NYFOS Presents PORT OF CALL: AN ITINERARY OF SONG Tonight

New York Festival of Song marks its sixth annual residency at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with PORTS OF CALL: AN ITINERARY OF SONG, to be performed tonight, March 18 and Wednesday March 19, 2014 at 7:00PM at Opera America's National Opera Center in New York, NY.

A NYFOS On Tour performance will also take place at the Caramoor Center in Katonah, NY on Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 4:00pm.

Ports of Call takes the audience on a musical trip around the world-from the shores of New York to South America, then through Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, the South Sea, the far East, and finally home. On the journey one will meet a fascinating cast of characters, people in transit for every possible reason: vacationers, political fugitives, missionaries, merchants, sailors, and wanderers in search of new horizons. The music covers the globe too, with contributions ranging from Rimsky-Korsakovand Guastavino to Bolcom and Porter. The musical itinerary is rich and varied, with beautiful (and funny) songs from the four corners of the globe.

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 2014 Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Stars Program: soprano Olivia Betzen, mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen, tenor Miles Mykkanen, and baritone Theo Hoffman.

The singers will be joined by NYFOS artistic director Steven Blier and associate artistic director Michael Barrett on piano, along with the rising young pianistLeann Osterkamp.

Tickets for the performances in New York City are $45 general admission and are available online at www.nyfos.org. Tickets for the performance at Caramoor are $15-$35 and available online at http://tickets.caramoor.org

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 leading up to a performance is of equal if not greater importance than the concert itself and will have a lasting impact on the growth and development of young artists.

About New York Festival of Song

Now in its 26th 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 unforgettable evenings of compelling theater, NYFOS fosters community among artists and audiences. Each program entertains and educates in equal measure. Everyone has a primal need to be sung to; NYFOS was made to meet that need.

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.

Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song, featuring premieres and commissions of new American works. These include 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 recorded on Bridge Records. In addition to Bastianello andLucrezia 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. Soon to come: a CD of Spanish song-Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic-on the GPR label, with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier.

In November 2010, NYFOS began its latest programming venture with the debut ofNYFOS Next, a mini-series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. For the 2013-2014 season, the series moves to Opera America's National Opera Center for all three concerts.

NYFOS also nurtures the artistry and careers of young singers in training residencies (current and past projects) with The Juilliard School's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 9th year), Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 6th year in March 2014), San Francisco Opera Center (over 15 years as of April 2013), Glimmerglass Opera (2008-2010), and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY, successfully completed in August 2013.

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.