NYFOS Offers Four Upcoming Digital Programs as Part of NYFOS@Home Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

NYFOS OFFERS FOUR UPCOMING DIGITAL PROGRAMS
AS PART OF NYFOS@HOME SERIES

And…We’re Back!, Recorded November 16, 2021,
Streaming Beginning February 1, 2022

NYFOS Next: 9 Under 34, Recorded October 22, 2021,
Streaming Beginning March 1, 2022

Buenos Aires: Then and Now, Recorded February 15, 2022,
Streaming Beginning April 5, 2022

The Wider View: Songs by Black Composers, Recorded April 13, 2022, 

Streaming Beginning May 10, 2022

www.nyfos.org

January 6, 2022, New York, NY — New York Festival of Song, led by Artistic Director Steven Blier, presents four digital programs in 2022 as part of its free NYFOS@Home Digital Series launched in Fall 2020. Two concerts that premiered in-person in the fall will stream online (And…We’re Back!”, recorded on November 16, 2021 and NYFOS Next: 9 Under 34, recorded on October 22, 2021) in addition to two upcoming concerts which will stream online following their in-person premieres (Buenos Aires: Then and Now on February 15, 2022 and The Wider View: Songs by Black Composers on April 13, 2022). Each free digital concert will be available for four weeks following its premiere and is accessible following registration on Eventbrite.

Live chats with the artists, hosted by Steven Blier, will follow the premiere of each video, during which artists will respond in real time to audience questions typed in the YouTube comments section or submitted in advance via email or on the NYFOS social media channels.

2022 digital programming kicks off with And…We’re Back! which premieres on Tuesday, February 1 at 7pm ET (available to stream through March 1). This November 16, 2021 reunion concert at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center includes songs that got artists and audiences through the pandemic, along with songs that celebrate being together again, from Schubert to Jobim. Artists include Paul Appleby, Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Rebecca Jo Loeb, Johnathan McCullough, and Maggie Reneé with guitarist Rupert Boyd, percussionist Leonardo Granados, and pianist and NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier.

The series continues on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 7pm ET with the digital premiere of NYFOS Next: 9 Under 34, which premiered in-person at the Ann Goodman Recital Hall at Kaufman Music Center on October 22, 2021. The program, available to stream through March 29, is a compendium of songs by composers born after NYFOS’s first program in 1988 and is co-curated by baritone Gregory Feldmann. Performers include Feldmann, mezzo-soprano and 2021 Naumburg Award winner Erin Wagner, pianists Nathaniel LaNasa and Shawn Chang, cellist Thapelo Masita, and guitarist Rupert Boyd. Featured composers include Jake Landau, Sato Matsui, Shawn Chang, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, David Clay Mettens, Emily Cooley, Tariq al-Sabir, Curtis Stewart, and Molly Joyce.

Buenos Aires: Then and Now makes its digital premiere on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 7pm ET (available to stream through May 3). The concert, which will be recorded during its in-person performance on February 15, 2022 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, is a tribute to the diverse musical culture of Buenos Aires, with music from its iconic masters (Guastavino, Ginastera, López Buchardo, Piazzolla) and its contemporary voices. Created in collaboration with Opera Hispánica, with the assistance of Jorge Parodi, the program features Nicoletta Berry, Raquel González, and others, with Steven Blier and Shawn Chang as pianists and hosts. 

Spring 2022 digital programming concludes with The Wider View: Songs by Black Composers on Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 7pm ET (available to stream through June 8). The concert features music by Hale Smith, Margaret Bonds, Adolphus C. Hailstork, H. Leslie Adams, and more, performed by Lucia Bradford, Jorell Williams, and others, with pianist and NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier. The concert will be recorded at its in-person performance at Merkin Hall  on April 13, 2022.

Additional programming in NYFOS’ 2021-22 season includes Love Songs in 176 Keys: 4 hands, 4 voices, 4 countries on Tuesday, March 15, 2022 at 8:00pm with Caramoor’s 2022 Vocal Rising Stars at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center.

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.

Digital Program Information

And…We’re Back!
Streaming February 1, 2022 at 7pm ET through March 1
Free registration at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/andwere-back-tickets-239126231997
Recorded November 16, 2021 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center

NYFOS Next: 9 Under 34 
Streaming Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 7pm ET through March 29
Free registration at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/9-under-34-tickets-239165318907
Recorded October 22, 2021 at Ann Goodman Recital Hall at Kaufman Music Center

Buenos Aires: Then and Now
Streaming Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 7pm ET through May 3
Free registration at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/buenos-aires-then-and-now-tickets-239173162367 
Recorded February 15, 2022 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center

The Wider View: Songs by Black Composers
Streaming Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 7pm ET through June 8
Free registration at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-wider-view-songs-by-black-composers-tickets-239194777017
Recorded April 13, 2022 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center

All concerts will be available for four weeks following its premiere date.

About New York Festival of Song
Now in its 34th 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, NYFOS has a rich discography including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Leonard 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 order to bring more of its music — captured both in live performance and in the studio — to audiences worldwide, NYFOS launched its in-house label, NYFOS Records, in 2021. Its first album, From Rags to Riches, featuring Stephanie Blythe, William Burden, and Steven Blier, is slated for release in January 2022. 

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, and now the Ann Goodman Recital Hall at Kaufman Music Center.

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. His latest release is Canción amorosa, a CD of Spanish songs with soprano Corinne Winters. 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.

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