Jeff Flaster is a New Yorker by birth whose parents were both mathematicians. They had saved since Jeff was born so that they could send him to MIT, and were not pleased when college-aged Jeff asked if he could major in music instead of math. So Jeff made music a minor, but it remained a major in his life. The fact that he is a tenor gave him easy entrée into choirs and ensembles, and he performed regularly in a group at MIT, The Chorallaries. He has also performed at The Kennedy Center with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, and at Tanglewood with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Jeff produced three recordings of his original compositions, available on Apple Music. Recently, inspired by an O. Henry's sunnier version of Les Misérables, Jeff wrote a full-length musical now called Following Jimmy Valentine. The 2021 version of this musical, called Shell Shock, was directed by Lennie Watts and can be seen on Melodic Music's YouTube channel. Jeff’s interest in cabaret was sparked by his father, and by a course he took at 92Y with the late Collette Black.