New York Festival of Song Announces 2025-26 Programming

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Katlyn Morahan | Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 378-9386

---

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG ANNOUNCES
2025–26 PROGRAMMING

Four-Concert Mainstage Series Co-Presented with
Kaufman Music Center at Merkin Hall Begins November 20

Season Additionally Includes NYFOS Next Festival at
The Theater at 150 W 17 and NYFOS Residency at The Juilliard School

www.nyfos.org

June 26, 2025 (New York, NY) — New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), led by Artistic Director Steven Blier, today announces its 2025–26 season of performances, including four Mainstage Series programs at Merkin Hall, co-presented with Kaufman Music Center. The season also includes the ??NYFOS Next Festival at The Theater at 150 W 17 and NYFOS’s annual residency at The Juilliard School.

“Our 38th season reunites me with some beloved colleagues—a trio of powerhouse baritones, a pair of charismatic sopranos, and of course that force of nature known as Bénédicte Jourdois, who will partner with me at many of the Mainstage programs,” Steven Blier said. “The season we've created is a series of duet concerts that place American song in consecutive dialogue with music from France, Germany, and South America. (There are, blessedly, no travel bans on song.) To expand our horizon, we’ll also offer our Caramoor program—a dazzling international collection of ocean voyages and river trips, filled with adventure and sensuality. I’m very eager to share the music with you!”

NYFOS kicks off its Mainstage season at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center on Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. with South America, North America: A Love Story. Created for baritone Joseph Parrish, a Baltimore native, and Bolivian soprano Shelén Hughes (partners on- and off-stage) and accompanied by Steven Blier, this program explores the music of North and South America through the milongas, tangos, blues, and art songs that span the two continents.

The Mainstage season continues on Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. with Fugitives, featuring baritone Justin Austin and a guest co-star to be announced later in the season;  Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois will be at the piano. A revival of an acclaimed program last heard in 2008, the playlist includes songs from the concert stage, the movies, Broadway, and Berlin’s cabarets, tracing the varied fates of the composers who faced destruction during Hitler’s rise to power—some to begin new lives and brilliant careers abroad, others to meet with darker ends. The concert features works by Kurt Weill, Franz Schreker, Alexander Zemlinsky, Friedrich Hollaender, Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Korngold, Hanns Eisler, and many others.

On March 11, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. NYFOS offers To the Sea, highlighting the brilliant young talents of Caramoor’s 2026 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars program as they take a musical dive into the world’s rivers and oceans, with songs by Elgar (including his magnificent Sea Pictures), Fauré, Guastavino, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Pauline Viardot, and many others. During a weeklong residency at the Caramoor Center, pianists and curators Bénédicte Jourdois and Steven Blier mentor these musicians, resulting in a concert of special power. Former participants have included Julia Bullock, Paul Appleby, Joélle Harvey, and John Brancy; this year’s group is the latest in that distinguished 17-year tradition.

NYFOS concludes its Mainstage season at Merkin Hall with Poulenc / Sondheim on Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. Poulenc’s sensuality is the perfect foil for Sondheim’s lightning wordplay in this program showcasing two contrasting masters of irony, musical wit, urban sophistication, and psychological acumen. The concert stars soprano Christine Price and baritone Theo Hoffman, with pianists and curators Bénédicte Jourdois and Steven Blier. 

NYFOS continues to release albums and singles throughout the season on its in-house label, NYFOS Records. Their latest CD, Schubert/Beatles (January 2025), based on an adventurous 2016 NYFOS program, features a star-studded cast including baritone Theo Hoffman, soprano Julia Bullock, tenor Andrew Owens, and pianists Kunal Lahiri and Steven Blier. This new recording follows in the wake of The Singles, Vol. 1 (2024), a collection of treasured performances spanning over 20 years of NYFOS’s history; and Mi país: Songs of Argentina (2023) reveling in the spellbinding delicacy of Argentina’s art songs and tangos, with bass-baritone Federico De Michelis and Steven Blier. Both albums received rave reviews and thousands of streams online. View NYFOS Records’s full discography at https://nyfos.org/nyfosrecords/ 

Additional performances:

–NYFOS Next Festival - NYFOS’s series for new song - kicks off on Sunday, October 5, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. at The Theater at 150 W 17 with a program exploring uncrossable distances with Christopher Trapani’s new song cycle The Color of Where You Can Never Go, commissioned through the Barlow Prize for a consortium of singers; The Many Worlds Interpretation on Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. featuring Michael Stephen Brown's Love's Lives Lost and Kimberly Osberg's You, Us, Me in a program made up of increasingly divergent spin offs of shared pasts; and The Same River Twice in June 2026 featuring three premieres of new songs by Luna Composition Lab fellows commissioned by NYFOS. NYFOS Next is curated by Nathaniel LaNasa.

–The annual NYFOS@Juilliard concert on Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. This year’s program is titled 100 Years of Broadway Love - a dazzling exploration of love, courtship, and marriage by Broadway’s greatest composers and lyricists, from the gentle charm of Jerome Kern to the biting wit of Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown. The program (which will be live-streamed from The Juilliard School website) is directed by Katherine M. Carter and features students from the Marcus Institute of Vocal Arts.

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.

The NYFOS Mainstage and the NYFOS Next series are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

---

Concert Information:

NYFOS Next: The Color of Where You Can Never Go
Sunday, October 5, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
The Theater at 150 W 17 | 150 W 17th St | New York, NY 10011
Tickets: Single tickets on sale September 1, 2025
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 

Program:
Christopher Trapani - The Color of Where You Can Never Go
Amelia Brey - Eurydice
Plus recent songs by Herschel Garfein and Eve Beglarian

Artists:
Sharon Harms, soprano
Nathaniel LaNasa, pianist
________________________________________

NYFOS Next: The Many Worlds Interpretation
Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
The Theater at 150 W 17 | 150 W 17th St | New York, NY 10011
Tickets: Single tickets on sale September 1, 2025
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 

Program:
Michael Stephen Brown - Love’s Lives Lost
Kimberly Osberg - You, Us, Me

Artists:
Susanna Phillips, soprano
Michael Stephen Brown, piano
Nathaniel LaNasa, pianist
Additional Artists TBA
________________________________________

South America, North America: A Love Story
Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St | New York, NY 10023
Tickets: Single tickets on sale September 1, 2025
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 

Program:
Works exploring the milongas, tangos, blues, and art songs that span North and South America.

Artists:
Shelén Hughes, soprano
Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone
Steven Blier, piano
________________________________________

100 Years of Broadway Love
Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Peter Jay Sharp Theater, The Juilliard School | 155 W 65th St | New York, NY 10023
Tickets: Tickets available this Fall from the Juilliard Box Office 
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 
*This program will be live-streamed from The Juilliard School website

Program:
From the gentle charm of Jerome Kern to the biting wit of Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown, a dazzling exploration of love, courtship, and marriage by Broadway’s greatest composers and lyricists. 

Artists:
Students from the Marcus Institute of Vocal Arts
Katherine M. Carter, director
Steven Blier, piano
________________________________________

Fugitives
Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St | New York, NY 10023
Tickets: Single tickets on sale September 1, 2025
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 

Program:
A revival of a favorite program of songs from the concert stage, the movies, Broadway, and Berlin’s cabarets with works by Kurt Weill, Franz Schreker, Alexander Zemlinsky, Friedrich Hollaender, Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Korngold, Hanns Eisler, and many others. 

Artists:
Justin Austin, baritone
Bénédicte Jourdois, piano
Steven Blier, piano
________________________________________

To the Sea 
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St | New York, NY 10023
Tickets: Single tickets on sale September 1, 2025
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/  

Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts | 149 Girdle Ridge Rd | Katonah, NY 10536
Tickets: Tickets available this Fall from https://caramoor.org/ 
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 

Program:
A musical dive into the world’s rivers and oceans, with songs by Elgar (the magnificent Sea Pictures), Fauré, Guastavino, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Pauline Viardot, and many others. 

Artists:
2026 Caramoor Vocal Rising Stars
Bénédicte Jourdois, piano
Steven Blier, piano
________________________________________

Poulenc / Sondheim
Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St | New York, NY 10023
Tickets: Single tickets on sale September 1, 2025
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 

Program:
Celebrating two masters of irony, musical wit, urban sophistication, and psychological acumen. 

Artists:
Christine Price, soprano
Theo Hoffman, baritone
Bénédicte Jourdois, piano
Steven Blier, piano
________________________________________

NYFOS Next: The Same River Twice
June 2026
The Theater at 150 W 17 | 150 W 17th St | New York, NY 10011
Tickets: Single tickets on sale September 1, 2025
Link: https://nyfos.org/25-26-season/ 

Program:
Three premieres of new songs by Luna Composition Lab fellows commissioned by NYFOS, alongside songs by Luna alums and mentors. 

Artists:
Nathaniel LaNasa, pianist

---

About New York Festival of Song
Now in its 38th 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.

In January of 2022, NYFOS Records issued its first album, From Rags to Riches, with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden. In January of 2025, they released their sixth album, Schubert/Beatles, with Theo Hoffman, Julia Bullock, Kunal Lahiri, and Mr. Blier. The new CD joins NYFOS Records’s burgeoning discography, alongside A Picnic Cantata (2022), the first stereo recording of a hidden gem by Paul Bowles and James Schuyler; Black & Blue (2023), the debut solo album of British-American tenor Joshua Blue collaborating with Steven Blier; Mi País: Songs of Argentina (2023) featuring bass-baritone Federico De Michelis and pianist and Steven Blier; and NYFOS Records: The Singles, Vol. 1 (2024), a wide-ranging compilation drawn from over 20 years of archival material, including tracks featuring Michael Spyres, Justin Austin, and Bernarda Fink. NYFOS Records has reached rapidly growing audiences in over 100 countries, with well over 2.5 million streams to date. 

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 17th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 17th year in March 2025); 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 150 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 Michael Spyres, 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  Julia Bullock, Stephanie Blythe, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Dina Kuznetsova, Corinne Winters, 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 for NYFOS Records include Black & Blue (2023), with British-American tenor Joshua Blue; Mi País: Songs of Argentina (2023) with bass-baritone Federico De Michelis; and NYFOS Records: The Singles, Vol. 1 (2024), a compilation of guest artists performing together with Steven Blier, spanning over 20 years of memorable moments and voices.

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. Mr. Blier is a Yamaha Artist.

Image at top of release by Cherylynn Tsushima

# # #