Julie Benko, Jason Yeager & More to Perform at New York Festival of Song's FEELIN' GROOVY: SONGS OF THE 60S

New York Festival of Song will host its annual spring gala, Feelin' Groovy: Songs from the 60s, on Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. at the Racquet & Tennis Club on Park Avenue. In support of NYFOS's 35th season, the gala features a performance of songs by Laura Nyro, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell and the Beatles, along with some Motown hits.

Guests will enjoy cocktails and dinner with special performances by Julie Benko (currently starring in Funny Girl) and her husband, jazz pianist Jason Yeager; two powerhouse balladeers, tenors Joshua Blue (who is currently celebrating the release of his album Black & Blue with Steven Blier on the NYFOS Records label) and Daniel McGrew; plus a performance by Lucia Bradford, whom NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier calls a "one-woman Supremes."

Proceeds from the NYFOS Gala directly underwrites NYFOS programming and makes possible all the uniquely engaging concerts that are its hallmark.

Performance Details:

Feelin' Groovy: Songs from the 60s
Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:30 p.m.
Racquet and Tennis Club
370 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Ticket Link: https://nyfos.org/gala/

With performances by:
Julie Benko
Jason Yeager
Joshua Blue
Daniel McGrew
Lucia Bradford

Hosted by:
Steven Blier

About the Artists

Julie Benko

is currently marching her band out on Broadway, where you can catch her as the alternate for Fanny Brice in Funny Girl every Thursday evening. For her performance, she was named the 2022 Breakout Star for Theater in The New York Times, honored as one of 40 Under 40 for Crain's New York Business, hailed by CBS Mornings as "Broadway's breakout star," and praised in several other national platforms. Other Broadway/touring credits include Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, and Spring Awakening. She has appeared in leading roles in such regional and off-Broadway shows as Once (Wilde Award, Best Actress in a Musical), The Fantasticks, Our Town, Rags, Bar Mitzvah Boy, The Golem of Havana, ...Spelling Bee, and more at such venues as Barrington Stage, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, York Theatre Company, Weston Playhouse, and others. Her debut album, Introducing Julie Benko, and newest record Hand in Hand (Club44 Records), a duo effort with her jazz-pianist spouse Jason Yeager, are now available wherever music is streaming. Julie is also a writer: Her full-length play, The District, was named as a semifinalist at the Eugene O'Neill's National Theater Conference, and her short film, The Newlywed's Guide to Physical Intimacy, received accolades at film festivals across the globe. She holds a BFA in Drama and an MFA in Acting from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Visit her website, www.JulieBenko.com, or follow her on Tiktok/Instagram @Jujujuliebee to discover more.

Jason Yeager

is a pianist and composer who has performed across five continents at such noteworthy venues as Carnegie Hall, Birdland Jazz Club, Panama Jazz Festival, Qintai Concert Hall, and more. Winner of the Washington Heights Jazz Composition Competition and 2nd place winner at the Ravenscroft Jazz Piano Competition, Yeager has released seven albums as a bandleader, including his latest, Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite (Sunnyside Records), described as "both complex and highly accessible" by Jazz Times and "an elaborate valentine to Vonnegut" by Downbeat. A frequent accompanist and collaborator, Yeager has performed and/or recorded with such noteworthy artists as Miguel Zenón, Luciana Souza, Sean Jones, Ayn Inserto, and Jason Palmer, among others. His celebrated duo album with spouse Julie Benko, Hand in Hand (Club44 Records), was featured in the 2022 New York Times Jazz & Pop Preview, and has been called "an impressive outing" (BroadwayWorld) and "exquisite" (Times Square Chronicles). A committed educator, Yeager is Assistant Professor of Piano at Berklee College of Music. For more, visit www.JasonYeager.com or follow @jyeagermusic on social media.

Daniel McGrew

Praised for his "lovely, nuanced tenor" (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Daniel McGrew is an active performer of a broad range of repertoires spanning opera, musical theater, early, and new music. 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.

During the 22-23 season Daniel will make his NYC recital debut at Merkin Hall and his Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, both presented by Young Concert Artists. Other recital and chamber music appearances in 22-23 include the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Mary Baldwin University, Elm City Consort, and participation in the inaugural chamber music ensemble of YCA on Tour. Additionally, Daniel will sing the tenor solo in Handel's Messiah in performances with the ProMusic Chamber Orchestra (Columbus, OH) and Music Worcester (Worcester, MA).

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 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, Daniel also won The St. Vincent College Concert Prize and the University of Florida Performing Arts Prize.

Lucia Bradford

Mezzo-soprano, Lucia Bradford is a native of Brooklyn, New York. Ms. Bradford has performed a number of operatic roles including Carmen in Bizet's La Tragedie de Carmen, Zita in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, La Principessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica, The Mother in Ravel's L'Enfant des Sortileges, Mercedes in Bizet's Carmen, Mrs. Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff, The Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Gertrude in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, Hippolyta in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Miss Todd in Menotti's Old Maid and the Thief, the Duchess of Plaza Toro in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers, Azelia Dessalines in William Grant Still's opera Troubled Island, Douglas Tappin's I Dream as Grandma, Mary Watkins's Emmett Till as Mamie Till and Maria in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

Her concert works include Mozart's Vesperae solennes de Confessore, Hadyn's Lord Nelson Mass, De Falla's El amor Brujo, William Grant Still's And they lynched him, Nathanial Dett's The Ordering of Moses, Julia Perry's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony, the Mozart Requiem, Durufle Requiem, Bach B minor Mass with the Voices of Ascension, Mendelssohn's Elijah at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York.

Ms. Bradford has had the privilege of singing at Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, Merkin Hall, and touring in Russia, Budapest, Spain, the Caribbean and throughout the United States. She also enjoys performing a variety of genres including contemporary opera, jazz, gospel and blues.

Joshua Blue

Fast-rising tenor Joshua Blue was born in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. Career highlights include making his Metropolitan Opera debut as Peter in Porgy & Bess alongside the Grammy Award-winning cast including Denyce Graves, Angel Blue, and Eric Owens; presenting the American premiere of Philip Glass's The Trial at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis portraying the role of Franz; singing the Evangelist in Bach's Matthäus-Passion at LA Opera with members of the Hamburg Ballet choreographed by John Neumeier; creating the world-premiere of Another City, a new commission by Houston Grand Opera featuring composer Jeremy Howard Beck and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann; performing Stravinsky's opera-ballet Pulcinella with The Florida Orchestra which included projected paintings by Geff Strik and Tampa City Ballet dancers costumed by Veronique Carpio; singing the American premiere of the rarely heard Franz Liszt opera Sardanapalo at the Library of Congress; and taking part in the Opening Festival of The REACH at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in performances of Beethoven's Symphony #9 with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Blue's long collaboration with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song has included the premiere of Paul Moravec's "Caltagirone" from A Nation of Others and a quartet reduction of "Much to be Done" from the 2019 work STONEWALL, both works with librettos by Mark Campbell. Other appearances include America, Come Home; W.C. Handy and the Birth of Blues; and Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do - Songs from Gay Harlem. On the operatic stage he has performed in L'elisir d'amore; La bohème; Rigoletto; Das Rheingold; Don Giovanni; The Magic Flute; La Traviata; Eugene Onegin; Gianni Schicchi; Der Kaiser von Atlantis; Hippolyte et Aricie; Ariadne auf Naxos; and La finta giardiniera. In opera, he has worked with stage directors David McVicar, Francesca Zambello, Yuval Sharon, Peter McClintock, Lindy Hume, Mary Birnbaum, Seán Curran, and Omer Ben Seadia. In concert, he has been a soloist in Handel's Messiah; Mozart's Requiem; Smyth's Mass in D; Bonds's The Ballad of the Brown King: A Christmas Cantata; and Verdi's Requiem. Mr. Blue has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Washington National Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Philadelphia, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Glimmerglass Opera, Oratorio Society of New York, American Symphony Orchestra, Musica Sacra, Austin Opera, Wolf Trap Opera,Virginia Opera, and Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include James Conlon, Gianandrea Noseda, Eun Sun Kim, Fabio Luisi, James Gaffigan, Carlo Rizzi, Bertrand de Billy, Bernard Labadie, Corrado Rovaris, Eva Ollikainen, Leon Botstein, and Leonard Slatkin. Venues at which he has performed are as far-ranging as Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Merkin Hall, Cincinnati May Festival, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, and the Kennedy Center.

About New York Festival of Song

Now in its 35th 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.

Their latest endeavor is NYFOS Records, which released its first album (From Rags to Riches, with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden) in January of 2022. They also issue a monthly single, with archival performances by artists such as Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Bernarda Fink, and newly recorded songs by Joshua Blue and Sasha Cooke. NYFOS Records has reached rapidly growing audiences in over 100 countries, with well over 110,000 plays since its inception in November of 2021.

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 16th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 14th year in March 2022); 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 140 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 Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Michael Spyres, 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 Stephanie Blythe, Joseph Kaiser, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Dina Kuznetsova, Corinne Winters, Julia Bullock, 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 are From Rags to Riches with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden, and Paul Bowles's A Picnic Cantata, both on NYFOS Records. His writings on opera have been featured in Opera News and the Yale Review. A native New Yorker, he received a Bachelor's Degree with Honors in English Literature at Yale University, where he studied piano with Alexander Farkas. He completed his musical studies in New York with Martin Isepp and Paul Jacobs. Steve is a Yamaha Artist.

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