NYFOS Next: BRIGHT SHENG & FRIENDS Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 7PM OPERA America’s National Opera Center Amy Owens, soprano; Annie Rosen, mezzo-soprano Mingjei Lei, tenor; Shea Owens, baritone Michael Barrett, Leann Osterkamp, and Bright Sheng, piano

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Mr. and Ms. Webb Say Goodnight from Arias and Barcarolles MS. ROSEN, MR. OWENS, MR. BARRETT

IMAN HABIBI

The River Lip False Morning MS. OWENS, MR. BARRETT

BRANDON SCOTT RUMSEY Text by Neil Aitken Text by August Kleinzahler

MATTHEW BRIDGHAM Text by Kat Finch MATTHEW TOMMASINI Text by Leopold Lugones Text by Ruben Dario

Planting Tulips Peaches in November MS. ROSEN, MS. OSTERKAMP sweetfeather (2014) MR. OWENS, MR. BARRETT

Olas grises Nocturno MS. ROSEN, MS. OSTERKAMP

GEORGE PERLE Text by Emily Dickinson

The Heart Asks Pleasure—first— MS. ROSEN, MR. SHENG

BRIGHT SHENG Libretto by David Henry Hwang

Act One, Scene Two from Dream of the Red Chamber MS. OWENS, MR. LEI, MR. BARRETT

Texts & Translations Selections from Three Spanish Songs by Matthew Tommasini excerpt of arrangement for piano & voice, world premiere 1. Olas grises Poem by Leopoldo Lugones

1. Gray Waves translation by Lucette Tommasini

Llueve en el mar con un murmullo lento. La brisa gime tanto que da pena. El día es largo y triste. El elemento duerme el sueño pesado de la arena. Llueve. La lluvia lánguida trasciende su olor de flor helada y desabrida. El día es largo y triste. Uno comprende que la muerte es así…, que así es la vida. Sigue lloviendo. El día es triste y largo. En el remoto gris se abisma el ser. Llueve… Y uno quisiera, sin embargo, que no acabara nunca de llover.

It rains on the sea with a gentle murmur. The wind moans so, it fills one with sorrow. The day is long and sad. The rain sleeps deeply like the sand. It rains. The languid droplets transcend their scent of cold, bleak flowers. The day is long and sad. One understands that such is death…, that such is life. The rain continues. The day is sad and long. In the gray distance one is lost. It rains…And yet, one hopes the rain will never stop.

2. Nocturno Poem by Rubén Darío

2. Nocturne Translation by Lucette Tommasini

Silencio de la noche, doloroso silencio nocturno…¿Por qué el alma tiembla de tal manera? Oigo el zumbido de mi sangre, dentro mi cráneo pasa una suave tormenta. ¡lnsomnio! No poder dormir, y, sin embargo, soñar. Ser la auto-pieza de disección espiritual, ¡el auto-Hamlet! Dilüir mi tristeza en un vino de noche, en el maravilloso cristal de las tinieblas… Y me digo: ¿a qué hora vendrá el alba? Se ha cerrado una puerta… Ha pasado un transeunte… Ha dado el reloj trés horas…¡Si será Ella!…

Silence of the night, a sad nocturnal silence…Why does the soul tremble so? I hear the whirring of my blood, a soft storm passes through my head. Insomnia! Unable to sleep and yet able to dream. I am the auto-specimen of spiritual dissection, the auto-Hamlet! To dilute my sadness in the night’s wine, in the wonderful crystal of the dark… And say to myself: when will the day break? A door has closed… A stranger has walked past… The clock strikes three…If only it were She!…

About the Composers BRIGHT SHENG is a composer, conductor, and pianist. In April of 1999, Mr. Sheng received a special commission from the White House to create a new work for a state dinner, hosted by the president, honoring the Chinese Premiere Zhou Rongji. In October 2001, Bright Sheng was named a MacArthur Fellow with a cash prize of $500,000. Mr. Sheng's music has been widely performed throughout the world by such prestigious groups as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera. San Francisco Ballet, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Radio Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, National Symphony of Russia, Warsaw Symphony, Danish National Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, National Symphony of Spain, Orqesta Sinfonica de Bilbao, Gulbenkian Orchestra (Portugal), Slovenian Radio & TV Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony, Orchestra of National Opera of Greece, among others; and with distinguished musicians including Leonard Bernstein, Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwarz, David Zinman, Neeme Jarvi, David Robertson, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, Eiji Oue, Bramwell Tovey, Jeffery Kahane, Thomas Dasgaard, Hugh Wolff, Arthur Fagen, Jahja Lin, Sakari Oramo, Muhai Tang, Carl St. Clair, Shui Lan, Yo Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Peter Serkin, Yefim Brofman, Evelyn Glennie, Lynn Harrell, Richard Stoltzman, Edgar Meyer, Truls Mork, Jane Eaglen, Elisabeth Futral, Joseph Kaiser, and Lauren Flanigan. Mr. Sheng has appeared as solo pianist and conductor with the San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia), Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, and China National Symphony,among others, and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Tanglewood Music Center. He has also collaborated with such eminent ensembles and individuals as the Emerson Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, St. Petersburg Quartet, Colin Graham (librettist and stage director), Jude Kelly (stage director), Ong Keng Sen (stage director), David Henry Hwang (playwright/librettist), Andrew Porter (librettist), Helgi Tomasson (choreographer), Peter Martins (choreographer), Christopher Wheeldon (choreographer), and Will Tuckett (choreographer). In addition to many national and international awards, Mr. Sheng has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Naumberg Foundation, Copland Foundation, Michigan Arts Award and a Rackham fellowship and a fellowship from the Institute for the Humanities from the University of Michigan. Mr. Sheng's music is exclusively published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and records on the Sony Classical, Naxos, Telarc, Delos, Koch International, New World, and Grammofon AB BI labels. Among his important teachers were Leonard Bernstein, George Perle, Hugo Weisgall, Chou Wen-Chung, and Jack Beeson. www.brightsheng.com LEONARD BERNSTEIN (August 25, 1918- October 14, 1990) was a world-renowned musician throughout his entire adult life. He was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras recording hundreds of these performances. His books and the televised Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic established him as a leading educator. His compositions include Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, Kaddish, Serenade, Five Anniversaries, Mass, Chichester Psalms, Slava!, Songfest, Divertimento for Orchestra, Missa Brevis, Arias and Barcarolles, Concerto for Orchestra and A Quiet Place. Bernstein composed for the Broadway musical stage, including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide and the immensely popular West Side Story. In addition to the West Side Story collaboration, Mr. Bernstein worked with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets, Fancy Free, Facsimile and Dybbk. Mr. Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including, the Antoinette Perry Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater, eleven Emmy Award, the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and the Kennedy Center Honors. MATTHEW BRIDGHAM has an eccentric voice that draws on many influences, from the music of C.P.E. Bach, Jean Sibelius, and Aaron Copland to his love for all things Nineties (especially rock) and his modest background in Jazz. He has received coaching from many respected composers including William Bolcom, Evan Chambers, Gabriela Lena Frank, Carter Pann, Martin Bresnick, Joan Tower, and Libby Larsen. He recently finished a new work (everything enflames) for solo voice and

cello octet, commissioned for the Aspen Music Festival. His 2013 work What did you Expect? was recognized as a finalist in the 2014 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Competition. Matthew is pursuing an M.M. in music composition at the University of Michigan where he studies under Bright Sheng. His works are self-published through Alanala Music. BRANDON SCOTT RUMSEY (b. 1987, Las Vegas, NV) is an award-winning composer, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator whose music has been featured at venues across the nation. Brandon’s music has been featured by The University of Texas New Music Ensemble, Brevard Music Center, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Belvedere Chamber Music Festival, New Music on the Point, Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium by Fireworks Ensemble, the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble (ECCE), and four North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) conferences. Brandon has received honors from the American Composers Orchestra, National Federation of Music Clubs, ASCAP, Luna Nova Music, and the University of Oregon. An active performer and advocate of new music, Brandon has given premieres of over forty new works. He has performed with the Newport Symphony Orchestra, Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra, UT New Music Ensemble, and performed nine concerts around the world with the UT Wind Ensemble under the direction of Jerry Junkin. Brandon’s primary performance instructors include Kristin Wolfe Jensen, Steve Vacchi, and Idit Shner. Brandon actively collaborates with creators from various artistic disciplines. As a composer, conductor, and musical director he has worked on numerous productions including musicals, contemporary plays, and inter-media performances in unique spaces. Brandon has served as the Assistant Director of ECCE, Director of the “itch” New Music Ensemble at Brevard Music Center, PR Coordinator of CLUTCH New Music, and Composition co-chair for The Graduate Association of Music & Musicians at UT (GAMMA-UT). Brandon is pursuing a doctoral degree in composition at the University of Michigan, studying composition with Bright Sheng and bassoon with Jeffrey Lyman. He holds a master’s degree in composition from The University of Texas at Austin where his composition instructors included Dan Welcher, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and Russell Pinkston and a bachelor’s degree in composition from University of Oregon where he studied with Robert Kyr and David Crumb. IMAN HABIBI is an award-winning composer and pianist. Hailed as “a giant in talent” (The Penticton Herald). His music has been performed by a number of noted ensembles and performers such as musica intima, The Standing Wave Ensemble, The Vancouver Bach Choir, The Prince George Symphony Orchestra, DaCapo Chamber Choir, cellist Jonah Kim, soprano Simone Osborne, tenor Keith Klassen, baritone Peter McGillivray, soprano Carla Huhtanen, mezzo-soprano Kimberly Barber, and pianists Carrie-Ann Matheson, and Liz Upchurch among others, and has been workshopped by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The Aventa ensemble, The Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, and Drosera ensemble. His Music has been programmed by prestigious concert organizations such as The Marilyn Horne Foundation (New York), The Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), Tapestry New Opera (Toronto), Vox Novus (New York), Atlantic Music Festival (Maine), the BCScene Festival (Ottawa), and the Powell Street Festival (Vancouver). Habibi’s numerous awards include First Prize at the SOCAN Foundation’s Awards for Young Audio Visual Composers for two consecutive years (2011-2012), The International Composers’ Award at the Esoterics Competition (2012), and The Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Awards for Emerging Artist in Music (2011). He also received second prize at the 2008 Vancouver Bach Choir’s national Competition for Large Choir Works for his work Erroneous Kudos, and first prize for his work Black Riders at the 2009 Guelph Chamber Choir’s national competition. He has received numerous commissions including a commission to compose his first piano concerto for The Prince George Symphony Orchestra (PGSO). In Feb. 2010, Habibi appeared as the piano soloist to premiere this concerto with the PGSO. He completed his Masters degree at the University of British Columbia under the instruction of Dorothy Chang. Other teachers include Jeffrey Ryan, and Stephen Chatman. Habibi is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and is represented by SOCAN in Canada. As a pianist, Mr. Habibi has had the privilege of working with many great musicians, ensembles, and orchestras. He appeared as the piano soloist with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra to premiere his piano concerto in Canada, and later played it with the Atlantic Music Festival’s Orchestra in the United States. He was a finalist at the Inaugural Knigge National Piano Competition, and is also well-known for his collaborations with pianist Deborah Grimmett. The two pianists formed a duo in 2010, which won first prize at the United States International Duo Piano Competition, and second prize at the North West International Piano Ensemble Competition, and has twice attained the audience choice award at the latter. The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and an array of other major awards and honors, GEORGE PERLE occupied a commanding position among American composers in the late 20th century. Born in Bayonne, NJ, May 6, 1915, he received his early musical education in Chicago. After graduation from DePaul University, where he studied composition with Wesley LaViolette, and subsequent private studies with Ernst Krenek, Perle served in the US Army during

World War II. After the War, he took post-graduate work in musicology at New York University. His PhD thesis became his first book, Serial Composition and Atonality, now in its sixth edition. Perle’s music is widely performed in this country and abroad. Major commissions have resulted in significant works, among them Serenade III (1983) for solo piano and chamber orchestra, choreographed by American Ballet Theater and nominated for a Grammy Award for its 1986 Nonesuch recording; Woodwind Quintet No. 4 (Pulitzer Prize, 1986); Piano Concerto No. 1 (1990), commissioned for Richard Goode during Perle’s residency with the San Francisco Symphony; Piano Concerto No. 2 (1992), commissioned by Michael Boriskin; Transcendental Modulations for Orchestra, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its 150th anniversary; and Thirteen Dickinson Songs (1978) commissioned by Bethany Beardslee. Recent works include Brief Encounters (fourteen movements for string quartet), Nine Bagatelles for piano, Critical Moments and Critical Moments 2 for six players, and Triptych for solo violin and piano. A particularly notable portion of Perle’s catalog consists of pieces for solo piano, many of which have been recorded by Michael Boriskin on New World Records. Perle's compositions have figured on the programs of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, BBC, and other major orchestras in the US and abroad. Perle's works are recorded on Nonesuch, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Albany, CRI, Bridge and other labels. He was a frequent Visiting Composer at the Tanglewood Music Festival and Composer-in-Residence with the San Francisco Symphony. Though Perle was above all a composer, the breadth of his musical interests led to significant contributions in theory and musicology as well. He published numerous articles in scholarly journals and seven books, including the awardwinning The Operas of Alban Berg, volumes 1 and 2. MATTHEW TOMMASINI (b.1978) has been awarded top prizes including the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize and grants from the ASCAP Foundation's Leonard Bernstein Fund and the American Music Center's Composer Assistance Program, among others. Recently, he was named Finalist in the International Composition Competition Città di Udine and awarded Top Prize in the Professional Division of the Foundation for Modern Music’s Robert Avalon International Competition for Composition. His has been commissioned by organizations including the New York Youth Symphony, the Milwaukee Ballet, and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings/Oberlin Conservatory/University of Michigan Consortium, among others. His orchestral works have been performed at the Munich Chamber Orchestra HKUST Reading Sessions, the Underwood Reading Sessions of the American Composers Orchestra and at the Riverside Reading Sessions of the Riverside Symphony, and by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and New York Youth Symphony, among others. His chamber works have been performed by Richard Stoltzman, Mivos Quartet, Daedalus Quartet, Parker Quartet, Antares, Gary Levinson, and Adam Neiman, among others. Mr. Tommasini is Co-Founder and Composer-in-Residence of the critically-acclaimed, Connections Chamber Music Series. Currently, he lives in Hong Kong where he is Associate Artistic Director of the internationally-acclaimed composers and performers festival, The Intimacy of Creativity, the HKUST Music Alive! concert series, and Composer-inResidence/Visiting Associate Professor of Music at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Mr. Tommasini holds degrees in composition from the University of Michigan (DMA, MA) where he studied with Bright Sheng, William Bolcom, Michael Daugherty, and Leslie Bassett; and UCLA (BA) where he studied with Paul Chihara and Ian Krouse.

About the Performers Associate Artistic Director MICHAEL BARRETT started NYFOS in 1988 with his friend and colleague Steven Blier. Mr. Barrett was Chief Executive and General Director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts from 2003-2012. In 1992, he cofounded the Moab Music Festival with his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins. From 1994 to 1997, he was the Director of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Mr. Barrett began his long association with the renowned conductor and composer as a student in 1982. He is currently the Artistic Advisor for the estate of Leonard Bernstein. He has been a guest conductor with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, among others. He also has served variously as conductor, producer, and music director of numerous special projects, including dozens of world premieres by Bernstein, Musto, Bolcom, Rorem, and D'Rivera. Mr. Barrett’s discography includes: Spanish Love Songs, recorded live at Caramoor with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Steven Blier, and Joseph Kaiser; Live from the Moab Music Festival; the Grammy-nominated Evidence of Things Not Seen (New World Records); Aaron Kernis: 100 Greatest Dance Hits (New Albion); On the Town (Deutsche Grammophon); Kaballah (Koch Classics) by Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie; Schumann Lieder with Lorraine Hunt and Kurt Ollmann (Koch); and Arias and Barcarolles (Koch) by Leonard Bernstein (Grammy Award).

MINGJEI LEI, a native of Hengyang, China, is rapidly gaining acclaim in the United States. This season he will perform Dorvil in Rossini's La scala di seta and Brighella in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos with Curtis Opera Theater, will make his company debut as Conte de Lerma in Don Carlo with Opera Philadelphia, and sing excepts from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (Roméo) with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He will join the Ryan Opera Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago in May 2015. Highlights of last season include his Carnegie Hall debut singing Messiah with the Cecilia Chorus, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, L’elisir d’amore (Nemorino) and La Cenerentola (Don Ramiro) with Curtis Institute of Music, covering Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Music Academy of the West, excepts of the role of Jupiter from Handel's Semele, and covering the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Merola Opera Program with San Francisco Opera. Mr. Lei holds a Master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and is a Professional Studies Certificate candidate at the Curtis Institute of Music. He has received awards from the Gerda Lissner Foundation Vocal Competition, Opera Index, the Mario Lanza Institute, Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, and Giulio Gari Foundation. Named a 2010 Young Steinway Artist, American pianist LEANN OSTERKAMP has performed at Caramoor, the Kennedy Center, the Baryshnikov Center, and Carnegie's Weill Hall. The Los Angeles Times called her a "strong" collaborator during her Stern Fellowship at Songfest at Colburn. Most recently a featured soloist on WQXR radio, Ms. Osterkamp was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar of the Arts through the U.S. Department of Education and earned first prizes in the Schlern International Music Festival/Competition in Italy and the Wells/Steinway Concerto Competition. She received the Pearla Despot Award at the 2013 Wideman International Piano Competition. Last season, she made her New York Festival of Song debut in the NYFOS Next series. In the 2014 NYFOS Emerging Artists series, she was named a Caramoor Rising Star Pianist, the first to receive this residency. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard and is now pursuing a Master of Music degree there. At Juilliard, she is a teaching fellow in the piano minor department. Her principal solo piano teachers have been Doris Pridonoff Lehnert and Julian Martin. AMY OWENS is quickly gaining attention as an exciting young American singer. Praised in Opera News for her “pristine soprano and vivacious enthusiasm,” “engaging bell-like soprano,” and “open top notes and trills that match her sparkling wit,” Amy has been gaining national attention for her performances around the country. She was most recently seen with the Santa Fe Opera, and she has made many appearances with Utah Opera, Central City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Utah Festival Opera. She is the recent winner of a 2014 Sullivan Foundation Award and the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in the NYC district. In 2015 she will make appearances with Opera Naples as Despina in Così fan tutte, the New York Festival of Song in their new music series NYFOS Next, Wolf Trap Opera in Le Nozze di Figaro and The Ghosts of Versailles, and the Utah Symphony in L’enfant et les sortilèges. She is a versatile performer of opera and musical theater, early music and new music, with repertoire including The Nightingale in Le Rossignol, Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Emily in Our Town, Ellie in Showboat, Flora in Turn of the Screw, Olympia in Tales of Hoffmann, and Johanna in Sweeney Todd. Amy Owens is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Rice University. Described as “vocally superb” with an "attractive, youthful bloom,” baritone SHEA OWENS is quickly establishing himself as an emerging artist. A versatile performer with “canny stage presence,” he is well-suited for a wide variety of music and roles. He was most recently seen at the Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist, and will appear again this coming summer as the 2nd Nazarene in Salome. He will also appear in upcoming performances with the New York Festival of Song and in the regional tour of the Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Owens has made past appearances at the Tanglewood Music Center, Wolf Trap Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Utah Lyric Opera, Phoenix Opera, Central City Opera, Utah Opera, and the Utah Symphony. He enjoys performing on a regular basis with his wife, soprano Amy Owens. Mr. Owens earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Brigham Young University and his Master of Music degree from Rice University. Awards received include career grants from the Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, the Oscarson Discovery Grant Endowment, the Pasadena Opera Guild, and a Second Prize Award in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. Mezzo-soprano ANNIE ROSEN has been recognized by The New York Times for her "excellent," "affecting" performances of early, standard, and contemporary repertoire. This past year, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten. A Santa Fe Opera Apprentice, she received the Donald Gramm Memorial Award and covered the role of Ni Gui-zhen in the U.S. premiere of Huang Ruo's Mandarin-language opera Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. She also debuted at Caramoor and in New York City as an emerging artist with the New York Festival of Song. In April she will join the Chicago Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera Center Ensemble for the '15-'16 season. In the '12-'13 season, Annie was awarded the Opera Foundation's American Berlin Scholarship. Under its auspices, she performed twelve roles on the stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, including Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Mercédès (Carmen), and Sméraldine (L'amour des trois oranges). She then made her Italian debut as Giannetta in a new production of

L'elisir d'amore at the Teatro Regio di Torino. She is a founding member of Cantata Profana, a New York City-based chamber ensemble, with whom she has performed works including Ligeti's Nouvelles aventures and Berio's Folk Songs. She recently collaborated with actors, instrumentalists, and visual artists to create the original theatrical work Basement Hades. This season, she debuts György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments in New York and offers a second solo recital in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the S&R Foundation. Annie was a Semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. She holds additional awards from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera, the Connecticut Opera Guild, the Shoshana Foundation's Richard F. Gold Career Grant, and the Louis Sudler Prize in the Performing and Creative Arts. A New Haven, CT native, she earned degrees in musicology and performance from Yale University and Mannes College.

NYFOS NEXT is a mini-series of New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) devoted exclusively to newly-written song. Each program is curated by a different emerging composer and showcases that composer’s vocal works and those of his/her circle of favorite creators and performers. Michael Barrett provides artistic direction for the series, and Steven Blier often takes part, looking to NYFOS Next as an ideal way to discover new compositions and new talent for NYFOS’s other series. With an emphasis on spontaneity, novelty, and collaboration, NYFOS Next offers a forum for the next generation of song composers and interpreters to share their work, giving audiences an intimate look inside the creative process, as freshlyminted songs are presented—some for the first time—in an informal performance setting.

Now in its 27th season, NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (NYFOS) is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty and originality. Weaving music, poetry, history and humor into evenings of compelling theater, NYFOS fosters community among artists and audiences. Each program entertains and educates in equal measure. Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce NYFOS MAINSTAGE, its series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between high and low performance genres, exploring the character and language of other cultures, and the personal voices of song composers and lyricists. Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song. Among the many highlights is the double bill of one-act comic operas, Bastianello and Lucrezia, by John Musto and William Bolcom, both with libretti by Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS in 2008 and recorded on Bridge Records. In addition to Bastianello and Lucrezia and the 2008 Bridge Records release of Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, NYFOS has produced five recordings on the Koch label, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen (also a NYFOS commission) on New World Records. Its recently released CD on the GPR label, Canción amorosa, focuses on Spanish song—Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic—with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier. In November 2010, NYFOS premiered NYFOS NEXT, a series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. This season the series returns as a mini-festival during the month of February 2015 with all concerts presented at OPERA America’s National Opera Center. In the fall of 2014, NYFOS officially introduced its unamplified cabaret series NYFOS AFTER HOURS at HENRY's Restaurant on the Upper West Side, drawing full houses and superlative voices accompanied by Blier at the piano. NYFOS is passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young singers and through its NYFOS EMERGING ARTISTS program has developed professional training residencies around the country, including The Juilliard School’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 10th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 7th year in March 2015); San Francisco Opera Center (over 15 years as of March 2014); Glimmerglass Opera (2008– 2010); and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY (2 years). NYFOS’s concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities continue to spark new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world. For more information on New York Festival of Song’s complete schedule of special programs, residencies and tours, please visit www.nyfos.org The 2015 NYFOS Next concerts at the OPERA America’s National Opera Center are funded, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.