Steven Blier News

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts today announced its 2020 Mostly Mozart Festival, running from July 14 through August 8. Maintaining Mozart's innovative spirit as its inspiration, the festival magnifies its impact through groundbreaking immersive works, commissions, premieres, international multidisciplinary productions, and more.

THE NEW YORKER NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG presents a new show that sheds light on Harlem's gay underground: Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do: Songs from Gay Harlem

Steven Blier, Artistic Director a?? Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director   presents Marc Blitzstein's No For An Answer and Kurt Weill's Der Silbersee (Silverlake). Two powerful, neglected works by two masters of political theater. Each speaks passionately to the issues of our times. 

This concert is a co-presentation with Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center From NYFOS artistic director/co-founder/pianist/host Steven Blier: 'Lyrics by Shakespeare has a double significance for me: it was the first concert we ever did at NYFOS in 1988, and it also marked our debut at Mostly Mozart last summer (with the present cast, in a magical evening). Naomi O'Connell and Matt Boehler are eloquent singing actors, and they formed a deep bond with Kathleen Chalfant, a gentle giant of the American theater. The enduring power of Shakespeare's poetry has taken us all to the heights—singers, pianist, actress, as well as our international roster of composers. We knew we had to get the team back together to share it with our Merkin Hall audience, and are reconvening with great joy (and a few new songs too).'

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG has announced the lineup for its 2019-20 Season.

Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, under the leadership of artistic director Brian Zeger, announces its 2019-20 season of opera and vocal arts performances. Highlights of the upcoming season include three mainstage operas: Mozart's Così fan tutte, conducted by alumnus Nimrod David Pfeffer and directed by faculty member David Paul, on November 13, 15, and 17, 2019, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater; Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's MetLiveArts and the New York Philharmonic with Juilliard singers, conducted by Daniela Candillari and directed by Louisa Proske, on February 8, 11, 12, and 14, 2020, in the Charles Engelhard Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Puccini's La bohème, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson and directed by Stephen Wadsworth, on April 22, 24, and 26, 2020, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Guggenheim fellow, and Radcliffe alum, Kate Soper's music has been described as 'exquisitely quirky' (The New York Times) and 'epic' (WQXR). As a performer, she has been praised as a 'dazzling vocalist' (The New Yorker) and likened to 'Lucille Ball reinterpreted by Linda Blair' (Pitchfork). 

The winners of the American Vocal Arts 2019 International Collegiate Singing ChampionshipTM have been announced! The winners have been chosen from all over the world. The competition, sponsored by American Vocal Arts, emphasizes competitive collegiate singing that spans across borders. The goal of the competition is to award the best singers from around the world who are currently enrolled or have recently graduated from an undergraduate or graduate program in music. The winners were selected based on talent, potential, and overall presentation.

From January 21-26, 2019, renowned soprano Renee Fleming will mentor 10 aspiring young singers and 10 collaborative pianists from around the world in the inaugural year of SongStudio, an innovative new program exploring the future of the vocal recital. Building on Marilyn Horne's remarkable work with The Song Continues, the intensive workshop will bring emerging vocalists and pianists together with leading artists and composers for a week of instruction and performance at Carnegie Hall.

Juilliard's Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) present "Kurt Weill's Berlin" on Thursday, January 17, 2019, at 7:30pm in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Pianist and arranger Steven Blier, a Vocal Arts faculty member and the artistic director of NYFOS, performs with singers from Juilliard's Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts.

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG opens its 2018-2019 season with W. C. Handy and The Birth of the Blues. NYFOS celebrates W. C. Handy, often referred to as the "Father of the Blues," and his vast influence as a prominent African-American composer and publisher in the early 20th century.

Following immense backlash on social media over whitewashing of the role of Maria, meant to be Puerto Rican, Boggess took to Facebook to announce that she was withdrawing from the production.

Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Zeger, announces its 2018-19 season of opera and vocal arts performances. Highlights of the upcoming season include three mainstage operas: Britten's The Turn of the Screw featuring Juilliard singers and the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Steven Osgood and directed by John Giampietro, on November 14, 16, and 18 in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater; Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, featuring Juilliard singers and period-instrument ensemble Juilliard415, conducted by Avi Stein and directed by Mary Birnbaum, on February 20, 22, and 24 in Juilliard's Willson Theater; and Mozart's Don Giovanni, featuring Juilliard singers and the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Colaneri and directed by Emma Griffin, on April 24, 26, and 28 in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) announces programming for its 2018-2019 season, continuing its mission of bringing affordable, world-class performances of traditional and contemporary chamber music to all five boroughs of New York City. The upcoming slate of concerts marks the organization's most collaborative season to date, including partnerships with GEMAS (Gotham Early Music / Americas Society), ClassicalCafe, Brooklyn Art Song Society, New York Festival of Song, and the LGBT Center ("The Center").

 American Lyric Theater concludes the 10th Anniversary of its nationally acclaimed Composer Librettist Development Program this season with InsightALT: Opera in Eden, a one-night-only concert featuring three new one-act operas written by ALT Resident Artists, hosted by composer/librettist Mark Adamo and producing artistic director Lawrence Edelson.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with the New York Premiere of Angela Rice's Thy Will Be Done on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC. Tickets are $30-100 and are available at www.nationalchorale.com or by calling (212) 333-5333.

Hal Cazalet returns to Crazy Coqs, Live at Zedel following his sell out debut in October 2017 to celebrate the centenary of P.G. Wodehouse on Broadway and his fellow wordsmiths - 'the Men Who Made Musicals' in Play on Words at Soho's Brasserie Zedel from Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 February, 2018. The British tenor, a relative of author Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, will be joined by special guests, to be announced in due course, with Simon Beck on piano and directed by Hugh Wooldridge at London's premier cabaret room.

Mikaela Bennett with NYFOS; photo by Karli Cadel On February 27 at 8:00 p.m., New York Festival of Song and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center present a new program devised by Steven Blier, entitled, simply, PROTEST. A cast of young, diverse and brilliant singers that includes Mikaela Bennett who just wowed the world in Michael Gordon's opera Acquanetta at the Protoype Festival performs songs by a panorama of composers, from Marc Blitzstein and Joni Mitchell to Randy Newman and Mohammed Fairouz. (View the complete program below.)

The Tucson Desert Song Festival's (TDSF) sixth season opens tomorrow (Jan. 16) and will run through February, 4th. The festival will celebrate the life and music of Leonard Bernstein, the iconic conductor, composer, pianist and educator Over the coming weeks TDSF, in partnership with Tucson's leading arts organizations, will present events honoring Bernstein at 100. The festival will provide a rich and unusual context in which to experience Bernstein's work. Highlights include a fully-staged production of Bernstein's comic operetta Candide (in partnership with Arizona Opera); Trouble in Tahiti (in partnership with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra) featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and bass-baritone Kelly Markgraf; Mass, in a chamber version (in partnership with True Concord Voices & Orchestra) featuring Jubilant Sykes; the Kaddish symphony, narrated by Jamie Bernstein, and an evening with Broadway star Chita Rivera.

The Barns at Wolf Trap announced its upcoming shows for January and February. Check them out below!