NYFOS to Present 'AT HOME' Song Cycle in NYC, at Caramoor This March

New York Festival of Song marks its eighth annual residency at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with AT HOME, to be performed on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 8:00 p.m. at Merkin Concert Hall.

A preview performance will take place at the Caramoor Center in Katonah, NY on Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 4:00 p.m.

A quartet of exciting young voices brings to life this unique program which features a mini-song cycle for every room in the house, with works by a wide range of composers (and in six languages) including Saint-Saëns, Bernstein, Poulenc, Villa-Lobos, Montsalvatge and Bucchino.

As part of the NYFOS Emerging Artists season and its commitment in training the next generation of vocalists, the concert features the members of Caramoor's 2016 Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Stars Program: Liv Redpath, soprano, Abigail Levis, mezzo-soprano, Galeano Salas, tenor, Justin Austin, baritone, as well as William Kelley, pianist.

The young artists will be joined by NYFOS artistic director Steven Blier and associate artistic director Michael Barrett on piano.

Tickets are $40-$55 for the public, $10 for students and can be purchased online at kaufmanmusiccenter.org or by calling the Merkin box office at (212) 501-3330. A limited number of advance purchase $20 Real Deal tickets are available. A complimentary wine reception with the artists will follow the performance. Tickets for the performance at Caramoor are $15-$35 and available online at tickets.caramoor.org.

From NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier: "I always look forward to our week at Caramoor, which becomes a precious Zen-garden of song as the winter loosens its grip on the world. This year our program is about the rooms of a house-intrigues in the parlor, the kitchen, the nursery, the dressing room, and the bedroom. At Caramoor we'll use an expanded playing area on the floor of the Music Room to delineate each room of our music-filled home-our first environmental recital. And when we leave the spaciousness of the suburbs for our Merkin performance in New York, we'll downsize our home to the size of an apartment (as all Manhattanites must). Our musical program ranges freely through many languages and eras, requiring a vocally skilled, theatrically savvy cast. I lucked out with four fireball singer-actors-Liv Redpath, Abigail Levis, Galeano Salas, and Justin Austin-and a fabulous young pianist as well, Will Kelly. Fasten your seatbelts."

About the Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars - The identification and development of young musical talent has long been central to Caramoor's mission. The Vocal Rising Stars, established in 2009 under the artistic leadership of Caramoor's former Executive Director, Michael Barrett, and NYFOS Artistic Director, Steven Blier, is an intensive program centered on the art of song and vocal chamber music. Singers at the beginning professional level are invited to Caramoor for a weeklong residency that offers daily coaching, rehearsals, and workshops with mentors.

The Vocal Rising Stars program has a specialized focus on providing singers with an opportunity to form collaborative partnerships with one another, the Caramoor staff, and the coach/accompanists who also participate in the residency. In the program, the work is of equal importance to the performances, and has had a lasting impact on the growth and development of the artists involved. Past graduates of this program-including Joélle Harvey, Paul Appleby, John Brancy, Julia Bullock, Tobias Greenhalgh, Brenton Ryan, Carlton Ford, Andrew Owens, Corinne Winters, and Wallis Giunta-are now enjoying busy international careers.

PROGRAM:

(subject to change)

THE PARLOR

La nuit (Ernest Chausson)

Cigarette (Herbert E. Haines)

El desdichado (Camille Saint-Saëns)

Sevillanas (Jules Massenet)

To Daisies (Roger Quilter)

Trust Her Not (Michael William Balfe)

THE KITCHEN

Food For Thought (Heitor Villa-Lobos)

Tavouk Guenksis (Leonard Bernstein)

Painting My Kitchen (John Bucchino)

THE NURSERY

El lagarto está llorando (Xavier Montsalvatge)

My Ship and I (Reynaldo Hahn)

Tais-toi, babillarde (Darius Milhaud)

THE DRESSING ROOM

I Love Me (Will Mahoney)

THE BEDROOM

C'est ainsi que tu es (Francis Poulenc)

Im Zimmer (Alban Berg)

Boli mnie g?owa (Gra?yna Bacewicz)

Serenata (Pietro Mascagni)

Sleep (Ivor Gurney)

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 17 years as of March 2016); 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.