and later released his second album, “Moving Forward,” which was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2009.
Williams, who had a career .297 batting average, hit 287 home runs, 1,257 RBIs and had 2,336 hits in 9,053 plate appearances, has found parallels between baseball and music when it comes down to the big moments.
“I think it just comes down to preparation,” he said. “Whether it’s Carnegie Hall or Yankee Stadium or the Blue Note [a jazz club in New York City], or wherever you are, if you’re prepared, and you have it down, even though you may not know the outcome, you feel that you are excited, and that excitement translates into the way you play. In the way you play, that energy translates into what you offer to the audience. And they bring it back to you by reacting to your spirit.
“I think that’s a beautiful thing, that beautiful connection that happens between the performance and the audience is one that is even more intense if you’re playing in a place like this.”
When asked what people should expect when they arrive at Carnegie Hall for the show, Williams said it would be an “eclectic mix of music,” and Tetelman added they wanted audiences to become “intoxicated” by performances.
And more than anything, Tetelman hopes that it opens the eyes of people who wouldn’t traditionally be drawn to performances like this.
“I think as a musician, I think it’s our duty,” he said about attracting different audiences. “I think it’s absolutely necessary for us to find influences outside of our normal routine, and share them. But also, the things that we do regularly we need, we need to find the next generation of audiences. What we’re doing, I think this idea of connecting these worlds, connecting these people that are from places that don’t normally come and hear opera and classical music, and giving them the opportunity to sit back and listen and enjoy and and hear something that’s not part of their lives, that can potentially become part of their lives is is really the responsibility of a musician. We want to connect people to not only music, but to each other with the music.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
