On Tuesday, November 8 at 7:00pm, the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) presents the first of this season's two-part contemporary music mini-series NYFOS Next with Joseph Thalken & FRIENDS at Mary Flagler Cary Hall in the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Thalken hosts the evening and curates an hour of new theater music showcasing the songs of two gifted composers Sam Davis and Peter Foley, as well as his own. All three composers will play their own songs from the piano.
Following up on last year's debut season of NYFOS Next, which featured modern icons
Gabriel Kahane and Phil Kline, this second installment spotlights the musical theater works of
Joseph Thalken and, later in the season, the exquisite lyricism of Russell Platt on April 24, 2012. NYFOS Next looks to the future, opening a forum for the next generation of song composers and interpreters. Audiences enjoy an up-close encounter with the creative process, and freshly-minted songs are shared among creative companions-some for the first time. With an emphasis on spontaneity, novelty, and collaboration, NYFOS Next pioneers an experimental venue for song, paralleling the New York Festival of Song's celebrated concert series in Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center.
Joseph Thalken and Friends features the work of three composers who have garnered considerable acclaim and awards from foundations and companies throughout the United States. The upward trajectory between these three is uniquely intertwined: both
Peter Foley and
Sam Davis were jointly Jonathan Larsen grant recipients in 1999; Thalken and Foley both recently received significant grants from the
Signature Theatre to develop new work; and individually their resumes range from an NEA grant,
Richard Rodgers Award and
Stephen Sondheim Award (Foley) to Broadway conducting credits of Curtains, Follies, The Apple Tree and Cabaret (Davis) to extensive touring as musical director and pianist with
Patti LuPone,
Bernadette Peters,
Denyce Graves, and
Kristin Chenoweth (Thalken).
The November 8 NYFOS Next program will feature two sets of selections from
Joseph Thalken to open and finish the evening, including works from his shows Was (lyrics by
Barry Kleinbort), Harold and Maude - an intimate musical (lyrics by
Tom Jones) and And The Curtain Rises (lyrics by
Mark Campbell). The center portion of the program will include songs from
Sam Davis, whose work includes The Scottish Musical, Dysfunctional Fables, A Good Boy and numerous individual songs-as well as
Peter Foley, whose stage work consists of the multiple award-winning The Hidden Sky, The Bear, music for "To Sing" from Songs From An Unmade Bed, and a vast array of art songs and cabaret material.
Admission to NYFOS Next concerts is free of charge. Reservations are required and may be made after November 1 by calling 646-230-8380 or emailing info@nyfos.net.
Tickets are available on a first-come-first-served basis. There is a four-ticket limit per customer.
