Steven Blier

Biography

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 he has programmed, performed, translated and annotated more than 150 vocal recitals with repertoire spanning five centuries of art song and popular song. NYFOS has made in-depth explorations of music from Spain, Latin America, Scandinavia and Russia. New York Magazine gave NYFOS its award for Best Classical Programming, while Opera News proclaimed Blier "the coolest dude in town."

Mr. Blier's career has included partnerships with 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, Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, and the San Francisco Opera Center. His former students, including Stephanie Blythe, Julia Bullock, Sasha Cooke, Paul Appleby, Corinne Winters, and Kate Lindsey, have gone on to be valued recital colleagues and sought-after stars on the opera and concert stage.

A champion of American art song, he has premiered works of John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, Mark Adamo, John Musto, Adam Guettel, 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; Spanish Love Songs (Bridge Records) with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, and Michael Barrett; Quiet Please, an album of jazz standards with vocalist Darius de Haas; and Canción amorosa, a CD of Spanish songs with soprano Corinne Winters on the GRP label. His latest releases are on NYFOS Records, which released its first single (an archival live performance with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson) in October of 2021, to be followed by its first album (From Rags to Riches, with Stephanie Blythe and William Burden) in January of 2022.

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.