Herschel Garfein News

On Today, November 16, 2017 at 7:30pm, preceded by a 7:00pm Composer/Poet chat, Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents the Brooklyn premiere and grand finale performance of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II with expanded casting at National Sawdust. The project, which premiered in Manhattan and Queens earlier this year in honor of 5BMF's 10th anniversary season, features 20 new commissions inspired by New York City places, people and poetry from twenty composers, and includes solo songs, duets and ensemble works scored for various combinations of voice, piano and cello. The Five Borough Songbook, Volume II received its Staten Island premiere on September 16 at Trinity Lutheran Church and its Bronx premiere on September 17 at the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture.

On Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 7:30pm, preceded by a 7:00pm Composer/Poet chat, Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents the Brooklyn premiere and grand finale performance of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II with expanded casting at National Sawdust. The project, which premiered in Manhattan and Queens earlier this year in honor of 5BMF's 10th anniversary season, features 20 new commissions inspired by New York City places, people and poetry from twenty composers, and includes solo songs, duets and ensemble works scored for various combinations of voice, piano and cello. The Five Borough Songbook, Volume II received its Staten Island premiere on September 16 at Trinity Lutheran Church and its Bronx premiere on September 17 at the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture.

Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein's Sister Carrie, the latest world-premiere recording of by the Grammy Award-winning Florentine Opera, will be released by the Naxos label for worldwide distribution on Friday, September 8, 2017.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents the Staten Island, Bronx, and Brooklyn premieres of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II, completing the Songbook's journey across all five boroughs of New York City, which began during 5BMF's tenth anniversary season.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) announces programming for its 2017-2018 season, continuing its mission of bringing affordable, world-class performances of traditional and contemporary chamber music to all five boroughs of New York City.

AOP (American Opera Projects) announces the six singers who will become its Resident Ensemble for the upcoming ninth season of its Composers & the Voice training program. Comprised of one each of the basic operatic/vocal categories, the singers for the 2017-18 season will be Coloratura Soprano Tookah Sapper, Lyric Soprano Jennifer Goode Cooper, Mezzo-Soprano Blythe Gaissert, Tenor Blake Friedman, Baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco and Bass Adrian Rosas.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) presents the world premiere of the Five Borough Songbook, Volume II on Saturday, February 11 at 8:00 p.m. at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, featuring twenty brand new works from twenty different composers, commissioned by 5BMF in honor of its tenth anniversary season. The Songbook, inspired by New York City places, poetry, and themes, is performed by soprano Marnie Breckenridge, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, tenor William Ferguson, baritone Sidney Outlaw, pianists Jocelyn Dueck and Erika Switzer, and cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman. An additional performance is held on Sunday, February 12 at 3:00 p.m. at Flushing Town Hall in Queens. 

On Friday November 4th Brooklyn Art Song Society presents a rare complete performance of Hanns Eisler's Hollywooder Liederbuch.  Written during the composers first months in America during World War II, the Hollywood Songbook is a deeply personal mediation on loneliness, isolation, and alienation in the modern world.

Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) is proud to announce its seventh season, beginning in October of 2017.

SISTER CARRIE, a new American opera commissioned by Florentine Opera from the creators of Elmer Gantry, comes to Milwaukee's Marcus Center for the Performing Arts for two performances: Today October 7 at 7:30 PM and Sunday October 9 at 2:30 PM.

Milwaukee, WI -- The Florentine continues to craft its seasons with a blend of imaginatively staged classic operas and important new American works. The nation's sixth oldest opera company will launch the 83rd Season with the world premiere of SISTER CARRIE, a new work by the two-time Grammy Award-winning creators of Elmer Gantry.

Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) opens its seventh season on Friday October 7, 2016 with Fin de Siecle, the first of five concerts in the ambitious series Wien. This concert is the first in BASS's new primary venue, the Brooklyn Historical Society. Fin de Siecle features four composers who epitomize the opulence and decadence of late German Romanticism: Joseph Marx, Hans Pfitzner, Richard Strauss, and Alexander Zemlinsky. Highlights from the program include Pfitzner's extended masterpiece An den Mond and Richard Strauss's beloved Vier letze Lieder (Four Last Songs). The seven first-class performers include soprano Tami Petty (winner, Joy in Singing) and baritone Tobias Greenhalgh (Wiener Kammeropera). There will also be a pre-concert lecture by esteemed New York University professor Larry Wolff at 7:00 entitled "Art and Politics in Fin de Siecle Vienna."

Opera in October is a first-time collaboration between three non-profits to create new synergies for Opera lovers in the Greater Milwaukee Community: The Florentine Opera, Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) today announces programming for its tenth anniversary season, continuing its mission of bringing affordable, high-caliber performances of traditional and contemporary chamber music to all five boroughs of New York City. 

Opera in October is a first-time collaboration between three non-profits to create new synergies for Opera lovers in the Greater Milwaukee Community: The Florentine Opera, Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) today announces programming for its tenth anniversary season, continuing its mission of bringing affordable, high-caliber performances of traditional and contemporary chamber music to all five boroughs of New York City. 

Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) is proud to announce its seventh season, beginning in October of 2017.

SISTER CARRIE, a new American opera commissioned by Florentine Opera from the creators of Elmer Gantry, comes to Milwaukee's Marcus Center for the Performing Arts for two performances: Friday October 7 at 7:30 PM and Sunday October 9 at 2:30 PM.

BASS continues its innovative new music series In Context at the Tenri Cultural Center tonight, April 2nd, 2016.

The workshop of award-winning composer/lyricist/playwright/performer Max Vernon's new musical THE VIEW UPSTAIRS, directed by Scott Ebersold and with choreography by Spencer Liff and music direction by Matt Aument, will hold their industry presentations this week, starting today, March 31st, and continuing tomorrow, Friday, April 1st, in New York City.