Ben Bliss & Christopher Allen
Tenor Ben Bliss and pianist Christopher Allen open Vocal Arts DC’s season with a recital devoted to the breadth of American song. The program moves among Broadway and musical-theater selections, concert songs, folk-influenced ballads, popular standards, and intimate art songs, pairing Bliss’s bright, finely controlled tenor with Allen’s vivid, orchestral piano playing.
The repertoire connects music by Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hart, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Weill, Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, and others with poetry by writers including E. E. Cummings, Langston Hughes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Allen Ginsberg. The evening is designed to show both the humor and theatricality of the American songbook and its more reflective, vulnerable side.
When: Sunday, October 4, 2026
Showtime: 5:00 PM
Venue: Live! At 10th & G, 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001
Presented by: Vocal Arts DC
Lineup: Ben Bliss, tenor; Christopher Allen, piano
Program: Planned selections include “I’m Calm,” “Everybody Says Don’t,” and “Being Alive” by Stephen Sondheim; “The What-Cha-Ma-Call-It” by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer; Charles Ives’s “The Things Our Fathers Loved”; Lowell Liebermann’s “The Arrow and the Song”; John Gruen settings of E. E. Cummings’s “Spring is like a perhaps hand” and “Lady will you come with me into”; “Bridge over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel; “America the Beautiful” in the traditional arrangement associated with Ray Charles; “Are You Having Any Fun?”; “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die”; Kurt Weill’s “Lonely House” from *Street Scene*; “Where or When”; Samuel Barber’s “Nocturne, Op. 13, No. 4”; “Say It (Over and Over Again)”; “Just in Time”; “Some Other Time”; Noël Coward’s “Let’s Say Good-bye”; “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)”; and Philip Glass’s setting of Allen Ginsberg’s “Wichita Vortex Sutra.”
Program note: The listed selections may change.
Run time: To be announced.
Ben Bliss: Bliss is an American tenor known for operatic performances in the United States and abroad, with a repertoire that includes Mozart roles such as Tamino in *The Magic Flute*, Don Ottavio in *Don Giovanni*, Ferrando in *Così fan tutte*, and Belmonte in *The Abduction from the Seraglio*. He has also appeared as Tom Rakewell in *The Rake’s Progress*, Pélléas in *Pelléas et Mélisande*, Roméo in *Roméo et Juliette*, and Flamand in *Capriccio*. His honors include the Metropolitan Opera’s 2021 Beverly Sills Award, the Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, prizes from the Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prizes in the Gerda Lissner and Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation competitions, and Operalia’s Don Plácido Domingo Sr. Zarzuela Prize. His concert work has included appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati May Festival, Carnegie Hall, and the Metropolitan Opera.
Christopher Allen: Allen is a pianist, conductor, and artistic leader who has worked with major orchestras and opera companies across North America and internationally. He has conducted or collaborated with organizations including the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Utah, National, Kansas City, Oregon, Virginia, and North Carolina symphonies, as well as Los Angeles Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and others. A recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, he was also an associate conductor at Los Angeles Opera, where he helped prepare the Grammy-winning production of *The Ghosts of Versailles*. He is the founder and creative and artistic director of Fourth Wall Ensemble and has performed as a pianist at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and other venues.
Tickets: Price not available
Ages: No age guidance is listed.
Accessibility: No accessibility information is provided on the event page.
Contact: Vocal Arts DC can be reached at info@vocalartsdc.org or 202-240-2854.