Lost in Translation

SUN, OCT 15, 3pm
The Theater at the
Rubin Museum of Art
150 W 17th Street, NYC

Featuring the world premiere performance of We Two, a song cycle by British composer Iain Bell with text by Walt Whitman. Bell‘s magical settings make Whitman’s words sound like a language that we all once knew, but only a few remember; this exciting new work is performed by baritone Gregory Feldmann with curator LaNasa at the keyboard. In addition, soprano Robin Steitzwill appear in Reena Esmail’s Rosa de Sal with text by Pablo Neruda from a Spanish poem about self-obliterating love. Soprano Paulina Swierczek performs Andrew Cheung’s 2017 All thorn, but cousin to your rose with texts by Vladimir Nabokov and others, speaking about the errors and sins of translation. Additional songs on the program will be by composers Gity Razaz, Hilary Purrington, Arlene Elizabeth Sierra, and Nkeiru Okoye. Tickets $25. Students tickets ($10) available here. 

In Her Own Words

SUN, NOV 19, 3pm
The Theater at the
Rubin Museum of Art
150 W 17th Street, NYC

November’s program spotlights singer-songwriters who emerged from the classical tradition. The featured composer-performers include Molly Joyce, a musician whose limited mobility in her left hand has led  her to creative and idiosyncratic performance techniques, and made her a powerful advocate for people with disabilities; Dicky Dutton, whose work explores ritual and queer identity in a playfully improvisatory spirit; and Lucy Dhegrae, performing a piece for voice and electronics that fuses her deep background in experimental music with a new relationship to the language and materials of electronic dance music. General admission tickets $25. Students tickets ($10) available here. 

Subscribe HERE to the two-concert series for 20% off the single ticket price! Seating for the NYFOS Next series is general admission. No physical tickets will be used for this program; attendees’ names will be on a list at the door. Walk-up ticket buyers welcome!

NYFOS Next is New York Festival of Song’s “invaluable contemporary-music series” (The New Yorker). With an emphasis on spontaneity, novelty, and collaboration, NYFOS Next offers a forum for song composers to share their work, and gives audiences an intimate encounter with the creative process, as new songs are presented in an informal setting. Composers or performers are invited to curate and host their own programs, showcasing their own work and the works of their peers, students or mentors. Past curators include Mark Adamo, Clarice Assad, Mark Campbell, Christopher Cerrone, Mohammed Fairouz, Gregory Feldmann, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kyle Jarrow (with Lauren Worsham), Gabriel Kahane, Laura Kaminsky, Laura Karpman & Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, Carla Kilhstedt, Phil Kline, Lowell Liebermann, David T. Little, Harold Meltzer, Paul Moravec, John Musto, Russell Platt, Kevin Puts, Bright Sheng, and Joseph Thalken. NYFOS welcomes Nathaniel LaNasa as the curator of the 23-24 NYFOS Next mini-series.

“The New York Festival of Song delves into art song’s future, with composers leading the way.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL on NYFOS Next

“A series that makes a passionate case for the art song as a can’t-live-without item on any civilized traveler’s packing list.”
 THE NEW YORK TIMES on NYFOS Next

“An evening that felt like the cutting edge of experimental art song. In a word, it felt very ‘next.'” 
OPERA NEWS on NYFOS Next