Mr. Gershwin Goes to Washington

Monday, October 22, 2012  at 7:30 pm
Terrace Theater

Vocal Arts DC favorite Steven Blier, co-artistic director of New York Festival of Song, returns on Monday evening, October 22 with an original, semi-staged musical theater work, Mr. Gershwin Goes to Washington, created and directed by Laurence Maslon. Featuring a hit parade of George and Ira Gershwin's most popular songs of political satire, including, "Love is Sweeping the Country," "Of Thee I Sing;" "Union Square," and "Strike Up the Band," Mr. Gershwin, intended as a "bipartisan salve in times of election madness," portrays the travails of candidate John P. Wintergreen in his pursuit of the U.S. presidency.

The cast of characters includes Mary Turner, Wintergreen's devoted wife and aspiring first-lady-to-be; a femme fatale, Diana Devereaux; and a host of seven comic foils, as well as a political commentator. Joining Mr. Blier and collaborative pianist Joseph Thalken will be Marc Kudisch (Tony nominee, Broadway's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Thoroughly Modern Millie; Helen Hayes Award recipient, Signature Theatre's The Witches of Eastwick) as Wintergreen; the "lustrous" (Opera News) Anne-Carolyn Bird as Mary; Lauren Worsham, who "delights with her pure warm tone and agile comic delivery" (New York Times) as Diana; and, in the various comic roles, David Garrison (Broadway's Titanic and Torch Song Trilogy; Helen Hayes Award recipient, Arena Stage's Merrily We Roll Along; television's Married With Children). Serving as the evening's host, narrator, and anchor will be National Public Radio's beloved Carl Kasell, currently the judge and scorekeeper for the popular weekly radio quiz show, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

---

CAST & CHARACTERS

JOHN P. WINTERGREEN..................... Marc Kudisch
MARY TURNER........................... Anne-Carolyn Bird
DIANA DEVEREAUX...................... Lauren Worsham
HORACE J. FLETCHER............................................
ALEXANDER P. THROTTLEBOTTOM.....................
CHIEF JUSTICE................................. David Garrison
COMRADE KRUGER......... (playing all six characters)
GENERAL JOHN P. TWEEDLEDEE..........................
REPRESENTATIVE OF FRANCE..............................
and your host
THE ANCHORMAN................................. Carl Kasell

PIANISTS.................... Steven Blier & Joseph Thalken

STAGE DIRECTION.........................Laurence Maslon

---

Steven Blier is the Artistic Director of the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which he co-founded in 1988 with Michael Barrett. Since the Festival's inception, Blier has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 130 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 New York Magazine gave NYFOS an award for Best Classical Programming, while Opera News proclaimed Blier "the coolest dude in town."

Mr. 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 is also on the faculty of The Juilliard School 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. Many of his former students, including Stephanie Blythe, Joseph Kaiser, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Dina Kuznetsova, and Kate Lindsey, have gone on to be valued recital colleagues and sought-after stars on the opera and concert stage.

In keeping the traditions of American music alive, Blier has brought back to the stage many of the rarely heard songs of George 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 art song, he has premiered works of John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, John Musto, Richard Danielpour, Tobias Picker, Robert Beaser, Lowell Liebermann, Harold Meltzer, and Lee Hoiby, many of which were commissioned by NYFOS.

Mr. Blier's extensive discography includes the premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles (Koch International), which won a Grammy Award. His most recent releases are Spanish Love Songs (Bridge Records), recorded live at the Caramoor International Music Festival with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, and Michael Barrett; the world premiere recording of Bastianello (John Musto) and Lucrezia (William Bolcom), a double bill of one-act comic operas set to librettos by Mark Campbell; and his latest recording, Quiet Please, an album of jazz standards with vocalist Darius de Haas.

Steven Blier recently joined the artistic team at New York City Opera, where he is a consultant on casting. His writings on opera have been featured in Opera News and the Yale Review. 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.

(Photo credit: Dario Acosta)

---

Soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2006-2007 Season, singing two roles in a new production of Il Trittico, and has since returned in performances as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, among other productions. Her current season began as Giannetta in the Met's new Bartlett Sher staging of L'elisir d'amore, which also marked the opening night of the company's season. In addition to her return to the Met, her 2012-2013 engagements include a reprisal of her signature role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Virginia Opera, Handel's Messiah with the Dayton Philharmonic, and a concert with the New York Festival of Song at Merkin Hall in New York.

Other engagements from recent seasons include First Soprano in Philip Glass' Kepler with the Spoleto Festival USA; Beatrice in John Musto's The Inspector at the Wolf Trap Opera; a debut as the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Musica Viva Hong Kong; a tour to Japan with the Met for Don Carlo; Yum-Yum in The Mikado at Arizona Opera; Micäela in Carmen with Opera Carolina; Marguerite in Faust and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Dayton Opera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Nashville Opera, and Cunegonde in Candide with Wolf Trap Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Lord and starring Seinfeld's Jason Alexander as Pangloss. In addition, she has performed her signature role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Carolina, Nashville Opera, Opera Columbus, and Opera Grand Rapids.

Additional performances have included Celia in John Musto's Volpone at the Wolf Trap Opera, and Noémie in Laurent Pelly's highly-acclaimed production of Cendrillon at Santa Fe Opera. She has been seen in staged and concert versions of Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar and can be heard on the Grammy award-winning recording of the work.

Recent concert engagements have included Pierrot Lunaire with the Spoleto Festival USA, Parasha in Stravinsky's Mavra with the American Symphony Orchestra, Gotham Chamber Opera's Gala concert featuring the music of Nico Muhly, her Carnegie Hall debut in Evan Chamber's oratorio The Old Burying Ground, an All-American concert at Merkin Hall with New York Festival of Song, CPE Bach's Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu with Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Cleveland Orchestra, "An Evening of Musical Shakespeare" with the Atlanta Symphony, both conducted by Nicholas McGegan, as well as Handel's Messiah and Bach's Magnificat with Portland Baroque Orchestra. In 2006, she toured internationally with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to perform Golijov's La Pasion de segun San Marcos, where her performance was described as "luminous" by The New York Times.

The Bhakti Project, Ms. Bird's on-going recital project with pianist Jocelyn Dueck, included a recent world premiere: Hillula by Judd Greenstein. Steve Smith from Time Out New York wrote of the performance: "Bird proved herself a singer capable of ... getting under the skin of a piece, touching its inner passions and revealing them to a listener." Ms. Bird reprised Hillula with the Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO as part of the Archipelago music series. She also performed three additional recital collaborations with Ms. Dueck, including one at her alma mater, the University of Georgia.

Ms. Bird has been a recipient of grants and awards from many organizations, including the Sullivan Foundation (2008), the Santa Fe Opera, the Oratorio Society of New York, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Twice a Young Artist with the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers and twice a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, she holds degrees from New England Conservatory and the University of Georgia. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, bass-baritone Matthew Burns and their baby Henry.

(Photo credit: Alexander Vasiljev)

---

David Garrison best known as Steve Rhoades on television's Married with Children, starred for the past year as Hannibal Lecter in the Off-Broadway hit Silence! The Musical. He most recently appeared on Broadway and on national tour as the Wizard in Wicked, for which he received the Carbonell Award. Other Broadway credits include A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, for which he received a Tony Award nomination and a Drama-Logue Award, Titanic, Torch Song Trilogy, The Pirates of Penzance, Bells Are Ringing, and A History of the American Film. Off-Broadway, he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for the thirtieth anniversary revival of I Do! I Do!, and was featured in Middletown, New Jerusalem, Geniuses, The Torch-Bearers, It's Only a Play, and By The Way Meet Vera Stark. He received a Helen Hayes Award for his work in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along at Arena Stage, and has starred in Die Fledermaus at the Santa Fe Opera, Tom Stoppard's Travesties at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Randy Newman's Faust at both the La Jolla and Goodman Theatres.

His many television credits include leading roles on the series It's Your Move and Working It Out, as well as guest appearances on Law and Order, The West Wing, The Practice, NYPD Blue, Without a Trace, Everybody Loves Raymond, Judging Amy, Murphy Brown, Murder She Wrote, Ed, L.A. Law, Tom Clancy's Op Center and the PBS Great Performances presentations of On the Town with the London Symphony and Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall.

In addition to the cast albums of Hollywood/Ukraine, Titanic, Bells Are Ringing, the thirtieth anniversary revival of I Do! I Do!, and On the Town, his many recordings include Songs of New York, Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, Of Thee I Sing/Let 'Em Eat Cake, Girl Crazy, You Never Know, Tell Me More, Oh! Lady! Lady!!, George and Ira-Standards and Gems, and Dawn Upshaw Sings Rodgers and Hart (guest artist).

He is a summa cum laude graduate of Boston University's School of Theater Arts, and is the recipient of its Distinguished Alumni Award.

(Photo credit: Heidi Gutman)

---

Carl Kasell is the official judge and scorekeeper for NPR's weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, which premiered in January 1998. For 30 years, Kasell provided newscasts for NPR's daily newsmagazine Morning Edition, a role he held since the program's inception in 1979 until 2009. A veteran broadcaster, Carl Kasell's radio career spans more than 50 years.

Before his work with Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Kasell hosted NPR's Early Morning Edition, a one-hour news program created in 1997 and incorporated into Morning Edition at the start of 1998.

In 2004, UNC at Chapel Hill selected Kasell as an inductee to the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame, which recognizes North Carolina natives who have made exceptionally distinguished and career-long contributions to the field of journalism. In 2001, Kasell was awarded the Development Exchange Inc's (DEI) President's Award for his lifetime contributions to public radio. In 1999, Kasell shared in the George Foster Peabody Institutional Award given to NPR's Morning Edition. In 1996, Kasell was honored with the Leo C. Lee Friend of Public Radio News Award for lasting commitment to public radio journalism. He also received the Public Radio Regional Organization (PRRO) Award in 1991 for what a member of the selection committee called his "consistently flawless delivery" of newscasts.

Kasell joined NPR in 1975 as a part-time newscaster for Weekend All Things Considered, and later became a full-time NPR newscaster for Morning Edition. Prior to that, he spent ten years at radio station WAVA in Arlington, Virginia, first as morning anchor, then as news director.

Before moving to the Washington, D.C., area in 1965, Kasell was morning deejay and newscaster at WGBR-AM in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

Kasell was fascinated by radio at a young age, and recalls playing deejay with his grandmother's wind-up Victrola in Goldsboro. He worked at a local radio station part-time during high school, and was an actor in local theater.

He majored in English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Kasell is also an accomplished magician and a UNC basketball fan.

(Photo credit: Antony Naglemann)

---

Marc Kudisch, most recently seen in Second Stage's The Blue Flower and Lincoln Center's A Minister's Wife, garnered critical acclaim as well as his third Tony and fourth Drama Desk Award nominations in his most recent Broadway stint creating the role of Franklin Hart in the Dolly Parton Broadway musical 9 to 5, and won a Helen Hayes Award for his performance in the Witches of Eastwick at Signature Theatre. He was previously seen as the Snake, Balladeer, and Narrator in the Roundabout Theatre's revival of The Apple Tree, while doing double duty and performing as the Pirate King in New York City Opera's revival of The Pirates of Penzance. Kudisch had previously been nominated for a Tony Award first for the role of Trevor Graydon in Thoroughly Modern Millie (Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations as well), and then for Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Outer Critics nomination as well).

His other Broadway roles include The Proprietor in Assassins (Drama Desk nomination), Jeff Moss in Bells Are Ringing, Jackie in the Public Theatre's production of The Wild Party, Chauvelin in the 3rd incarnation of The Scarlet Pimpernel, George Kittredge in High Society, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, and Reuben in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Off-Broadway roles include Slick Follicle in Girl Crazy at Encores!, Flaminio Scala in Lynn Ahrens and Steve Flahrety's new musical The Glorious Ones at Lincoln Center; Morito, Husband, CPA in See What I Wanna See at the Public Theatre (Drama Desk Nomination); Tom in The Thing About Men at the Promenade Theatre, Mike in No Strings at Encores!, as well as their Fall Bash of 2004; and Mario in Tamara: The Living Movie at the Park Avenue Armory. Nationally, Kudisch was seen as Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie, co-starring Tommy Tune and Ann Reinking. Recent regional appearances include Ricky Ian Gordon's Sycamore Trees at Signature Theatre, Terrence McNally's The Golden Age at the Kennedy Center, Darryl Van Horne in the American premiere of The Witches of Eastwick at Signature Theatre; John Buchanan in Summer and Smoke co-starring Amanda Plummer at The Hartford Stage Company; Zorba in Zorba! at Reprise! in Los Angeles (Garland Award, Ovation and Los Angeles Outer Critics nominations); Vincent Van Gogh in Michael John LaChiusa's The Highest Yellow at The Signature Theatre (Helen Hayes award nomination). Opera engagements include Carl Magnus-Malcom in A Little Night Music at New York City Opera and Los Angeles Opera. Kudisch's concert appearances include Portland Symphony, Ravinia Festival, and the Philadelphia Philharmonic, as well as at the popular Broadway By the Year concert series at Town Hall in New York City, where Marc has been a constant performer and director for over 5 years. Kudisch's television and film credits include Val in Break-In for the Lifetime network, Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie for ABC Television, guest appearances on Sex in the City and David Letterman, and recurring roles on All My Children and Loving. Kudisch's recordings include the original cast recordings of High Society, The Wild Party, Bells Are Ringing, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Assassins, See What I Wanna See, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and the film of Bye Bye Birdie, as well as live concert recordings from Broadway By the Year 1926, 1960, 1946, and Broadway Unplugged 1, 2 and 3.

---

Lauren Worsham is a New York-based actress and singer whose roles have included Amy in Where's Charley at New York City Center, Cunegonde in New York City Opera's Candide, Lili in Goodspeed Opera House's Carnival (directed by Darko Tresnjak), Cinderella in The Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Into the Woods (directed by Moises Kaufman), Clara in Weston Playhouse's The Light in the Piazza and Olive in the first national tour of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other theatre credits include Jerry Springer the Opera at Carnegie Hall, Sophie in Master Class at Paper Mill Playhouse and Luisa in The Fantasticks at Emelin Theatre.

Worsham also performs in concert frequently, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Oregon Bach Festival, Joe's Pub, Galapagos Art Space and New York City Opera's VOX Program. Worsham was the 2009 second-place award winner of the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya competition. She is the co-founder and executive director of the downtown opera company, The Coterie, and she is the lead singer for the rock band Sky-Pony.

Among her screen credits, Worsham provided the voice of Urara in the English-language dub of the anime classic The Sakura Diaries. She graduated cum laude from Yale University, with a B.A. in Spanish Literature.

(Photo credit: Kristin Hoebermann)

---

Joseph Thalken is an award-winning composer whose theater works include Harold & Maude (an intimate musical), book/lyrics by Fantasticks co-creator Tom Jones; Was, book/lyrics by Barry Kleinbort, based on Geoff Ryman's novel; And The Curtain Rises, book by Michael Slade, lyrics by Mark Campbell; and Borrowed Dust, libretto by Martin Moran. Thalken has also written choral, art songs, concert and chamber music. His music and orchestrations can be heard on albums by Rebecca Luker, Howard McGillin, BJ Ward, and opera star Nathan Gunn, among others. On Broadway, Thalken conducted Victor/Victoria with Julie Andrews and Liza Minnelli, and Gypsy with Patti LuPone. He has also conducted the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Aachen Stadttheater (Germany), and International Opera Studio (Zurich). As a pianist and musical director, he has toured extensively with LuPone, and worked with Bernadette Peters, Elizabeth Futral, Denyce Graves, Polly Bergen, Faith Prince, Kristin Chenoweth, Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Brian Stokes Mitchell and many more. Previous honors include two Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Musical Theater Commendations, the Constance Klinsky Award, Meet the Composer award, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and support from the Shen Family Foundation. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

(Photo credit: Laura Marie Duncan)

---

Laurence Maslon is an Associate Arts Professor at the Graduate Acting Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, with an affiliation in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. His most recent book is Some Like It Hot: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion (HarperCollins) as well as The South Pacific Companion and The Sound of Music Companion (Simon and Schuster). With Michael Kantor, he has co-written the six-part PBS series Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, as well as the companion volume (Twelve Publishing). He and Kantor were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing of a Non-Fiction Series for this show. He also co-wrote two episodes of the Emmy-winning Broadway: The American Musical with Kantor and the companion volume (published by Applause in paperback in 2010). He wrote the acclaimed American Masters/Thirteen documentary Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds and is the editor of Kaufman & Co., the Library of America edition of George S. Kaufman's plays, as well as his official website, www.georgeskaufman.com. In 2005, he wrote "Better When It's Banned," Jane Krakowski's debut concert for Jazz at Lincoln Center and has written concerts and programs for the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and Carnegie Hall. He has hosted the pre-show seminars for City Center's Encores! series for a decade. He served on the nominating committee for the Tony Awards from 2007 to 2010. He received his BA from Brown University and his MA from Stanford University's PhD program in Directing and Dramatic Criticism.

(Photo credit: Matthew Sussman)

---

NYFOS co-founder and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett is Chief Executive and General Director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. In 1992, he co-founded the Moab Music Festival with his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins. From 1994 to 1997, he was the Director of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Mr. Barrett began his long association with the renowned conductor and composer as a student in 1982. He is currently the Artistic Advisor for the estate of Leonard Bernstein. Mr. Barrett has been a guest conductor with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, among others. He also has served variously as conductor, producer, and music director of numerous special projects, including the world premiere of Volpone by John Musto. Mr. Barrett's discography includes: Spanish Love Songs, recorded live at Caramoor with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Steven Blier, and Joseph Kaiser; Live from the Moab Music Festival; the Grammy-nominated Evidence of Things Not Seen (New World Records); Aaron Kernis: 100 Greatest Dance Hits (New Albion); On the Town (Deutsche Grammophon); Kaballah (Koch Classics) by Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie; Schumann Lieder with Lorraine Hunt and Kurt Ollman (Koch); and Arias and Barcarolles (Koch) by Leonard Bernstein (Grammy Award).

---

Now in its 25th Anniversary season, New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty and originality, weaving music, poetry, history and humor into unforgettable evenings of compelling theater. Each seamless evening of song and story engages, entertains, educates and fosters community among artists and audiences in a spirit of shared adventure. Everyone has a primal need to be sung to; NYFOS was made to meet that need.

Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce its series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between high and low performance genres, exploring the character and language of other cultures, and the personal voices of song composers and lyricists. NYFOS also nurtures the artistry and careers of young singers in training residencies with The Juilliard School (in its 8th year), Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (in its 5th year), San Francisco Opera (in its 15th year) and Glimmerglass Opera (2008 - 2010).

Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song, featuring premieres and commissions of new American works, including a double bill of one-act comic operas, Bastianello and Lucrezia, by John Musto and William Bolcom, both with libretti by Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS in 2008, and released on Bridge Records as of November 2011. In addition to Bastianello and Lucrezia and the 2008 Bridge Records release of Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, NYFOS has produced five recordings on the Koch label, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Not Seen (also a NYFOS commission) on New World Records. In 2011, NYFOS's 13-segment, nationally syndicated radio show, hosted by Frederica von Stade, debuted on WFMT, producer of radio programs for the New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wigmore Hall and many others. 2011 also saw the debut of NYFOS Next, NYFOS's mini-series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues (expanding in 2012-2013 from two programs to three programs at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music).

NYFOS's concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities continue to spark new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world.