latest posts
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...
Chris DeBlasio: Walt Whitman in 1989
Upcoming Birthday Boy Walt Whitman simply looms too large to appear only one day this week. But for our final post, we’ve selected not a Whitman text, but a Whitman tribute. “Walt Whitman in 1989”, a breathtaking poem by Perry Brass, imagines Whitman, who had visited and volunteered in hospitals during the Civil War, doing the same at the height of AIDS Crisis.
Paula Kimper: I believe in you my soul
Are you ready for Walt Whitman’s birthday next weekend? We hope you got him something nice, because he’s turning 200 — kind of a big one. Dear Walt is such a big part of our American cultural fabric, especially in NYC, and we’re so happy to see so many artists and organizations celebrating his year.
Laura Kaminsky & Leah Maddrie: Right to Life
Every five years or so, we at 5BMF like to go all out and commission twenty composers to write a new song each about this wild, wonderful, gritty, overwhelming city we call our home. For our Five Borough Songbook, Vol. II we were delighted to have the amazing Laura Kaminsky on the roster
John Wallowitch: Bruce
This week's Song of the Day is hosted by Jesse Blumberg and Donna Breitzer,...
Tchaikovsky: Amid the din of the ball
“Amid the din of the ball” was one of the first songs I learned after my first lessons in Russian diction at CCM with Ken Griffiths. I was drawn to its dreamlike waltz feel, its incredibly vivid images from strophe to strophe, and the way Tchaikovsky spins his gorgeous melodic gifts from a noisy ballroom into a solitary bedroom.