latest posts
Milton Nascimento: Maria Maria
Along with our April 24th 30th Anniversary concert, NYFOS will end our season (I don’t think our season really ends, but maybe it does on paper) with the last installment of NYFOS Next featuring Clarice Assad.
Rachmaninov: Spring Waters
At NYFOS we are coming into the home stretch of our 30th anniversary season. Up next on April 24 at Merkin Hall will be our 30th Anniversary Concert with a bevy of marvelous singers. These guys all have burgeoning careers. Soprano Julia Bullock has a solo recital at Carnegie hall next week. Paul Appleby is our leading young American tenor and sings the world over. Mary Testa is a bona fide Broadway star; Theo Hoffman is rocking it at the L.A. Opera; Lauren Worsham is a star in everything she touches and already has an Emmy nomination; and baritone John Brancy just delivered a spectacular recital at Alice Tully Hall a few nights ago.
Steven Blier and Michael Barrett
I have always been drawn to intimate musical communion, the concentrated communion of listeners and sounds. Likewise the heat generated by words and music heard in tandem—a lifelong obsession. Rhymes obsess me. Verbal elegance is a kind of religion for me. And obviously the piano-and-voice combination gives me a way to participate in this almost holy transmission of music and words to a listening audience.
Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty: In My Dreams
I have been trying to get out and go see more shows. I feel like I spend a lot...
Lin-Manuel Miranda: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story
Given how much I love Lin-Manuel Miranda, I had to include another one of his amazing shows. Many people have heard about the musical Hamilton. Winning award after award, it’s an international phenomenon.
Kander and Ebb: I’ll be Here
As I grew I continued to explore musicals and contemporary music. When I was 13 I was introduced to classical music and auditioned for Juilliard Pre-College. Now in a completely new genre I tried to grasp the differences and I wanted to learn from someone who was a crossover artist. This is how I happened upon Audra McDonald.
Lin-Manuel Miranda: When You’re Home
I saw In the Heights about 5 times when it was on Broadway. I love this duet and the role of Nina. At a young age I always felt connected to Nina. I was born in the Bronx and I moved to New Jersey when I was young but as I grew up I wondered how different things would have been if we never moved. Would I be more connected to my Latin heritage? Would I have gone to performing arts school? Would I be where I am today?
Lebo M. and Hans Zimmer: Shadowland
Anyone who creates art remembers the pivotal moments in their life that led them down this path or maybe that’s just me. I remember each stepping stone that launched me to the next stage and helped me become a better performer. I want to go through some songs, that helped shape the performer I am today. Many of them which I still listen to.
La Marelu: Si mi novio no me quiere
I would not want to be the guy who tells Magdalena Montañéz Salazar, ‘La Marelu’, that he doesn’t love her anymore; even her heartbroken desperation sounds like there might be a dagger hidden in her decolletage. Or maybe I would want to be that guy (or girl), because then, before I died, she would sing to me like she does here.
La Lupe sings “Qué te pedí”
It is hard for me to think of a performer whose life and art covered more ground in a shorter time than Lupe Victoria Yolí Raymond, La yiyiyí, La Lupe, the Queen of Latin Soul. Let’s put it this way: when they retire a fairly common Hispanic name like Lupe in the world of Latin American popular music, it’s like retiring a player’s number in the NBA. You get my point.
Chavela Vargas sings “Mi segundo amor”
Chavela Vargas died in 2012, leaving the world without that voice that Pedro Almodóvar, who featured her in his film La flor de mi secreto (My secret’s flower), called la voz áspera de la ternura (the rough voice of tenderness). She was born in Costa Rica, where she worked as a street musician, singing and accompanying herself on the acoustic guitar; only in her thirties did she begin to sing in clubs and, finally, to record.
Ana Moura: Desfado
Fado is a sort of Portuguese blues that contains elements from traditional Cape Verdean music, and the songs nearly always mournfully contemplate lost love, death and the full range of dark emotions. The elegant Ana Moura is one of its primary exponents in the world today and, in addition to having caught the attention of Prince, she also recorded with The Rolling Stones. But her popularity with rockstars is not why she’s on my list of favorites.
Totó la Momposina: Chambacú
All through Andalusia, from the rock of Jaén to the snail’s-shell of Cadiz, people constantly talk about the duende and recognize it wherever it appears with a fine instinct. That wonderful singer El Lebrijano, creator of the Debla, said: ‘On days when I sing with duende no one can touch me.’
NYFOS@Caramoor: Days 7 & 9
We had our two performances, and I am now dealing with a certain amount of post-partum sadness. It’s always a little hard to let go of a great experience.
NYFOS@Caramoor: Day 6
I’ve just returned from seeing the HD broadcast of Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” from the National Theater. It starred a colleague of mine, Janie Dee, as Phyllis. I worked with her when NYFOS brought our P.G. Wodehouse concert to London. She was a delight, and a powerhouse performer. And she was staggeringly good in tonight’s “Follies”—a Phyllis to rival the best actresses I’ve ever seen in the role: venomous, cold, but full of hidden longing and sadness.