Five Borough Songbook

20 Composers/20 New Songs Celebrating 1 New York

In early 2011, 5 Borough Music Festival commissioned 20 composers to write one new vocal work each, inspired by places, themes, and poetry from every corner of New York City. Compiled together into the Songbook, these new pieces serve as a celebration of the entirety of New York City, of its literary history, and of its most promising musical talent. Our list of composers is a wonderful combination of well-known American composers and up-and-coming talent, and also represents a unique blend of musical styles. It is a group reflective of the diversity of NYC experiences that and also serves as a fairly accurate temperature reading of NYC s diverse new music environment in the early 21st Century.

 

 

G is for Grimey (Cipullo)

Jesse Bloomberg

Blythe Gaissert

David Adam Moore

5 Borough Celebrates Season 4 & 5

 

[T]he true impact of the Five Borough Songbook was its juxtapositions

and musical landscape, creating neighborhoods that are distinct

but which sit on top of one another bringing out inherent comparisons and contrasts. 

Olivia Giovetti, WQXR Operavore

The Five Borough Songbook lured me out to Brooklyn on 6 October with the prospect of songs by nearly 20 composers,

performed by four able singers. I arrived in time for two that I'd anticipated most gladly:

those by Jorge Martín ( City of Orgies, Walks, and Joys! to a text by Whitman) and Glen Roven

( F from DUMBO, to a text by Michael Tyrell).

And I enjoyed the performances of the four singers: baritone

David Adam Moore soprano Martha Guth, tenor Alex Richardson, and the real discovery of the night, mezzo Blythe Gaissert. In due course, the Five Borough Songbook will reach an audience far beyond DUMBO. 

William V. Madison from Billevesees.com

Scott Rose, The New Civil Rights Movement

[A]ll composers contributing to The Five Borough Songbook are Greatly Gifted,

the performances were Graciously Groomed, so as for the upcoming performances

in Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, well, you really must Go, Go, Go, Go! 

rapid transit (Lyons)