The New Concert Season Begins - Five Boroughs Music Festival

My new concert season began tonight, on a small scale but no less auspiciously for that, with the opening program of the 4th Season of Five Boroughs Music Festival.  Actually, this was a repeat on the Upper West Side of Manhattan of a program that was presented yesterday in Staten Island.  Composer/pianist Ricky Ian Gordon presented a program of his songs with Deborah Selig (soprano), Katherine Drago (Mezzo-soprano), William Ferguson (tenor), and Andrew Wilkowske (baritone).  Todd Palmer was the excellent clarinet soloist during the second half, when Melvin Chen (pianist) collaborated with Palmer and Selig to present Gordon's extended setting of his own lyrics inspired by the Orpheus and Euridice legend. In the first half, Gordon collaborated at the keyboard with each of the singers in solo and ensemble numbers.

Mr. Gordon also introduced his pieces in an affable, humorous manner, projecting a personality shared with his music, which flows sweetly, nicely illustrating his carefully chosen texts by such as Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Frank O'Hara, Dorothy Parker -- in short, he goes to the top for his poetry when not writing his own lyrics.

This very talented and dedicated group of musicians obviously worked very hard to provide the best possible showing for Gordon's work, and the result was an ideal recital in a splendid setting - the small, charming Christ & St. Stephen's Church on West 69th Street.  I can't imagine a better setting for an intimate concert of this sort. 

This was a wonderful beginning for my concert season.  I commend the Five Boroughs Music Festival to all readers in the NYC metro area.  Check out there website for details of upcoming programs: 5bmf.org.  The next program, to be presented in Brooklyn (Nov. 21) and Manhattan (Nov. 23) will include songs by Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf, sung by Jennifer Zetlan, Liza Forrester, Scott Murphree, and 5BMF artistic director Jesse Blumberg.