Wednesday is always the day of grace. The performance still feels pleasantly far off, so we’re able to keep performance anxiety at bay. Sure, the cast is concerned about memorization, I am concerned about the places where my hands are not cooperating. But these remain...
written by
Steven Blier
NYFOS@North Fork 2022: Day 2
This year’s program is called “Gracias a la vida: Songs of Latin America,” chosen to show off the gifts of my two Spanish-speaking singers, César Parreño and Shelén Hughes. But our concert also includes three Brazilian songs in Portuguese, and we’d need a language...
NYFOS@North Fork 2022: Day 1
Since the pandemic I have come to place a high value on two contradictory things; my alone time, and my musical communion with colleagues. The annual NYFOS@North Fork concert comes at the end of August, just when my need for alone time is at its most intense. I yearn...
The Wider View: Songs by Black Composers
Like many pianists in my field, I’ve had the Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers on my shelf for decades. NYFOS has made good use of it over the years, often programming those concert pieces alongside popular songs by Eubie Blake and Fats Waller. It was...
NYFOS@Caramoor 2022: Day 7
I had a remarkable moment onstage yesterday. I have not, in truth, loved performing very much in recent months, for reasons too complicated and perhaps too unknown for me to explain. But yesterday at Caramoor, I felt the magic of musical communion with an audience...
Program Notes: Love Songs in 176 Keys
When I was a child, my favorite part of every lesson was the last five minutes when I got to play duets with my teacher. We’d rip through Schubert’s Marche Militaire or the four-hand piano reduction of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, and I was in heaven. Sure, I liked...







