New York Festival of Song, whose recent "A Bernstein/Bolcom Celebration" was performed with "Comic and dramatic flair,"(The New York Times) presents Fugitives, songs by composers who fled Hitler's Europe, on November 18 and 20 at the newly restored Merkin Concert Hall in New York. The program will feature music from Broadway, the concert stage and Berlin cabaret by Kurt Weill, Erich Korngold, Alexander Zemlinsky and many others.
Fugitives will be sung by two of the Metropolitan Opera's rising young stars. Tenor Joseph Kaiser currently appears as Narraboth in Salome and was last season's Roméo opposite Anna Netrebko. Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey will be featured in Met productions of The Magic Flute, Rusalka and The Ring Cycle, and makes her guest artist debut with the
New York Philharmonic in a concert performance of L'enfant et les sortilèges, conducted by
Lorin Maazel. Once again, New York Festival Of Song Artistic Director
Steven Blier, a "national treasure when it comes to the art of song," (The New York Times) will be the pianist/host for the evening.
Curtain time for both concerts is 8PM. Tickets for Fugitives are $40 - $55. Call (212) 501-3330, or visit
www.kaufman-center.org. Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center is at 129 West 67th Street, New York, NY 10023. There are also a limited number of $15 student tickets available by calling (646) 230-8380. For more information about New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS), please visit their website at
www.nyfos.org.
Canadian-born tenor JOSEPH KAISER starred as Tamino in the
Kenneth Branagh film adaptation of The Magic Flute. This season he will make two highly anticipated debuts: at the
Los Angeles Opera as Tamino under the baton of
James Conlon, and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Jen fa. He returns to the Salzburg Festival as Septimius in a new Christoph Loy production of Handel's Theodora. His concert schedule includes performances of the Berlioz Requiem under Marek Janowski, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Christoph von Dohnányi and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Mendelssohn's Elijah with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal. Mr. Kaiser has appeared at the Caramoor Festival in a joint program with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, which was presented under the auspices of the New York Festival of Song (available on Bridge Records), in Chicago at the Chicago Humanities Festival, in Montreal with the André Turp Society, and on the Debut Series of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
KATE LINDSEY made her debut this summer at the Tanglewood Festival in a concert version of Les Troyens conducted by
James Levine, and appeared in two other chamber music concerts at the festival. Other recent engagements have included appearances at the Metropolitan Opera as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (opposite
Bryn Terfel) and Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette (with Mr. Kaiser and Anna Netrebko); debuts with the Boston Lyric Opera as Cherubino, the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a new commission by John Harbison conducted by
James Levine, the Cleveland Orchestra in performances of Haydn's Harmoniemesse conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, and the Met Chamber Ensemble in Zankel Hall. She also appeared as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Stéphano at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Angelina in La Cenerentola at the
Wolf Trap Opera.
NYFOS Artistic Director
Steven Blier also enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. Among the many artists he has partnered in recital are Renée Fleming,
Cecilia Bartoli, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson,
Susan Graham,
Frederica von Stade,
Jessye Norman and
Samuel Ramey. He has performed throughout North America and Europe, including recitals at
Carnegie Hall, La Scala, Milan, and a Live From Lincoln Center telecast. Mr. Blier co-founded the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) in 1988 with
Michael Barrett. Since the Festival's inception he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated over one hundred vocal recitals with repertoire spanning the entire range of song. His discography includes the premiere recording of
Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International), which won a Grammy Award; the NYFOS discs of Blitzstein, Gershwin, and German Lieder (Unquiet Peace); Gershwin's Lady Be Good! (Nonesuch Records); four albums of songs by Charles Ives in partnership with baritone William Sharp (Albany Records); first recordings of music by Busoni and Borodin with cellist
Dorothy Lawson (Koch International); and Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Bridge Records). In December, Bridge will release the original cast recording of Bastianello / Lucrezia, the acclaimed John Musto and
WIlliam Bolcom operas with libretti by
Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS.
