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...
Program Notes: All Together Now

Program Notes: All Together Now

Most people assume that all performers want to hog the spotlight, and that singers in particular care about nothing but their solo moments. After all, what other musicians warm up by braying, “me, me, me, ME, me, me, me” at the top of their lungs? Yet what...
Program Note: Gracias a la vida

Program Note: Gracias a la vida

Four decades ago I found myself at a week-long residency on the Princeton campus, studying song repertoire with a roster of legendary recitalists. At one of those master classes I heard my first Argentinean art song—“La rosa y el sauce,” by Carlos Guastavino. After...
Program Note: 100 Years of Broadway Love

Program Note: 100 Years of Broadway Love

I chose this year’s theme, 100 Years of Broadway Love, for two reasons. First, because I thought it would have an inviting, end-of-summer appeal, offering a breather from the horrors of the daily news reports; second, because I assumed it would be a snap to program,...