Edwin Crossley-Mercer finally performing in United States

Edwin Crossley-Mercer's promo for his upcoming Ohio concert

We unabashedly have a few favorite singers at Barihunks and Edwin Crossley-Mercer is among our absolute favorites. Ever since a reader sent us an effusive email after hearing him in recital (along with a pirate sound clip!), we've been hooked. It doesn't hurt that he has that Anderson Cooper-ish sexiness about him AND an amazingly beautiful voice.

We're always bemoaning the fact that he rarely performs in the United States, but that's changing this year. On March 3, he'll be featured in the Art Song Festival in Berea, Ohio (just outside of Cleveland). His program includes songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Fauré, Debussy, Bizet and Cosma. Tickets are just $30 and students are free. Call 440-826-7664 for more information.

From May 17-25 he'll join another wunderkind, conductor Gustavo Dudamel, in performances of the title character in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. You won't want want to miss these performances, which are part of a Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy that the orchestra is performing. The Countess will be the incredible Dorothea Röschmann and the Count will be fellow barihunk Christopher Maltmann. The production set is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, with costumes by couturier Azzedine Alaïa. On alternating nights you can enjoy Don Giovanni with barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien and Ryan Kuster. Casts for Così fan tutte have not been announced.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Crossley-Mercer is currently in France performing Thésée in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie in Bordeaux and Versailles. From March 22-30, he'll take on the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opéra De Dijon. The Masetto will be the adorable Australian barihunk Damian Pass. Tickets are available online. 

Edwin Crossley-Mercer sings Beethoven's "Elegy on the Death of a Poodle":

New York Festival of Song's Barihunk-filled New Season

Steven Blier's always entertaining and interesting New York Festival of Song has announced its 2011-12 five-program series at Merkin Concert Hall. As always, the Festival of Song will be programmed with some of the best young talent in opera and once again there will be plenty of barihunks to enjoy.

Andrew Garland

The season opens on Oct. 25 and 27 with In the Memory Palace: Games of Love featuring barihunk Andrew Garland, who will be joined by Michelle Areyzaga, Rebecca Jo Loeb and Paul Appleby. The program centers around the premiere of Gabriel Kahane’s song cycle, The Memory Palace, which evokes scenes of East Coast solitude with his haunting music and mordant lyrics.

Jesse Blumberg & Timothy McDevitt

On Novemeber 17th, the festival will reprise Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life with barihunks Jesse Blumberg and Timothy McDevitt, joined by Scott Murphee and Matt Boehler.  The program is a "touching celebration of the lives and art of gay men in works that reflect the heritage of gay composers in art song, as well as contemporary songs about the gay experience."

Joahua Jeremiah & John Brancy

On November 29 and December 1 the Festival will feature barihunks John Brancy and Joshua Jeremiah joined by Lauren Worsham, Mary Testa, Josh Breitzer for  A Goyishe Christmas to You! Yuletide Classics by Jewish Songwriters.

Jesse Blumberg

On February 14 and 16th, Jesse Blumberg returns for A Modern Person's Guide to Hooking Up and Breaking Up along with Anne-Carolyn Bird, Liza Forrester, Alex Mansoori and Jesse Blumberg.  The show is described as a “quirky survey of the awkwardness, pain, lust and perversity of contemporary relationships."

The season concludes on March 11th with New York to Paris, Paris to Paradise featuring members of Caramoor’s 2012 Vocal Rising Stars program.

You can click HERE for tickets and additional program information.

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Blier & Blumberg's "Manning the Canon"

The always brilliant and informative Steven Blier  has put together a program of song entitled "Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life" with his New York Festival of Song. The genesis of the concert is fascinating, as Blier first conceived of the idea twenty-two years ago and it didn't come to life until he mentioned it to barihunk Jesse Blumberg.

Blumberg, who is a favorite of this site, also runs the Five Boroughs Music Festival, as well as performing as a singer. Blumberg and Blier decided to put together the program last year, but a family emergency forced the singer to cancel. Another favorite of this site, fellow barihunk Matthew Worth, stepped in and took over the program.

Jesse Blumberg & Matt Worth

Last night Blumberg, Blier and Worth reprised the program along with tenor Scott Murphree and bass Matt Boehler. The program inlcuded Marc Blitzstein’s “Purest Kind of a Guy," Christopher Berg’s "Is It Dirty?," Lutvak and Campbell's "Exit Right," Schubert's quartet for four male voices “Auflösung," Tchaikovsky’s “At the Ball," Poulenc’s “Montparnasse," Griffes’s “Evening Song,” John Wallowich’s  “Bruce.” Bolcom’s “Piano Walk” and “I’ll Be By,” Camille Saint Saëns’s “Si vous n’avez rien à me dire,”  Benjamin Britten’s “Night covers up the rigid land,” Manuel de Falla’s “Polo," Cy Coleman's "Tennis Duet,"  Chris DeBlasio’s “Walt Whitman in 1989,”Bernstein's “To What You Said,” and Cole Porter's "You're the Top."

There is one more performance of "Manning the Canon" on December 2 and tickets are available HERE. 

Here is an article from Capital New York about the concert, which also raises the (somewhat ridiculous) question of whether a straight singer like Blumberg can sing "gay music." The answer appears to be what we all should know already: Music is a universal language.

Blumberg is not new to gay themed music, as he premiered Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers," which we featured on this site.

Barihunk Randal Turner Sporting Our Favorite Tee Shirt

Fans of Gordon's in the San Francisco Bay Area can hear the amazingly talented barihunk Randal Turner perform his "Four Poems by Dorothy Parker." Turner's program, which features America's greatest living composers, also features music by four gay composers, Glen Roven, Clint Borzoni, Jake Heggie and Gordon.

Borzoni, who studied with David Del Tredici and Lee Hoiby, has written a piece for Randal Turner that is based on Walt Whitman and is dedicated to the gay teens who have recently committed suicide. The program also features another piece written for Turner, Julia Schwartz's "Don Juan at 40" based on a from Histories of Desire by Ron Butlin.

Tickets for the Randal Turner concert are available HERE.

Emerging Barihunk David McFerrin

Emerging barihunk David McFerrin is currently studying in Augsburg, Germany at the Hochscule für Musik. He recently was part of Caramoor’s pilot program for “vocal rising stars.” Caramoor partnered with Steven Blier's wonderful "Festival of Song" where he sang Russell Platt's sexually charged songs "Cuba" and "Bran." McFerrin had studied with Blier at Julliard and it was nice that Blier used McFerrin for this song series.

In 2008, Mr. McFerrin was awarded a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, given annually to promising young American opera singers. He has also been a regional finalist the past two years in the Metropolitan Opera National Council competition, recently placing 2nd in the New England Region. The Massachusetts native is a former member of the barihunk breeding ground known as the Santa Fe Apprentice Artist program.

West Coast fans of Steven Blier can catch him on Sunday, April 5 at San Francisco's Temple Emanu-El at 5:30 pm. He's bringing his NY Festival of Song to the Left Coast, performing Kurt Weill's Berlin. There are no barihunks scheduled, but a lovely hunkentenor named Andrew Bidlack. (Why are there no new posts on that site?).

This site can be contacted at barihunks@gmail.com

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