NYFOS@North Fork: Day 1, July 26

I’ve been anticipating—and fearing—this year’s Orient residency, the eighth NYFOS@North Fork concert. I love sharing the beauty of our little town with my younger colleagues, and it’s always a pleasure to make music for such an appreciative, smart crowd. But I haven’t...
NYFOS@Caramooor 2020: Day 7

NYFOS@Caramooor 2020: Day 7

You never know which concert is going to become the year’s Big Event. I approach every project as if the fate of the world hung on my getting it just right. This season we revived two important, long-forgotten music theater pieces in November...
NYFOS@Caramoor 2020: Day 6

NYFOS@Caramoor 2020: Day 6

Today wasn’t just our dress rehearsal, it was our Dress Rehearsal. The concert at Caramoor usually feels like a final run before the New York show on Tuesday, but this year it’s different. For one thing, there is no New York show because of the #$%^#&@*@ corona...
NYFOS@Caramoor 2020: Day 5

NYFOS@Caramoor 2020: Day 5

This has been a lovely experience, a week of warm feelings, good discussions, support, kindness, and fine music-making. But I’ve been waiting in vain for the Big Breakthrough, the dramatic moment where you know an artist has loosened his or her shackles and is now...
NYFOS@Caramoor 2020: Day 4

NYFOS@Caramoor 2020: Day 4

In 2014 Caramoor asked me to include a fifth apprentice artist in the Vocal Rising Stars mix: a pianist. Initially I balked at the suggestion—it meant another mouth to feed, a possible impediment to the intimacy of working with the singers. After the first year (with...

NYFOS@Caramoor 2020: Day 3

Bénédicte Jourdois joined us today. She is one of the premier French coaches in America, a superb pianist, a peerless musician, an assistant conductor at the Met, a colleague of mine at Juilliard.  They don’t call her Bénédicte for nothing—she is a...