Steven Blier, Artistic Director and Pianist,
Mary Testa, Jason Graae, Liza Forrester
Friday, November 13, 2009, 7:30 PM, Terrace Theater

The New York Festival of Song’s artistic director Steven Blier also enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. Among the many artists he has partnered in recital are Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Frederica von Stade, Jessye Norman, Wolfgang Holzmair, Susanne Mentzer, Sylvia McNair and Arlene Augér. In concert with Renée Fleming, he has performed throughout North America and Europe, including recitals at Carnegie Hall, La Scala, Milan, and a Live From Lincoln Center telecast. His collaboration with Cecilia Bartoli began in 1994, and has included an appearance at Carnegie Hall where Mr. Blier played both piano and harpsichord.

Mr. Blier co-founded the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival’s inception he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated over ninety 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. In the 2003-2004 season, the series began a new partnership with the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Concert Hall, where all six concerts played to sold-out houses.

In keeping the traditions of American music alive, Mr. Blier has brought back to the stage many of the rarely heard songs of Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill and Cole Porter. He has also played ragtime, blues, and stride piano evenings with John Musto. A champion of American music, he has premiered works of John Corigliano, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, John Musto, Richard Danielpour, Tobias Picker, Robert Beaser, and Lee Hoiby, many of which were commissioned by NYFOS.

His discography includes the premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International), which won a Grammy Award; the NYFOS discs of Blitzstein, Gershwin, and German Lieder (Unquiet Peace); Gershwin’s Lady Be Good! (Nonesuch Records); four albums of songs by Charles Ives in partnership with baritone William Sharp (Albany Records); and first recordings of music by Busoni and Borodin with cellist Dorothy Lawson (Koch International). In October 1999, New World Records issued the Grammy-nominated premiere recording of Ned Rorem’s full-length song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen, commissioned by NYFOS and the Library of Congress. His latest release is The Land Where the Good Songs Go with Sylvia McNair and Hal Cazalet, celebrating P.G. Wodehouse’s collaborations with Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Ivor Novello.

Mr. Blier is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, and has been active in encouraging young recitalists at the summer programs including the Wolf Trap Opera Company and the San Francisco Opera Center. As a broadcaster and writer, he has appeared both as an essayist and quizmaster on the Metropolitan Opera broadcast intermissions. His writings on opera have been featured in recent issues of Opera News Magazine and the Yale Review. A native New Yorker, he received an Honors Degree in English Literature at Yale University, where he studied piano under Alexander Farkas. He completed his musical studies in New York with Martin Isepp and Paul Jacobs.

Mary Testa’s Broadway credits include Guys And Dolls, Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), Chicago, 42nd Street (Tony nomination), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Cast album), The Rink, Marilyn, and Barnum. She has also appeared in the City Center’s Encore! series in The Ziegfeld Follies Of 1936, for which she recorded the cast album.

Her Off-Broadway engagements have included roles in Regret’s Only, See What I Wanna See (Drama Desk nomination, Drama League nomination, and cast album), First Ladies Suite (Drama Desk nomination), String Of Pearls (Drama Desk nomination), The Vagina Monologues, The Wax, From Above (Obie Award), Lucky Stiff (two cast albums), The Knife, A New Brain (cast album), Tartuffe, On The Town (Obie Award), Scapin, and In Trousers (cast album).

Ms. Testa also enjoys a career in film, where she has been seen in Stay, Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, The Out Of Towners, Sleepers, Two Bits, Stanley and Iris, and the upcoming features The Bounty and Eat, Pray, Love. On television, she has been featured in shows such as Life on Mars, Cashmere Mafia, Waterfront, Whoopi, Sex and the City, Law and Order, and many others. Her previous appearances with NYFOS include the programs Harry, Hoagy & Harold (2008) and We Open In Paris (2007).

Jason Graae has starred on and off Broadway in A Grand Night For Singing, Falsettos, Stardust, Snoopy!, Do Black Patent Leather Shows Really Reflect Up?, Forever Plaid, Olympus on My Mind, All in the Timing, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (Drama Desk Nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), and many more. He was the featured vocalist in Twyla Tharp's Everlast with the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera and made his Los Angeles Opera debut as Njegus in The Merry Widow, repeating the role with the Dallas Opera, the Houston Grand Opera and the New Orleans Opera. He has performed his one-man show all over the country, including appearances at Rainbow and Stars and Birdland in New York City, the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, NY, Wolf Trap, Feinstein's in L.A., and The Plush Room in San Francisco, to name a few. Most recently, he appeared as Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl and starred opposite Constance Towers in Six Dance Lessons in 6 Weeks at Burbank's Falcon Theatre.

His many television appearances include Six Feet Under, Rude Awakening, Friends, Frasier, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Living Single, Caroline in the City, and Providence. He has been seen on PBS as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops. His movie appearances include the title role in Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms (2008 Toronto and London Film Festivals), Disney's Home on the Range, On Edge, Gepetto, The Dukes of Hazzard in Hollywood, and Awakening of Spring. He has been heard on many cartoons and, for five years, he was the voice of Lucky, the Leprechaun for Lucky Charms cereal.

Mr. Graae’s awards include the New York Nightlife Award, four Backstage “Bistro” Awards, as well as being recognized by Time Out New York as one of the “Top 10 Cabaret Shows of 2006”. Last year, he won his second Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, the 2008 Joel Hirschorn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater.

He has recorded over forty CDs, including original cast albums, concerts, compilations, and two solo CDs, You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile - Jason Graae Sings Charles Strouse and Jason Graae LIVE at The Cinegrill (Fynsworth Alley).

Mr. Graae’s previous appearances with NYFOS include the programs Hands Across the Sea (May 2006) and Fats & Fields (February 2005),

Mezzo-soprano Liza Forrester actively performs in opera, musical theater, oratorio, concert, and recital. Her opera and theater credits include Flora in La Traviata, Hattie in Kiss Me Kate!, Nireno in Giulio Cesare, Dido, The Sorceress, and The Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas, Chairman Mao’s Secretary in Nixon in China, The Widow in The Boor, Theresa in Casanova’s Homecoming, Mary Warren in The Crucible, Ma Moss in The Tender Land, Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore, and Mrs. Malloy in Hello, Dolly! with companies including Cincinnati Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Theater and Festival of Lucca, Teatro Nacional Sucre, Cincinnati May Festival, and the Bowling Green Western Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Forrester has performed as a soloist under the batons of James Conlon and Markus Huber with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Dayton Bach Society, and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra.

An avid recitalist of art song and chamber works, Ms. Forrester has been presented in recital by the prestigious New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), the Caramoor Festival, New York University, Mercer University, Peru State University, Murray State University, and Western Kentucky University. She can be heard on Telarc’s world premiere recording of Liszt’s St. Stanislaus and Hal Leonard Publication’s Opera Anthology of Gian Carlo Menotti.

Ms. Forrester is the recipient of the Rebekka Coolidge Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Norman Triegle Corbett Opera Competition Award, the Arden J. Yockey Award for Voice, the Atlanta Music Club Award for Voice, and a Cincinnati Theater ‘Orchid’ award for her portrayal of ‘Shelby’ in Steel Magnolias. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in voice performance from Georgia State University and her Masters of Music degree in voice performance and Doctorate of Musical Arts in voice performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.