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Press Releases
New York Festival of Song Releases Schubert/Beatles Today
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katlyn Morahan | Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 378-9386
NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF
SONG RELEASES
SCHUBERT/BEATLES
Out TODAY on
NYFOS Records
Revealing similar themes between
songs by Schubert and the Beatles,
NYFOS Pairs the “Holy of Holies”
with the “Oldie of Oldies”
Order Link
http://nyfosrecords.limitedrun.com
January 31, 2025 (New York, NY) — New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) today releases Schubert/Beatles on NYFOS Records featuring baritone Theo Hoffman, pianists Steven Blier and Kunal Lahiry, and special guests soprano Julia Bullock and tenor Andrew Owens.
Hoffman and Blier first introduced their Schubert/Beatles program to NYFOS audiences in NYC eight years ago, where it enjoyed great success. The playlist pairs Schubert songs with Beatles songs on similar themes, and, in Blier’s words, “Lo and behold, the Holy of Holies sits comfortably next to the Oldie of Oldies.” Yesterday and Im Frühling are hymns to lost love, while Der Wanderer an den Mond and She’s Leaving Home tell contrasting stories of young people cast adrift into the world.
“On closer inspection, the Schubert-Beatles connection makes a lot of sense,” NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier continued. “Both had short careers: Schubert’s was truncated by his tragic death at age 31, while the meteor of the Beatles flamed out in a tangle of discord and exhaustion after just seven years of international fame. Both created art that captured their Zeitgeist for all time—the warmth of the early Romantic era, and the brash, swinging, psychedelic 60s. Above all, both explore young adulthood with literacy and depth: the confusions of early romances, first betrayals and break-ups, the sense of yearning for something unnamable and just out of reach.”
Many Beatles songs, especially those by Paul McCartney, have a long, delicate vocal line that one might describe as Schubertian. Blier explained, “Take away their rock music trappings, and Yesterday, If I Fell, and Here, There and Everywhere emerge as pure ballads, a kind of pop bel canto.” Other musicians have praised the Beatles as musical craftsmen; American composer Ned Rorem wrote of their songs in 1968 in the New York Review of Books, “The best of these memorable tunes [...] compare with those by composers from great eras of song: Monteverdi, Schumann, Poulenc [...] She’s Leaving Home [...] is a mazurka equal in melancholy and melodic distinction to those of Chopin.”
“Some of the guitar-oriented, blues/rock Beatles songs also make a surprisingly good transfer to what one might call the “recital format”—the nakedness of piano and voice, with the addition of a couple of sidemen,” Blier continued, “In fact, working on Schubert’s music in the context of the Beatles has shone a new, contemporary light on that beloved composer.”
“Schubert/Beatles represents a truly authentic portrait of my artistic identity: the music of the Beatles, which inspired me to become a musician, and that of Schubert, which inspired me to become a classical singer,” notes Theo Hoffman. “Schubert represents the pop music of the day. Not initially presented in glittering concert halls, but in cozy parlors, for friends to share. The Beatles had similar humble beginnings in the taverns of Liverpool—intellectual artsy kids writing love songs for the people, coming straight out of the European song tradition. Schubert/Beatles was a project with a collaborative spirit from start to finish, and it has been one of the great honors of my life to release my debut album with NYFOS, an organization that has supported my career from the very beginning.”
Additional repertoire on the new album partners iconic Beatles favorites such as The Word, Julia, Taxman, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps with Schubert Lieder, including An Schwager Kronos, Du bist die Ruh, and Im Frühling, emphasizing the similarities and the genius of two distinct voices in songwriting over a century apart. “They might at first seem like an odd couple – but oh, what a beautiful marriage,” concludes Steven Blier about the musical pairing. The album is produced by Blier and Grammy® nominated producer Jonathan Estabrooks.
About Theo Hoffman
Hailed as “vocally towering,” baritone Theo Hoffman is among the most versatile American singers of his generation. Born and raised in Manhattan, Mr. Hoffman’s performing career has taken him all over the world, including collaborations with The Metropolitan Opera (Grounded), Staatsoper Hamburg (Il Turco in Italia and Manon), Opernhaus Zürich (Platée), Los Angeles Opera (Die Zauberflöte, Satyagraha, Candide, Carmen, et al), Seattle Opera (La Bohème), Opera Philadelphia (Denis & Katya), Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (The Trial and Le nozze di Figaro), Israeli Opera (Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro), National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan (Pelléas et Mélisande), New Orleans Opera (Le nozze di Figaro), North Carolina Opera (Le nozze di Figaro), Atlanta Opera (La Bohème and Carmen), Opera Omaha (Les Enfants Terribles), Berkshire Opera Festival (Three Decembers), and Des Moines Metro Opera (Flight). Equally passionate about concert and recital, he spent three summers at Marlboro Music Festival, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Israeli Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Salzburg Mozartwoche, Vocal Arts DC, Bard Music Festival, Washington Concert Opera, Moab Music Festival, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and Winston-Salem Symphony. Mr. Hoffman has a long performing history with New York Festival of Song, and serves on their Artist Council. He is the recipient of a 2018 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Sara Tucker Study Grant and was a Grand Finalist in the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied under the great Sanford Sylvan, to whom he dedicates this debut album. Theo also dedicates this album to his mother, Susan Rosenfeld, who introduced him to the Beatles.
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.
About Kunal Lahiry
Indian-American pianist Kunal Lahiry is a recent BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the 2021 Carl Bechstein Foundation scholarship. Recent performance highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, Pierre Boulez Saal, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Room, Musée d’Orsay, Ludwigsburg Festival, Lied Victoria de Los Angeles Festival, and the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute. He has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Icelandic National Public Radio RÁS1, Austrian Radio Ö1, and RBB Kultur, and was featured on ARTE’s ‘Hope@Home’ and ‘Europe@Home’ series hosted by violinist Daniel Hope. This season includes appearances at Stoller Hall, Bristol St. George’s, Aldeburgh Festival, Opera Holland Park, Cheltenham Music Festival, Harpa Concert Hall, Schubertíada Comillas, Hugo Wolf Academy, Heidelberg Neulied Festival, and Philharmonie de Paris.
Kunal has commissioned and premiered works by Nico Muhly, Errollyn Wallen, Nahre Sol, Héloïse Werner, Pablo Campos, Molly Joyce, Viktor Orri Árnason, Guðmundur Emilsson, Zachary Radler, Zubaida Azezi, and Edo Frenkel. He received grants from the Musikfonds and the Center for Musical Excellence to finance and co-produce an interdisciplinary video project called ‘Homescapes’ with Icelandic soprano and visual artist Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir, and created a music video with Boomtown Media Productions exploring queerness in classical music through the support of the Liedzentrum Heidelberg. He frequently collaborates with pop singer Lie Ning in Berlin and they performed together at the 2020 Reeperbahn in Hamburg.
Kunal has been invited to participate in several young artist programs for pianists specializing in art song. In 2018, he was selected for the inaugural Royaumont-Orsay Academy, culminating in a live album recording released by B Records. He also joined Carnegie Hall’s first Song Studio, mentored by Renée Fleming, was invited by Thomas Hampson to participate in the Heidelberg Lied Academy, and received the Sam Hutchings prize at Malcolm Martineau’s Oxenfoord International Summer School.
Originally from Gainesville, Georgia, Kunal was a Schulich Scholar at McGill University and graduated with distinction in song interpretation from the Hochschule for Müsik “Hanns Eisler”. He is an Equilibrium Young Artist, Samling Artist, Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Artist, and Britten Pears Young Artist. Kunal is currently based in Berlin.
About Julia Bullock
Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, American classical singer Julia Bullock has headlined productions and concerts at preëminent arts institutions worldwide. This season, she returns to New York’s Metropolitan Opera for Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra, following her 2024 debut in El Niño. Cleopatra also served as her debut at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu in the European premiere of Antony & Cleopatra, after first appearances at Covent Garden in Theodora, San Francisco Opera in the world premiere of Girls of the Golden West, Santa Fe Opera in Doctor Atomic, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in The Rake’s Progress, and English National Opera, Teatro Real and Bolshoi Theatre in the title role of The Indian Queen. Other operatic highlights include the world premieres of Upload at the Dutch National Opera and Fire Shut Up in My Bones at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
In concert, she has appeared with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NDR Elbphilarmonie Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, and London Symphony Orchestra; recital highlights include appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Mostly Mozart and Ojai Music festivals. Julia Bullock’s long association with New York Festival of Song began in 2012, where she is now a member of its Artist Council.
Her signature projects include Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine, conceived in collaboration with Peter Sellars, Tyshawn Sorey and Claudia Rankine; Five Freedom Songs, developed with Jesse Montgomery; and History’s Persistent Voice, which combines the songs of enslaved people with new music by Black American women. Released by Nonesuch, Bullock’s solo album debut, Walking in the Dark, was featured in The New York Times’s “Best Classical Music Tracks of 2022” and NPR’s 20 “Best Albums of 2022.”
Her growing discography also includes the soundtrack of Amazon Prime Video’s The Underground Railroad and Grammy-nominated recordings of West Side Story and Doctor Atomic. An innovative and in-demand curator, Bullock’s past positions include collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen and Artist-in-Residence of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Symphony, and London’s Guildhall School.
Committed to integrating community activism with her musical life, Julia Bullock is a prominent voice for social consciousness and change.
About Andrew Owens
Philadelphia-born tenor Andrew Owens has excelled in a variety of roles in the bel canto repertoire, including Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, Aureliano In Palmira, Moïse et Pharaon, as well as Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Roberto Devereux, Lucia di Lammermoor, Maria Stuarda, Don Pasquale, and Bellini’s Il Pirata. Equally at home on the concert stage, he specializes in Italian and Neapolitan song, as well as the hits of his idol and fellow Philadelphia tenor, the great Mario Lanza. Andrew first appeared with NYFOS in 2011 and has also performed Schubert/Beatles across the United States.
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.
In January of 2022, NYFOS Records issued its first album, From Rags to Riches, with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden. At the end of January they are set to release 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.
NYFOS Records: Schubert/Beatles Tracklist
1. The Word [2:28]
Theo Hoffman, Steven Blier, Andrew Owens, New York Festival of Song ft. Alex Levine, Rubén Rengel, Sam Weber
2. Here, There and Everywhere [2:58]
Theo Hoffman, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song
3. Die Taubenpost, D 965A [3:58]
Theo Hoffman, Kunal Lahiry, New York Festival of Song
4. Alinde, D.904 [4:24]
Theo Hoffman, Kunal Lahiry, New York Festival of Song
5. Julia [3:17]
Theo Hoffman, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song
6. Taxman [2:40]
Theo Hoffman, Steven Blier, Andrew Owens, New York Festival of Song ft Alex Levine, Rubén Rengel, Sam Weber
7. An Schwager Kronos, D.369 [2:52]
Theo Hoffman, Kunal Lahiry, New York Festival of Song
8. Licht und Liebe, D.352 [4:34]
Theo Hoffman, Andrew Owens, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song
9. If I Fell [3:05]
Theo Hoffman, Andrew Owens, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song
10. Der Wanderer an den Mond, D.870 [2:22}
Theo Hoffman, Kunal Lahiry, New York Festival of Song
11. She's Leaving Home [3:21]
Theo Hoffman, Julia Bullock, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song ft Alex Levine
12. Norwegian Wood [2:43]
Julia Bullock, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song
13. While My Guitar Gently Weeps [5:34]
Julia Bullock, Theo Hoffman, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song ft Alex Levine, Rubén Rengel
14. Du bist die Ruh, D.776 [4:03]
Theo Hoffman, Rupert Boyd, New York Festival of Song
15. Yesterday [3:28]
Theo Hoffman, Steven Blier, New York Festival of Song, ft. Rubén Rengel
16. Im Frühling, D.882 [4:46]
Theo Hoffman, Kunal Lahiry, New York Festival of Song
Total Time: 56:33
Featuring
Vocals: Julia Bullock, Theo Hoffman, Andrew Owens
Piano: Steven Blier, Kunal Lahiry
Guitar: Rupert Boyd, Alex Levine
Violin: Rubén Rengel
Bass: Sam Weber
This album was funded in part by a generous gift from Eileen Caulfield Schwab, in recognition of the featured Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars program alumni: Julia Bullock, Theo Hoffman, & Andrew Owens.
NYFOS Records is part of New York Festival of Song, a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization.
Steven Blier, Artistic Director
Claire Molloy, Executive Director
Board of Directors: Richard A. Rosen, president; Philip Kalikman, treasurer; Joseph Kaiser, secretary; Anna Hoffman; Robert D. Krinsky; Karen Koch, Judy Goetz Sanger; Peter M. Thall
www.nyfos.org
Producers: Steven Blier, Jonathan Estabrooks
Mixing: Jonathan Estabrooks
Mastering: Alan Silverman
Recorded on April 23-27, July 16, 2024 at Big Orange Sheep, Brooklyn; and September 10 at Second Take Sound, New York.
Design: Gillian Riesen, Emitha LLC
© NYFOS Records 2024
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