CHEYENNE JACKSON, WALL OF FAME AT TONY'S DI NAPOLI!

Video shot and edited by Bob Johnson.
Interviews: Corine Cohen

We wanted to thank Bruce and Valerie for the incredible hospitality.
Corine's pick is Tony's chicken and eggplant parm and of course a frozen Bellini.
Cheers!

Next up: Interviews with Hunter Bell and Lin Manuel Miranda. Come back soon!!!!

http://www.corinescorner.com

TONY'S DI NAPOLI'S WALL OF FAME CELEBRATES XANADU AND CHEYENNE JACKSON!

Tony's celebrated the giant hit XANADU and gorgeous star Cheyenne Jackson this past Thursday and Corine's Corner was there to celebrate in the fun.
More photos later.



Cheyenne has many friends as he is such a charming man!

Photos of the cast by Bob Johnson: http://www.bittenbyazebra.com

Video interviews and video coverage of the event coming soon.

NYC AND COMPANY TOURISM UPDATE- EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT. ROCK, ON!

MAYOR BLOOMBERG, THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND

MUSEUM, BILLY JOEL AND CLIVE DAVIS ANNOUNCE ROCK AND

ROLL HALL OF FAME ANNEX TO OPEN IN NEW YORK CITY



First Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Location outside Cleveland to Open in SoHo in November

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Billy Joel, Clive Davis, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Terry Stewart and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation CEO Joel Peresman today announced that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will open an annex in New York City in the heart of SoHo. When the 25,000 square foot annex opens in November, it will be the first location outside the Museum’s home in Cleveland. NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta and Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin joined the announcement, which took place at 76 Mercer Street, the future site of the annex.



“New York City is well known as a vibrant place for aspiring artists and musicians, and some of the most internationally-celebrated musical performers of this Century have had their start right here on our streets,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “It's only fitting that the role New York City has played in launching the careers of so many of the world's most talented artists – like Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Paul Simon, Blondie and the Velvet Underground – on the world’s greatest stages – like the Fillmore East, the Apollo Theater, and Madison Square Garden – be recognized and honored with the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex.”



The state-of-the-art facility will focus on the defining moments in rock and roll history and will be designed to resonate with both the casual music fan and the seasoned rock enthusiast. It will feature an array of exhibitions, including a permanent “New York Rocks” gallery that will highlight key locations around New York City that have musical significance. The annex will also showcase selected relics from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s vast collection, including Bruce Springsteen’s 1957 Chevy, John Lennon’s Record Plant Piano, Elvis Presley’s motorcycle jacket, a handwritten poem by Jim Morrison and more. The annex will open in November, but advance tickets will be available through www.RockAnnex.com beginning in October.



“Establishing outposts like these is becoming a strategy of other major institutions,” said Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Terry Stewart, citing the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Tate Modern in London and the Louvre in Paris. “These projects allow museums to extend their reach, but also provide space to travel exhibits and allow curators to display some of our priceless artifacts for the first time outside of Cleveland.”



NYC & Company, New York City’s official tourism, marketing and partnership organization, partnered with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to help create the “New York Rocks” exhibit and develop co-branded merchandise and promotional items for the annex, including maps and itineraries so that visitors can experience historical sites firsthand. The annex will be sponsored by Citi, Best Buy, Diesel for Bloomingdales, Gibson and Continental Airlines, with additional supporting partners Sony, Sennheiser, Klein + Hummel, and Kohler.



“Although there are more than 6,000 different languages spoken around the world, music is the one language that we all share in common, reminding us that we are all inherently the same,” said NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta. “We partnered with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex to help develop a cultural destination that captures the shared history of Rock and Roll and New York City and appeals to all ages and interests. With more than 46 million travelers already visiting our City each year from around the world, we are confident that the Annex will be a “must-see” attraction whether you are from Barcelona or Brooklyn.”



“New York City is home to talented musicians, adventurous audiences, and more than 1,400 extraordinary cultural institutions, said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin. “We welcome the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a unique addition to the City’s vibrant creative community.”



“Rock and roll is embedded in the history of our times and has changed the world around us,” said Rock and Roll Hall of Fame co-founder and editor and publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine Jann Wenner. “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and now its extension, the Annex, help us to illustrate in a tangible way music’s impact on the cultural, social and political history of the modern era.”



Visitors to the annex will receive headphones connected to a state-of-the-art wireless audio system so that when they visit different exhibits, they hear relevant music specific to the gallery they are in. The galleries include:



Hall of Fame, which pays tribute to the artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a signature display of each;


Immersive Theater, an engaging and dynamic movie experience that uses immersive audio and visual technology to highlight some of the most explosive performance moments in rock history including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Who and Patti Smith;


Roots & Influences, a visual and musical exhibition on how past music legends have influenced the chart-toppers at the forefront of today’s music scene, bringing to life musical timelines of genres such as R&B, Hip Hop and Blues Rock;


Moments to Movements, which will highlight particular musical moments that created and defined powerful movements, and showcase many exciting and rare rock items, including a white Vox electric guitar from The Beatles that has never been showcased elsewhere, the necklace Jimi Hendrix wore at Monterey Pop Festival, and the handwritten lyrics to ‘U.S. Blues’ by the Grateful Dead;


New York Rocks, which will include an oversized interactive map to highlight key locations around New York City that have musical significance, including Studio 54 and The Chelsea Hotel, and will showcase items such as the notebook in which Billy Joel wrote all the lyrics for “The Stranger” album;


Cleveland Gallery, which will include special exhibits and displays that give visitors a taste of the larger experience at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland; and,


Special Rotating Exhibit, which will feature one select artist or band, with special attention to their time spent in New York City, rotating every six to nine months.


The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum was established to educate visitors, fans and scholars from around the world about the history and continuing significance of rock and roll music. It carries out this mission both through its operation of a world-class museum that collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets this art form and through its library and archives as well as its educational programs. Media and fans can learn more about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum at http://www.rockhall.com.

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG!

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG 2008-2009, 21st SEASON
OPENS SEPTEMBER 23 IN NYC WITH A BERNSTEIN / BOLCOM CELEBRATION

NEW YORK CONCERTS AT MERKIN CONCERT HALL, WEILL RECITAL HALL, THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL

NATIONALLY: TOURING TO KENNEDY CENTER, CARAMOOR FESTIVAL, CONNECTICUT, MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, UTAH



New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), co-founded and directed by pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, who “reinvented the song recital during the 1990’s with daring and dramatic programming” (The New Yorker), announces its 21st season (2008-2009).

The company’s New York City concerts begin on September 23 at the newly renovated Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, with A Bernstein / Bolcom Celebration. The concert pays tribute to two of NYFOS’s guiding lights, Leonard Bernstein and William Bolcom; Bolcom and his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, will cap the evening with a selection of songs from their vast repertoire. The program also celebrates the ninetieth birthday of NYFOS’s Founding Advisor, Leonard Bernstein, who bestowed the American premiere of his last work, Arias and Barcarolles, to the newly-formed company. Their subsequent recording of the work in 1989, with Judy Kaye and William Sharp, earned the composer a posthumous Grammy Award for Best New Composition.

TICKETS: Curtain time for all concerts is 8 PM. Single ticket prices are $40 to $55, with half-priced student tickets (as available) a half hour before curtain. Call (212) 501-3330, or visit www.kaufman-center.org. A limited amount of $15 student tickets are available by calling NYFOS at (646) 230-8380. Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center is at 129 West 67th Street, New York, NY 10023. Free tickets for the January 14 concert at Juilliard will be available at The Juilliard School’s box office beginning January 5.

On its touring schedule, NYFOS brings Bastianello / Lucrezia, the acclaimed double-bill of one-act comic operas by William Bolcom and John Musto with librettos by Mark Campbell, to the Moab Music Festival in Utah on September 5; The Last Time I Saw Paris, French song from The Jazz Age to post-World War II, to the Robbie Colomore Concert Series in Chester, Connecticut (October 26) and the Andover Chamber Music Series in Massachusetts (November 9); Fugitives to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., presented by the Vocal Arts Society (November 14); Voices of the Jewish Diaspora to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland at College Park (February 15); and Songs of the Irish Poets to the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, NY (March 14), which culminates a week-long professional training residency, Caramoor Vocal Rising Stars, sponsored by and presented at Caramoor. Leading the week's events will be NYFOS artistic directors and pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett who will be working with a select group of young singers from around the country invited to participate in this auspicious project. The program will be repeated as part of NYFOS’s New York City 2008-2009 concert season at Merkin Concert Hall on March 17, 2009.
The initial season of the Caramoor Vocal Rising Stars Program will be underwritten, in part, by The Terrance W. Schwab Fund for Young Vocal Artists.



NEW YORK SEASON SCHEDULE


Tuesday and Thursday, SEPTEMBER 23 & 25, 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, 8 pm
“A Bernstein / Bolcom Celebration”
A tribute to two of New York Festival of Song’s guiding lights, Leonard Bernstein and William Bolcom, quintessential American composers and great spirits who have long provided wisdom, guidance, and music to NYFOS. Songs from Bernstein's Peter Pan, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Songfest, Wonderful Town, On the Town, Arias and Barcarolles; Bolcom's Cabaret Songs, I Will Breathe a Mountain, Briefly It Enters, McTeague; and a special appearance by Joan Morris and William Bolcom, who will share signature songs from their repertoire.
Artists: Sari Gruber, soprano; Rebecca Jo Loeb, mezzo-soprano; Joan Morris, mezzo-soprano; Renée Tatum, mezzo-soprano; Alex Mansoori, tenor; William Sharp, baritone; Marc Webster, bass; William Bolcom, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, piano


Tuesday and Thursday, NOVEMBER 18 & 20, 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, 8 pm
“Fugitives”
An evening of songs from the concert stage, the movies, Broadway, and Berlin's cabarets that trace the varied fortunes of the gifted composers who fled destruction during Hitler’s rise to power--some to begin new lives and brilliant careers abroad, others to meet with darker fates. Music by Kurt Weill, Franz Schreker, Arnold Zemlinsky, Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Korngold, Hanns Eisler, Friedrich Hollaender, Emmerich Kálmán, and many others.
Artists: Kate Lindsey, mezzo-soprano; Joseph Kaiser, tenor; Steven Blier, piano

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2009
Peter Jay Sharp Auditorium at The Juilliard School, 8 pm
“Latin Lovers: An Evening of Cuban and South American Song,” the fourth annual NYFOS@Juilliard concert.
Songs by Guastavino, Astor Piazzolla, Carlos López-Buchardo, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ernesto Lecuona, and many others.

Tuesday and Thursday, FEBRUARY 10 & 12, 2009
Merkin Concert Hall, 8 pm
“Voices of the Jewish Diaspora”
Songs in many languages celebrate the culturally diverse Jewish communities that flourished as the tribes of Israel spread out across the globe. Sephardic melodies arranged by Alberto Hemsi and Roberto Sierra; Second Avenue specialties by Irving Berlin and Joseph Rumshinsky; art songs by Ravel, Milhaud, and Rubinstein; plus music by Gershwin and Bernstein.
Artists: Dina Kuznetsova, soprano; Rinat Shaham, mezzo-soprano; Steven Goldstein, tenor; Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, piano

Tuesday, MARCH 17, 2009
Merkin Concert Hall, 8 pm
“Songs of the Irish Poets”
The lyricism of the Emerald Isle’s greatest writers, including Thomas Moore, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Paul Muldoon, as set to music by Beethoven, Britten, Balfe, Barber and others; with a group of traditional Irish songs featuring the fiddle playing of Paul Woodiel.
Artists: Paul Appleby, tenor; other members of Caramoor’s Terrence W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars Program; Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, piano

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2009
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 8 PM
Spring Gala
Program TBA

Tuesday and Thursday, MAY 19 & 21, 2009
Merkin Concert Hall, 8 pm
“The Welcome Shore”
A hymn to rivers and oceans stirs the heart and the imagination as the summer season draws near. Music by Elgar (the magnificent Sea Pictures), Fauré, Guastavino, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Noël Coward, Pauline Viardot, and many others.
Artists: Michelle Areyzaga, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Philip Cutlip, baritone; Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, piano

New York Festival of Song was founded in 1988 by Steven Blier and Michael Barrett. NYFOS is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty, humor and originality, combining music, poetry, and history to entertain, educate and create community among audiences and performers. With a far-ranging repertoire of art songs, concert works and theater pieces, its thematic recitals have included programs from Brahms to the Beatles, from the nineteenth-century salons of Paris to Tin Pan Alley, from Russian art song to Argentine tangos, from sixteenth-century lute songs to new music. NYFOS particularly celebrates American song literature and culture, and specializes in premiering and commissioning new American works. They have produced five recordings on the Koch label, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles, as well as the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen on New World Records, and the Bridge Records release of the NYFOS program Spanish Love Songs. NYFOS’s concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities have inspired a new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world.

Artistic Director Steven Blier has programmed, performed, translated and annotated over 100 song programs with repertoire spanning the entire range of American song, art song from Schubert to Szymanowski, and popular song from early vaudeville to Lennon-McCartney. In addition, Mr. Blier enjoys an eminent career as an accompanist and vocal coach. Among the many artists he has partnered in recital are Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Samuel Ramey, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham and Frederica von Stade. Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett is also the CEO of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and General Director of the Caramoor International Music Festival. In 1992 Mr. Barrett and his wife Leslie Tomkins founded The Moab Music Festival in Utah, for which he serves as music director. He has conducted major orchestras here and abroad in the symphonic, operatic, and dance repertoire, and is the former director of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y. Mr. Barrett has conducted and played premieres by Bernstein, Blitzstein, Bolcom, Kernis, Sellars, Harrison, Takemitsu, Del Tredici and John Corigliano.

Funding for the Bastianello / Lucrezia CD release on Bridge Records was provided by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. Commission and first performance of Bastianello by John Musto and Mark Cambell and Lucrezia by William Bolcom and Mark Campbell by New York Festival of Song, Inc. were supported by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.