iHeartRadio Broadway has an exclusive video of On Vit, On Aime performed Melissa Errico following the digital release of the new album Out of Myself – Songs of Peter Foley. Watch the performance in the video player above and read more about the album below!
CENTER STAGE RECORDS has released Out of Myself – Songs of Peter Foley in streaming and digital formats NOW. A rising musical theater composer and lyricist praised by The New Yorker for his “gift for sinuous, haunting melody and surprising musical shapes,” Foley tragically passed away before his work achieved widespread public recognition. He nonetheless left behind an undiscovered trove of beautifully sweeping songs, overflowing with soaring melodies, that blend Broadway and classical art song with widespread influences from folk to soul. His honors included the NEA New American Works grant, the Richard Rodgers Award, and Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, among many others. Stephen Sondheim – an early mentor of Foley – called him “among the best of his generation at setting lyrics and writing music that evokes character and mood.” Stream or download the album at orcd.co/peterfoleymusic
Recorded live at a tribute concert at the New York venue Peter Norton Symphony Space in 2023, this special collection of music features an array of vocal talent from Tony Award-nominated Broadway stars to crossover luminaries from the opera world, supported by an 9-member musical ensemble and a 19-member chorus. Out of Myself – Songs of Peter Foley will continue to build on the legacy of a voice ripe to be discovered by new generations of music lovers.
The digital booklet includes complete lyrics and essays by Kate Chisholm, Executive Director of the Peter Foley Music Project, and Grammy Award winner Rob Berman, who serves as music supervisor and conductor for the album. Out of Myself – Songs of Peter Foley is produced by Kate Chisholm, Rob Berman, and Pete Karam, with Peter Foley Music Project and Van Dean serving as executive producers. Out of Myself features the lyrics of Marion Adler, Carl R. Brush, Mark Campbell, Adam Gopnik, Matthew Heimer, Ellen McLaughlin, and Foley himself.
The cast features Shereen Ahmed (My Fair Lady at LCT), Kate Baldwin (Tony Award nominee), Mikaela Bennett (Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists), Max Chernin (Parade), Eisa Davis (Obie Award winner), Melissa Errico (Tony Award nominee), Manoel Felciano (Tony Award nominee), Ashley Pérez Flanagan (Great Comet of 1812), Jason Gotay (Floyd Collins), Marya Grandy (Drama Desk nominee), Darron Hayes (Kimberly Akimbo), Christian Probst (The Book of Mormon), Sam Simahk (See What I Wanna See), and Michael Winther (Flying Over Sunset).
In his short lifetime, Foley created a remarkable body of work, including five full-length musicals and a short operetta – each vastly different from the others in subject matter, tone, and musical style – as well as art and cabaret songs, choral pieces, and instrumental scores for plays and television. Yet only one of the musicals, The Hidden Sky, had a professional premiere and only two songs were commercially released: “To Sing,” introduced by Michael Winther in Songs from an Unmade Bed, and “On Vit, On Aime,” which Melissa Errico debuted on her celebrated album Out of the Dark: The Film Noir Project. Both numbers are revisited by the original artists on this new live recording.
Kate Chisholm comments: “It’s been an honor and great responsibility to become the caretaker of Peter’s work these past few years—although as his spouse, creative partner, confidante, and biggest fan of 32 years, I confess I already knew every note and every lyric. Music and theater-making was woven into the fabric of our life together for three decades. Peter lived it and breathed it. He was ambitious in his vision and rigorous in his craft. He didn’t shy away from unconventional ideas or pushing the form. He stayed true to himself and what he wanted to express.”
“Peter created rich musical landscapes that drew upon wide-ranging influences appropriate to the particular world of a show,” she continues, “masterfully weaving his deep knowledge of music together with his own artistic voice and vision. For Peter, the satisfaction was in creating a big, ambitious work of art. Crafting a complex and unified whole. Delving deep into the dramatic moment. Searching for the most evocative way to embody and express each character’s journey. Setting the lyrics perfectly on the music. Peter wanted to write from the heart and take all of us with him.”
Rob Berman adds, “Listen to the entirety of this collection of songs and I think you will be struck, as I was, by his facility in such a wide range of musical styles. Peter’s influences were many and he loved so many genres: classical music, from Monteverdi to minimalism; pop, funk, jazz, reggae, world music; the American Songbook, classic musical theater, Sondheim. His songs came equally out of his head and heart, and now we have the opportunity for them to enter ours. Lucky us.”
The Out of Myself chorus includes Bobby Barksdale, Elyse Bell, Landan Berlof, Kat Capili, Jordan Collins, Julianna Braga, Nour Habbash, Gabriela Hernandez, Charlotte Kunesh, Jadon Lopez, Asher Muldoon, Michael Protacio, Izzy Ramirez, David Rowen, Chandler Sinks, Grayson Todd, Maria Tramontozzi, Matthew Weatherhead, and Yemie Woo.
The band features Meg Zervoulis Bate on piano, Kiku Enomoto on violin, Katherine Cherbas on cello, Jeremy Clayton and Greg Riley on reeds, Marc Schmied on bass, Matt SanGiovanni on guitar, Barry Spatz on keyboard, and Dan Berkery on percussion, with additional performances on piano by Rob Berman and Joseph Thalken, where noted.
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Peter Foley (1967–2021) was an award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, and music director. His musical theater works include The Hidden Sky, The Names We Gave Him, You Captured My Heart (working title), Bloom, Whitechapel, and The Bear, a short operetta. For his music and lyrics to The Hidden Sky, which premiered at Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theater, he received an NEA New American Works grant, the Richard Rodgers Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, Stephen Sondheim Award from the American Music Theater Festival, and a Barrymore nomination for Outstanding Original Music.
His other stage works include music for “To Sing” in Mark Campbell’s Songs from an Unmade Bed (New York Theatre Workshop, original cast album on Ghostlight Records) and scores for several plays, including Newton’s Universe (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Much Ado About Nothing and Henry V (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), and Alice in Wonderland (Berkeley Theater Project).
Foley’s theater, cabaret, and art songs have been performed at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Festival of Song, Symphony Space, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Birdland, and more. He also composed scores and themes for television and film, including “Listening to America” with Bill Moyers and seven seasons of the Emmy-nominated, Peabody Award-winning PBS series, “Art:21.”
Out of Myself – Songs of Peter Foley: Track List
1. The Hidden Sky – Manoel Felciano, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, and chorus
2. Wheel in the Engine – Marya Grandy
3. Pineheart – Sam Simahk, Darron Hayes, Christian Probst, and Kate Baldwin
4. Oath– Chorus
5. Revelation: All Is Number – Ashley Pérez Flanagan and chorus
6. The Dreams of Little Girls – Eisa Davis
7. The Other Me – Christian Probst
8. You Captured My Heart – Max Chernin
9. A Poem by Robert Herrick – Sam Simahk
10. Rather Private Thoughts – Shereen Ahmed
11. The Sadness – Manoel Felciano and Shereen Ahmed (Rob Berman, piano)
12. The Happiness – Kate Baldwin
13. Bloom in Me – Darron Hayes, Max Chernin, Izzy Ramirez, and Yemie Woo
14. Darkness – Eisa Davis
15. Raise Me Higher – Marya Grandy and chorus
16. Broadway – Kate Baldwin (Rob Berman, piano)
17. To Sing – Michael Winther (Joseph Thalken, piano)
18. On Vit, On Aime – Melissa Errico (Rob Berman, piano)
19. The Honest Gentleman – Sam Simahk and chorus
20. I’ll Never Wear Black – Mikaela Bennett
21. All Our Little Things – Manoel Felciano, Michael Protacio, David Rowen, and Chandler Sinks
22. Yellow Field – Shereen Ahmed and Jason Gotay
He was a fellow/resident artist at the MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Music Theater Conference, and Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross. He graduated with honors in music from Yale University and was an alum of the BMI Lehman Engle Musical Theatre Workshop, New Dramatists’ Composer-Librettist Studio, and American Lyric Theater Composer Librettist Development Program.
A native of Berkeley, California, Peter lived outside New York City with his wife, writer/director Kate Chisholm, and their daughter Grace. He passed away at the age of 54 on August 27, 2021.