History

New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) was founded in 1988 by Michael Barrett and Steven Blier. 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 Russian art song to Argentine tangos, from sixteenth-century lute songs to new music. Over the years, NYFOS has particularly stressed the importance of American song by exploring our country's rich musical traditions.

NYFOS has also sought to enlarge the repertoire of American vocal music through a notable series of commissioned works.  In March of 2008, NYFOS will premiere two new NYFOS commissions, short comic operas, Bastianello/Lucrezia, byJohn Musto and William Bolcom, both with librettos by Mark Campbell.  (Commission, performance and broadcast of these works on WNYC is supported by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General and administered by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.)   On March 22, 2001, NYFOS premiered its Songbook for a New Century, a collaboration with Meet The Composer with additional support from the ASCAP Foundation that included commissions from twenty living American composers with texts by contemporary American writers. On May 11, 1996, at the 92nd Street Y, NYFOS presented American Love Songs, a companion piece for Brahms's Liebeslieder Waltzes for vocal ensemble and four-hand piano by ten American composers. During the 1996-97 concert season NYFOS featured the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann's Appalachian Liebeslieder. Evidence of Things Not Seen, commissioned by NYFOS and The Library of Congress to celebrate Ned Rorem's seventy-fifth birthday, premiered at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall on January 22, 1998. NYFOS reprised the concert at the Library of Congress, the Nantucket Musical Arts Society, the Moab Music Festival, and the Chicago Humanities Festival (taped for broadcast by PBS) and throughout the country during the 2000-01 season.

NYFOS got its start at the Greenwich House Music School, where it presented its first six concert seasons. In 1994, NYFOS moved to two larger halls, dividing its programs between the 92nd Street Y and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In the 1998-99 season, NYFOS moved from the 92nd Street Y to The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. That season also brought NYFOS to the radio airwaves with its broadcast series on WQXR, hosted by Jamie Bernstein Thomas and Steven Blier.   From 2003 through 2006, NYFOS performed all of its season concerts at Merkin Hall in co-presentation with The Kaufman Center.  NYFOS's 2007 and 2008 seasons have returned to Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, now presenting each program in two performances.

NYFOS has maintained a busy touring schedule, including engagements at the Vocal Arts Society of Washington, D.C., Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia, The University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and London's Wigmore Hall. NYFOS has also presented concerts in other major halls around New York City, including Alice Tully Hall, Rose Hall and the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.