Judy Kaye, Anika Rose, Darius de Haas, and James Martin Star in Lost Tribes of Vaudeville May 11

The New York Festival of Song, with Artistic Director Steven Blier and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett, closes its 17th season on Wednesday, May 11th with LOST TRIBES OF VAUDEVILLE, at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, 129 West 67th St., beginning at 8 p.m.

This evening will explore Jewish and Black Vaudeville, two great entertainment cultures, their contributions to each others' worlds and to ours. The program will include works by Duke Ellington, Shelton Brooks, Joe Jordan, W. C. Handy, Harold Arlen, and Irving Berlin. Many of these songs were originally introduced by Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Ethel Waters, Bert Williams, Cab Calloway, W.C. Handy, and Al Jolson.

Artists will include Judy Kaye, Anika Rose, Bruce Adler, Darius de Haas, and James Martin, with; Alan R. Kay, clarinet; Greg Utzig, guitar; Paul Cavaciuti, drums and Steven Blier, pianist and arranger.

Highlights of the program will include The Sheik of Avenue B, by Kalmar and Ruby; You'd Be Surprised by Irving Berlin; Some of these Days, by Shelton Brooks; Lovie Joe by Will Marion Cook; and When the Sun Comes Out by Harold Arlen..

The New York Festival of Song brings a special energy to the once-faded form of the song recital, recreating it as a vibrantly entertaining theater experience meticulously researched and engagingly narrated by its two artistic directors, Michael Barrett and Steven Blier. Blier and Barrett's innovative, thematic programs present a broad repertoire of art songs, concert works, and theater pieces. Concerts may range in a single evening from Brahms to the Beatles, or may take the audience on a tour of exotic vocal terrain from Russian art song to Argentinean tango. NYFOS also supports and builds the American song repertoire by performing and commissioning new works and exploring seldom-heard music from the country's rich musical heritage.

ARTISTS

Steven Blier, co-founder and artistic director of The New York Festival of Song, is a musician with extensive expertise in the art songs and popular music of many countries. For NYFOS he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than ninety vocal recitals. An accomplished accompanist and vocal coach, Mr. Blier has partnered in recital such renowned artists as Samuel Ramey, Susan Graham, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Frederica von Stade and Jessye Norman, and appeared at Carnegie Hall with Cecilia Bartoli and throughout North America and Europe with Renée Fleming. Mr. Blier is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and appears regularly on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcasts.

Michael Barrett, co-founder and associate artistic director of The New York Festival of Song, is Chief Executive and General Director of the Caramoor Festival and also the musical director and founder of the Moab Music Festival in Utah. He has guest conducted with major orchestras here and abroad in symphonic, operatic and dance repertoire. Mr. Barrett served as the director of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y and is currently music advisor to the Leonard Bernstein estate. His recording, The Joys of Bernstein, features Mr. Barrett playing solo piano with Maestro Bernstein conducting.

Darius de Haas, tenor, Broadway credits include Rent, Carousel, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Marie Christine, The Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm, and most recently, Dreamgirls in Concert. His theatre credits (Off-Broadway and regional) include Running Man, Children of Eden, Saturn Returns, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, and Once on This Island. Darius's voice can be heard on several CD recordings, including Children of Eden (RCA Victor), Marie Christine (RCA Victor), I Was Looking at the Ceiling and then I Saw the Sky (Nonesuch), Myths and Hymns (Nonesuch), Fire at Keaton's Bar and Grill (6 Degrees), Bright Eyed Joy: The Songs of Ricky Ian Gordon (Nonesuch), and Dreamgirls in Concert (Nonesuch). His own CD, Daydream: Variations on Strayhorn, was recently released on PS Classics. He has been a frequent guest with the New York Festival of Song.

Judy Kaye, mezzo-soprano, starred on Broadway in the smash hit Mamma Mia!, for which she was nominated for the 2002 Tony Award and the 2002 Drama Desk Award. She was honored with the 1988 Tony Award for her portrayal of the prima donna Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera and received the Theatre World Award, The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, and the first of two Drama Desk nominations playing Lily Garland in On the Twentieth Century. Ms. Kaye starred on Broadway as Emma Goldman in Ragtime, a role she also played in Los Angeles where she received the Theatre L.A. Ovation Award. Other roles have ranged from Rizzo in Grease! to Musetta in La Boheme for the Santa Fe Opera (where she also performed Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld and Lucy Locket in The Beggar's Opera, Sally in Follies, Maggie in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Penny in You Can't Take It with You. She has been featured in NYFOS concerts both in New York and Washington D.C., as well as on their recordings of Bernstein and Gershwin songs.

Anika Rose, soprano, has performed on Broadway in The Tony Award winning shows Caroline, or Change and Footloose. Her Off-Broadway credits include Carmen Jones and Eli's Comin' in which she won a the 2001 Obie for a Outstanding Performance. Rose has regionally performed in Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Me and Mrs. Jones, Threepenny Opera, Tartuffe, and Insurrection: Holding History. Her film and television roles include Hack, From Justin to Kelly, Temptation, Third Watch, 100 Centre Street and The Thrill Is Gone with B.B. King and Tracy Chapman.

Bruce Adler starred for four years on Broadway, in Crazy For You, for which he received both the 1992 Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations as Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Prior to that, his performance in Those Were the Days (1991) earned him a Drama Desk Award as well as a Tony nomination in the same category. Among his many other Broadway credits are Rumors, Sunday in the Park With George, George Abbott's Broadway, Oh, Brother!, and the 1979 revival of Oklahoma! Other credits include Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof at the St. Louis Muni, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls (St. Louis Muni and Kansas City Starlight Theaters), Bill Snibson in Me and My Girl (Broward Center for the Performing Arts), Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Moonface Martin in Anything Goes with Chita Rivera. His voice was featured in the Disney animated feature Beauty and the Beast and he sang the opening song "Arabian Nights" in Aladdin. His recordings include An Evening at the Yiddish Theatre, Volumes 1 & 2.

James Martin, baritone, makes his home in New York City. He received his Bachelor of Music from Illinois Wesleyan University and his Master's degree from The Juilliard School as a student of Cynthia Hoffmann. He has performed opera and concert throughout the United States and parts of Europe, including appearances with NYFOS in At Harlem's Height, and Dvořák and the American Soul. Recently he debuted with Den Norske Opera as Don Giovanni in Oslo, and with L'opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, as Junius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Matt of the Mint in The Beggar's Opera. Other recent engagements include Sofia Gubaidulina's Rubaiyat for MoMA's annual Summergarden Festival; Bach's Johannes-Passion with the Marlboro Music Festival; a Copland recital with New York's Continuum Ensemble; recitals in Mississippi and Chicago; a tap-dancing Papageno; concerts with the New England Bach Festival; Il barbiere di Siviglia in Norway; and a double bill of Martinu's Larmes des couteax and Alexandre Bis in France.