Christopher Cerrone to Host Show of New Song & Poetry at National Sawdust for NYFOS Next

NYFOS Next-the "invaluable contemporary-music series" from the "indefatigable art-song devotees" (The New Yorker) at New York Festival of Song-continues Thursday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust with a showcase of new music and poetry explored by CHRISTOPHER CERRONE & FRIENDS.

Brooklyn-based composer Cerrone hosts and curates this evening of his vocal works and those of his friends and colleagues-including Timo Andres, Katherine Balch, Erin Gee, TEd Hearne, and Scott Wollschleger.

Hailed as "a rising star" by The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 Samuel Barber Rome Prize, Cerrone's compositional voice is characterized by profoundly expressive lyricism, ringing clarity, and a deep literary fluency. His opera Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino's classic novel, was praised by The Los Angeles Times as "a delicate and beautiful opera...[which] could be, and should be, done anywhere." A finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, Invisible Cities received its fully-staged world premiere in a wildly popular production by The Industry, directed by Yuval Sharon in Los Angeles's Union Station.

Cerrone's NYFOS Next program features the New York premiere of his The Naomi Songs for piano, clarinet and baritone with looping electronics, as well as previews of two new works: Three songs based on Lasky poems by TEd Hearne, and Apocatastasis, also by Cerrone.

The evening also includes Timo Andres' recently premiered Mirror Songs, two pieces from Erin Gee's Mouthpiece series, Katherine Balch's Vidi L'angelo nel Marmo and Scott Wollschleger's Fragment on Fragments.

The dynamic line-up of performers includes vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Justine Aronson, Pat Swoboda on bass and NYFOS Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett and composer Timo Andres at the piano.

Most of the composers-as well as poet Dorothea Lasky-will be in attendance.

From Christopher Cerrone: "When NYFOS invited me to host and curate a NYFOS Next, I jumped at the chance to explore two of my favorite parts of vocal pieces-fragments and contemporary poetry. All of the pieces are based on new (or relatively recent) poetry, including GC Waldrep, Bill Knott, Dorothea Lasky, and Andrea Cohen. The other pieces by Scott Wollschleger, Erin Gee, and Katerine Balch use fragments of Rumi, Sanscrit, and Michaelangelo. I love contemporary poetry and the chance to combine these worlds. Timo and I often share ideas about new poetry, and I'm really happy to have connected Ted with Dorothea's texts. Similarly the blending of styles-from Theo Bleckmann's jazz voice to Justine's more operatic style-is something I actively seek to cultivate in my own music. The music will range from pop/jazz influences (Ted, Timo, myself) to more experimental and fragmented."

The Program:

Timo Andres
Mirror Songs (2015)

TEd Hearne
Three songs based on Lasky poems (2016) - Preview

Christopher Cerrone
Apocatastasis (2016) - Preview
The Naomi Songs (2015) - New York premiere

Erin Gee
Mouthpiece I (2000)
Mouthpiece IV (2004)

Katherine Balch
Vidi L'angelo nel Marmo (2015)

Scott Wollschleger
Fragment on Fragments (2014)

2016-17 marks the seventh season NYFOS Next; the moveable modern song salon finds a new home at Brooklyn's much buzzed-about National Sawdust. The season opened with Gabriela Lena Frank and concludes with the husband/wife team of Kyle Jarrow and Lauren Worsham (rescheduled for May 3, 2017 at 7pm).

With an emphasis on spontaneity, novelty, and collaboration, NYFOS Next looks to the future, offering today's song composers a forum for their work. Audiences get an intimate look inside the creative process, as freshly-minted songs are offered-some for the first time-in an informal setting. Curator/hosts for past NYFOS Nexts include Bright Sheng, Paul Moravec, Gabriel Kahane, Joseph Thalken, Phil Kline, Carla Kilhstedt, Mohammed Fairouz, Kevin Puts, Russell Platt, Mark Adamo, John Musto, Harold Meltzer, David T. Little, and Lowell liebermann.

Christopher Cerrone (www.christophercerrone.com) - Winner of a 2015 Rome Prize and a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, the Brooklyn-based composer Christopher Cerrone is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations.

This season Cerrone has world premieres with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (for Jeffrey Kahane's final concert as LACO Music Director), the Calder Quartet at the Broad Stage; Third Coast Percussion and Rachel Calloway for the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame; and an electroacoustic work for flutist Tim Munro at Miller Theatre.

Other highlights include performances by Tito Muñoz and the Phoenix Symphony; Eighth Blackbird at The Ringling (their recording of the Sleeping Giant collaborative work, Hand Eye, is available on Cedille Records); Jennifer Koh at the Cincinnati Arts Center; and Vicky Chow at Roulette. His works are also performed at Caramoor, the Festival Nuova Consonanza in Rome, the Balliet im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, at the Kennedy Center, and elsewhere.

Cerrone curates an evening for New York Festival of Song (NYFOS Next, featuring Theo Bleckmann), and looks forward to a residency with Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. 16/17 also includes new releases from New Amsterdam Records - albums from Vicky Chow and the Living Earth Show - and on VIA Records, including a recording of Memory Palace by Ian Rosenbaum, and an upcoming all-Cerrone album from Christopher Rountree and wild Up.

Recent commissions include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Present Music, and Theo Bleckmann with the Albany Symphony's Dogs of Desire. Cerrone's opera, Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino's landmark novel, received its fully-staged world premiere in a wildly popular production (and accompanying album and film) by The Industry, directed by Yuval Sharon in Los Angeles' Union Station.

A co-founder of Red Light New Music, Christopher Cerrone is one-sixth of the Sleeping Giant composer collective. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, and is published by Schott NY and Project Schott New York.

Now in its 29th 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 ofSpanish 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. This past season saw the release of Canción Amorosa, a CD of Spanish song-Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic-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. The series is currently held at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.

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 12th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 9th year in March 2017); San Francisco Opera Center (over 18 years as of February 2016); 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.

To post a comment, you must register and login.