Brooklyn Art Song Society Presents Fifth Annual New Voices Festival

BROOKLYN ART SONG SOCIETY PRESENTS
NEW VOICES FESTIVAL 2025: LOST / FOUND 

Fifth Annual Contemporary Song Series Features Three World Premieres Commissions by Composers Cecilia Livingston, Herschel Garfein, and Tonia Ko

Festival Explores Themes of Loss and Self Discovery

Three Programs Take Place on April 6, May 4, and June 1 at Roulette

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | New York, New York | March 4, 2025 – Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) continues its season with its critically acclaimed Contemporary Art Song series, which returns for a fifth season. New Voices Festival 2025: Lost/Found explores works that deal with personal loss & self-discovery, explore new modes of expression, or bring to life a forgotten past. The festival opens on Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 5PM. The first installment of the three-part series centers around a new song cycle and BASS Commission by Cecilia Livingston. The new work explores themes of Fatherhood and the power of Love with texts by acclaimed Canadian author Anne Michaels. Also featured on this program: a celebration of the recent flourishing of songs by Black composers and encore performances of BASS Commissions by Eve Beglarian and Scott Wheeler. Mezzo-soprano Devony Smith, tenor Aaron Crouch, baritone Greg Feldman, and pianists Michael Brofman and Danny Zelibor perform. Cecilia Livingston joins the program for a pre-concert lecture at 4:30PM. 

On Sunday, May 4 2025 at 5PM, New Voices Festival 2025: Lost/Found II features works by six contemporary composers. Juhi Bansal’s monumental Loss, Love, and Exile shines a light on the experiences of Women in modern-day Afghanistan. In Background Information, Herschel Garfein reimagines the coloratura voice for our times, setting the pop culture-tinged poetry of Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout. Finally, contrasting works by Evan Fein, Tom Cipullo, Will Liverman, and Carlos Simon explore the Lost/Found dichotomy. Sopranos Amy Owens and Laura Strickling, baritone Brandon Bell, pianists Michael Brofman and Daniel Schlosberg, and cellist Carrie Stute perform. The pre-concert lecture will be given by Herschel Garfein. 

The season wraps up on Sunday, June 1 2025 at 5PM with New Voices Festival 2025: Lost/Found III. The New Voices finale explores a brave new world of sonic possibilities in song and features a World Premiere by Tonia Ko, who also delivers the pre-concert lecture, which examines the immigrant experience with texts by author and activist Jenny Lau – alongside bold works by Katherine Balch, Fang Man, Sammy Mousa, Andrew Staniland, and Kate Soper. Sopranos Sarah Brailey and Charlotte Mundy, mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein, pianists Jeremy Chen, Mila Henry, and Nathaniel LaNasa, and double bassist Doug Balliett perform. 

Premier and regular Subscriptions are now on sale.  In addition, BASS is pleased to once again offer its Digital Concert Hall Subscription, which reaches audiences all over the world. The subscription includes free admission and automatic RSVP for all in person concerts, unlimited on demand viewing of BASS’s entire season, complete programs, notes, texts and translations before each concert, access to BASS’ performance archive, and more. Individual tickets are also available with a “Pay What You Choose” option. In addition to the 9-concert season, BASS partners with Heights and Hills Senior Services to bring monthly concerts to their Park Slope Center for Successful Aging.

Brooklyn Art Song Society’s programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.The New Voices Festival is made possible in part by support from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The New Voices Festival is made possible by the generous support of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation. 

Event Information: 
*BASS Debut

New Voices Festival 2025: Lost/Found

New Voices Festival 2025: Lost/Found I 
Sunday, April 6 2025 at 5PM
Pre-concert lecture (4:30PM) with Cecilia Livingston
Roulette • 509 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217
Link: https://brooklynartsongsociety.org/new-voices-fesitval-lost-found-i/ 

Program: 
Jasmine Barnes: Invocation
Eve Beglarian: Only Your Dolls are Cheerful (BASS commission)
Cecilia Livingston: Nothing Can End (World Premiere, BASS Commission)
Shawn E. Okpebholo: Romance
Brandon Spencer: I Know My Soul
Scott Wheeler: 3 Russian Nocturnes (BASS commission)

Artists:
Devony Smith, mezzo-soprano
Aaron Crouch, tenor
Greg Feldman, baritone
Michael Brofman and Danny Zelibor, piano 

New Voices Festival 2025: Lost/Found II
Sunday, May 4 2025 at 5PM
Pre-concert lecture (4:30PM) with Herschel Garfein
Roulette • 509 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217
Link: https://brooklynartsongsociety.org/new-voices-festival-lost-found-ii/ 

 

Program: 
Juhi Bansal: Loss, Love, and Exile
Herschel Garfein: Background Information (World Premiere, BASS commission)
Tom Cipullo: Rapture
Evan Fein: The Solitary Reaper 
Will Liverman: Selected Songs from the Dunbar Songbook
Carlos Simon: American Sonnets (BASS Commission)

 

Artists:
Amy Owens, Laura Strickling, soprano
Brandon Bell, baritone 
Michael Brofman, Daniel Schlosberg, piano
Carrie Stute, cello

New Voices Festival 2025: Lost/Found II
Sunday, June 1 2025 at 5PM
Pre-concert lecture (4:30PM) with Tonia Ko
Roulette • 509 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217
Link: https://brooklynartsongsociety.org/new-voices-festival-lost-found-iii/ 

Program: 
Katherine Balch: Phrases
Fang Man: Partridge Sky
Tonia Ko: New Work (world premiere, BASS commission) 
Samy Moussa: The Sick Rose 
Andrew Staniland: Execution Songs
Kate Soper: The Fragments of Parmenides

Artists:
Sarah Brailey, Charlotte Mundy, soprano
Kristin Gornstein, mezzo-soprano
Jeremy Chen, Mila Henry, Nathaniel LaNasa, piano
Doug Balliett, double bass 

Ticket information: 
Subscriptions:
Annual: $111.99 | Monthly: $10.99/Month

Subscriptions include:

• Free admission and automatic RSVP for all in person concerts.
• Access to BASS Digital Concert Hall with on demand viewing of BASS’s entire season. • Complete programs, notes, texts and translations, and a bonus listening guide made available before each concert.

 

Premier Subscription Add On: $150
Premier Subscriptions includes:

• All of the above Subscriber benefits.
• Choose your seat.
• One free drink per concert from the Bar (Beer, Wine, or Non-Alcoholic).
• Invitation to a special premium subscriber house concert Friday, December 6.

Please note: The Premium Subscription Add On is a separate and additional purchase available only to current subscribers.

Individual Tickets:
Premium: $55

Includes:

• Choose your seat.
• One free drink per concert from the Bar (Beer, Wine, or Non-Alcoholic).
• Complete programs, notes, text, and translations, and a bonus listening guide made

available before each concert.

 

Regular: $35
Includes: Complete programs, notes, texts and translations, and a bonus listening guide made available before each concert.

Pay What You Choose: Minimum $10 Includes:

• Open seating.
• Basic program with text and translations.

 Individual tickets and Digital Subscriptions available at www.brooklynartsongsociety.org

About Brooklyn Art Song Society 
Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) will enter its 15th season of first-rate music making in the Fall of 2024, having earned a reputation as one of the preeminent organizations dedicated to the vast repertoire of poetry set to music. Its mission is to preserve art song’s direct expressiveness and emotional honesty for today’s audience and future generations.

BASS has been called “a company well worth watching” by The New York Times and “superb” by New York Classical Review. Opera News wrote, “Brooklyn Art Song Society keeps the intimate recital alive with innovative programming,” and “BASS delivered a triumph of a program, as they have throughout their distinguished history, skillfully reminding us of the great vitality and power of Art Song.” The New Yorker praised BASS as “invaluable” and “uncompromisingly dedicated to continuing the traditions of classical art song, both old and new.” BASS was named the “Most Innovative” Classical Music organization of 2019 by Classical Post. Seen and Heard International wrote “BASS has not only made Brooklyn its home over the past decade, but also one of the most exciting venues for song anywhere.”  

BASS’s innovative and ambitious programming has reached thousands of audience members- lifelong classical music and first-time concert-goers alike. Since 2010 BASS has presented thousands of songs- nearly the entire canon. Highlights include presentations of the complete songs of Charles Ives and Hugo Wolf and annual themed festivals that range from  surveys of the lieder of Franz Schubert, British song, French Melodie, and songs from the two World Wars.  BASS is dedicated to creating the next generation of great song composers.  In fact, it is the single largest commissioner of new art song working today. BASS has commissioned over 25 composers, including Katherine Balch, The Balliett Brothers, Lembit Beecher, Eve Beglarian, Daniel Felsenfeld, Daron Hagen, Mikhail Johnson, Libby Larsen, James Matheson, Harold Meltzer, Reinaldo Moya, Kurt Rohde, Huang Ruo, Carlos Simon and Scott Wheeler.

Highlights from the 2023-2024 season include the six-concert festival Circles and the fourth annual New Voices Festival, a three-concert series focused on art song in the 21st-century, featuring commissioned world premieres by Iain Bell, Jessica Meyer, and Aida Shirazi. In addition to monthly concerts in Brooklyn, BASS has traveled to Philadelphia, Kansas City, Portland, ME, Raleigh, San Francisco, and Seattle and has held residencies at Cornell University, University of Notre Dame, University of California-Davis, University of Chicago, Ithaca College and University of South Carolina. BASS also reaches music lovers around the country and globe with its innovative Digital Concert Hall and partners with Heights and Hills Senior Services to bring monthly concerts to their Park Slope Center for Successful Aging.   BASS’s artist roster features over 50 of the finest young interpreters of art song. For more information visit www.brooklynartsongsociety.org.

About Michael Brofman
Pianist Michael Brofman has earned a reputation as one of the finest vocal accompanists of his generation. He has performed hundreds of songs, from Schubert’s earliest lieder to premieres of new songs by today’s most-recognized composers. He was hailed by the New York Times as an “excellent pianist” and Feast of Music recently praised his “elegant and refined playing … exhibiting excellent touch and clean technique.” Parterre Box Blog called Mr. Brofman a “master communicator at the piano,” and Voix des Arts praised his “finesse and flexibility.” Seen and Heard International recently wrote “Brofman got to the core of each song…delving into their emotional depths.” Opera News stated “Michael Brofman provided exquisite piano accompaniment.”

Highlights from Mr. Brofman’s 2023-2024 season include performances of Arnold Schoenberg’s Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten with Kate Maroney, Poulenc’s Tel Jour, Telle Nuit with Michael Kelly, and repeat or premiere performances of works written for him by Daniel Felsenfeld, Libby Larsen, Jessica Meyer, and Reinaldo Moya. Mr. Brofman also performs works by Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms, Michael Djupstrom, Shawn E. Okempolo, Caroline Shaw, Clara Schumann, Anton Webern, Kurt  Weill, and Hugo Wolf.

Mr. Brofman has championed new works and has fostered relationships with many living composers, including Katherine Balch, Lembit Beecher, Tom Cipullo, Michael Djupstrom, Daniel Felsenfeld, Herschel Garfein, Mikhail Johnson, Daron Hagen, Jake Heggie, James Kallembach, Libby Larsen, Lowell Liebermann, David Ludwig, James Matheson, Reinaldo Moya, Harold Meltzer, Russell Platt, Kurt Rohde, Glen Roven, Andrew Staniland, Carlos Simon, and Scott Wheeler. In all, he has premiered over 100 songs, many of them dedicated to him.  

Mr. Brofman is the founder and Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Art Song Society, an organization dedicated to the vast repertoire of poetry set to music now in its 14th  season. His first CD New Voices on Roven Records includes four world-premiere recordings and was number one on Amazon’s new releases for Opera/Vocal and debuted in the top 10 of the Traditional Classical Billboard Chart.  Since then he has recorded world premiere recordings of Kurt Rohde on Albany Records and Herschel Garfein for Acis Records.   

An eloquent and passionate advocate for art song, Mr. Brofman has been interviewed by Russell Platt for Opera News, for Caught In the Act on Brooklyn Public Television, on the WQXR radio show Soundcheck, on Seattle KING FM 98.1, and for the Linked Music blog. He also hosts his own internet show Song and Wine. Mr. Brofman has a reputation as a gifted educator and has presented masterclasses at the University of Chicago, Cornell, Ithaca College, the University of Notre Dame and University of South Carolina. Mr. Brofman holds a bachelor of Music from Northwestern University where he studied with James Giles. There he was awarded the Frida A. Pick Award for Piano and featured on Chicago’s classical radio station. Mr. Brofman spent several summers at the Aspen Music Festival as a student of Rita Sloan and continues his studies with Robert Durso. He resides in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn with his wife, violinist Stanichka Dimitrova and his two daughters, Julia and Lillian.

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