Above: Mary singing at the Passage Gala in 2007

With great sadness we inform the Passage community that Mary Cleere Haran, the brilliant singer and interpreter of the classic American songbook, and a beloved friend of the Passage Community, died on February 5, 2011.  Mary was riding her bicycle to work in Ft. Lauderdale, where she has been living for the past year, and was struck by a car.  She suffered massive head trauma which proved fatal despite emergency surgery.  Mary is survived by her son Jake Gilford, age 19.

Mary has been a frequent performer on the Passage stage, and a fixture for many appearances at our benefits.  She and June Ballinger, Passage's Executive Artistic Director, are long time friends.  We will be posting information about the memorial service when it becomes available.

Above: Mary and her son Jake.

Described by The New York Times as "the most literate chanteuse of her generation," Mary Cleere Haran emerged in the 1980s' revival of interest in classic pop and cabaret singing with critics comparing her singing to Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney. The second of eight children in an Irish Catholic family, she was the daughter of a professor of theater and film at San Francisco City College and grew up immersed in the music and movies of the 1930s and '40s, forming a permanent attachment to the songs of the classic pop songwriters of that era. She began singing as a teenager and moved to New York in the late '70s, where she made her Broadway debut playing a band singer in THE 1940'S RADIO HOUR in 1979. Off-Broadway appearances include THE HEEBIE JEEBIES, HOLLYWOOD OPERA, and SWINGTIME CANTEEN, as well as starring in San Francisco's longest running musical hit, BEACH BLANKET BABYLON.

Above:  June Ballinger and Mary Cleere, Christmas 2004

But Haran's first love is club-singing. She made her official cabaret debut at the Ballroom in New York in 1988, and has since brought her witty, musically sophisticated cabaret act to such rooms as Rainbow & Stars, Michael's Pub, The Russian Tea Room, Feinstein's at Loews Regency, Cafe Carlyle, and The Oak Room at The Algonquin Hotel in New York; the Cinegrille in Los Angeles, San Francisco's Plush Room, Philadelphia's Barrymore Room at the Bellevue Hotel as well as numerous other cabarets and concert halls throughout the U.S.

Mary's recording debut was in 1992 with the album There's a Small Hotel (Live at the Algonquin) on Columbia Records. Others include: This Heart of Mine: Classic Movie Songs of the Forties (1994), This Funny World: The Songs of Lorenz Hart (1995), Pennies From Heaven (1998), The Memory of All That: Gershwin on Broadway, and Crazy Rhythm (2000).

On TV, Haran had a recurring role on Sidney Lumet's drama "100 Centre Street" on A&E.

In addition to her illustrious performing career, Ms. Haran is a respected writer and researcher who has brought her talents to numerous PBS specials, including Michael Feinstein's "The Great American Songbook," "Remembering Bing," "Irving Berlin's America," "When We Were Young: The Lives of Child Movie Stars," "Satchmo," a documentary about Louis Armstrong, and the aforementioned "Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey." She was one of a select group asked to write on Frank Sinatra's death in The New York Times. Her CDs have been praised by Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine and The New York Times.