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NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG
announces
“Cream of the Cropâ€
A Gala evening celebrating
NYFOS’ Emerging Artists programs
Gala Co-Chairs
LUCY and WILLIAM FRIEDMAN
ELIZABETH and DEAN KEHLER
JON RUPP and BILL HOOVER
and PAT WHEELER
NYFOS Artistic Directors and pianists
STEVEN BLIER and MICHAEL BARRETT
host an exciting lineup of rising stars and distinguished alumni
from NYFOS’ Emerging Artists programs
featuring
PAUL APPLEBY
JOHN BRANCY
JULIA BULLOCK
THEO LEBOW
ANNIE ROSEN
MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2015, 7:00PM
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Followed by an elegant supper at ‘21’ Club
TICKETS
Gala tickets, which include the concert and dinner,
range from $750 to $15,000 for a premium table of ten.
Information regarding donations and on purchasing tickets and tables can be obtained online at www.nyfos.org/gala or by calling (646) 230-8380.
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NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG announces its 2015 spring gala, Cream of the Crop, celebrating NYFOS’ commitment to emerging artists. The concert takes place Monday, March 30 at 7:00 p.m. at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, followed by supper at the ‘21’ Club.
NYFOS founders, artistic directors and pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett play host to an exciting line-up of rising stars, a ll whom have grown up in the NYFOS family of emerging artist programs and residencies. They include soprano Julia Bullock, mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen, tenors Paul Appleby and Theo Lebow, and baritone John Brancy.
Over the past decade, NYFOS has taken a growing interest in mentoring, coaching, and nurturing some of the most promising young vocalists of our era. Its Emerging Artists series has become a hallmark of the organization, and now reaches from Juilliard, Caramoor, and the North Fork to San Francisco Opera and Arizona Opera. These residencies are truly unique professional training opportunities, and NYFOS is extremely proud of the singers who have participated and gone on to successful careers.
NYFOS Emerging Artists trains young vocalists in programming and translation, presentation and production, research and musical style. In deep artistic collaboration with Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, the singers are encouraged to engage audiences with directness, subtlety, and passion.
Over 100 young talents have participated in NYFOS residencies over the years: NYFOS@Juilliard has welcomed 51 artists; NYFOS@Caramoor – 25, including one pianist; NYFOS@San Francisco Opera Center – approximately 60; and the newest program, NYFOS@Orient – 8.
NYFOS has been hailed throughout the world for its artistic contributions. “New York Festival of Song reinvented the song recital,†wrote The New Yorker. “One of the longstanding delights of the New York music scene,†offered The New York Times, while The Boston Globe praised NYFOS for its "uncommonly eloquent programs."
Marking the end of another successful season, and paying tribute to its rich history, this year’s spring gala serves as the major fundraising event for the season, and contributions to the event help keep the music playing at NYFOS events for years to come.
From NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier:
“NYFOS's Emerging Artists programs have become one of our true glories. Something quite magical happens during our rehearsal retreats in New York, Caramoor, and Long Island—a mystical confluence of Zen meditation, yoga, chemistry lab, and standup comedy funneled into the art of song.
Few things are as beautiful or awe-inspiring to me as watching a talented fledgling singer mature into a charismatic, heartbreaking pro before our very eyes. The only sadness is that we sometimes have to wait a few years to engage them again, as their burgeoning careers take them around the globe.
How lucky to have these five singers with us for Cream of the Crop, fresh from other gigs in other continents and en route to the next ones. They are a stunning quintet of performers, a dream poker hand: five aces.â€
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HEAR FROM NYFOS
EMERGING ARTISTS ALUMNI
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PAUL APPLEBY, tenor
“What underlies all NYFOS endeavors is the passion for words and music. In my work in the NYFOS@Juilliard and NYFOS@Caramoor residencies, Steven and Michael taught me how best to serve this passion not only as a performer, but also as a leader in my musical community. I caught the bug of curiosity about songs of all styles and learned how to think imaginatively and practically about the art of programming. Most importantly, through the example of NYFOS I learned how to apply my talents as a performer and my love for words and music to a commitment to my audience that builds a community bound by the irreplaceable magic of song.â€
Tenor Paul Appleby opened the 2014-15 season with the Milwaukee Symphony in the role of Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni under Edo de Waart. He then appeared in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Metropolitan Opera, and will return in May to sing Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress for the first time at the Met, conducted by James Levine.
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JOHN BRANCY, baritone
“My experience during the NYFOS@Caramoor residency was one of the most inspiring and influential weeks of my artistic life. Steve and Michael gave us the chance to live in the music day to day rather than just one hour at a time and encouraged us to go as deep as we could with our songs. This kind of opportunity is rare at any stage of the career let alone during the earliest parts. The residency will always live with me and continue to inform my artistic future.â€
Baritone John Brancy made a triumphant recital debut at the Kennedy Center last December under the auspices of Vocal Arts DC. The same month he made his debut with Musica Sacra in Messiah at Carnegie Hall, and returned in January to make his recital debut in Weill Recital Hall as part of Marilyn Horne’s The Song Continues.
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JULIA BULLOCK, soprano
“The NYFOS@Caramoor residency functions as a retreat. You are secluded and surrounded by an environment that is designed to help you focus. In my experience, everyone deeply committed their energies to this one project, and it resulted in an intense musical experience that was satisfying and fulfilling.â€
Winner of the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition, soprano Julia Bullock began the 2014-15 season with a performance of Delage’s Quatre poèmes hindous with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, and a recital at Napa’s Festival del Sole. Besides multiple appearances in recital around the country, she is reprising the title role in Henry Purcell’s The Indian Queen, directed by Peter Sellars, at the Perm Opera House and the Diaghilev Festival, and at English National Opera.
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THEO LEBOW, tenor
“Working with NYFOS has been one of the most enjoyable creative experiences of my artistic life. My first experience with NYFOS was in March 2013 at Caramoor, where I sang in 'Songs of the Midnight Sun.' I have never worked with two better coaches--those two men are among the most musically sensitive artists I know. Both Steven and Michael encouraged me to think outside of the box and were always supportive. The guest coaches we worked with–John Lidal and Karen Holvik–were likewise wonderful to us all. And most importantly, it was fun–one of the musical highlights of my life.â€
Tenor Theo Lebow will join the NYFOS Gala fresh from his appearance with Seattle Opera in Semele. His other work this season included the roles of Picasso and F. Scott Fitzgerald in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera “27†with Opera Theater of St. Louis. This April, he returns for a NYFOS Mainstage program with concerts at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center.
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ANNIE ROSEN, mezzo-soprano
“Life as a young freelance singer, while exciting, isn't always easy. My residency with NYFOS at Caramoor was an oasis in the midst of the year: what a luxury to devote a whole week to such wonderful repertoire, guided by some of the best people out there. Steve and Michael create an atmosphere that's uniquely supportive for developing artists. They helped push me just out of my comfort zone, into that slightly-scary place where the most growth happens. The freedom I discovered at Caramoor contributed directly to a great summer and some life-changing auditions, but more importantly, it unlocked a part of my artistic self that I'd not been able to access before. For that–and for the amazing cooking skills of my fellow workshop participants–I'll be forever grateful.â€
Having spent the 2012-13 season performing twelve roles with Deutsche Oper Berlin, mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen is now based in the States with a season that included her Metropolitan Opera debut in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten. In April, she joins the Chicago Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera Center Ensemble for their 2015-16 season.
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NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG
Steven Blier, Artistic Director
Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director
Charles I. McKay, Managing Director
Claire Molloy, Deputy Director
Board of Directors
Paul DeRosa, Chairman
Karen Koch, Vice Chairman
Robert D. Krinsky, Treasurer
Philip K. Howard
Jeffrey Craig Miller
Judy Goetz Sanger
Peter M. Thall
Advisory Board
Elizabeth Auman
Jamie Bernstein
William Bolcom
Martha J. Fleischman
John Guare
Graham Johnson
Anne Kaufman Schneider
Robert Kimball
Joan Morris
Ned Rorem
Frederica von Stade
Stephen Wadsworth
Founding Advisor
Leonard Bernstein
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“People have a primal need to be sung to and communicated with through song. The essential core of truth in each song—that part where you feel ‘that's me, I've been there’—that’s what we’re always looking for.†— Steven Blier
Now in its 27th 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 NYFOS MAINSTAGE, 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. 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. Its recently released CD on the GPR label, Canción amorosa, focuses on Spanish song—Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic—with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier.
In November 2010, NYFOS premiered NYFOS NEXT, a series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. This season the series returns as a mini-festival during the month of February 2015 with all concerts presented at OPERA America’s National Opera Center. In the fall of 2014, NYFOS officially introduced its unamplified cabaret series NYFOS AFTER HOURS at HENRY's Restaurant on the Upper West Side, drawing full houses and superlative voices accompanied by Blier at the piano.
NYFOS is passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young singers, and through its NYFOS EMERGING ARTISTS program has developed professional training residencies around the country, including The Juilliard School’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 10th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 7th year in March 2015); San Francisco Opera Center (over 15 years as of March 2014); Glimmerglass Opera (2008–2010); and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY (2 years).
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.
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NYFOS 2014-15 Season-at-a-Glance
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Tuesday, February 17, 2015, 7:00 pm
Bright Sheng & Friends
OPERA America's National Opera Center
NYFOS Next
Sunday, March 15, 2015, 4:00 pm
Caramoor's Vocal Rising Stars
Bel Canto/Can Belto
Caramoor Center in Katonah, NY
NYFOS Emerging Artists
Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 8:00 pm
Bel Canto/Can Belto
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center
NYFOS Mainstage
Monday, March 30, 2015, 7:00 pm
NYFOS Spring Gala
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 8:00 pm
Letters from Spain:
A World of Song in Spanish Poetry
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center
NYFOS Mainstage
Thursday, April 30, 2015, 7:30 pm
Letters from Spain:
A World of Song in Spanish Poetry
Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
Presented by Vocal Arts DC
NYFOS On Tour
Monday, May 4, 2015, 10:00 pm
Great American Songwriting Teams
HENRY's Restaurant
NYFOS After Hours
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All NYFOS programming is funded, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature .
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For further information, press tickets, photos, and to arrange interviews,
please contact Aleba & Co. at 212/206-1450 or aleba@alebaco.com. |
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