New York Festival of Song Announces 2010-11 Season
By: Gabrielle Sierra Aug. 16, 2010
NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (NYFOS) creates intimate concerts that breathe new life into an art form that's rich and emotionally resonant, yet is too often treated as genteel, intellectual, and predictable. 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 18th-century gem that speaks to today's sensibilities-NYFOS plunders music's most remote precincts to create evenings of the deepest pleasure. In a given concert, Debussy speaks to doo-wop, Lieder to Latin jazz, Josquin to the just-written.
In addition to the much-loved Merkin Concert Hall series, NYFOS expands its reach in 2010-2011 with three exciting developments:
- No Song is Safe From Us, a nationally syndicated radio series produced by Chicago's famed WFMT and hosted by Frederica von Stade, will air starting in January 2011. Drawing upon NYFOS's extensive archives and recordings, the series includes two programs featuring the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
- NYFOS Next, free one-hour concerts of contemporary songs curated and co-hosted this season by two of today's most adventurous song composers, Gabriel Kahane and Phil Kline. The salon-style shows are presented by the Movado Hour at the Baryshnikov Art Center on November 16, 2010 and May 3, 2011.
- Bastianello / Lucrezia, a 2-disc CD release on Bridge Records featuring the two operas NYFOS commissioned from John Musto and William Bolcom.
Michael Barrett, acclaimed programming innovator and conductor who is General Director of Caramoor and co-founder of the Moab Music Festival, adds: "We are also excited about NYFOS Next, our new contemporary music series, where we lavish time and attention on today's most innovative songwriters, like the amazing Gabriel Kahane who curates the fall show. Not to mention our new national radio series-sort of a NYFOS Home Companion-which mines the NYFOS archives for treasures the whole world can hear. NYFOS has always been a musical party, and this year should be the wildest."
T H E 10 / 11 S E A S O N
NYFOS NEXT, a new mini-series
Presented by The Movado Hour
Baryshnikov Arts Center's Howard Gilman Performance Space
450 West 37th Street betw 9th and 10th Avenues
Free admission • Reservations are required
www.smarttix.com • 212-868-4444
The Movado Hour is a series of free hour-long concerts presented in an intimate salon setting. With NYFOS Next, NYFOS looks to the future, offering a forum for the next generation of song composers and interpreters to give audiences an up-close encounter with the creative process, as freshly-minted songs are shared among creative companions-some for the first time. With an emphasis on spontaneity, novelty, and collaboration, NYFOS Next pioneers an experimental venue for song, paralleling New York Festival of Song's celebrated concert series in Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010, at 7:00PM
NYFOS Next: Gabriel Kahane & Friends
A program of new vocal music performed and co-curated by acclaimed singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane (Craigslistlieder) with New York Festival of Song's Steven Blier, Michael Barrett and Benjamin Sosland.
"There is nobody else within the pop-music sphere making music even remotely as sophisticated as Gabriel Kahane. This is music for the ears, the intellect and the soul...he is one of the most prodigious talents we've got."-Etan Rosenbloom, Prefix Magazine
Tuesday, May 3, 2011, at 7:00PM
NYFOS Next: Phil Kline & Friends
A program of new vocal music performed and co-curated by composer Phil Kline (Zippo Songs), with NYFOS's Steven Blier, Michael Barrett and Benjamin Sosland.
"Phil Kline is one of America's most important compositional voices-thanks to his burning urge to communicate, and not things that can be reduced to a charismatic sentence. His pieces become part of your inner life no matter how little you understand them." - David PatRick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer
NO SONG IS SAFE FROM US, a new radio series
A 13-segment radio series beginning January 2011
Produced by Chicago's WFMT
Hosted by Frederica von Stade
NYFOS will take to the airwaves starting in January 2011 with No Song Is Safe From Us, a 13-hour series hosted by legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and produced by WFMT Radio in Chicago. WFMT is the sponsor of radio programs for the New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wigmore Hall, and many others. Radio audiences will hear unique NYFOS concerts and recordings drawn from nearly a quarter century of recorded archives and critically acclaimed recordings. All 13 programs will be distributed by the WFMT Radio Network throughout the U.S. and the world. The series will also be streamed live at www.wfmt.com, and related audio, video, program notes and interviews will be posted there, as well as on www.nyfos.org.
Among the programs are:
- Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (highlights from this great artist's 13 performances with NYFOS between 1990 and her death in 2006)
- Lost Tribes of Vaudeville (a celebration of Black and Jewish vaudeville)
- Latin Lovers (art song and theater music from Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba)
- Kurt Weill's Berlin (including cabaret songs from 1920s Berlin)
- Poets Without Heroes (settings and readings of poetry by Soviet poet Anna Akhmatova and her circle)
- Fugitives (music by composers who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and '40s)
The NYFOS series at MERKIN CONCERT HALL
All concerts begin at 8:00PM
Four programs, Eight concerts
$40-$55 for single tickets; $140-$200 for 4-concert subscription
129 West 67th St. • 212-501-3330
Tuesday, October 19 and Thursday, October 21, 2010
Sasha Cooke, soprano; Paul Appleby, tenor; Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, pianists
NYFOS is known for nurturing young singers and launching them on major careers. Two NYFOS favorites, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and tenor Paul Appleby, are climbing the stairway to stardom, and the songs on this program, by such composers as Bernstein, Busoni, Schubert, and Strauss, capture the joys, fears, and wonders of new beginnings in life, love, and art.
Steven Blier talks about Beginner's Luck:
"I have several great jobs. One of them is sitting on my butt in a studio at the Juilliard school and coaching the singers who walk through the door. Two such were Paul Appleby and Sasha Cooke: Paul, one of the most naturally engaging and breathtakingly stylish balladeers I have ever heard, and Sasha, who seemed to be the love-child of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Janet Baker. It's been a privilege to be part of their vocal and artistic development, and I am so proud of the way the musical world has already embraced them. They did brilliant work together when NYFOS premiered Bastianello and Lucrezia, the operas we commissioned from John Musto and Bill Bolcom. We jumped at the chance to present them again, this time in a duo-concert. It seemed obvious that we should choose songs that celebrate their youth and tremendous promise. They are at a magical-and precarious-moment as they set out on their careers and young adulthood. We'll hear music written by composers at a similar stage of their lives, and explore the excitement and challenge of starting out in life."
MANNING THE CANON: Songs of Gay Life
Tuesday, November 30 and Thursday, December 2, 2010
Scott Murphree, tenor; Jesse Blumberg, Matthew Worth, baritones; Matt Boehler, bass; Steven Blier, pianist
NYFOS celebrates the lives and art of gay men with a program featuring works that reflect the heritage of gay composers in art song, and songs about the gay experience. Featured composers include Poulenc, Tchaikovsky, Griffes, Bernstein, Porter, Blitzstein, and others.
Steven Blier talks about Manning the Canon:
"This is a program I've been longing to do for about two decades. It explores two centuries of gay composers and gay-themed songs, and presents a wide variety of characters: experienced guys on the prowl for a good time; sensitive men grappling with their sexuality; hyper-males and drag queens; ecstatic lovers and those just awakening to their erotic nature. The composers come from seven countries and span 190 years, but they have one thing in common: they are all masters of words and music, and present a vital and engaging portrait of our gay heritage. The joys of gay brotherhood, the lacerating wit of our most brilliant writers, the subtle signals we've created to locate one another, and the crises we've faced and survived: these are the subjects of Manning the Canon."
NIGHT AND DAY/USA: Americans Working And Dreaming
Tuesday, February 15 and Thursday, February 17, 2011
Sari Gruber, soprano; Liza Forrester, mezzo-soprano; James Martin, baritone; Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, pianists
Americans are either hard at work or searching for work. This daring program presents songs that explore the contrasts between the reality of our daily labors and the inner life of our dreams and fantasies. It also looks at the great American Dream, with all its possibilities and promises. Songs by American composers Berlin, Blitzstein, Weill, Bowles, Rorem, Gordon, and others are featured.
Steven Blier talks about Night and Day/USA:
"Like many New Yorkers, I work pretty hard all day, and often well into the evening. I am also a passionate dreamer, and am fascinated with the narratives my unconscious mind coughs up once I achieve that state of blessed horizontality after my labors are over. Working and dreaming: this is the very stuff of our existence. How exciting to make a program that delves into the ways we earn our daily bread-and the powerful images our minds create when we're asleep."
SPANISH GOLD: Songs of the Iberian Peninsula
Sunday, March 13, 4:00PM (at Caramoor in Katonah, NY)
Tuesday, March 15 and Thursday, March 17, 2011
Members of Caramoor's 2011 Vocal Rising Stars program
Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, pianists
The vibrant songs of the Iberian Peninsula are enriched by the fertile blend of traditions from Castile, Catalonia, Andalusia, Galicia, the Basque country, and Sephardic lands. Bright young singers from the Caramoor Vocal Rising Stars program sing songs by Granados, Sor, Montsalvage, Nin, Toldrà, Guridi, Mompou, and many others from this glorious tradition. These three concerts conclude NYFOS's third annual NYFOS@Caramoor residency.
Steven Blier talks about Spanish Gold:
"The Iberian peninsula isn't big by American standards-it's smaller than Texas, just twice the size of Colorado. But it houses a dizzying array of cultures, languages, and musical traditions, all of them filled with a special allure. From the gypsy-like wailing of Andalusian song to the Gallic elegance of Catalan music, from the purity of Galicia to the earthiness of the Basque country-not to mention the unique grace of what most people think of as Spanish culture, Castile: Spanish Gold takes them all on. It will be a pleasure to introduce our Caramoor Vocal Rising Stars to the beauties of a repertoire that is largely unfamiliar to them, and I look forward to deepening my knowledge and understanding of this mysterious country as we have seminars and coachings with native speakers. Art song, theater song, and folk song (set by some very sophisticated musicians) form a delicious musical paella."
NYFOS CD RELEASE
October 2010
Bastianello / Lucrezia
BRIDGE 9299A/B (Two Discs) DDD UPC: 090404929922
This two-disc set presents the world premiere recordings of new comic operas by John Musto and William Bolcom. The twin operas contain librettos written by Mark Campbell, and were commissioned by and composed for New York Festival of Song (NYFOS). Both operas were written for identical casts-the five singers heard on these recordings. The 2-CD release comes packaged in a slipcase which contains a 112 page book with complete librettos.
Steven Blier writes: "Bill Bolcom's music for Lucrezia is exuberant and tonal, the opulent sound of desire. John Musto's musical world in Bastianello is more elusive and complex: chords often include elements of both major and minor, defying easy categorization. It is a fitting musical landscape for a piece that explores the way one moment can embrace many conflicting feelings. Lucrezia is a riotous piece where greed and deception are thwarted, and Bastianello, is a complex work in which a man learns the lesson of forgiveness."
Bastianello: Music by John Musto; Libretto by Mark Campbell.
Lucrezia: Music by William Bolcom; Libretto by Mark Campbell.
New York Festival of Song: Lisa Vroman, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano;
Paul Appleby, tenor; PatRick Mason, baritone; Matthew Boehler, bass;
Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, piano
NYFOS @ JUILLIARD
ROAD TRIP: An American Travelogue
Wednesday, January 12, 2011, 8:00PM
Alice Tully Hall
NYFOS founders Steven Blier and Michael Barrett and the students of The Juilliard School's Vocal Arts Department present a concert that marks the culmination of the sixth annual installment of NYFOS@Juilliard. This collaboration between NYFOS and The Juilliard School celebrates the creative energy and superlative vocal talent of tomorrow's brightest stars, building on NYFOS's distinctive approach to programming and performing. This year NYFOS@Juilliard presents a musical travelogue, Road Trip, taking audiences on a cross-country journey from Charles Ives' New England to Arthur Schwarz's Brooklyn, from Hoagy Carmichael's Indiana to Emmerich Kálmán's Arizona. Featuring music by Cole Porter, Steven Mark Kohn, Irving Berlin, Paul Bowles and many others.
NYFOS SPRING GALA
A FINE ROMANCE
Kelli O'Hara, Joseph Kaiser, and Steven Blier
perform songs by Jerome Kern
Monday, April 4, 2011, 7:00PM
Weill RecitAl Hall at Carnegie Hall and the ‘21' Club
Kelli O'Hara, Broadway's most luminous leading lady, and the dazzling tenor Joseph Kaiser revel in Jerome Kern's gorgeous melodies, accompanied and hosted by NYFOS's own Steven Blier. The concert program is followed by an elegant supper at ‘21' Club. Contact New York Festival of Song (646) 230-8380 for further information.
LINKS
Paul Appleby, tenor
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Appleby,_Paul.php
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Barrett,_Michael.php
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Blier,_Steven.php
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
http://www.jesseblumberg.com/
Matthew Boehler, bass
http://www.mattboehler.com/
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
http://sashacooke.com/
Liza Forrester, mezzo-soprano
http://www.lizaforrester.com/
Sari Gruber, soprano
http://www.barrettvantage.com/artist.php?id=sgruber
http://www.imgartists.com/?page=artist&id=734
Joseph Kaiser, tenor
http://www.josephkaiser.com/
Phil Kline
http://www.philkline.com/index2.html
James Martin, baritone
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Martin,_James.php
http://www.kelliohara.com/
PatRick Mason, baritone
http://www.colorado.edu/music/faculty/mason.html
Scott Murphree, tenor
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/voice/people/faculty/murphree
Benjamin Sosland
http://www.romanticcentury.org/artists.html#sosland
http://www.fredericavonstade.com/
Lisa Vroman, soprano
http://www.lisavroman.com/
WFMT Chicago
http://www.wfmt.com/
Matthew Worth, baritone
http://www.nyfos.org/bios/Worth,_Matthew.php
NYFOS 2010-2011 Season at a Glance
Saturday, August 7 - Friday, August 13
Steven Blier residency at Glimmerglass Opera
Friday, August 13, 3:00PM
Killer "B"s: American Song from Amy Beach to The Beach Boys
Glimmerglass Opera's Young American Artists Program
Alice Bush Opera Theater (Cooperstown, NY)
October 2010
NYFOS CD Release
Bastianello / Lucrezia
Comic operas by John Musto and William Bolcom
Two-CD release on Bridge Records
Monday, October 4, 10:00PM
Sing for Your Supper
Henry's Restaurant
2745 Broadway (at 105th Street)
Tuesday, October 19, 8:00PM
Beginner's Luck
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Thursday, October 21, 8:00PM
Beginner's Luck
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Sunday, October 24, 2:00PM
Beginner's Luck
Presented by Vocal Arts D.C.
Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center
(Washington, DC)
Tuesday, November 16, 7:00PM
NYFOS Next
Gabriel Kahane, co-host and curator
Presented by The Movado Hour
Baryshnikov Art Center's Howard Gilman Performance Space (NYC)
Tuesday, November 30, 8:00PM
Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Thursday, December 2, 8:00PM
Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Wednesday, January 12, 8:00PM
Road Trip
NYFOS@Juilliard
Alice Tully Hall
Saturday, February 12, 8:00PM
Night and Day/USA: Americans Working and Dreaming
Gildenhorn RecitAl Hall
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center - University of Maryland
Tuesday, February 15, 8:00PM
Night and Day/USA: Americans Working and Dreaming
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Thursday, February 17, 8:00PM
Night and Day/USA: Americans Working and Dreaming
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Monday, March 7 - Saturday, March 12
Steven Blier and Michael Barrett residency
Caramoor's Vocal Rising Stars Program (Katonah, NY)
Sunday, March 13, 4:00PM
Spanish Gold
Caramoor Festival of Music and Arts
(Katonah, NY)
Tuesday, March 15, 8:00PM
Spanish Gold
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Thursday, March 17, 8:00PM
Spanish Gold
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Monday, April 4, 7:00PM
Spring Gala
Weill RecitAl Hall at Carnegie Hall
Tuesday, May 3, 7:00PM
NYFOS Next
Phil Kline, co-host and curator
Presented by The Movado Hour
Baryshnikov Art Center's Howard Gilman Performance Space (NYC)
"New York Festival of Song is the most important nucleus of contemporary song in the world." - Ned Rorem
Videos