New York Festival Of Song Presents 2021 NYFOS Next Festival At Kaufman Music Center

New York Festival of Song, led by Artistic Director Steven Blier, is presenting the 2021 NYFOS Next Festival with two concerts held at the Ann Goodman Recital Hall at Kaufman Music Center.

On Friday, October 22, 2021 at 7:00pm, the festival kicks off with 9 UNDER 34: Composers Younger Than NYFOS, co-curated by baritone Gregory Feldmann.

The evening will feature works by composers born after NYFOS's first program was presented, performed by baritone Gregory Feldmann and mezzo-soprano and 2021 Naumberg Award winner Erin Wagner, together with pianists Nathaniel LaNasa and Shawn Chang and cellist Thapelo Masita. Works include songs by Jake Landau, Sato Matsui, Shawn Chang, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, David Clay Mettens, Emily Cooley, Tariq Al-Sabir, Curtis Stewart, and Molly Joyce.

Co-curator Feldmann says about the 9 UNDER 34 program, "In building this program, I hoped to present composers from a wide array of backgrounds and demographics that were writing songs about what mattered to them. The final result has had several themes emerge that, while not unique to our generation, are absolutely core conversations of today: Identity, the shifting social and environmental landscape, and our ability to communicate and connect within these new landscapes. The songs feature texts ranging from 19th century Scotland, to the lesser known words of Francis Scott Key, to nonverbal individuals with autism in Chicago, to personal reflections."

The festival continues with A Tribute to James Primosch on Monday, November 1, 2021 at 7:00pm, honoring the late American composer and pianist. Soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon curates and performs in the program which also features tenor Daniel McGrew and pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough.

Regarding the concert and her late friend, Fitz Gibbon says, "Jim's gentle demeanor belied a sardonic, self-effacing wit. His music too can quixotically change from soothing, beatific lines and harmonies to sharp-edged rhythms and clashing chords. In the pieces I chose for this program you will not only hear these qualities but also hear reflected some of his great loves-his deep and abiding Catholic faith, his musical forebears (both distant and immediate), his family-in what I hope will constitute a musical portrait of a man we lost too soon. I have selected many works that he specifically gave to me over the years, as well as others I often heard him speak about."

Both NYFOS Next shows will be filmed and edited into digital programs, which will premiere after the live performance and remain online for four weeks. $40 subscriptions to the NYFOS Next Festival and $25 single tickets are on-sale now through the NYFOS website at http://nyfos.org/21-22season/#next.

NYFOS' 2021-22 season also includes its Mainstage series held at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, including And...We're Back! on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 8:00pm with Paul Appleby, Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Rebecca Jo Loeb, Johnathan McCullough, and Maggie Reneé; Buenos Aires, Then and Now on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 8:00pm with Raquel González, Brian James Myer and others to be announced; Love Songs in 176 Keys: 4 hands, 4 voices, 4 countries on Tuesday, March 15, 2022 at 8:00pm with Caramoor's 2022 Vocal Rising Stars; and The Wider View: Songs by Black Composers on Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 8:00pm with Aundi Marie Moore, Lucia Bradford, and others.

NYFOS additionally presents its annual holiday show, A Goyishe Christmas to You! on December 6, 2021 at Merkin Hall's upper lobby at Kaufman Music Center with Donna Breitzer, Cantor Joshua Breitzer, Joshua Jeremiah, Rebecca Jo Loeb, Alex Mansoori, and Lauren Worsham.