But then, in a single clarifying moment, the course of my life would be forever changed. I was playing a video game on my computer, and decided to put on a CD that a friend let me borrow. I was just half listening to it in the background… and then, my operatic innocence was shattered by the most powerful high C I’d heard in my young naive life. Franco Corelli, at the end of Di quella pira. I sat there in kind of a shocked stunned silence…and then listened to it several more times.
Read MoreBut, before I jump into the music, I want give a bit of background on how I came to have such strange musical tastes. I grew up in a very conservative part of central Pennsylvania. We lived in a small farmhouse with Amish next door neighbors and no cable… heck, the internet didn’t even exist yet. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and life was safe and predictable. I remember listening to my parents’ records which were mostly religious music, some classical, and oldies.
Read MoreBefore we jump into it, I just want to say that there is SO much good and important hip-hop being made right now and I’m barely going to scratch the surface (and suffer from an abundance of whiteness), so go find someone with a much better perspective than I, and listen to as much as you can. That said, since I’ve set this blog up as “what do I have on my phone”… what am I listening to at the moment?
Read MoreThe impact that music has on a movie cannot be overstated. It literally becomes an invisible omnipresent character that manipulates us, both with its presence and its absence…No discussion on the topic would be complete without mentioning one of the greatest composers ever to write for film; Erich Korngold. I’m currently traveling with both his Adventures of Robin Hood score, and his incidental music for Much Ado About Nothing. His music is transfixingly beautiful, and should not be missed. But, again, no voices… my search continues.
Read More…Once I set myself this somewhat arbitrary but completely necessary boundary, I immediately knew what I wanted to share on the first day… something from the bluegrass genre by Chris Thile. Mr Thile is an extraordinary mandolin player, in addition to a singer, composer, and now host of the Public Radio program Live From Here (formerly titled A Prairie Home Companion).
Read MoreLongtime friend of NYFOS Judy Kaye really shows her range on NYFOS’s album He Loves and She Loves. Here’s “My Cousin In Milwaukee” from Pardon My English by George and Ira Gershwin. From the program note for Broadway Orphans by Steven Blier:
Read MoreA mainstay of NYFOS’s early years, baritone William Sharp sings “Parc Monceau” (Olaf Bienert, text by Kurt Tucholsky) on Unquiet Piece, an album focused on German song written between the world wars.
Read MoreTo celebrate NYFOS’s 30th Anniversary Season, Song of the Day is featuring some selections from our commercial recordings. Here is Judy Kaye singing “Dream With Me” from Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan, from NYFOS’s Grammy-winner recording Arias and Barcarolles.
Read MoreMachiavelli’s La Mandragola was Mark’s next idea, and he eventually convinced Bill that the idea had legs. “I liked it because it was centered around a woman,” Bill told me, “and (in our version) a woman who comes out on top. I had only one proviso: I wanted to set it in Argentina.” Why? “Well, I wanted to write a zarzuela…as imagined by the Marx Brothers.”
Read MoreArtist of the Month rings in 2018 with mezzo-soprano Rebecca Jo Loeb. Hailed as “a theatrical performer whose rise to watch” (Opera News), Ms. Loeb is based in Germany and sings throughout Europe and in the US. She recently made a “notable Met debut” (New York Times) as Flora in La Traviata at the Metropoitan Opera. A NYFOS Emerging Artist program alum, who has performed in our Mainstage and gala evenings, Ms. Loeb will return to NYFOS at the end of the month in our tour programs celebrating Leonard Bernstein.
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