NYFOS Opens Season With Gabriel Kahane Song Cycle & More

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (NYFOS) opens 2011-12 season with "IN THE MEMORY PALACE"

Featuring Gabriel Kahane's song cycle The Memory Palace (watch a video preview below) and music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, William Sterndale Bennett, Frank Bridge, Manuel Oltra, Enrique Granados, Stephen Sondheim, Smokey Robinson.

All sung by beloved NYFOS favorites:
soprano MICHELLE AREYZAGA / mezzo-soprano REBECCA JO LOEB
tenor PAUL APPLEBY / baritone ANDREW GARLAND

Steven Blier & Michael Barrett, pianists

Tuesday, October 25 at 8:00PM
Thursday, October 27 at 8:00PM
No intermission
Post-concert meet-the-artists wine reception open to all

Merkin Concert Hall (129 West 67th St.)

$40-$55 for single tickets; student tickets $15
New this year: Real Deal Tickets - $25 Advance Purchase/"Pot Luck" Seating

NYFOS takes this program to the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Saturday, October 22, 7:30PM under the auspices of Vocal Arts D.C.

Steven Blier talks about In the Memory Palace:
"Memory Palace reunites us with one of today's greatest songwriters, Gabriel Kahane, who combines a refreshingly modern sensibility with the refinement and compositional skill of his greatest forbears: Elvis Costello mated with Gabriel Fauré.

We'll also be exploring several other composers whose music has fascinated us over the past years: the rarely-heard Frank Bridge, who was Benjamin Britten's teacher and an alluringly sensual, multi-faceted songwriter in his own right; Enrique Granados, whose classic song cycle Tonadillas combines high-voltage charm with startling emotional depths; and Heitor Villa-Lobos, whose Forest of the Amazon songs are like an instant immersion (eco-friendly, of course) into the exotic, passionate sounds of the Brazilian jungle."

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG-the group that "charms audiences with programs that combine meticulous research with an infectious strain of vocal hedonism" (The New York Times)-opens its 2011-12 season with IN THE MEMORY PALACE on Tuesday and Thursday, October 25 and 27 at 8:00PM at Merkin Concert Hall.

On the heels of Gabriel Kahane's acclaimed new album Where are the Arms, NYFOS showcases the young songwriter's The Memory Palace. In this song cycle, Kahane's haunting music and mordant lyrics guide the listener along his own private East Coast route-a quirky and touching roadtrip dotted with personal landmarks. Assembled from five of Kahane's previously self-performed works, the composer has fashioned his songs into a new cycle for the concert stage. Baritone Andrew Garland, whose 2010 NYFOS performance, which included Kahane's "playfully outrageous" Craigslistlieder, earned him high praise for his "robust voice, lively dramatic skills" and "commanding intensity" (The New York Times), performs Kahane's newest cycle.

Kahane's delicately remembered scenes of love and longing culminate a series of cycles and quartets by other composers, following the theme of desire. Joining Garland in this task are three other exceptional singers. Tenor Paul Appleby, a National Winner of the 2009 Met Opera National Council Auditions and the co-star of last season's opening NYFOS concert Beginner's Luck, performs songs by Frank Bridge, while mezzo-soprano Rebecca Jo Loeb sings the music of Enrique Granados. Soprano Michelle Areyzaga showcases a rare cycle by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and rounds out the ensemble in quartets by William Sterndale Bennett, Stephen Sondheim, Manuel Oltra, and Smokey Robinson.

NYFOS has earned critical acclaim for its outside-the-box programming, high artistry and warm, informal atmosphere. Led by founders Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, armed with just two pianos, gorgeous voices, a sense of humor, and a love of words and music-not to mention a deep knowledge of musical culture savvy enough to find the 19th-century gem that speaks to today's sensibilities-NYFOS plunders music's most remote precincts to create evenings of the deepest pleasure.

Program for IN THE MEMORY PALACE

The Company
Heitor Villa-Lobos:
Canção da folha morta

Michelle Areyzaga, soprano
Heitor Villa-Lobos:
from The Forest of the Amazon:
Canção de amor
Cair da tarde
Melodia sentimental

The Company
William SternDALE BENNETT:
Come live with me

Paul Appleby, tenor
FRANK BRIDGE:
Go Not, Happy Day
Goldenhair
When You Are Old and Gray
Dweller in My Deathless Dreams
Love Went A-Riding

The Company
MANUEL OLTRA:
Eco

Rebecca Jo Loeb, mezzo-soprano
ENRIQUE GRANADOS:
from Tonadillas:
El tra-la-lá y el punteado
La maja dolorosa
El majo tímido
Amor y odio
El mirar de la maja
Callejeo

The Company
Stephen Sondheim:
Two Fairy Tales (written for A Little Night Music)

Andrew Garland, baritone
Gabriel Kahane:
The Memory Palace
Underberg
7 Middagh
Merritt Pkwy
North Adams
Rochester

The Company
Smokey Robinson:
You've Really Got a Hold on Me

LINKS
Paul Appleby, tenor
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Appleby,_Paul.php

Michelle Areyzaga, soprano
http://www.michelleareyzaga.com/Welcome.html

Michael Barrett
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Barrett,_Michael.php

Steven Blier
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Blier,_Steven.php

Andrew Garland, baritone
http://andrewgarland.com/

Rebecca Jo Loeb, mezzo-soprano
http://www.caramoor.org/whatsnew/blog/post/rebecca-jo-loeb-shares-her-experience-with-caramoor-s-vocal-rising-stars

Gabriel Kahane
http://www.imgartists.com/?page=artist&id=734

Merkin Concert Hall
http://kaufman-center.org/merkin-concert-hall

New York Festival of Song
http://nyfos.org/

UPCOMING NYFOS SHOWS AT MERKIN CONCERT HALL:

Thursday, November 17, 2011
MANNING THE CANON: Songs of Gay Life (Back by Popular Demand!)
Two centuries of songs by and about gay men
Poulenc, Tchaikovsky, Griffes, de Falla, Bernstein, Cole Porter, Blitzstein, Schubert, Saint-Saëns
Scott Murphree, tenor • Jesse Blumberg, Timothy McDevitt, baritones • Matt Boehler, bass

Tuesday, November 29 and Thursday, December 1, 2011
A GOYISHE CHRISTMAS TO YOU! Yuletide Classics by Jewish Songwriters
Music by Frank Loesser, Styne and Cahn, Mel Tormé, Irving Berlin and many others
Lauren Worsham, soprano • Mary Testa, vocalist • Joshua Breitzer, tenor
John Brancy, Joshua Jeremiah, baritones • Alan Kay, clarinet

Tuesday, February 14 and Thursday, February 16, 2012
A MODERN PERSON'S GUIDE TO HOOKING UP AND BREAKING UP
Music by Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, The Bobs, William Bolcom, Noël Coward, and Ed Kleban
Anne-Carolyn Bird, soprano • Liza Forrester, mezzo-soprano
Alex Mansoori, tenor • Jesse Blumberg, baritone

Sunday, March 11, 2012, Rosen House, Caramoor
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, Merkin Concert Hall
NEW YORK TO PARIS, PARIS TO PARADISE
Music by Rorem, Charles Trenet, Milhaud, Roussel, Gershwin and many others
Introducing members of Caramoor's 2012 Vocal Rising Stars

AND DON'T MISS THE NEW-MUSIC MINI-SERIES NYFOS NEXT,
AS IT RETURNS FOR ITS 2nd SEASON:

Tuesday, November 18, 2011, at 7:00PM
NYFOS Next: Joseph Thalken & Friends

Tuesday, April 24, 2012, at 7:00PM
NYFOS Next: Russell Platt & Friends
Mary Flagler Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street betw 9th and 10th Avenues
FREE