Peter Dugan, César Andrés Parreño & More Set for New York Festival Of Song 2023-24 Season

New York Festival of Song has revealed its 2023-24 season of performances, including four Mainstage Series programs at Merkin Hall, co-presented with Kaufman Music Center.

NYFOS kicks off its Mainstage season at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center on Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. with Perennials: songs for every season. Co-created and co-hosted by pianists Steven Blier and Peter Dugan, Perennials celebrates the steadying power of music to guide us through the year with works by Schubert, Strauss, Toldrà, Sondheim, Carole King, and others.

The Mainstage season continues on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. with Gracias a la vida, a musical tour of South America, with songs from Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The program features Ecuadorian tenor César Andrés Parreño and Bolivian soprano Shelén Hughes, with Steven Blier as pianist and host.

On Wednesday, February 21, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. NYFOS offers All Together Now, a collaboration with Young Concert Artists featuring tenor Daniel McGrew, mezzo-sopranos Megan Moore and Erin Wagner, bass-baritone Joseph Parrish, and soprano/pianist Chelsea Guo. The program travels through six centuries of vocal ensembles, from the Renaissance to present day with music by Mozart, Chabrier, Libby Larsen, the Bobs, and many others.

NYFOS concludes its Mainstage season at Merkin Hall with Eros and Co. on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. following a weeklong residency at Caramoor from March 11-17 including a performance there on Sunday, March 17, 2024. Songs by Saint-Saëns, Granados, Serge Gainsbourg, Sondheim, and many others refract the chaos and the delight of Cupid's arrow. The cast features Caramoor's 2024 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars with Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois at the piano.

NYFOS continues to release albums and singles throughout the season on its in-house label, NYFOS Records, following the recent success of Black & Blue (2023), the debut solo album of British-American tenor Joshua Blue; and A Picnic Cantata (2022) by composer Paul Bowles and with a libretto by James Schuyler - the only collaboration between these two iconic artists. August will bring the release of Mi país: Songs of Argentina, featuring bass-baritone Federico De Michelis and pianist Steven Blier in a disc of art songs and tangos.

Additional performances include:

-a weeklong residency in Orient, NY from August 21 to 27 with a concert titled 100 Years of Broadway Love presented by Oysterponds Community Activities on Sunday, August 27, 2023 featuring soprano Kerrigan Bigelow, mezzo-soprano Sophia Baete, and baritone Shavon Lloyd, with Steven Blier as pianist, arranger, and music director for the residency.

-NYFOS' series for new song, the NYFOS Next Festival at the Rubin Museum of Art with concerts on Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 3:00 p.m., curated by Nathaniel LaNasa.

-the return of NYFOS' A Goyishe Christmas To You! on Tuesday, December 12, 2023. The annual holiday tradition features soprano Lauren Worsham, mezzo-sopranos Donna Breitzer and Rebecca Jo Loeb, tenor Alex Mansoori, and Cantor Joshua Breitzer with Steven Blier as pianist and host, alongside clarinetist Alan R. Kay. Location to be announced.

-the annual NYFOS@Juilliard concert on Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Ned at 100 is a tribute to the late American composer Ned Rorem, told through his music and his diaries, as well as songs by his inner circle of composer-friends including Leonard Bernstein, Francis Poulenc, Virgil Thompson, and Aaron Copland.

"I never cease to be amazed by the power of song to sustain us during challenging times," said NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier. "And that power is exponentially higher in the concert hall, where the NYFOS experience is at its peak. All season long I hear people say, 'Oh, I am so glad I was here tonight-the world feels right again!' Our season covers the waterfront, from the richness of Schubert and Strauss to the saturnine wit of Sondheim and Serge Gainsbourg. Joyous and thought-provoking, it's a big, bracing menu designed to feed the soul of our audience."

All NYFOS programming is funded, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

The NYFOS Mainstage and the NYFOS Next series are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Concert Information

Perennials: songs for every season
Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/new-york-festival-of-song-perennials-songs-for-every-season/

Program:
Works by Schubert, Strauss, Toldrà, Sondheim, and others

Artists:
Steven Blier, piano
Peter Dugan, piano
Samuel Kidd, baritone
Raquel Gonzales, soprano
Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano

Gracias a la vida
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/new-york-festival-of-song-gracias-a-la-vida/

Program:
A musical tour of South America, with songs from Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile

Artists:
César Andrés Parreño, tenor
Shelén Hughes, soprano
Steven Blier, pianist

All Together Now
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/new-york-festival-of-song-all-together-now/

Program:
Music by Mozart, Chabrier, Libby Larsen, the Bobs, and many others.

Artists:
Chelsea Guo, piano/soprano
Daniel McGrew, tenor
Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano
Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone
Steven Blier, piano

Eros and Co.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
Link: https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/new-york-festival-of-song-eros-and-co/

Program:
Music by Saint-Saëns, Granados, Sondheim, Serge Gainsbourg, and others

Artists:
Caramoor's 2024 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars
Steven Blier, piano
Bénédicte Jourdois, piano

Subscription tickets for concerts at Kaufman Music Center, priced at $160 to $260, will be available on July 10th. Single tickets priced at $20 to $70 will go on sale on August 8th.

NYFOS Next Series at the Rubin Museum of Art
Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Rubin Museum of Art | 150 W 17th St | New York, NY 10011
Link: https://nyfos.org/23-24season/#next

NYFOS Next Series at the Rubin Museum of Art
Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Rubin Museum of Art | 150 W 17th St | New York, NY 10011
Link: https://nyfos.org/23-24season/#next

Tickets for the NYFOS Next Festival will be available at nyfos.org.

About New York Festival of Song

Now in its 36th 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.

Their latest endeavor is NYFOS Records, which released its first album (From Rags to Riches, with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden) in January of 2022. They also issue a monthly single, with archival performances by artists such as Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Bernarda Fink, and newly recorded songs by Joshua Blue and Sasha Cooke. NYFOS Records has reached rapidly growing audiences in over 100 countries, with well over half a million streams since the beginning of the year.

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 16th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 14th year in March 2022); 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.

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 release is Black and Blue with tenor Joshua Blue, on NYFOS Records. His writings on opera have been featured in Opera News and the Yale Review. 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.

Photo credit: Cherylynn Tsushima

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