Well, I had to start with a song from my very own rock-band Sky-Pony. We are currently finishing our last week of performances of our rock theatre event The Wildness at Ars Nova. We close on the 26th and you can get tickets at http://arsnovanyc.com/the_wildness. This song is sung from the point of view of a slightly […]
Read MoreThis week was our NYFOS@Caramoor Residency with concerts at Caramoor and Merkin Hall, so we asked our 2016 Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars to contribute to the Song of the Day blog this week. Today’s selection comes from tenor Galeano Salas who wrote this tribute in the midst of his preparations at Caramoor last week. It was […]
Read MoreTonight is our NYFOS@Caramoor concert at Merkin Hall, “At Home,” so we asked our 2016 Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars to contribute to the Song of the Day blog this week. Today’s selection comes from mezzo-soprano Abigail Levis. I hesitate as I begin to write this because it is personal and exposes me as less […]
Read MoreSteven Blier on the NYFOS@Caramoor Residency: March 14 I’m happy to report that the show went beautifully yesterday. I quarantined myself for about 70 minutes beforehand (a few intruders tiptoed around me) and had a serious talk with my hands. They had a few things to say to me too, but after practicing gently (but […]
Read MoreSteven Blier on the NYFOS@Caramoor Residency: Day 6, March 12 We’re ready. Well anyway, the cast is. Dress rehearsal went quite beautifully. We have the luxury of actual lighting (a rarity in my concerts, something I don’t get at Juilliard or in San Francisco), and the show flows quite well. We’re not quite sure how long […]
Read MoreSteven Blier on the NYFOS@Caramoor Residency: Day 5, March 11 Today was finish-the-staging day; work-with-the-props day; make-the-choice-about-who-is-playing-which-song day; work-with-the-lighting guy day; and (most of all) do-our-first-run-through day. In other words, the penultimate day of a week-long rehearsal period. It is usually a white-knuckle experience, fraught with “we won’t get done in time.” But today, somehow not. […]
Read MoreSteven Blier on the NYFOS@Caramoor Residency: Day 4, March 10 Today was a very satisfying day, Caramoor Rising Stars at its best. The tentativeness of the beginning of the week has melted away, and the place was really buzzing with energy. Everyone brings high quality eyes, ears, and minds to the project, and I was struck […]
Read MoreSteven Blier on the NYFOS@Caramoor Residency: Day 3, March 9 Wednesday is usually the last day of free exploration before the reality of Sunday’s performance starts to assert a kind of Realpolitik. Soon we’ll all start to see where the boundaries of our techniques and stylistic flexibility are, and we’ll cut whatever deals are necessary. But […]
Read MoreSteven Blier on the NYFOS@Caramoor Residency: Day 2, March 8 Today was the first time we got into the hall, after a morning spent doing musical work in two rehearsal spaces (boys with Mikey, girls with me). It felt kind of a bit roguish, going off with just half the cast to do private work. […]
Read MoreSteven Blier on the NYFOS@Caramoor Residency: Day 1, March 7 This year’s residency at Caramoor was scheduled so close to my concert at San Francisco Opera that I simply collided into the first day of rehearsal today. I’d done as much as I could to get ready but I had to break one of my recent […]
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