FUGITIVES
THU, FEB 12, 8pm
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
129 W 67th Street
Buy Tickets $20-70
Students $10 at 212-501-3330 or at the door
Complimentary post-concert wine reception with the artists included with admission.
“Everything that a song recital can achieve, in terms of musical revelation, vocal excellence and audience engagement, was exemplified… [in] the New York Festival of Song’s Fugitives.”
– The Washington Post
A revival of an acclaimed program last heard in 2008, the playlist includes songs from the concert stage, the movies, Broadway and Berlin’s cabarets, tracing the varied fates of the composers who faced destruction during Hitler’s rise to power. Some began new lives and brilliant careers abroad, others were to meet with darker ends. Featuring works by Kurt Weill, Franz Schreker, Alexander Zemlinsky, Friedrich Hollaender, Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Korngold, Hanns Eisler and many others. With baritone Gregory Feldmann and mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, and pianists Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois.
Steven Blier shares, “This revival of Fugitives is a supercharged event for me. It brings one of my most cherished colleagues, Kate Lindsey, back to NYFOS after a long absence, during which time she’s enjoyed international triumphs from La Scala to The Met. And it marks the first NYFOS concert with pianist Bénédicte Jourdois since she assumed the official capacity of Associate Artistic Director.
“Fugitives couldn’t be more timely. It tells the story of Jewish composers who found asylum in the United States during World War II. It also pays tribute to some of the gifted musicians who weren’t so blessed, meeting their deaths in concentration camps. The power and beauty – and humor – of Fugitives is especially poignant in our current times, and its message is even more urgent than when we first presented it 18 years ago.”