NYFOS presents PROTEST at Merkin Concert Hall 2/27

Mikaela Bennett with NYFOS; photo by Karli Cadel On February 27 at 8:00 p.m., New York Festival of Song and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center present a new program devised by Steven Blier, entitled, simply, PROTEST. A cast of young, diverse and brilliant singers that includes Mikaela Bennett-who just wowed the world in Michael Gordon's opera Acquanetta at the Protoype Festival-performs songs by a panorama of composers, from Marc Blitzstein and Joni Mitchell to Randy Newman and Mohammed Fairouz. (View the complete program below.)

The program's songs-defiant, passionate, ironic-touch on some of the hot-button issues in today's news: the rights of Latinos, Latinas, Muslims, Jews, and the gay community; the plights of exiles and refugees; and the survival of the earth itself. Music has long been a source of comfort and courage for oppressed communities.

On this night, the singers, composers, audience and NYFOS take an eloquent stand for equality, peace, and rationality.

Jack Viertel, Artistic Director of the Encores! Series at City Center, saw a preview of the show last year and said: "PROTEST is as good as anything Steve Blier and NYFOS have ever done, and that's a crazily high bar to reach. Righteously angry and seductively beautiful, simply presented, yet profoundly impactful, it is ecumenical in a way that is constantly surprising and fulfilling to the human spirit in a dark time. It stiffens the spine as it fill the air with beautiful music." THE PROGRAM
(subject to change) Stevie Wonder
If It's Magic [1976]

TRADITIONAL
Bella, ciao [1943]

CARLOS GUASTAVINO
Pampamapa (Hamlet Lima Quintana) [1968]

MARÍA ELENA WALSH
Como la cigarra [1972]

Randy Newman
Political Science [1972]

FATS WALLER
Black and Blue (Andy Razaf) [1929]

Mischa Spoliansky
The Lavender Song (Kurt Schwabach, trans. Jeremy Lawrence) [1920]

MOHAMMED FAIROUZ
from A Prayer to the New Year (Fadwa Tuqan) [2012]

TRADITIONAL
Zog nit keyn mol (Hirsch Glick) [1943]

Stevie Wonder
Big Brother [1972]

Joni Mitchell
Big Yellow Taxi [1970]

Leonard Bernstein
A Julia de Burgos (Julia de Burgos) [1977]

Marc Blitzstein
The Cradle Will Rock [1937]

Woody Guthrie
Old Man Trump [1951]

Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson
Joe Hill [1936]

Now in its 30th season, New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty and originality. Weaving music, poetry, history and humor into evenings of compelling theater, NYFOS fosters community among artists and audiences. Each program entertains and educates in equal measure.

Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce its series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between musical genres, exploring the character and language of other cultures, and the personal voices of song composers and lyricists.

Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song. Among the many highlights is the double bill of one-act comic operas, Bastianello and Lucrezia, by John Musto and William Bolcom, both with libretti by Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS in 2008 and recorded on Bridge Records. In addition to Bastianelloand Lucrezia and the 2008 Bridge Records release of Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, NYFOS has produced five recordings on the Koch label, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Not Seen (also a NYFOS commission) on New World Records. In 2014, Canción Amorosa, a CD of Spanish song-Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic-was released on the GPR label, with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier.

In November 2010, NYFOS debuted NYFOS Next, a mini-series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues, including OPERA America's National Opera Center, National Sawdust, and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

NYFOS is passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young singers, and has developed training residencies around the country, including with The Juilliard School's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 13th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 10th year in March 2018); San Francisco Opera Center (over 20 years as of February 2018); Glimmerglass Opera (2008-2010); and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY.

NYFOS's concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities continue to spark new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world.