Stephen Sands

Mozart on the Meadow
2021-09-25 | New York
The brilliant young musicians of Min Kwon’s Center for Musical Excellence join with Stephen Sands, opera stars and the Somerset Hills Chorus in our annual autumn festival of music in Bedminster, NJ.

Essex Horse Trials Concert
2021-07-16 | Moorland Farm, Far Hills, NJ
On the eve of the Essex horse trials, Stephen Sands conducts an all star Broadway orchestra led by Jonathan Dinklage, the concert master of Hamilton

Alexie Tartakovsky, virtuoso pianist - MISH Virtual Series
2021-04-17 20:00 - 21:00 UTC | St. John on the Mountain, 379 Mount Harmony Rd, Bernardsville, New Jersey, 07924, United States
Piano Virtuosos: Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. Part of the MISH Virtual Series

Kristin Sands, soprano, Stephen Sands, tenor and Dan Foster, Keyboards - MISH Virtual Series
2021-03-13 20:00 - 21:00 | St. John on the Mountain, 379 Mount Harmony Rd, Bernardsville, New Jersey, 07924, United States
The Art of Song. Part of the MISH Virtual Series

Brian Harlow and Christopher Jennings, keyboards - MISH Virtual Series
2021-02-13 20:00 - 21:00 | St. John on the Mountain, 379 Mount Harmony Rd, Bernardsville, New Jersey, 07924, United States
A Fancy For Two To Play: Music for four hands and four feet featuring the pipe organs and pianos at St. John on the Mountain. Part of the MISH Virtual Seires

Les Delices: Arus Nova: Annus Novus - New Art: New Year - MISH Virtual Series
2021-01-09 20:00 - 21:00 | St. John on the Mountain, 379 Mount Harmony Rd, Bernardsville, New Jersey, 07924, United States
Three members of Les Delices delight us by both singing and playing medieval music to welcome the New Year. Part of the MISH Virtual Series

Karim Sulayman and Yi Heng Yang - MISH Virtual Series
2020-12-05 20:00 - 21:00 | St. John on the Mountain, 379 Mount Harmony Rd, Bernardsville, New Jersey, 07924, United States
An intimate fireside Schubertiade: Where Only Stars Can Hear Us
Part of the MISH Virtual Series

Merynda Adams and John Romeri - MISH Virtual Series
2020-11-14 20:00 - 21:00 | St. John on the Mountain, 379 Mount Harmony Rd, Bernardsville, New Jersey, 07924, United States
Transcendent harp and flute music inspiring the imagination and uplifting the soul. Part of the Music in the Somerset Hills Virtual Concert Series.

Mozart on the Meadow
2020-10-17 16:00 - 21:00 | New York
A fall extravaganza of music, art and food in the great outdoors celebrating the 10th anniversary season of Music in the Somerset Hills

The Somerset Hills Outdoor Music Festival
2020-06-19 - 2020-06-21 | New York
Three days of concerts, large and small, to celebrate the start of Summer in the Somerset Hills.

TENET and Ensemble Caprice
2020-05-10 17:00 - 19:00 | New York
Les Plaisirs de Versailles was written by Marc-Antoine Charpentier as a divertissement for King Louis XIV and the French court in 1682. It is an extremely silly story (the librettist is wisely anonymous), but nonetheless entirely recognizable to 21st-century audiences. Two ladies – Music and Conversation – are having a ding-dong argument because Music has been interrupted by Conversation’s babbling (sounds familiar?). Various people try to appease the two ladies, and the quarrel is eventually settled over chocolate! TENET is a group of immensely talented singers, directed by Jolle Greenleaf, who are particularly renowned for their innovative programming and virtuosic singing. In this performance, they will be accompanied by the magnificent Ensemble Caprice, a group of musicians based in Montreal whose mission is “to put new life into baroque music” – luxury casting for the rediscovery of a musical pearl from the Baroque World.

Beethoven at 250
2020-04-25 19:30 - 21:30 | New York
If you visit Symphony Hall in Boston you cannot fail to notice that above the main stage is a trim intended to contain a number of plaques, each dedicated to the memory of a great composer. When the hall was opened in 1900 only the central plaque had a name on it – Beethoven’s – because he was the only composer whose popularity the founders were certain would endure. To this day, the other plaques remain blank. Our tribute to music’s greatest genius on Saturday, April 25 features the Central Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Somerset Hills Chorus, and is built around what is almost certainly Beethoven’s most famous work – the Ninth (or Choral) Symphony, which ends with Schiller’s Ode to Joy, a passionate salute to the Age of Enlightenment. Beethoven, virtually stone deaf, conducted the first performance, though a second conductor, discreetly placed, was the one from whom the singers and musicians took their time. The two female soloists (18-year-old Henrietta Sontag and 20-year-old Caroline Unger) would both go on to have great careers.

Downtown Voices and Heritage Chorale
2020-04-25 - 2020-04-26 | New York
Stephen Sands and Donald Dumpson team up with their choirs from NYC and Philadelphia for a concert in each city celebrating the diversity of song. Details TBA

Immortal Bach - Kinnara Vocal Ensemble
2020-03-21 19:30 - 21:30 | Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church, 1 East Oak Street, Basking Ridge, NJ, 07920
Kinnara is widely recognized as one of the nation’s most talented vocal ensembles. Directed by J.D Burnett of the University of Georgia (formerly conductor of the New Jersey Youth Chorus and the Masterworks Chorus of New Jersey), Kinnara brings together many of the finest young professional singers in the South and the East. On Saturday, March 21, making their first visit to the Somerset Hills, they will present a program of music that either inspired Bach or was inspired by Bach – music by Monteverdi, Schutz, J.S. Bach himself, Brahms and Distler …. amongst others.

Antioch Residency at Princeton University
2020-02-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Richardson Auditorium, 68 Nassau St, Princeton, NJ, 08544, United States
Executive Director and Founding Tenor of Antioch

Antioch teams up with student composers and the Princeton University Chamber Singers to present a concert at Richardson Auditorium.

Downtown Voices - Beethoven Mass in C
2020-02-09 15:00 - 16:30 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
Downtown Voices; NOVUS NY; Stephen Sands, conductor
Brahms – Geistliches Lied
Beethoven – Mass in C
In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, Downtown Voices and NOVUS NY perform his tranquil yet dramatic Mass in C in addition to Brahms’ earliest accompanied choral works, Geistliches Lied.

Dashon Burton in Concert
2020-01-04 19:30 - 21:00 | New York
Last time Dashon Burton performed with MISH was in 2012 when he was a soloist in our very first performance of Messiah. As a permanent memorial of that epic performance, he left behind the YouTube recording of “The trumpet shall sound” – still MISH’s most-viewed video. He returns to the Somerset Hills on Saturday, January 4 as a front-rank international singer. His distinctive bass-baritone voice, described by the Wall Street Journal as an “enormous, thrilling voice seemingly capable …… [of] raising the dead”, is in demand in opera houses and concert halls everywhere. His recordings include Songs of Struggle and Redemption: We Shall Overcome, described by the New York Times as “profoundly moving ….. a beautiful and loveable disc”. He returns to MISH immediately following his Christmas performances of Messiah with the New York Philharmonic.

Trinity Wall Street Messiah
2019-12-20 - 2019-12-22 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
December 20 and 21 at 7:30pm. December 22 at 3pm.
Messiah and Trinity have a long history—Trinity presented one of the first performances in North America in 1770, and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra are still widely regarded as some of the greatest interpreters of the work. The New York Times described Trinity’s presentation as “perhaps the essential New York ‘Messiah.’ With the church’s choir and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Mr. Wachner provides gritty, gutsy, edge-of-the-seat performances.”
Ticketed
For the full Messiah schedule visit trinitywallstreet.org/messiah

Downtown Voices with Andrea Bocelli at Madison Square Garden
2019-12-19 19:30 - 22:00, 2019-12-18 19:30 - 22:00 | Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
For the sixth year in a row, legendary tenor Andrea Bocelli will take the stage at Madison Square Garden. The two back-to-back performances will take place on Wednesday, December 18 and Thursday, December 19, 2019.
As one of the most recognizable and romantic voices in the world, Andrea Bocelli has been thrilling audiences for over 20 years, and has sold 90 million records worldwide. In 2016, he was nominated for three Latin Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and received a 2017 Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for “Cinema.” Bocelli will perform his unmatched repertoire of soaring arias, famed love songs, and music from his newest release, and Billboard chart-topping record, ‘Si’.”
This year, Bocelli’s tour and the Andrea Bocelli Foundation are proud to partner with PLUS1, an innovative platform that aims to drive social change and catalyze cultural momentum toward equity, dignity, and access for all. For every ticket sold, $1 will go to support the “Voices of Haiti” Project, giving children from the most vulnerable areas of Port Au Prince the chance to escape violence and poverty and express their true potential.

Trinity Wall Street Lessons and Carols
2019-12-15 15:00 - 16:30 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
Downtown Voices; St. Paul’s Chapel Choir; Trinity Youth Chorus; Stephen Sands and Melissa Attebury, conductors
A cherished holiday tradition for congregations around the world, the service of Lessons and Carols tells the Christmas story through readings and musical illuminations.

Messiah in Madison - Music in the Somerset Hills
2019-12-07 19:30 - 22:00 | Dorothy Young Center for the Arts, Lancaster Rd, Madison, New Jersey, United States
Everyone knows that George Frideric Handel wrote the music for Messiah, but not many people know who wrote the libretto. Charles Jennens was the author – a wealthy patron of Handel’s, whose financial support had played a part in the staging of almost every Handel opera and oratorio since 1725. Now, in 1741, Jennens sent him what appeared to be (and what, indeed, was) a “ready-made” libretto for a new oratorio – “a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in
Christian thought and belief.” So perfect was the libretto that Handel composed his score without making any significant change in the words. First heard in Dublin in 1742, it was repeated a year later in London (the occasion when King George II is believed to have stood during the Hallelujah Chorus – a custom still preserved at MISH performances).
On December 6 (at Drew University Concert Hall) and December 7 (at Presbyterian Church in Morristown) Stephen Sands conducts the Somerset Hills Chorus and the Drew University Choir, with professional soloists.
Messiah for Music in the Somerset Hills

Messiah in Morristown - Music in the Somerset Hills
2019-12-06 19:30 - 22:00 | Morristown Presbyterian Church, 57 E Park Place, Morristown, NJ, United States
Messiah for Music in the Somerset Hills
Everyone knows that George Frideric Handel wrote the music for Messiah, but not many people know who wrote the libretto. Charles Jennens was the author – a wealthy patron of Handel’s, whose financial support had played a part in the staging of almost every Handel opera and oratorio since 1725. Now, in 1741, Jennens sent him what appeared to be (and what, indeed, was) a “ready-made” libretto for a new oratorio – “a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in
Christian thought and belief.” So perfect was the libretto that Handel composed his score without making any significant change in the words. First heard in Dublin in 1742, it was repeated a year later in London (the occasion when King George II is believed to have stood during the Hallelujah Chorus – a custom still preserved at MISH performances).
On December 6 (at Drew University Concert Hall) and December 7 (at Presbyterian Church in Morristown) Stephen Sands conducts the Somerset Hills Chorus and the Drew University Choir, with professional soloists.

Downtown Voices - Part Passio
2019-11-15 19:30 - 21:00 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
Downtown Voices; The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; NOVUS NY; Stephen Sands and Melissa Attebury, conductors
Francis Poulenc – Figure Humaine
Arvo Pärt – Passio
This concert features iconic works of two of the most compelling and influential composers of the 20th century: Arvo Pärt and Francis Poulenc. The monumental work Passio by Arvo Pärt is a meditative setting of texts from the Passion according to St. John and is considered as the apotheosis of his writing. Poulenc’s masterpiece Figure Humaine, written in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1943 to poems of Paul Éluard, is perhaps the ultimate Poulenc musical statement. Dedicated to Pablo Picasso, in what is known as Poulenc’s most challenging choral work, the piece embodies great suffering and oppression, juxtaposed with the hope for freedom from tyranny.

From the Top - LIVE
2019-11-02 19:30 - 21:30 | Morristown Presbyterian Church, 57 E Park Place, Morristown, NJ, United States
From the Top presents the amazing performances and captivating personalities of extraordinary young classical musicians from across the country.
The 90-minute show, recorded for future broadcast, features virtuosic performances and entertaining interviews with young soloists and/or ensembles. Young performers share their passion for classical music, and speak about their non-musical lives.
Broadcast on more than 220 stations nationwide to an audience of more than half a million listeners, From the Top is considered the most popular weekly one-hour music program on public radio.
A celebration of great music and great kids, From the Top appeals to diverse audiences, but is especially recommended for ages 7 and up.

“An entertaining, accessible and often inspirational mix of outstanding musical performances, informal interviews, skits and games, the show is a celebration of extraordinary musicians who happen to be teenagers leading fairly normal lives.” The Boston Globe
“From the Top gives young musicians the stage but lets them act their age. It’s serious music but classically kids.” The New York Times

“From the Top gives promising teenagers the chance to show their musical chops while demonstrating that they’re funny and cool.” The Washington Post

Carmel Bach Festival
2019-07-13 - 2019-07-27 | New York
Tenor and soloist in the professional chorale. Performances from July 13-27. Performance schedule is on the website:
https://bachfestival.org/calendar/

Appalachian Spring
2019-06-22 20:00 - 22:00 | The Lake Club, Lake Road, Far Hills, New Jersey, United States
Conductor and Artistic Director – The Lake Club in Far Hills, NJ
Appalachian Spring may be the most instantly recognizable work in all American music. Aaron Copland composed it in 1943-44 in response to a commission from Martha Graham and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge for “a ballet on an American theme”. It was an instant success when Martha Graham and her troupe first danced it at the Library of Congress in October 1944. The following year, the conductor Artur Rodzinski asked Copland to rearrange the score as an orchestral suite, and Copland did this in the spring of 1945 while staying at a cottage on the Claremont estate on Bernardsville Mountain. The original 13-instrument ballet score now became a full orchestral score, somewhat shorter than the ballet, and that is how it will be heard when Music in the Somerset Hills brings it home to the Somerset Hills on Saturday, June 22. This concert, which will also feature works by Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber (Copland’s longtime friends and companions at Claremont), is dedicated to a singular moment when the originality and creativity of American music reached what many might say was its zenith …… on Bernardsville Mountain in the spring of 1945.

Carmina Burana
2019-06-15 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
Downtown Voices; NOVUS NY; Stephen Sands, conductor
Free
At their final concert of the season, Downtown Voices and NOVUS NY perform two folklore-inspired works written in 1937: Orff’s epic Carmina Burana and Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Carmina Burana is based on 24 poems from the medieval collection of the same title, with themes that follow the fickleness of fortune and joy as spring returns. Inspired by Hungarian folksong rhythms, Bartok’s sonata has become a mainstay of piano and percussion repertoire.

Downtown Voices - Spring Concerts
2019-04-27 - 2019-04-28 | New York
Saturday, April 27 – 7:30pm- Morristown Presbyterian Church
Sunday, April 28 – 3pm – St. Paul’s Chapel, NYC

Stephen Sands, founder and Artistic Director of Music in the Somerset Hills, is proud to present this New York choir, which he also directs, in its first visit to the Somerset Hills. Downtown Voices is a semi-professional choir made up of volunteer singers from the New York metro area and members of the Grammy®-nominated choir of Trinity Wall Street. Founded in 2016, the group has specialized in ambitious programming of works by composers as diverse as Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Philip Glass, Benjamin Britten – and a major commission to Zachary Wadsworth. Their concert on Saturday, April 27 is called Songs for the Singer – Dvorak, Britten and Janacek, and is based on the idea that “it is a treasure to hear what is a pleasure to sing”.

JS Bach's B Minor Mass
2019-04-13 20:00 - 22:00 | Bardavon, 35 Market St, Poughkeepsie, NY, 12601, United States
Tenor soloist
Bach’s final work, composed at different times in his life, transcends the inconsistency of its origins, leaving a statement on the nature of sacred music as a bequest to the future.
Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
w/ Vassar College Choir & Cappella Festiva, Christine Howlett, Artistic Director
Ticket holders are invited to a pre-concert talk by Maestro Fleischer with soloists and/or members of the orchestra one hour prior to the concert.
