NYFOS Celebrates 25th Anniversary with End of the Year Soiree Tonight

Artistic Directors Steven Blier and Michael Barrett cap the first quarter-century of NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG with a 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION tonight, May 13 at 7:30 PM at DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

Justin Davidson once called NYFOS "the longest-running song party in town," and that phrase inspired this concert. The festivities will feature a smorgasbord of favorite tunes from NYFOS's quarter century of concerts: South American songs ("Odeon" by Nazareth, "Pra que discutir com Madame" by Haroldo Barbosa, "Carinhoso" by Pixinguinha); American popular song ("I'm Going to Make You Beautiful" by Maltby and Shire, "Just Like a Man" by Vernon Duke); and vocal music by Spanish, Russian, and German composers, ranging from Montsalvatge to Kurt Weill. The variety show will embrace vaudeville, art song, Broadway, blues, and samba.

A world-class company of NYFOS friends, singers, composers and librettists will gather in one room for this celebration of the organization's 25 years of ensemble music-making. So far the performers include Dina Kuznetsova, James Martin, Mary Testa, Amy Burton and John Musto, Sari Gruber, Joseph Kaiser, Judy Kaye, Jeff Picón, Corinne Winters, Joan Morris and Bill Bolcom, Jesse Blumberg, Andrew Garland, Jennifer Aylmer, and the NYFOS Comedian Harmonists: Kyle Bielfield, Nathan Haller, Miles Mykkanen, Philip Stoddard, and Leo Radosavljevic.

New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) concludes its 2012-13 season with a special 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION:

NYFOS Founders, Artistic Directors and pianists
STEVEN BLIER and MICHAEL BARRETT
celebrate a quarter century of song

with NYFOS friends from past and present, including:

AMY BURTON and JOHN MUSTO
JOAN MORRIS and BILL BOLCOM
JENNIFER AYLMER
SARI GRUBER
JUDY KAYE
DINA KUZNETSOVA
MARY TESTA
CORINNE WINTERS
JESSE BLUMBERG
ANDREW GARLAND
JOSEPH KAISER
JAMES MARTIN
JEFF PICÓN

and introducing "THE NYFOS COMEDIAN HARMONISTS"
Kyle Bielfield, Nathan Haller, Miles Mykkanen,
Philip Stoddard, and Leo Radosavljevic

The concert is set for MONDAY, MAY 13 at 7:30 PM at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. Tickets at $25 are available for purchase by calling (646) 230-8380, emailing info@nyfos.net, or visiting www.nyfos.org/soiree or www.nyfos.org.

Now in its 25th anniversary 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 seamless theater. Each program of song and story engages, entertains, educates and fosters community among artists and audiences in a spirit of shared adventure.

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 high and low performance genres, exploring the character and language of other cultures, and the personal voices of song composers and lyricists. NYFOS also nurtures the artistry and careers of young singers in training residencies with The Juilliard School (in its 8th year), Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (in its 5th year), San Francisco Opera (in its 15th year) and Glimmerglass Opera (2008 - 2010).

Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song, featuring premieres and commissions of new American works, including a 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 released on Bridge Records in 2011. 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 2011, NYFOS's 13-segment, nationally syndicated radio show, hosted by Frederica von Stade, debuted on WFMT, producer of radio programs for the New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wigmore Hall and many others. 2011 also saw the debut of NYFOS Next, NYFOS's mini-series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues.

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.