NYFOS Next Festival of New Songs Launches Today

New York Festival of Song's contemporary song series NYFOS Next -- dubbed "invaluable" by The New Yorker and The New York Times -- enters its sixth season and continues its new format: a three-concert February mini-festival in the intimate state-of-the-art recital hall at OPERA America's National Opera Center. The Thursday concerts take place today, February 4, as well as February 11, and 18, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

This year's curator/hosts include David T. Little, one of "the most imaginative young composers" on the scene (The New Yorker); Lowell Liebermann, "as much of a traditionalist as an innovator" (The New York Times), whose music is known for its technical command and audience appeal; and a collaboration with the composition department of Manhattan School of Music, hosted by Susan Botti and Richard Danielpour, and featuring songs by MSM faculty, students, and alumni.

Highlights include many premieres, including a special preview of scenes from David T. Little's highly anticipated new opera JFK, with baritone Matthew Worth singing the title role (Matthew sings the role at the opera's world premiere in Texas a few months later), plus songs by Kate Soper and Ted Hearne sung by Soper and Hearne themselves.

From NYFOS co-founder and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett: "I am excited by the mix of new work we'll be performing in February for NYFOS Next. On February 4, David T. Little's latest work, surrounded by songs from his friends including Kate Soper and Ted Hearne, will allow our audience to put their finger (and ears) on the pulse of the rising stars of a new generation. On February 11 we can answer the question of what has been happening uptown at the Manhattan School of Music over the past decade. Faculty Susan Botti and Richard Danielpour curate their own work, along with their students and colleagues from MSM. And on February 18 our dear friend Lowell Liebermann gives his students a place in the sun next to two song cycles of his own."

NYFOS Next looks to the future, offering today's song composers and interpreters a forum for their work. Launched in 2010, it is by now "a testament to the variety of ways composers today are treating the voice" (The New York Times). The series takes the longstanding NYFOS tradition of presenting new work, and puts it in the hands of the composers themselves. Each composer builds an hour-long program that features his/her own works and those of colleagues and students. The composer also acts as host of the evening. Audiences get an intimate look inside the creative process, as freshly-minted songs are offered -- many for the first time -- in an informal setting. Curator/hosts for past NYFOS Nexts include Bright Sheng, Paul Moravec, Gabriel Kahane, Joseph Thalken, Phil Kline, Carla Kihlstedt, Mohammed Fairouz, Kevin Puts, Russell Platt, Mark Adamo, John Musto, and Harold Meltzer.

Tickets are $20 General Admission, and a subscription to all three concerts is $50. Purchase online at www.nyfos.org or by calling (646) 230-8380. OPERA America's National Opera Center is located at 330 Seventh Avenue (at 29th Street), New York, NY.

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David T. Little & Friends

Thursday, February 4, 2016, 7:00 p.m.

With "a knack for overturning musical conventions" (The New York Times), David T. Little makes his NYFOS debut, opening the 2016 edition of NYFOS Next. The first of three concerts in the series, Little hosts and curates an evening featuring new works of his own and the songs of his friends and colleagues, including Ted Hearne, Kate Soper, Jeff Myers and Colin Read. Little's operas Soldier Songs and Dog Days (which comes to New York this month) have received wide critical acclaim, the latter having received performances this season at Fort Worth Opera and Los Angeles Opera and hailed by The Wall Street Journal as "one of the most exciting new operas of recent years." Little's "sharp, elegantly bristling" music (New York magazine) is potent and dramatic, drawing as much upon his experience as a punk/metal drummer as his classical pedigree. In his work he often undertakes political and existential themes, most recently gaining attention for success in writing for larger forces.

PROGRAM:
Kate Soper, Gelsey Bell, Brett Umlauf, Justine Aronson, sopranos
Eve Gigliotti, mezzo-soprano
Matthew Worth, Ted Hearne, baritones
Michael Barrett, piano
Ayano Ninomiya, Danbi Um, violins

David T. Little:
>From JFK (an opera in 31 moments), Libretto by Royce Vavrek (2015)
(preview, premiere scheduled for April 2016 at Fort Worth Opera)
arranged for piano and string quartet, mezzo and baritone
Aria: You Shiver (Jackie)
Moon Duet (Jackie and JFK)

Colin Read:
Fairy Tales and Letters (2013)
NY Premiere, for soprano/piano

Kate Soper:
selections from Here Be Sirens (2014)
for three sopranos

Jeff Myers:
Requiem Aeternam from Pagtulog na Nene
for mezzo-soprano and string quartet

Ted Hearne:
Protection (2013)
Intimacy and Resistance (2010)

An Evening with Manhattan School of Music

Thursday, February 11, 2016, 7:00 p.m.

NYFOS collaborates with the Manhattan School of Music composition department for an evening of new songs from MSM faculty, students, and alumni. Composers and faculty members Susan Botti and Richard Danielpour play host and curators for the evening, showcasing both established and emerging compositional voices from MSM's diverse and celebrated community, including David Ludwig, Anthony Constantino, Wang Jie, Therese-Marie Chaix, Rob Vuichard, and Renee Esmail.

PROGRAM:
Amy Owens, Susan Botti, sopranos
Matthew Worth, baritone
Michael Barrett, Leann Osterkamp, piano
Ayano Ninomiya, Airi Yoshioka, violins

Richard Danielpour:
Five Songs of Remembrance (Text by Whitman/Melville, 2013)
World premiere of piano and baritone version

Susan Botti:
Excerpt from Mangetsu (in progress) - for soprano and violin
(texts from Izumi Shikibu and William Butler Yeats)
Two Gregorson Songs (2006)

David Ludwig:
Our Long War (2011)
for soprano, violin and piano

Anthony Constantino:
When You Are Old (Text by Yeats, 2015)

Wang Jie:
The Animal Carnival (2007)
The Big Rat
Interlude/Lullabye
Wild Geese

Therese-Marie Chaix:
From Talking Objects (Text by Gertrude Stein, 2015)
world premiere

Rob Vuichard:
Ammunition (Text by Craig Lucas, 2013)

Lowell Liebermann & Friends

Thursday, February 18, 2016, 7:00 p.m.

"As much of a traditionalist as an innovator" (The New York Times), Lowell Liebermann's music is known for its technical command and audience appeal. A significant American voice who has grown up alongside NYFOS-his Appalachian Liebeslieder was commissioned by NYFOS in 1996-Liebermann hosts the final of three evenings to round out the festival. In addition to his celebrated instrumental works, Liebermann's two operas both premiered to great audience and critical acclaim: The Picture of Dorian Gray, commissioned and premiered by the Monte-Carlo Opera, and Miss Lonelyhearts, with a libretto by J. D. McClatchy after Nathanael West's novel, commissioned by the Juilliard School to celebrate its 100th Anniversary.

PROGRAM:
Matthew Worth, baritone
William Hobbs, piano
Soprano and flute TBA

Lowell Liebermann:
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Day, op.104 (Text by Robert Frost, 2007)
- Six Songs on Poems by Raymond Carver, op. 80 (New York premiere)

Nathan Fletcher:
Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Recuerdo
First Fig
Travel

Rona Park:
In the Silence (Poem by Rebecca Swadzba, 2009)
A day at Sea (Poem by Melissa Roberson, 2007)

Carlos Perez Tabares:
Bestiarium
Based on poems by Dulce María Loynaz
for soprano and flute
Tegenaria domestica (Spider)
Ursus arctos (Bear)
Lampyris limbipennes (Firefly)
Philomela luscinia (Nightingale)
(Seahorse)

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About NYFOS (www.nyfos.org) - Now in its 28th 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. Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce NYFOS MAINSTAGE, its flagship series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between classical and popular performance genres, and exploring the character and language of other cultures. Since its founding NYFOS has particularly celebrated the wide spectrum of American music. Among many highlights is the double bill of one-act comic operas, Bastianello by John Musto and Lucrezia by William Bolcom, both with libretti by Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS in 2008 and recorded on Bridge Records.

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. NYFOS's discography also includes Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on Bridge Records. Its recently released CD on the GPR label, Canción amorosa, also focuses on Spanish song-Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic-with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier.

In 2010, NYFOS launched NYFOS NEXT, a series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. This season the series returns as a mini-festival during the month of February 2016 with all concerts presented at OPERA America's National Opera Center. In the fall of 2014, NYFOS officially introduced its unamplified cabaret series NYFOS AFTER HOURS at HENRY's Restaurant on the Upper West Side, drawing full houses and superlative voices accompanied by Blier at the piano.

NYFOS is passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young singers and through its NYFOS EMERGING ARTISTS program has developed professional training residencies around the country, including The Juilliard School's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 11th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 8th year in March 2016); San Francisco Opera Center (over 15 years as of March 2014); Glimmerglass Opera (2008-2010); and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY (3 years).

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.