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United States Brooklyn Art Song Society – Schubert IV: Liebe: Lucy Fitz Gibbon (soprano), Blythe Gaissert, Kate Maroney & Devony Smith (mezzo-sopranos), Michael Brofman & Dimitri Dover (piano). Brooklyn Art Song Society, Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn. Livestream available from 13.2.2021. (RP)
Even in the midst of a pandemic, a Zoom call with Brandon Ridenour and Ben Russell is an upbeat experience. Their plans for performances, tours and just about everything else hit a brick wall in March, as they did for just about everyone on the planet. For Russell, it has been a peripatetic few months: circumstances required him to leave Brooklyn early in the pandemic and, since then, he and his wife have stayed in a cabin in Maine and with family in California and Mississippi. Apart from a few brief trips out of New York, Ridenour has stuck it out in Brooklyn.
They are two of the five members of Founders, the award-winning, Brooklyn-based ensemble, a songwriting collective that is reimagining the boundaries of musical styles. In addition to Russell (violin/vocals) and Ridenour (trumpet/piano), the other members of the group are Hamilton Berry (cello/vocals), Yoonah Kim (clarinet) and Greg Chudzik (bass). All are conservatory-trained musicians.
Individually, they have worked with songwriters such as James Taylor, Sufjan Stevens, Sting, and Björk, as well as with classical ensembles such as Canadian Brass, A Far Cry and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. They have performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as on television broadcasts such as The Late Show and Saturday Night Live.
January saw the release of Founders’ latest recording, Songs for the End of Time, Vol. 1, which features Russell and Ridenour’s arrangement of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Their adaptation of this seminal work received its world premiere at the 2019 Tribeca New Music Festival. With this thoughtful, imaginative and at times stunningly beautiful rethinking of Messiaen’s Quartet, Founders is introducing it to audiences that might never have encountered it before.
United States Brooklyn Art Song Society – Schubert III: Steven Eddy (baritone), Michael Brofman (piano), Brooklyn Art Song Society, Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn. Livestream available from 16.1.2021. (RP)
United States Brooklyn Art Song Society – Schubert: Bonus Concert: Sarah Nelson Craft (mezzo-soprano), Nils Neubert (tenor), Nana Shi (piano). Brooklyn Art Song Society, Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn. First streamed on 12.12.2020. (RP)
United States Brooklyn Art Song Society – Schubert II: Night: Andrew Fuchs (tenor), Daniel McGrew (tenor), Mario Diaz-Moresco (baritone), Jorell Williams (baritone), Michael Brofman (piano), Spencer Myer (piano). Brooklyn Art Song Society, Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn. First streamed on 14.11.2020. (RP)
United States Death of Classical, ‘To America’: Curated by Andrew Ousley and Harry Weil, Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, 23.10.2020. (RP)
United States Brooklyn Art Song Society – Schubert I: Tyler Duncan (baritone), Erika Switzer (piano). Brooklyn Art Song Society, Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn. Live stream viewed on 10.10.2020. (RP)
Rick Perdian spoke with Michael Brofman, founder and artistic director of the Brooklyn Art Song Society, about the impact of the pandemic on the organization and its plans for the future
In the midst of its tenth anniversary season, the Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) had to cancel everything when New York became the global epicenter of the novel coronavirus in March. For its 2020-21 season, BASS is going digital and will celebrate the legacy of Franz Schubert, the first and arguably the greatest composer of German Lieder, with five programs of more than 100 of his songs. In addition, BASS will launch the New Voices Festival, which seeks to reimagine the art song for the twenty-first century.