Singers perform the Five Borough Songbook on its World Premiere in Brooklyn.

Five Borough Songbook

This season, 5BMF embarks on a bold new venture: a collection of 20 brand-new songs, all about New York City, which will travel to every borough throughout 2011-2012…

NEW! Five Borough Songbook World Premiere Recording
Our brand-new studio recording of the Five Borough Songbook is now available. Click here for more details! 

About the Songbook
Since 2007, 5BMF has brought world-class, yet affordable, musical events of many genres to every corner of New York City, featuring everything from early music to Lieder to jazz and folk.  Throughout all our programming, we have also maintained a particular focus on the emergence of new music in New York City, regardless of genre.  This dedication, coupled with our mission to celebrate the city as a whole, resulted in our idea to create a new ”Five Borough Songbook.”

In early 2011, we 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.

The Composers of the Songbook

The 20 commissioned composers were encouraged to write for any combination of SATB (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone) solo voices, piano, and violin. The resulting collection includes not only songs for voice and piano, but ensembles of many different permutations, providing the listener with as varied a selection of instrumentation as the range of poems and texts chosen by the composers.

Of the 20 programs 5BMF has curated and presented to date, this will be the first to make a complete borough tour of five performances.  We hope you’ll join us as the Songbook travels to every corner of NYC this season!

2011-2012 World Premiere and Borough Premiere Performances