New York Festival of Song Continues Mainstage Series at Kaufman Music Center with Kabarett on November 16

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Katlyn Morahan
Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com
(646) 378-9386

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG CONTINUES
MAINSTAGE SERIES AT KAUFMAN MUSIC CENTER WITH
KABARETT ON NOVEMBER 16

Concert Includes Songs from Weimar-Era Berlin by
Hollaender, Spoliansky, Bienert, Tucholsky, Eisler, and others

Featured Artists Include Sari Gruber, Naomi Louisa O’Connell, and Justin Austin

www.nyfos.org

October 13, 2022 - New York, NY — New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), led by Artistic Director Steven Blier, continues its 2022-23 Mainstage Series with Kabarett on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 at 8:00pm. The program highlights songs from Berlin’s fabled nightspots during the Weimar era, featuring music by Hollaender, Spoliansky, Bienert, Tucholsky, Eisler, and others. Soprano Sari Gruber, mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell, and baritone Justin Austin join Mr. Blier at the piano.

Berlin was a hotbed of cabaret nightlife in the 1920s. These nightclubs became the artistic home for some of Germany's sharpest composers and lyricists, who supplied songs satirizing the tumult of the era. As Europe recovered from the ravages of the First World War, everything was in flux—politics, sexuality, psychology, and science. All of it became fodder for a brilliant repertoire of cabaret songs, whose ironic wit speaks to our current times with uncanny insight. Kabarett will be sung in both the original German and in English translations by Jeremy Lawrence.

“The issues they deal with—the vicissitudes of sexuality and gender, the loneliness and the dazzle of city life, the menace of political despots—could have been ripped from today’s headlines,” said Mr. Blier on curating the program. “The songs have humor, grit, and political insight.” 

“There is something delicious about performing cabaret of the Weimar era: brilliant, incisive text and good tunes with enough room left around the edges for performers to leave their own mark on it,” said Ms. O’Connell. “Reading through songs set to Tucholsky's writing at the Deutsches Literatur Archiv in Marbach, I was surprised at how the razor-sharp observations of 100 years ago feel eerily appropriate today, as we watch our little world repeat itself. I am looking forward to this program immensely.”

NYFOS’ current 35th season, which also marks Mr. Blier’s 50th year as a professional musician, is devoted to the idea of resilience. NYFOS’ 2022-23 season also includes: the 12th rendition of its NYFOS Next Festival on October 16, 2022 at 3:00pm and October 23, 2022 at 3:00pm at the Rubin Museum of Art’s Theater, curated by pianist Nathaniel LaNasa; Amor on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 8:00pm with mezzo-sopranos Lucia Bradford and Kate Lindsey, bass-baritone Federico De Michelis, and others to be announced, together with pianist Steven Blier; and Mediterranean on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 8:00pm, featuring Caramoor’s 2023 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars with pianists Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois.

Concert Information
Kabarett
November 16, 2022 at 8:00pm
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street | New York, NY 
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/new-york-festival-of-song-kabarett/

Sari Gruber, soprano
Naomi Louisa O’Connell, mezzo-soprano
Justin Austin, baritone
Steven Blier, piano

Program to include: 

Spoliansky-Schiffer: It’s All a Swindle 
Bienert-Tucholsky: Nur das 
Bienert-Tucholsky: Augen in der Großstadt 
Spoliansky-Schiffer: Maskulinum-Femininum 
Bienert-Tucholsky: Die Frau spricht 
Bienert-Tucholsky: Die Dame mit’n Avec 
Hollaender: Ich bin vom Kopf bis Fuss 
Hollaender: ‘Raus mit den Männern  
Waxman: Ich hab so was im Blut
Fall-Beda: Was hast du für Gefühl, Moritz?
Neumann: Ein Neandertaler
Eisler: Rosen auf den Weg gestreut
Eisler: Der Graben (Eisler) 

All NYFOS programming is funded, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

NYFOS Mainstage is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Tickets:
Four-concert subscriptions are currently available for $160 to $260 and single tickets are available at $20 to $70.

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, 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 release is From Rags to Riches with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden, 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. 

About Sari Gruber
Hailed as “nothing short of sensational” by Opera Magazine, soprano Sari Gruber’s operatic credits include appearances with Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Netherlands Opera, and more. An acclaimed recitalist and the 2005 Naumburg Competition 1 st place winner, Ms. Gruber has given numerous solo recitals at Alice Tully and Carnegie Halls, and noted recital venues across the US for both the Naumburg and the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Her concert appearances include engagements with Pittsburgh Symphony, Boston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and others. Post-pandemic performances include recitals with the Bluff Series and CMU’s Chamber Music Series, Messiah with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Strauss’ Four Last Songs with Symphoria, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

About Naomi Louisa O’Connell
Naomi Louisa O’Connell’s performance career encompasses a broad spectrum of theatrical and operatic repertoire, ranging from plays to operas, recitals, and cabarets to sound sculptures and virtual reality performance art. Hailed by The New York Times as “a natural in the recital format” for her Carnegie Hall debut recital Witches, Bitches & Women in Britches at Weill Recital Hall, she performs regularly in concerts internationally. Works in development include a theatrical song cycle (for which she is also the librettist) with composer Emma O’Halloran. Upcoming engagements include performances with LA Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Prototype Festival, and Dublin Theatre Festival.

About Justin Austin
Praised in Opera News for his ‘vocally impressive, verbally elegant, and duly seductive baritone" Justin Austin recently made his debuts with the Metropolitan Opera in the company premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet and at Chicago Lyirc as Charles Blow in Terrance Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Recent highlights include the tenor soloist in Elijah at Carnegie Hall with The Oratorio Society of New York, George Armstrong in Intimate Apparel with Lincoln Center Theater (recorded for future telecast on PBS’ Great Performances), and Thomas McKellar in An American Apollo with Washington National Opera. Mr. Austin has also appeared in opera with The Glimmerglass Festival, the Bayerishe Staatsoper, Opera Saratoga, Bard Festival Summerscape, Munich Opera Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and others. As a multifaceted musician, Austin performs a wide range of repertoire from jazz, RnB and musical theater to opera and oratorio.

Photo credits: Photo of Justin Austin by Gillian Riesen, Photo of Sari Gruber by Arielle Doneson, Photo of Naomi Louisa O’Connell by Dario Acosta, Steven Blier by Faye Fox 

# # #