Program Notes: Other Worlds

Program Notes: Other Worlds

Most of this year’s NYFOS programs have been tied to earthly concerns—societal, cultural, psychological, political. After the tumult of past few months, though, some of us might be feeling that the world is too much with us—or more aptly, that the world is too much...
Program Notes: Beginner’s Luck

Program Notes: Beginner’s Luck

Beginner’s Luck is a musical snapshot of a precarious moment of arrival: those early years of adulthood with all of their new responsibilities, which might include the beginning of a career or the start of a new family. It is precisely the stage of life where our cast...
Tester

Tester

let’s see if this is working. let’s see if this is working. let’s see if this is working. let’s see if this is working. let’s see if this is working. let’s see if this is working. let’s see if this is working. let’s see...
Program Notes: Le Tour de France

Program Notes: Le Tour de France

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...
Program Notes: My Brother’s Keeper

Program Notes: My Brother’s Keeper

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...
Program Notes: Eros & Co

Program Notes: Eros & Co

My cell phone dings—a message from Bénédicte Jourdois, who joins me every year to mastermind NYFOS’s annual residency at Caramoor. Our texts are often a bit—what’s the word?—unbridled, and they have been known to make me laugh so hard that I attract stares on the 104...