Two New Operas Premiere at NYFOS March 11 & 13

New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) continues its 20th Anniversary season by presenting Bastianello and Lucrezia, two newly commissioned comic operas by composers John Musto and William Bolcom with libretti by Mark Campbell.  The concerts will take place on Tuesday, March 11 and Thursday, March 13 at 8PM, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, West 57th Street and 7th Avenue. 

Tickets are $48 at Carnegie Charge 212-247-7800 or visit the box office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. Tickets are not available by mail. For further information, please visit www.nyfos.org 

"Bastianello, based on an Italian folktale,is a family fable of love and folly set in 18th century rural Italy. Lucrezia, based on Machiavelli's La Mandragola, is a wickedly funny seduction satire, retold from the viewpoint of the story's wise and captivating heroine. Both works are scored for five singers and two pianos and will be presented in semi-staged performances," explain press notes.

Artists are soprano Lisa Vroman, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Paul Appleby, baritone Patrick Mason, bass Matt Boehler, with Steven Blier and Michael Barrett at the piano. 

Soprano Lisa Vroman starred on Broadway as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera and as Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella, making her New York City Opera debut with Paul Sorvino in the title role.  With a repertoire that ranges from Stravinsky to Weill to Broadway, Ms. Vroman is a frequent guest soloist in theater and with opera companies and orchestras that include San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, National, Vancouver, and the Boston Pops.  Her solo CD, Broadway Classic,features Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe.  Ms. Vroman had the honor of singing at the Profiles in Courage Award dinner in Boston at the JFK Library, as a guest of the Kennedy family. She has also sung on separate occasions for Queen Elizabeth, former President Bill Clinton, and former Vice President Al Gore.  Her previous performances with NYFOS were in Hands Across the Sea and English Gardens, Earthly Delights.

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke won First Prize in the 2007 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. She made her Washington, D.C. debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater and her New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in October. Ms. Cooke is the Lindemann Vocal Chair of Young Concert Artists. She has performed as soloist with Orchestra New England and with the National Symphony Orchestra as Mercedes in a concert performance of Bizet's Carmen, as Aloës in Chabrier's L'Étoile, and in a recital program entitled Manhattan Diaries hosted by Steven Blier. Her other notable performances include NYFOS's Brava Italia! concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

Tenor Paul Appleby is a second year master's student at The Juilliard School.  Mr. Appleby's opera credits include the roles of Achille in the Juilliard Opera Theater's production of Iphigénie en Aulide, Ferrando in Così Fan Tutte at the Chautauqua Institute, and Le Mari in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias with Notre Dame Opera.  He has sung numerous times with the South Bend Symphony, as well as in performances as tenor soloist in Handel's Messiah, Bach's Magnificat, and Haydn's Harmoniemesse with the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra. Past performances include the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and his debut with the Opera Theater of St. Louis. He made his debut with NYFOS in the Juilliard-NYFOS collaboration, Songs of Peace and War, and last sang with NYFOS in Island Journeys. 

Baritone Patrick Mason, a faculty member at the University of Colorado, performs operatic and concert repertoire throughout the world. Most recently he performed in the New York premiere of Black Water by John Duffy and Joyce Carol Oates. He has recorded music from tenth-century chant to songs by Stephen Sondheim, for Sony, Vox, L'Oiseaux-Lyre, and Erato. His two most recent CD releases on the Bridge Records label are Schubert's Winterreise and French Mélodies with pianist Robert Spillman, containing songs by Ravel, Fauré, Dutilleux and Poulenc. He has sung with NYFOS on several occasions, including Rivers and Rainbows and The Unknown Bernstein. 

Bass Matt Boehler made his debut with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Pooh-Bah in The Mikado. Mr. Boehler garnered praise in the title role of Sweeney Todd during his residency with the Wolf Trap Opera Company. He was the soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the New York Symphonic Ensemble and the Colonial Symphony.  He is also a three-time first prize winner of the Schubert Club vocal competition and a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. 

William Bolcom (Composer, Lucrezia) was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America and honored with multiple Grammy Awards for his groundbreaking setting of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. William Bolcom is a composer of cabaret songs, concertos, sonatas, operas, symphonies, and much more. In February 2008, his Eighth Symphony will be premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in three performances conducted by James Levine in Boston, MA, followed by its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on March 8.  His opera A View from the Bridge premiered at the Washington National Opera in Washington, D.C. this past November. Other recent premieres include his Canciones de Lorca with tenor Placido Domingo, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and conductor Carl St. Clair at the gala opening concert of the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Orange Country Performing Arts Center, and Nine New Bagatelles. 

John Musto (Composer, Bastianello) stands at the forefront of contemporary composers writing for the voice. He was a nominee for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for his song cycle, Dove Sta Amore, a setting of the poetry of Sandburg, Agee and Ferlinghetti. Other recent vocal works are The Book of Uncommon Prayer, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Rags for the Richest, commissioned by the New York Festival of Song, and Penelope, commissioned by the 92nd Street Y. His vocal compositions also include Encounters, Calypso, Quiet Songs, and Shadow of the Blues: Four Poems by Langston Hughes. Mr. Musto's orchestral and chamber works have been performed by numerous ensembles, including the Dallas Symphony, the Rochester Symphony, the Ahn Trio, and the Janus Ensemble. He has won Emmy Awards for his scores to the documentary films Into the Light and Brick City Lessons, and his most recent film collaboration, George Segal: An American Still Life, was seen on PBS. 

Mark Campbell (Librettist, Lucrezia and Bastianello) writes lyrics and libretti for musical theatre, performance art, opera and dance. He was honored with the first Kleban Foundation Award for Lyricists, and received two Richard Rodgers Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Rockefeller Foundation Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship and a Drama Desk Award nomination. Most recently, he wrote the lyrics for Later the Same Evening: an opera inspired by five paintings of Edward Hopper, a new opera with a score by John Musto, commissioned by the National Art Gallery and the University of Maryland. His works for music theater include: Splendora, The Paradise Project (with Michael Torke), Akin, Ring Around the Rosie (with Richard Peaslee), Therèse Raquin, and Chang & Eng. He is currently writing the lyrics for a song cycle for tenor Michael Winther, a short opera with composer Martin Hennessy, and an evening of three short operatic works with composer Lance Horne. In May, Mr. Campbell joins Michael Torke and A.R. Gurney at the Sundance Theatre Lab to collaborate on a musical adaptation of The House of Mirth. 

Artistic Director Steven Blier co-founded NYFOS in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival's inception, he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated over 100 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. In addition, Mr. Blier enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. Among the many artists he has partnered in recital are Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Frederica von Stade, Jessye Norman, Wolfgang Holzmair, Susanne Mentzer and Sylvia McNair. 

Co-founder and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett is also the CEO of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts and General Director of the Caramoor International Music Festival. In 1992, Mr. Barrett and his wife Leslie Tomkins founded The Moab Music Festival in Utah, for which he serves as Music Director. He has distinguished himself as a conductor with major orchestras here and abroad in the symphonic, operatic, and dance repertoire. From 1994-97, he was the director of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, he began his long association with the renowned conductor and composer as a student in 1982 and served as Maestro Bernstein's assistant conductor from 1985-90.  He currently serves as music advisor to the Leonard Bernstein estate. 

The New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) was founded in 1988 by its co-artistic directors, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett.  NYFOS is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty, humor and originality, combining music, poetry, and history to entertain, educate and create community among audiences and performers. With a far-ranging repertoire of art songs, concert works and theater pieces, its thematic recitals have included programs from Brahms to the Beatles, from the 19^th century salons of Paris to Tin Pan Alley, from Russian art song to Argentine tangos, from sixteenth-century lute songs to new music.  NYFOS particularly celebrates American song literature and culture, and specializes in premiering and commissioning new American works.

Tickets are $48 at Carnegie Charge 212-247-7800 or visit the box office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. Tickets are not available by mail. For further information, please visit www.nyfos.org  

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