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Richard Strauss: Beim Schlafengehen
With this final Song of the Day, I want to return to my deepest musical roots,...
Sarah Vaughan sings “Thanks for the Memory”
Sarah Vaughan’s voice became one of the objects of my jazz obsession in...
Manual de Falla: Nana
When a singer welcomes a child into the family, there are many nights of...
Stephen Sondheim: Send in the Clowns
After discovering American popular music later in my childhood, my mind was...
Sippie Wallace: Women Be Wise
I arrived in the U.S. at nearly nine years old, speaking very little English...
Hugo Alfvén: Skogen sover
Happy summer! Today is the summer solstice and here in the northern hemisphere we will see the most daylight hours we’ll have all year. I remember being enchanted by Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night and marveling at how special the light seemed in the nighttime scenes that were shot outdoors.
Joseph Schwantner: Black Anemones
When I was in college I had my first encounter of actual “contemporary” music...
Francis Poulenc: Sanglots
I used to practice yoga regularly but I’ve fallen out of it in recent years. I...
Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash: That’s Him
Today is the first day of rehearsals for the revival of the upcoming Manning...
Emmanuel Chabrier: L’île heureuse
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a Francophile and that French is my favorite foreign language to sing. I have visited and performed in France almost yearly since the 1990s. On my first trip to Paris, Tobé Malawista, my beloved friend and colleague in The Mirror Visions Ensemble, introduced me to her longtime coach Irène Aïtoff, who taught me everything I know about singing in French.
Cole Porter: You’re the Top
Noël Coward said it best: Mr. Irving BerlinOften emphasizes sinIn a...
Benjamin Britten: Night covers up the rigid land
It was crucial to include Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) in Manning the Canon....
Manuel de Falla: Polo
I am delving this week into the playlist of Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay...
Poulenc: Montparnasse
Having just finished the NYFOS season in New York with our Lorca program, tossed off a Gershwin concert for our gala a couple of weeks later, and presided over my twentieth-fifth anniversary concert at Wolf Trap with music ranging from German Lieder to Cuban rumba, I am now in the throes of preparing a revival of Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life.
Matt Boehler
Bass Matt Boehler answers our questions on his background as an actor and...