FIVE BOROUGH SONGBOOK

“[The Songbook] is a love letter that will have the cognoscenti nodding in recognition of all that resonates, shimmers and knells in the Big Apple.”

Sherri Rase | Q on Stage | July 2012
CD Review: Five Borough Songbook

“[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 | October 8, 2011
The Song of the City

“With 20 composers involved you might expect every current style to be represented. Quite a few were… [I]nventive approaches to taking the city’s pulse were plentiful.”

Allan Kozinn | The New York Times | January 15, 2012
Review: Five Borough Songbook Manhattan Premiere

“[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!”

Scott Rose | The New Civil Rights Movement | October 23, 2011
Review: Five Borough Songbook Premiere

“[O]n this occasion [the composers] often seemed to channel the wisecracking New York wit and the nostalgic art largely missing from Broadway for the last generation.”

John Yohalem | Opera Today | January 23, 2012
Review: Five Borough Songbook Manhattan Premiere

“[The Five Borough Songbook] is exactly the kind of wide-ranging, all-encompassing program that impressively represents nearly all that contemporary American art song has to offer.”

Gregory Berg | Journal of Singing, Volume 69, No. 2 | November/December 2012
CD Review: Five Boroughs Songbook

Celebrating NYC Through Song

3 Volumes
55 Composers
55 Songs

3 Volumes | 55 Composers | 55 Songs

In honor of our 5th anniversary in 2011-2012, 5BMF embarked on a bold new venture: creating the Five Borough Songbook, a collection of 20 brand-new songs all about New York City, composed by 20 unique composers and performed throughout the year in every borough of the city. The inaugural Songbook was also released as a special double CD in 2012, marking 5BMF’s first studio album.

Five years later, we celebrated our 10th birthday by honoring the rich musical legacy of NYC once again with the second installment of this ambitious project, Five Borough Songbook, Volume II. And in 2022, the quinquennial tradition continued with Volume III, co-commissioned by On Site Opera and featuring 15 brand-new works composed by yet another entirely new cohort of composers. Each volume again toured the city, premiering in every borough during each anniversary year.

The three volumes of the Songbook are each a masterful and eclectic collection of diverse musical voices, serving as a celebration of the entirety of New York City, of its literary history, and of its most promising musical talent.

Five Borough Songbook Album
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Featured Artists

Javier Abreu, tenor
Mireille Asselin, soprano
Thomas Bagwell, pianist
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano
Scott Dispensa, baritone
Jocelyn Dueck, pianist
Blythe Gaissert, mezzo-soprano
Martha Guth, soprano
Keith Jameson, tenor
David McFerrin, baritone
David Adam Moore, baritone
Harumi Rhodes, violinist
Alex Richardson, tenor

Five Borough Songbook

World Premiere: Oct 6, 2011 | Galapagos Art Space | BROOKLYN

Commissioned in 2011, the original Songbook comprises 20 works scored for various combinations of SATB solo voices, piano, and violin. The collection includes not only songs for voice and piano, but also 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.

Christopher Berg | OuLiPo in the Bronx
Lisa Bielawa | Breakfast in New York
Tom Cipullo | G is for Grimy: An Ode to the G Train
Christina Courtin | Fresh Kills
Mohammed Fairouz | Refugee Blues
Renee Favand-See | Looking West on a Humid Summer Evening
John Glover | 8:46 AM, Five Years Later
Ricky Ian Gordon | O City of Ships
Yotam Haber | On Leaving Brooklyn
Daron Hagen | The New Yorkers
Martin Hennessy | The City’s Love
Gabriel Kahane | Coney Island Avenue
Gilda Lyons | rapid transit
Jorge Martín | City of Orgies, Walks, and Joys!
Russell Platt | The Avenue (II)
Glen Roven | F from DUMBO
Matt Schickele | Days afield on Staten Island
Richard Pearson Thomas | The Center of the Universe
Christopher Tignor | Secret Assignation
Scott Wheeler | At Home in Staten Island

Five Borough Songbook, Volume II

World Premiere: Feb 11, 2017 | DiMenna Center for Classical Music | MANHATTAN

Commissioned in honor of 5BMF’s 10th Anniversary in 2017, the Songbook Volume II features an entirely new group of 20 dynamic composers, with works scored for various combinations of SATB voices, piano, and cello.

Matthew Aucoin | Walt Whitman’s New Years Greeting for 2017
Lembit Beecher | I Missed the Beginning
Conrad Cummings | Lamento del Barista
Jonathan Dawe | The Isle is Full of Noises
Evan Fein | Musings: The Temple of Dendur
Daniel Felsenfeld | Everything Must Go
Herschel Garfein | The Cyclone
Whitney George | A Night in Brooklyn
Marie Incontrera | Greenwood Cemetery
Laura Kaminsky | Right to Life
Libby Larsen | Running the Boroughs
Hannah Lash | Riverdale
Missy Mazzoli | Lorca in the Bronx
Jessie Montgomery | Loisaida, my love
Robert Paterson | Crossing the Hudson
Paola Prestini | Aquarium, Coney Island
Kevin Puts | The Subway
Kamala Sankaram | The Last Blast of Anthony the Trumpeter
Gregory Spears | Aquehonga
Bora Yoon | Grand Central

Five Borough Songbook, Volume III

World Premiere: Apr 22, 2022 | Brooklyn Public Library | BROOKLYN

In 2022, 5BMF and On Site Opera co-commissioned the Five Borough Songbook, Vol III in honor of their respective 15th and 10th anniversaries. Comprised of 15 vocal works scored for ensemble voices, piano, violin, and cello, Volume III featured members of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble alongside a trio of virtuosic instrumentalists, in performances all throughout New York City.

THE BRONX
Will Healy | New York Revisited
Brian Lawlor | Mantras from Jesup
Laura Jobin-Acosta | The Rocking Chair

MANHATTAN
Darian Donovan Thomas | Timessquare
Nkeiru Okoye | We Met At The Symphony
Juri Seo | By The Bone Dry Fountain Of An Early Winter

QUEENS
Arianne Abela | You Can Find Queens
Colin Britt | Others Will See
Majel Connery | The Sea Rolls Along

STATEN ISLAND
Jessica Meyer | Nonnas
Kinan Azmeh | جزيرة (The Island)
Aaron Siegel | Song Of Fresh Kills

BROOKLYN
Raquel Acevedo-Klein | Between Two Islands
Jonathan Woody | In Kings
Angélica Négron | Hello Beautiful

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