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11/19: New York Festival of Song Presents Concert Conceived by Justin Austin Featuring Will Liverman & Others
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Katlyn Morahan | Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 378-9386
NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG PRESENTS
MY BROTHER’S KEEPER
A Story of Brotherly Love, Caretaking, and Community Among
Black Men in America Brought to Life by Justin Austin, Joshua
Blue, Will Liverman, Joseph Parrish, Alan Williams, Jorell
Williams, Chaz'men Williams-Ali, and Steven Blier
New York, NY (October 10, 2024) — New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), led by Artistic Director Steven Blier, kicks off its Mainstage season with My Brother’s Keeper on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center.
Conceived by the winner of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, baritone Justin Austin, this program tells a story of brotherly love, caretaking, and community among Black men in America through art song, soul, gospel, and opera. My Brother’s Keeper, co-artistic directed by Austin, features a stellar team of Black American male singers, including long-time NYFOS collaborator tenor Joshua Blue, Grammy Award-winning baritone Will Liverman (making his NYFOS debut), winner of the 2022 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions bass-baritone Joseph Parrish, rising bass-baritone Alan Williams (also a NYFOS debut), “rock-solid singer” (The Washington Post) baritone Jorell Williams, and young American tenor Chaz'men Williams-Ali, alongside NYFOS's own Steven Blier.
“It is a profound honor to co-artistic direct My Brother's Keeper, a poignant celebration of Black men uplifting and inspiring one another toward greatness,” Justin Austin remarked. “I have brought together an extraordinary ensemble of vocalists whom I deeply admire: Jorell Williams, Will Liverman, Joshua Blue, Chaz Williams-Ali, Alan Williams, and Joseph Parrish. Collaborating with Steve Blier and the NYFOS family has been a cherished highlight of my artistic journey for the past nine years. This year, however, holds particular significance, as I am able to bring to life a vision I have literally been dreaming of.”
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
My Brother's Keeper
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St | New York, NY 10023
Tickets: $20 - $79; Students $10
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org
Program:
A story of brotherly love, caretaking, and community among Black men in America through art song, soul, gospel, and opera.
Artists:
Joshua Blue, tenor
Chaz'men Williams-Ali, tenor
Will Liverman, baritone
Jorell Williams, baritone
Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone
Alan Williams, bass-baritone
Steven Blier, piano
Justin Austin, co-artistic director
About Justin Austin
Possessing a “mighty lyric voice” (The New York Times) “with a burly, burnished tone capable of striking nuance and color” (Washington Post), Drama Desk Award-nominated baritone Justin Austin is the recipient of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award.
Following the world premiere of Damien Geter’s American Apollo at Des Moines Metro Opera (“a galvanizing, Herculean performance”, Opera Today) and appearances at Caramoor and the Sag Harbor Song Festival in Summer 2024, Justin begins the 2024-2025 season with his house debut at Los Angeles Opera as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, returning to the company later in the season as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He also returns to Opera Theatre of St. Louis for the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House, starring as Lindon. In concert, he returns to Carnegie Hall for Brahms’s German Requiem with the Cecilia Chorus of New York, and joins for selections from Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up In My Bones at La Jolla Music Society in La Jolla, CA, The Soraya in Northridge, CA, and with Seattle Theatre Group, among others. He also returns to Stuttgart, Germany for a concert with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Opera for Peace as well as New York Festival of Song for My Brother’s Keeper at Kaufman Music Center, an event he personally conceived. He and pianist Howard Watkins additionally give a recital at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina, and Justin appears at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for a guest recital.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Justin Austin is an alumnus of the Choir Academy of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Heidelberg Lied Akademie, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. and B.M.). He received a 2023 Mabel Dorn Reeder Award from Opera Theatre of St. Louis. www.justin-austin.com.
About Joshua Blue
Fast-rising tenor Joshua Blue was born in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. Career highlights include making his Metropolitan Opera debut as Peter in Porgy & Bess alongside the Grammy Award-winning cast including Denyce Graves, Angel Blue, and Eric Owens; presenting the American premiere of Philip Glass's The Trial at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis portraying the role of Franz; singing the Evangelist in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion at LA Opera with members of the Hamburg Ballet choreographed by John Neumeier; creating the world-premiere of Another City, a new commission by Houston Grand Opera featuring composer Jeremy Howard Beck and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann; performing Stravinsky’s opera-ballet Pulcinella with The Florida Orchestra which included projected paintings by Geff Strik and Tampa City Ballet dancers costumed by Veronique Carpio; singing the American premiere of the rarely heard Franz Liszt opera Sardanapalo at the Library of Congress; and taking part in the Opening Festival of The REACH at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in performances of Beethoven's Symphony #9 with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Blue’s long collaboration with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song has included the premiere of Paul Moravec’s "Caltagirone” from A Nation of Others and a quartet reduction of "Much to be Done” from the 2019 work STONEWALL, both works with librettos by Mark Campbell. Other appearances include America, Come Home; W.C. Handy and the Birth of Blues; and Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do - Songs from Gay Harlem. On the operatic stage he has performed in L’elisir d’amore; La bohème; Rigoletto; Das Rheingold; Don Giovanni; The Magic Flute; La Traviata; Eugene Onegin; Gianni Schicchi; Der Kaiser von Atlantis; Hippolyte et Aricie; Ariadne auf Naxos; and La finta giardiniera. In opera, he has worked with stage directors David McVicar, Francesca Zambello, Yuval Sharon, Peter McClintock, Lindy Hume, Mary Birnbaum, Seán Curran, and Omer Ben Seadia. In concert, he has been a soloist in Handel’s Messiah; Mozart’s Requiem; Smyth’s Mass in D; Bonds’s The Ballad of the Brown King: A Christmas Cantata; and Verdi’s Requiem. Mr. Blue has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Washington National Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Philadelphia, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Glimmerglass Opera, Oratorio Society of New York, American Symphony Orchestra, Musica Sacra, Austin Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Virginia Opera, and Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include James Conlon, Gianandrea Noseda, Eun Sun Kim, Fabio Luisi, James Gaffigan, Carlo Rizzi, Bertrand de Billy, Bernard Labadie, Corrado Rovaris, Eva Ollikainen, Leon Botstein, and Leonard Slatkin. Venues at which he has performed are as far-ranging as Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Merkin Hall, Cincinnati May Festival, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, and the Kennedy Center.
Mr. Blue was the inaugural recipient of the Mary Dorn Reeder Foundation Prize (2022) and the Lotos Foundation’s James McCracken and Sandra Warfield Opera Prize in 2020; a semi-finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2018); the winner of the Ellen Lopin Blair award for 1st place in the Oratorio Society of New York Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition (2017); noted as an Emerging Artist in the Opera Index Competition in New York City (2017); named a Thelma Steward Endowed Artist (2017); named a Rubin Scholarship Recipient chosen personally by Marilyn Horne (2014)
Mr. Blue has recorded the single Black & Blue, a classic American jazz standard, with pianist and arranger Steven Blier; Moravec’s Sanctuary Road which was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award; Jeanine Tesori’s Blue with Washington National Opera and conductor Roderick Cox; and he provided vocals for the 2018 Oscar-nominated short film My Nephew Emmett.
His education includes Waubonsie Valley High School, a Grammy Signature school in Aurora, Illinois; Bachelor of Music degree (2016) from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio; and
Master of Music degree (2018) from The Juilliard School of Music in New York. Mr. Blue received further training as a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist with the Washington National Opera; Apprentice Singer with the Santa Fe Opera; Gaddes Festival Artist with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Gerdine Festival Artist with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Vocal Fellow with Music Academy of the West; and was the recipient of a Toulmin Foundation Scholar by the Juilliard School. His voice teachers have included Jennifer Barnickel-Fitch and Dr. Robert C. White, Jr.
Mr. Blue currently resides with his fiancé Ashley Marie Robillard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
About Will Liverman
Called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post), GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award and the co-creator of The Factotum – “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – which premiered at the Lyric Opera Chicago in 2023.
Following summer 2024 appearances at the BBC Proms in Britten’s War Requiem, Sibelius’s The Origin of Fire and Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire led by Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood, and Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Benefit, Liverman reprises the iconic role of Papageno in the Metropolitan Opera’s holiday presentation of The Magic Flute, returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Marcello in La Bohème, and joins Dutch National Opera for another season, this time as Ned Keene in Peter Grimes. He makes his house debut during the 2024/2025 season at San Francisco Opera also portraying Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème.
Concert engagements include Kaija Saariaho’s Sombre at Carnegie Hall with the International Contemporary Ensemble; Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony; London Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Antonio Pappano; works by Burleigh, Vaughan Williams, and Still at The Concertgebouw; works by Schubert, Burleigh, and Larsen with the Oxford International Song Festival; Brahms’ Requiem with the Rhode Island Philharmonic; Shawn Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Oakland Symphony; a song cycle of his own compositions at National Sawdust; New York Festival of Song at Kaufman Music Center; and String Theory at the Hunter.
Recording projects include Liverman’s Show Me The Way (Cedille Records, 2024), a celebration of American song; Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers (Cedille Records, 2021), nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album; The Dunbar/Moore Sessions - Volume I (Lexicon Classics, 2023), a collection of original art song composed, played, and sung by Liverman himself; and Whither Must I Wander (Odradek Records, 2020), named one of the Chicago Tribune’s “best classical recordings of 2020.”
Liverman is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.M.). www.willliverman.com.
About Joseph Parrish
Joseph Parrish has appeared in opera, concert, and recital. In 2023 he was a recipient of the Bayreuth Stipendiate, a semi-finalist for the Queen Elisabeth Voice Competition in Brussels, Belgium, and an encouragement award in the inaugural Duncan Williams Voice Competition. In 2022, he was a first prize winner of the 2022 Susan Wadsworth YCA International Auditions, first prize winner of the 2022 Gerda Lissner Foundation Art Song Competition, and a finalist in the 2022 George London Foundation Competition.
This coming season, Parrish will make his debut as a Young Concert Artist in the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center. His season also includes his Carnegie Hall Debut under the baton of Kent Tritle as the bass soloist for Handel’s Messiah, his Ann Arbor Symphony debut under the baton of Earl Lee singing John Adams’ The Wound Dresser and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, William Still in Paul Moravec’s oratorio Sanctuary Road with Princeton Pro Musica, Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem with Baltimore Choral Arts, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Aiken Orchestra, and solo recitals with Carnegie Hall Citywide, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, the Port Washington Library, and the West Philadelphia Committee for the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Upcoming operatic engagements include the Salieri in a semi-staged production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart e Salieri with New York Parlando Orchestra and Masetto in a production of Mozart's Don Giovanni with the Cincinnati Opera. Recent operatic credits include the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Sodbuster in Vavrek/Mazzoli’s Proving Up, Dr. Cajus in Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Augure in Rossi’s L’Orfeo at Juilliard and Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore; Spinelloccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Festival Napa Valley, and Le Baron de Pictordu in Viardot’s Cendrillon with New York City Lyric Opera.
He has performed at various types of venues including Carnegie Hall, The Cincinnati Art Museum, The Kennedy Center, The Green-Wood Cemetery, Le Flagey in Brussels, Belgium, WQXR, and Madison Square Garden.
As a current artist diploma candidate in opera studies at the Juilliard School, Parrish is passionate about giving back to the various communities that have nurtured him. He has been both a Music Advancement Program chorus teaching fellow and Gluck Community Service fellow at the Juilliard School. Parrish is a member of the inaugural cohort of Shared Voices, an initiative designed to address diversity, equity, and inclusion through collaboration between Historically Black Colleges and Universities, top conservatories, and schools of music in the United States with the Denyce Graves Foundation. He holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, and the Juilliard School.
About Alan Williams
Bass-baritone Alan Williams is establishing himself as one of the most exciting young artists in the field of opera. To launch the 2024-25 season, he joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover Judge Advocate General in the New York-premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s groundbreaking new opera Grounded, directed by Michael Mayer and conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Mr. Williams returned to the Des Moines Metro Opera in the summer of 2024 to sing First Soldier in Salome under the baton of David Neely and directed by Alison Pogorelc as well as Un Médecin in Pelléas & Mélisande with Derrick Inouye on the podium and Chas Rader-Shieber taking on directing duties. He appeared with Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2023 as the Voice of the Oracle (Neptune) in Idomeneo led by Robert Spano with stage direction by Francesca Zambello as well as covering the role of General Benjamin in Jimmy López's Bel Canto conducted by George Manahan and staged by Kevin Newbury. In 2022, he joined the Des Moines Metro Opera as a member of the Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Program where he sang the role of Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by Elizabeth Askren with stage direction by Chas Rader-Shieber and covered the role of the Lawyer in Porgy and Bess with the artistic team of conductor Michael Ellis Ingram and director Tazewell Thompson.
As a two-year member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program with the Los Angeles Opera, he performed Abe in Omar (2022, debut); soloist in Frankenstein with Live Orchestra (2022); Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia (2023); Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro (2023); Jethro / Voice of God 2 in Moses (2023); Montano in Otello (2023); Masetto in Don Giovanni (2023); Third Villager in El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (2023); Sheriff in Highway 1, USA (2024); Doctor Grenvil in La Traviata (2024); and Mandarin in Turandot (2024); collaborating with conductors James Conlon, Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Kazem Abdullah, Louis Lohraseb, and stage directors Kaneza Schaal, James Gray, Eli Villanueva, Joel Ivany, Kasper Holten, Brian Chapman, Lorena Maza, Darko Tresnjak, Shawna Lucey, Greg Eldridge, and Garnett Bruce.
Mr. Williams has performed a number of major roles with various festivals and universities including John P. Parker in Adolphus Hailstork’s Rise for Freedom: The John P. Parker Story, Rev. Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, and the title role in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. He has also performed in various concerts with Detroit Opera, recently in Detroit Players Club Opera Event. In the fall of 2021, Alan was invited to sing for Jean Snyder's presentation on the works of Harry T. Burleigh at the Oxford Lieder Festival in Oxford, England. He has also had the honor of singing with Dr. Eugene Rogers' professional chamber choir Exigence since 2020.
He has received notable awards, recently earning an encouragement award at the Arizona District Laffont Competition. Mr. Williams placed 2nd in The Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition in 2024. He was named the 2021 winner of the Graduate Concerto Competition at the University of Michigan. Also during his M.M. studies at Michigan, he was selected as a national finalist in the 2019 National Association of Negro Musicians convention. In his undergraduate studies at Northern Arizona University, he was selected as a finalist for two consecutive years in the Rocky Mountain District for MONC auditions.
Mr. Williams received his specialist and master's degrees in voice performance from the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Daniel Washington. He received his undergraduate degree in 2018 from Northern Arizona University, where he studied with Dr. Judith Cloud. A native of San Bernardino, California, Mr. Williams currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
About Jorell Williams
American Baritone Jorell Williams, known for having “a solid vocal core and easy, natural production” (Opera News), and “a deliciously resonant baritone voice” (Broadway World) has been heralded as “a rock-solid singer with a keen understanding of his own expressive depths” (The Washington Post), is gracing the world’s most prominent concert and opera stages.
The 2023-2024 season showcases Mr. Williams in debut engagements with Opera Omaha, Greek National Opera, Catapult Opera, Symphony Nova Scotia, The Ottawa Choral Society, and The Canadian Art Song Project, with returns to the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and Tapestry Opera. A Native of Brentwood, NY, Jorell made his Lincoln Center Theater Off-Broadway debut in Lynn Nottage and Ricky Ian Gordon’s critically acclaimed Intimate Apparel in January 2022 (co-production with The Metropolitan Opera / filmed for PBS Great Performances).
His career has brought him on tour with the Mark Morris Dance Company, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Chorale Le Chateau, American Modern Ensemble, and Essential Voices USA. He had the honor to perform with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in A Celebration of America at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on the occasion of the first Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama, as well as the European premiere of Marsalis’ Abyssinian Mass at the Barbican during the 2012 Olympics in London. Mr. Williams has also worked alongside some of today’s most versatile artists, including Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Damien Sneed, Jon Batiste, David Lang, and most recently, Jennifer Higdon for her 2017 Grammy nominated World Premiere Opera Cold Mountain with the Santa Fe Opera.
Jorell has won awards from organizations such as The Jensen Foundation, The Gerda Lissner International Competition, The Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, The Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, The American Traditions Competition, Harlem Opera Theater Competition, The National Association of Negro Musicians [NAMN], The Liberace Foundation, The Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Competition, Civic Morning Musicals Competition, David Adams Art Song Competition, and the Rochester Classical Idol XII Prize.
He is an advocate for artist rights and serves as chair of the artistic arts council of Finger Lakes Opera, is a member of the artistic council advisor for The Denyce Graves Foundation, On-Site Opera, and currently on the New Music Board for the Brooklyn Art Song Society, using his experience to consult with arts organizations on their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
About Chaz'men Williams-Ali
Chaz’men Williams-Ali is a young tenor from St. Louis MO. He attended Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and studied with two of St. Louis’ finest instructors, Dello Thedford, and Yvonne Crockett. While studying at Central, Chaz’men joined the Opera Theatre St. Louis Artist-in-Training program where he studied for two years. Chaz’men went on to study voice at the University of Iowa School of Music. There he studied under Prof. Stephen Swanson and coached with Shari Rhoads. Chaz’men made his professional opera debut in 2008 in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre. In 2009, Chaz’men was named the Grand Prize division winner in the National Association of the Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition. At the University of Iowa, Chaz’men excelled in the music program participating in many operas and oratorios. He starred in productions of La traviata, The Elixir of Love, and Gounod's Romeo et Juliette at the University of Iowa. In 2017, Chaz'men was very proud to return to the Glimmerglass Festival family as one of this season's Young Artists following the 2016 season's success as Giles Cory and stepping in as Rodolfo in La boheme. He also made his Kennedy Center Debut with Washington National Opera's Emerging Artist performance of Madama Butterfly as Pinkerton this spring. 2018 saw Chaz'men returning to the Kennedy Center for a role debut as Don Jose with Washington Chorus under the direction of Maestro Christopher Bell. He was very excited to return home to St. Louis after his time in AIT to be a Gaddes Festival Artist with Opera Theatre St. Louis and perform the role of Jazz in Blitzstein's Regina alongside Susan Graham and James Morris. Following successful debuts at English National Opera and Dutch National Opera, Chaz'men also enjoyed success in his first season in the ensemble at Theater und Orchester Heidelberg in 2019-2020 where he reprised his role as Pinkerton among other performances. In the Covid-19 affected season, Chaz'men added Canio in Pagliacci to his list of performed roles in Heidelberg. In 2021 Chaz'men made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under the baton of Maestro Pappano. Chaz'men has also experienced success in recital and concert as well as music director, having directed and conducted for companies throughout the Midwest. Chaz'men is very grateful for the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon him, and is looking forward to watching Him work in his life for many years to come.
About New York Festival of Song
Now in its 37th 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. Since then, NYFOS Records has released Paul Bowles’s A Picnic Cantata (2022) featuring the vocal talent of sopranos Amy Owens and Chelsea Shephard, mezzo-sopranos Amanda Lynn Bottoms and Naomi Louisa O’Connell, and percussionist Barry Centanni, together with NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier and co-founder Michael Barrett on piano; Black & Blue (2023), the debut solo album of British-American tenor Joshua Blue performing together with Steven Blier on piano; 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 compilation of guest artists performing together with Steven Blier, spanning over 20 years of memorable moments and voices. 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.
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