• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • News & Blog
  • Weddings & Rentals
  • Login
  • Cart
  • TICKETS
  • Donate

Caramoor

  • About
    • History
    • The Rosen House
    • Who We Are
    • Employment
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Kids & Families
    • Sonic Innovations
  • Visit
    • Getting to Caramoor
    • Box Office
    • Dining at Caramoor
    • Venues
    • Accessibility
    • Policies
    • Explore the Area
  • Education
    • Mentoring
    • School Programs
    • An Interactive Caramoor
    • Community Engagement
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Volunteer
    • Our Donors
    • Ways to Give
  • News & Blog
  • Weddings & Rentals
  • Login
  • Cart
  • About
    • History
    • The Rosen House
    • Who We Are
    • Employment
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Kids & Families
    • Sonic Innovations
  • Visit
    • Getting to Caramoor
    • Box Office
    • Dining at Caramoor
    • Venues
    • Accessibility
    • Policies
    • Explore the Area
  • Education
    • Mentoring
    • School Programs
    • An Interactive Caramoor
    • Community Engagement
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Volunteer
    • Our Donors
    • Ways to Give
  • News & Blog
  • Weddings & Rentals
  • Login
  • Cart

Schwab Vocal Rising Stars: Day 7 Blog | From Artistic Director Steven Blier

March 24, 2023 Blog

On March 6th, four rising star vocalists and one rising star pianist arrived at Caramoor to start their week-long residency with Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois as a part of the Schwab Vocal Rising Stars mentoring program. The week of rehearsals, coachings, workshops, and even living together at Caramoor culminated in two final performances: the first in the Music Room at Caramoor, and the second at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center just two days later.

This final blog post from Artistic Director Steven Blier lets the audience in on how he felt the two performances went. This year’s 2023 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars are: ShelĂ©n Hughes, soprano; Maggie ReneĂ©, mezzo-soprano; Colin Aikins, tenor; Joseph Parrish, baritone; Yihao Zhou, piano. Their performance, entitled Mediterranean, was a musical voyage around the Mediterranean Sea, with stops in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia. 


FINALE               

The thing I most desired after our two concerts was a day to lie in bed, eat bonbons, and watch movies. Unfortunately, my schedule did not offer me such indolence. Wednesday, in fact, turned out to be a high-stress day. I’ll spare you the details, but by the time it ended smoke was coming out of my ears; I’ve no doubt my blood pressure was spiking. 

Probably I was taking a karmic hit for how well Sunday and Tuesday had gone. I have beautiful memories of every artist that shared the stage with me: BĂ©nĂ©dicte tearing into “Paño murciano” like a (vegan) bullfighter; ShelĂ©n creating a heavenly aura with “Canticel” by ToldrĂ ; Maggie offering a moment of international peace with her world-class delivery of songs in Arabic and Hebrew; Joseph displaying a surprising sense of British style and peerless comic chops in NoĂ«l Coward’s “Bar on the Piccola Marina”; Yihao tossing off a Greek art song with breathtaking subtlety and wit—he managed to find four distinct colors in just the first measure. Colin came back into the concert slowly—only one song on Sunday, but two on Tuesday. He did himself proud, behaved with wisdom, and gave everyone a taste of that golden voice. 

Making music is something like arranging a marriage between two recalcitrant parties: your body, and the sound you have in your imagination. I look at the score, and my inner ear summons up the Platonic Ideal for every phrase. Then come the negotiations with my hands and arms, who are unionized and have their own demands. I am sure many musicians—many artists!—feel the same. The statue is hidden inside the marble, the painting lies dormant in the tubes of pigment. But this week I had two concerts where my ear and my body called a truce for 75 minutes, and maybe the entente cordiale will last for a while.  

The Mediterranean journey sparked a lot of enthusiasm in both audiences, particularly the Greek-Lebanon-Israel part of the concert. It took a village to make this project happen, and Iuckily I had one: a team of brilliant singers and pianists, backed by a cadre of generous and knowledgeable coaches. My bad luck on Wednesday is slowly receding, but the glow of “Mediterranean” still remains strong. 

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Blog
  • From the Archives
  • Press Releases
  • Rosen House
  • Rosen House Connections
  • The Social Scene

Recent Posts

  • An Unforgettable Night of Pride, Broadway Music, and a Mother’s Love 
  • Westchester Youth and Broadway Stars Share LGBTQ+ Pride
  • Caramoor Announces Appointment of Gillian Fox as President & CEO
  • Introducing Caramoor’s 2025 Summer Research Fellow: Annalise Gall 
  • 2025 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars: Day 6 Blog | From Artistic Director Steven Blier

Footer

VISIT US

149 Girdle Ridge Road
PO Box 816
Katonah, NY 10536
914.232.1252
boxoffice@caramoor.org

BOX OFFICE

By Phone Only

Thursday – Sunday, 12:00pm – 6:00pm

Venue Box offices open two hours before performances.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Federal Tax ID: 13-5643627

STAY CONNECTED

Sign up to receive our weekly email newsletter:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Contact Us
  • Policies

© Copyright 2021 Caramoor

Manage Cookie Consent
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}