New York Festival Of Song Presents LE TOUR DE FRANCE In February

New York Festival of Song will kick off its first concert of the new year with Le tour de France on Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center. 

Le tour de France is a musical voyage to the four corners of France, from Brittany to the Riviera, ending with a deluxe stay in Paris. The program includes songs by Francis Poulenc, Joseph Canteloube, André Caplet, Gustav Mahler, Michel Legrand, Charles Trénet, and others, featuring the superb vocal talent of soprano Nicoletta Berry, mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner, tenor Daniel McGrew and baritone Theo Hoffman, with pianists Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois.

"This musical tour of France sweeps us from the rugged north to languid south, with stops in her cities, her countryside, her coastline, and her eastern border,” Steven Blier said. “We're in expert hands: French pianist Bénédicte Jourdois, a musician of élan, panache, and savoir-faire, planned the concert with me. Our vocalists are a super-elegant team of NYFOS favorites, all of whom started their careers with us and are now denizens of halls like Carnegie and the Met. I cannot wait to share this gorgeous program with you.” 

All NYFOS programming is funded, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

The NYFOS Mainstage and the NYFOS Next series are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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Concert Information

New York Festival of Song: Le tour de France
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. 
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St | New York, NY 10023
Tickets: $20 - $79; Students $10; also available as part of NYFOS Spring 2025 Season 3-Concert Subscription package
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/new-york-festival-of-song-le-tour-de-france/ 

*Tickets include access to a complimentary reception with the artists in the upper lobby after the show

Program:
Songs by Francis Poulenc, Joseph Canteloube, André Caplet, Gustav Mahler, Michel Legrand, Charles Trénet and others.

Artists:
Nicoletta Berry, soprano
Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano
Daniel McGrew, tenor 
Theo Hoffman, baritone
Steven Blier, piano
Bénédicte Jourdois, piano

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About Nicoletta Berry

Nicoletta Berry is a soprano based in New York City. This season, she premieres Phil Kline's new song cycle, Ghost Story, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in February. In March, she joins City Lyric Opera's Baroque Festival to perform ORPHEUS//EURYDICE, a Baroque retelling of the famous myth featuring a new commission by composer Rebecca Scout Nelson.

She returns to the NYFOS stage in Le Tour de France. Nicoletta was a 2021 Schwab Vocal Rising Star at Caramoor while pursuing her master's degree at the Juilliard School. During her time at Juilliard, she developed her love for Baroque repertoire, performing roles such as Clizia in Handel's Teseo and Giunone in Rossi's L'Orfeo. She also collaborated with the Baroque ensemble Twelfth Night and made her Alice Tully Hall debut singing the soprano solo in Claude Vivier's Lonely Child, conducted by Barbara Hannigan.

Nicoletta received the Stephen Novick Grant in 2022, performed Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni as a Renée Fleming Artist that summer, and portrayed Despina in Così fan tutte at Opera Saratoga in 2024. Last season, she made her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives. Nicoletta holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music (2020) and Juilliard (2022).

About Erin Wagner

American mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner is a passionate advocate for vocal music that embraces modern and diverse perspectives. She won the 2021 Naumburg Foundation Vocal Award, making her Carnegie Hall recital debut with the program “But how things change,” which featured works by Edie Hill, Fauré, Ravel, Errollyn Wallen, Shawn Chang, and Mahler. Erin also commissioned Errollyn Wallen to compose the song cycle JOY, which premiered in 2023.

An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Erin debuted as Jack in Dame Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers and performed in Le Nozze di Figaro (Barbarina) and Salome (Page). She was named a First Prize Winner of the 2022 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, leading to debut performances at The Kaufman Center and The Kennedy Center. At the 2022 Merola Opera Program, she won the Schwabacher Recital Debut Auditions with Shawn Chang, and they later performed a recital at San Francisco Opera titled “Everything Must Change.” In 2023, Erin returned to the Aspen Music Festival as a Renée Fleming Artist, where she portrayed Idamante in Idomeneo and performed Schubert under Nicholas McGegan.

In the 2024-25 season, Erin will make her Metropolitan Opera debut in Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten. She will also present a new work by David Ludwig on the Brooklyn Arts Song Series, participate in the New York Festival of Song at Merkin Hall, and perform with the Brazos Valley Symphony and the Maryland Symphony. Erin will be featured in the YCA Encore Series at the Morgan Library and the YCA Season Finale at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall.

Erin is dedicated to making art accessible to all. She commissioned Shawn Chang to compose “Marty's Letter”, based on her father's childhood, and collaborated with David Clay Mettens on The Sustaining Air, set to text by Larry Eigner. Erin holds a Master's Degree from The Juilliard School, where she won the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital, and a Bachelor's Degree from The Manhattan School of Music. She currently studies with Dr. Stephen King.

About Daniel McGrew

Tenor Daniel McGrew is an active performer of a broad range of repertoires spanning opera, musical theatre, early, and new musics. Deeply committed to the art of song, he has appeared in concert with Brooklyn Art Song Society, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Mirror Visions Ensemble, New York Festival of Song, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the University Musical Society, where he joined Martin Katz and three other singers for two recitals comprising the complete Mörike Songs of Hugo Wolf. 

Daniel made his NYC recital debut at Merkin Hall and his Washington, D.C. recital debut at The Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, both presented by Young Concert Artists. Other recent recital and chamber music appearances include Carnegie Hall, The Morgan Library & Museum (NYC), Glema Mahr Center for the Arts @ Madisonville Community College (KY), Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center @ the University of Alabama, Cosmopolitan Club (NYC), The Belvedere Series (VA), Abbey Church Events (WA), Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Mary Baldwin University, and Elm City Consort. He has appeared as vocal soloist with the American Chamber Orchestra, The Masterwork Chorus @ Carnegie Hall, Bach Collegium–Fort Wayne, and  Parlando Chamber Orchestra (NYC). 

In the summer of 2024, Daniel spent his fourth summer in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival. He has appeared at Tanglewood in George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence and in the role of François in Bernstein's A Quiet Place, as well as in the annual Festival of Contemporary Music with a performance of Kurtág's “Three Ancient Inscriptions” The Boston Globe called, “viciously beautiful”.

During the 24-25 season Daniel will be featured as soloist with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Lobgesang and with the Richmond Symphony in Handel's Messiah. He will return to his alma mater, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, for performances of Rhiannon Giddens' and Michael Abels' opera Omar. Daniel will be presented in recital at the American Society for Jewish Music, Brown University, Howard Community College, Cincinnati Song Initiative, New York Festival of Song, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and will join the Worcester Chorus for performances of two cantatas by J.S. Bach, BWV 213 & 214.     

An early music specialist, Daniel has performed Bach with conductors including Matthew Halls, John Harbison, David Hill, and Masaaki Suzuki, and toured India and the Baltic region with Juilliard415 and Yale University's Schola Cantorum. As part of Young Concert Artists' special season finale performance at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in May 2023, McGrew performed alongside acclaimed harpsichordist and YCA alum, Anthony Newman in a performance of Bach's cantata Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind. Beyond the classical repertory, he has participated in concerts including the symphonic premiere of James Lapine's Sondheim on Sondheim with the Boston Pops Orchestra and David Loud's Sondheim revue, A Good Thing Going.

Daniel holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University; he recently completed his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan.

Winning First Prize in the 2021 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, Daniel was awarded The St. Vincent College Concert Prize and the University of Florida Performing Arts Prize.

About Theo Hoffman

Baritone Theo Hoffman is among the most versatile American singers of his generation. Born and raised in Manhattan, Mr. Hoffman's performing career has taken him all over the world, including collaborations with The Metropolitan Opera (Grounded), Staatsoper Hamburg (Il Turco in Italia and Manon), Opernhaus Zürich (Platée), Los Angeles Opera (Die Zauberflöte, Satyagraha, Candide, Carmen, et al), Seattle Opera (La Bohème), Opera Philadelphia (Denis & Katya), Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (The Trial and Le nozze di Figaro), Israeli Opera (Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro), National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan (Pelléas et Mélisande), New Orleans Opera (Le nozze di Figaro), North Carolina Opera (Le nozze di Figaro), Atlanta Opera (La Bohème and Carmen), Opera Omaha (Les Enfants Terribles), Berkshire Opera Festival (Three Decembers), and Des Moines Metro Opera (Flight). Equally passionate about concert and recital, he spent three summers at Marlboro Music Festival, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Israeli Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Salzburg Mozartwoche, Vocal Arts DC, Bard Music Festival, Washington Concert Opera, Moab Music Festival, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and Winston-Salem Symphony. Mr. Hoffman has a long performing history with New York Festival of Song, and serves on their Artist Council. He is the recipient of a 2018 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Sara Tucker Study Grant and was a Grand Finalist in the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied under the great Sanford Sylvan, to whom he dedicates this debut album. Theo also dedicates this album to his mother, Susan Rosenfeld, who introduced him to the Beatles. 

About New York Festival of Song

Now in its 37th 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 Bastianello and 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 January of 2022, NYFOS Records issued its first album, From Rags to Riches, with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden. At the end of January they are set to release their sixth album, Schubert/Beatles, with Theo Hoffman, Julia Bullock, Kunal Lahiri, and Mr. Blier. The new CD joins NYFOS Records's burgeoning discography, alongside A Picnic Cantata (2022), the first stereo recording of a hidden gem by Paul Bowles and James Schuyler; Black & Blue (2023), the debut solo album of British-American tenor Joshua Blue collaborating with Steven Blier; Mi País: Songs of Argentina (2023) featuring bass-baritone Federico De Michelis and pianist and Steven Blier; and NYFOS Records: The Singles, Vol. 1 (2024), a wide-ranging compilation drawn from over 20 years of archival material, including tracks featuring Michael Spyres, Justin Austin, and Bernarda Fink. NYFOS Records has reached rapidly growing audiences in over 100 countries, with well over 2.5 million streams to date. 

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, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the Ann Goodman Recital Hall at Kaufman Music Center, and now the Rubin Museum in Chelsea.

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 17th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 17th year in March 2025); 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.

About Steven Blier

Steven Blier is the Artistic Director of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which he co-founded in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival's inception, he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 150 vocal recitals with repertoire spanning the entire range of American song, art song from Schubert to Szymanowski, and popular song from early vaudeville to Lennon-McCartney. NYFOS has also made in-depth explorations of music from Spain, Latin America, Scandinavia and Russia. New York Magazine gave NYFOS its award for Best Classical Programming, while Opera News proclaimed Blier “the coolest dude in town” and in December 2014, Musical America included him as one of 30 top industry professionals in their feature article, “Profiles in Courage.”

Mr. Blier enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. His recital partners have included Michael Spyres, Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, and José van Dam, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to La Scala. He is also on the faculty of The Juilliard School and has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. Many of his former students, including  Julia Bullock, Stephanie Blythe, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Dina Kuznetsova, Corinne Winters, and Kate Lindsey, have gone on to be valued recital colleagues and sought-after stars on the opera and concert stage. In keeping the traditions of American music alive, he has brought back to the stage many of the rarely heard songs of George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill and Cole Porter. He has also played ragtime, blues and stride piano evenings with John Musto. A champion of American art song, he has premiered works of John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, Mark Adamo, John Musto, Richard Danielpour, Tobias Picker, Robert Beaser, Lowell Liebermann, Harold Meltzer, and Lee Hoiby, many of which were commissioned by NYFOS.

Mr. Blier's extensive discography includes the premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International), which won a Grammy Award; Spanish Love Songs (Bridge Records), recorded live at the Caramoor International Music Festival with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, and Michael Barrett; the world premiere recording of Bastianello (John Musto) and Lucrezia (William Bolcom), a double bill of one-act comic operas set to librettos by Mark Campbell; and Quiet Please, an album of jazz standards with vocalist Darius de Haas, and Canción amorosa, a CD of Spanish songs with soprano Corinne Winters. His latest releases for NYFOS Records include Black & Blue (2023), with British-American tenor Joshua Blue; Mi País: Songs of Argentina (2023) with bass-baritone Federico De Michelis; and NYFOS Records: The Singles, Vol. 1 (2024), a compilation of guest artists performing together with Steven Blier, spanning over 20 years of memorable moments and voices.