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Stevie Wonder: Visions
This was a hard decision. I knew that with any piece on my favorite songs and songwriters of all time I would have to put in a Stevie Wonder song (because, um, duh? He’s only one of the greatest songwriters of all time), but picking one was extremely difficult. Ultimately I chose this song because of its beauty and simplicity in context with the rest of his music.
Gustav Mahler: Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n
This is going to be a relatively eclectic list. While Mahler is not someone who I would always list among my favorite composers of all (he’s absolutely phenomenal, don’t get me wrong, just not someone who I always think to listen to) but this piece, and this movement in particular, always gets to me. Mahler’s incredible orchestration combined with the Rückert’s heart wrenching poetry creates an absolutely unforgettable aural experience.
Nina Simone: I’ll Look Around
Nina Simone is simply one of the greatest artists of our time. Trained at Juilliard in classical piano, only starting to sing later in life, she embodies a true renaissance musician to me: someone who loves all genres of music and is interested in being a part of all aspects of it.
Alfred Hayes/Earl Robinson: Joe Hill
“I never died, says he”—and thus Paul Robeson sings of the union organizer Joe Hill, a man who did die for his cause. Perhaps today, as so much is said about dark times we live in, it is critical to remember there were much darker. And the society grew through such struggles, and eventually grew that much stronger.
Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe
For me, this is a woman exploring the joy and trauma of love, existence, being with a man, and her voice within the universe. The emotions are just as base, raw, and conflicted as any masculine rocker but she asks you to contemplate, think, stare, hold a snowflake. She speaks of the sorrow and loneliness that settles into a soul after protest making the anger feel flawed yet delicate.
Melissa Etheridge: Silent Legacy
It was the winter of 1993 and I was in my grandmother’s kitchen nervously...
Stevie Wonder: If It’s Magic
What a wonder Stevie is! I have always been a fan of his uplifting and inspiring music. He is the magic that is everlasting. “If It’s Magic” is a song I listen to to keep faith alive.
Yves Montand: Bella Ciao
Adolfo Bella was a legendary heroic partigiano (Partisan). He was born, one of five children, in 1916 in Positano, Italy. He loved to sing, as did his Sicilian father who died young.
In late 30’s, to survive, he joined Mussolini’s military and was stationed in Crete. The Germans took Crete in 1943. Adolfo escaped the German’s camp in the melee and was hidden by a man named Manoli and his family until he could escape in a small aircraft to Albania. There, he joined the Resistance Movement.
Queen: Don’t Stop Me Now
Google “the happiest song ever written.” You’re welcome.
Guilio Caccini: Perfidissino volto
For the last 10 years, I’ve spent nearly every waking hour thinking about early music, as the administrative director of Juilliard Historical Performance. So I could not let the opportunity to share songs with the erudite NYFOS audience pass by without at least one example of repertoire from whence it all started. This is a piece from the early days of sung drama by Giulio Caccini. It’s from a set of songs called Le nuove musiche (The New Music) that aimed to explore new possibilities of expression. Imagine being there for the first time this piece was ever heard!
Caroline Shaw: Winter Carol
Back in the day, specialization in music was unheard of. To be a musician was to be a composer, performer, multi-instrumentalist (hello, Mozart), improviser, and/or impresario. If you played the oboe in a Baroque orchestra, for example, you probably also played the recorder, and you may have sung as well. Caroline Shaw is a modern-day incarnation of this ideal—a remarkably versatile musician who is expert at many things.
Francis Poulenc: Quelle aventure!
Ever fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole? You know, you innocently start looking for something and three hours later you look up from your iPad, having forsaken all social niceties (and biological necessities), and wonder what happened to the afternoon? I don’t know who has the time to load every video ever made in the history of media, but I for one am thankful that it’s all there.
Franz Schubert: Lied das Florio
Schubert. So many songs, and yet so few of them are heard in performance. Here is one of my favorite lesser known gems sung by the amazing Nicolai Gedda. For me, he’s the perfect mix of bel canto ease and just plain class. And I, for one, don’t mind that the recording has not been airbrushed to perfection using all the gewgaws of modern-day recording technology. There are a few blemishes in pitch and tone that make it all the more human. And it’s a really hard song!
Joshua Blue
Artist of the Month features British-American tenor Joshua Blue. A current Masters degree student at The Juilliard School, Joshua received the Ellen Lopin Blair award for First Place in the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition held annual by the Oratorio Society of New York last spring, as well as an Emerging Artist Award in the 2017 Opera Index Competition in New York City. A NYFOS Emerging Artist program alum, Mr. Blue will return to NYFOS at the end of the month in our Protest program in NYC and Hudson, NY.
Gustav Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
The question, “what should music do?” seems to always be in the air. And artists, critics, theorists and music lovers constantly provide new answers. Music should comfort. Music should challenge the powerful. Music should be beautiful. Music should bring people together. Truisms. Often we wrap our answers around our ideas around what we see as most needed in the world. These days I am interested more in what music does.