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ABOUT NYFOS
Since its first season, the NYFOS motto has been “No song is safe from us!” Manhattan-based pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier presented the very first concert season of New York Festival of Song in 1988. It was a series of intimate, original ensemble song programs consisting almost exclusively of rarely-heard songs of all kinds, “from Debussy to doo-wop, lieder to latin jazz, Josquin to just-written.”

Each show was unified by a theme, constructed with a dramatic arc, and cast with superb vocal artists whose committed performances brought the songs to vivid life, with the directors as accompanists and animated narrators. This same dynamic model for seeking out unusual songs and sharing them with audiences continues to shape NYFOS’s concerts today, in ways that continue to delight and surprise listeners. Newsday has called NYFOS “the most reliably excellent musical organization in New York.”

Blier is the Artistic Director of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which he co-founded in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the NYFOS’s inception, he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 140 vocal recitals with repertoire spanning the entire range of American song, art song from Schubert to Szymanowski, and popular song from early vaudeville to Lennon-McCartney. NYFOS has also made in-depth explorations of music from Spain, Latin America, Scandinavia and Russia. New York Magazine gave NYFOS its award for Best Classical Programming, while Opera News proclaimed Blier “the coolest dude in town.”

Mr. Blier enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. His recital partners have included Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, and José van Dam, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to La Scala. He is also on the faculty of The Juilliard School and has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. Many of his former students, including Stephanie Blythe, Joseph Kaiser, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Dina Kuznetsova, Corinne Winters, and Kate Lindsey, have gone on to be valued recital colleagues and sought-after stars on the opera and concert stage.

New York City, United States

New York Festival of Song

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The New York Festival of Song, founded by Blier and pianist Michael Barrett in 1988, emerged from a year of online-only existence onstage at Merkin Concert Hall Tuesday night, with an arresting program of intimate expression over an even-wider-than-usual range of emotions. Blessedly, in the small venue, no microphones were needed or wanted.

An emotional year is reflected in the return of New York Festival of Song

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New York Festival of Song / Reviews

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