by Steven Blier | Mar 13, 2020 | Blier's Blog
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...
by Steven Blier | Mar 12, 2020 | Blier's Blog
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...
by Steven Blier | Jan 12, 2020 | Blier's Blog
I was out of sorts today. I had to get up uncharacteristically early (5:30 AM), and after a productive morning I got snagged by an infuriating series of delays that made me twenty minutes late for rehearsal. It seems to be my special gift to squander a luxury of time...
by Steven Blier | Jan 10, 2020 | Blier's Blog
We had visitors today, two people I was especially looking forward to meeting. César Parreño’s parents flew in from Ecuador to visit their son and hear next Wednesday’s concert. I am always excited to meet my students’ families, but this was something special. You...
by Steven Blier | Jan 9, 2020 | Blier's Blog
One picture, worth 1000 words: Santiago Pizarro showing Leonardo Granados some cool Peruvian rhythms. First on drums, then at the piano, grooving to a sexy, exotic beat. It was a side of Santiago I had never seen, though I suspected it was there. The two of them had...
by Steven Blier | Jan 8, 2020 | Blier's Blog
I don’t know how Adam Cates and Mary Birnbaum do it. They are able to sustain positive energy hour after hour as we slam this show together. Today we had an ambitious agenda, and when I heard them say “We’ll stage the four operetta numbers in two hours,” I raised an...
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