by Steven Blier | Feb 24, 2025 | Program Notes
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...
by Steven Blier | Nov 16, 2024 | Program Notes
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...
by Steven Blier | Mar 18, 2024 | Program Notes
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...
by Steven Blier | Feb 18, 2024 | Program Notes
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...
by Steven Blier | Jan 18, 2024 | Program Notes
For three decades, it has been NYFOS’ pleasure and honor to throw musical birthday parties for Ned Rorem. Our first was for his 70th, which brought in the largest audience we ever had at our home at the Greenwich House Music School. Five years later, we commissioned...
by Steven Blier | Dec 3, 2023 | Program Notes
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...
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