NYFOS Next: Christopher Cerrone & Friends

Hailed as “a rising star” by The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 Samuel Barber Rome Prize, Cerrone’s compositional voice is characterized by profoundly expressive lyricism, ringing clarity, and a deep literary fluency. His opera Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino’s classic novel, was praised by The Los Angeles Times as “a delicate and beautiful opera…[which] could be, and should be, done anywhere.” A finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, Invisible Cities received its fully-staged world premiere in a wildly popular production by The Industry, directed by Yuval Sharon in Los Angeles’s Union Station.

Cerrone’s NYFOS Next program features the New York premiere of his The Naomi Songs for piano, clarinet and baritone with looping electronics, as well as previews of two new works: Three songs based on Lasky poems by Ted Hearne, and Apocatastasis, also by Cerrone.

The evening also includes Timo Andres’ recently premiered Mirror Songs, two pieces from Erin Gee’s Mouthpiece series, Katherine Balch’s Vidi L’angelo nel Marmo and Scott Wollschleger’s Fragment on Fragments.

The dynamic line-up of performers includes vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Justine Aronson, Pat Swoboda on bass, and NYFOS Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett and composer Timo Andres at the piano.

Most of the composers will be in attendance.

With an emphasis on spontaneity, novelty, and collaboration, NYFOS Next looks to the future, offering today’s song composers a forum for their work. Audiences get an intimate look inside the creative process, as freshly-minted songs are offered—some for the first time—in an informal setting. Curator/hosts for past NYFOS Nexts include Bright Sheng, Paul Moravec, Gabriel Kahane, Joseph Thalken, Phil Kline, Carla Kilhstedt, Mohammed Fairouz, Kevin Puts, Russell Platt, Mark Adamo, John Musto, Harold Meltzer, David T. Little, and Lowell Liebermann.