Steven Blier
![Musician Steven Blier (Photo: Olivia Wolf)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Steven_Blier_by_olivia_wolf.jpg)
The New York Festival of Song was founded in 1988 with the motto "No song is safe from us" and is one of Blier's signature accomplishments; he has produced more than 140 recitals for the nonprofit arts organization. Pulitzer Prize-winning classical music critic Justin Davidson called NYFOS "the oldest permanent floating song party in New York". Blier programs NYFOS concerts "...on the democratic premise that all songs -- from Brahms to Broadway to the Beatles -- are created equal. In place of the formality of the traditional recital, the festival offers groups of good young singers in smart, offbeat programs, each organized around a theme." He is known for his well-researched and literate program notes, translations of lyrics from a variety of languages, and his onstage presence and wit as emcee, raconteur and pianist. He says that "a concert should use music to get you close to something in an emotional and intellectual way.” Blier emphasizes emotional intensity, both in his choice of songs and his coaching of the singers who work with him: “A song is the closest thing I know in waking life to dreaming. It’s a coded version of reality. It’s not like playing a scene from Chekhov, where you’re trying to look like you’re having a tea party or a nervous breakdown. Instead, you’re enacting a coded, ritualized version of that moment, and somehow everyone in the hall is dreaming along with you.”
Blier is a major proponent of contemporary art song and has programmed many new works including those by John Musto, Ned Rorem, Roberto Sierra, and Clarice Assad, among many others. A review of a program of Polish art song entitled "Warsaw Serenade" noted that a "broader existential approach seems to inform the uncommonly eloquent programs assembled and performed by the New York Festival of Song. Art songs here are celebrated for the sensual pleasures they bring but also for the improbably numerous ways in which they open out onto larger worlds of history, poetry, and biography, distant geographic landscapes and the veiled interior regions within...[I]t was Blier whose printed essay and spoken commentary, marbled with playful lines of wit, erudition and anecdote, gave the program its distinctive personal touch." Provided by Wikipedia
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2by De Haas, DariusOther Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
Published 2010
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3by Gershwin, George, 1898-1937Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
Published 1990
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4by Gershwin, George, 1898-1937Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
Published 1990
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6Published 2010Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
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7Published 2010Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
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9by Hunt Lieberson, Lorraine, 1954-2006Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
Published 2007
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10by Blitzstein, MarcOther Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
Published 1991
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12Published 2001Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
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15Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
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19Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
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20Other Authors: “...Blier, Steven...”
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