New York Festival of Song
The New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) presents an annual series of concerts in New York City dedicated to the art of song, classical, modern and popular. In addition, this organization commissions new works and recordings, including the Grammy Award-winning recording of Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles (Koch), and the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Not Seen (1997, New World Records).
History
The festival was founded in 1988 by Steven Blier and Michael Barrett.
For the 100th anniversary of the Juilliard School in January 2006, NYFOS collaborated on a program featuring "100 Years of Juilliard Composers in Song".
In 2007, NYFOS released a live-recording CD entitled Spanish Love Songs (Bridge), featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Joseph Kaiser, performing with Blier and Barrett at Caramoor. The program was recorded live just before Lieberson's death in 2006.
In December 2008, Bridge Records released an original cast recording of Bastianello / Lucrezia, featuring soprano Lisa Vroman, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Paul Appleby, baritone Patrick Mason and bass Matt Boehler, with pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett. With a score by John Musto and a libretto by Mark Campbell, Bastianello is a family fable of love and folly based on a poignant Italian folk tale. In March 2008, it had its World Premiere, along with William Bolcom's comic piece Lucrezia (a version of Machiavelli′s La Mandragola, libretto also by Mark Campbell) at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, commissioned and presented by the New York Festival of Song.[1]
Notable programs
NYFOS has created and premiered over a hundred unique programs,[1] many of which have toured the United States. Some that have been favorably reviewed and/or frequently reprised:
At Harlem's Height, premiered in 2001, explores the music of the Harlem Renaissance, with songs by Eubie Blake, Fats Waller, William Grant Still, Florence Price and others.
Songs of Peace and War, premiered in 2001, shortly after the World Trade Center attack.
Dvořák and the American Soul, premiered in 2002, juxtaposes songs by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák and those of his African-American students from the period in the 1890s when he was teaching at the National Conservatory in New York, showing how each influenced the other.
Blok and Akhmatova: Poets Without Heroes, premiered in 2005, explores music composed around the work of these Russian poets.
References
- Midgette, Anne (2003-05-24). "For a Champion of Song, It's About Communicating". The New York Times.
- Keller, Johanna (April 2003). "What a Song Can Do". Opera News. The Metropolitan Opera Guild.
- Michener, Charles (2004-01-05). "The Soul Singer". The New Yorker.
I first heard Hunt Lieberson twelve years ago with another such group, the New York Festival of Song, at a benefit evening in Leonard Bernstein’s apartment, in New York. She sang several Spanish love songs, and when she had finished I went up to her and said, “You have one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. Who are you?”
- Ross, Alex (2001-12-10). "Intimate Voices". The New Yorker.
- Kwak, Paul (December 2005). "Subtleties and Surprises in a Showcase of Juilliard Song". The Juilliard Journal Online.
- Gelbert, Bruce-Michael (2005-02-23). "New York Festival of Song: At Harlem's Height". TheatreScene.net. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19.
- Midgette, Anne (2001-10-15). "The Songs Of Harlem, Informally Informative". The New York Times.
- Griffiths, Paul (2002-11-27). "What Dvorak Brought With Him And What He Took Back Home". The New York Times.
- Gelbert, Bruce-Michael (2003-03-14). "New York Festival of Song: Songs of Peace and War". TheatreScene.net. Archived from the original on 2007-06-23.
- Davis, Peter G. (2005-01-31). "A Russian Winter". New York Magazine.
- Eichler, Jeremy (2005-01-21). "Mother Russia, With the Language Barrier Removed". The New York Times.