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So much work goes into these Schwab Rising Star residencies at Caramoor before Bénédicte Jourdois (the Associate Director), the cast, and I ever set foot in the Music Room. The program idea has to be honed, the songs have to be chosen, and scanned, and sent, and...
Le tour de France is finally making its New York début after a four-year delay. The product of a collaboration between the pianist Bénédicte Jourdois and me, it received its initial outing at Caramoor as part of NYFOS’s annual Schwab Vocal Rising Stars program. We...
JUSTIN AUSTIN, co-artistic director As a child, I was profoundly captivated by the Grammy-winning a cappella group Take 6, a remarkable ensemble of six young Black men whose music celebrated the transformative power of goodness and love. Years later, their artistry...
Let’s not bury the lede: the hall was full (I feared that we’d have a sparse crowd), and the reception was rapturous. For once, that descriptor is not hyperbole. The hall in Orient is not large, and there is the palpable sense of a community coming together for a...
Dress rehearsal? Well, it went smoothly enough. 95% of the lyrics were in place, a few of the numbers got their best performance yet, and everything was, as we say, at a level. Katherine, who had told us we wouldn’t be seeing the lights until the performance, managed...
Today was “suck it up and run the show” day, and we got to the double-bar with no casualties. My resolution to accept the piano on its own terms got me through Act I, but it began to crumble the moment Act II started. One of my problems is that I have no time to fix...