The Festival of Song presents Songs of Hope and Comfort featuring pre-recorded performances by U of T Music students, under the guidance of Steven Blier, guest coach and a John R. Stratton Visitor in Music for 2020-21.
This link to the concert will be active at 5 pm
Program (PDF) and Texts and Translations (PDF)
The Faculty of Music is thrilled to welcome Steven Blier, Artistic Director of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which he co-founded in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival’s inception he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 150 vocal recitals with repertoire spanning five centuries of art song and popular song. Blier enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. His recital partners have included Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, and José van Dam, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to La Scala. He has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1992 and has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. Blier has recorded on numerous labels and won a Grammy Award in 1990. A native New Yorker, he received a Bachelor’s degree with Honors in English Literature at Yale University, where he studied piano with Alexander Farkas. He completed his musical studies in New York with Martin Isepp and Paul Jacobs.
John Stratton Visitor in Music
Named for a great collector of vocal music and historical recorded sound whose collection and trust is stewarded today by an even greater connoisseur Stephen Clarke, the Stratton Visitor brings distinguished specialists in the field of voice and collaborative piano, recent among them Dawn Upshaw, Warren Jones, Stephanie Blythe, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Barbara Hannigan, Stephen Wadsworth, Judith Forst, Eric Owens and the late Jessye Norman.