Stephen Sands

Downtown Voices with Andrea Bocelli at Madison Square Garden
2019-12-18 19:30 - 22:00 UTC | 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.

JS Bach's St. Matthew Passion
2019-04-07 13:30 - 16:30 | St. Mary’s Abbey, 230 Mendham Rd, Morristown, New Jersey, 07960, United States
Tenor Aria Soloist
One special performance only! With double baroque orchestra The Sebastians, professional soloists, supertitles, and Dann Coakwell, Evangelist.

Diderot String Quartet
2019-03-24 17:00 - 19:00 | New York
Diderot String Quartet, March 24, 2019 – Artistic Director and Host
Four young American musicians from Oberlin and the Julliard School who teamed up five
years ago and have quickly made themselves an international reputation.

Camina Burana - Princeton Pro Musica
2019-03-17 16:00 - 18:00 | Richardson Auditorium, 68 Nassau St, Princeton, NJ, 08544, United States
Tenor soloist for the Swan movement.
4 p.m. Sunday, March 17, 2019 Orff’s Carmina Burana
Guest artists professional dancers of Roxey Ballet Company and singers of Princeton GirlChoir
Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University
Choreographer Mark Roxey will complete choreography for all movements of this magnificent work that was sold-out two years ago! It’s a celebration of poetry, song, and dance! We are thrilled to bring it back for you and to have singers of the Princeton GirlChoir as guest artists. Learn more about Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

King's Singers
2019-02-23 19:00 - 21:00 | St. Mary’s Abbey, 230 Mendham Rd, Morristown, New Jersey, 07960, United States
King Singers with the Somerset Hills Chorus, February 23, 2019
Fifty years after its foundation in Cambridge, England, the King’s Singers is still one of the
best known all-male a cappella groups in the world.

Michael Fabiano in Recital
2019-01-04 19:00 - 22:00 | New York
Michael Fabiano’s breakthrough year was 2014 when he won both the Beverly Sills Artist Award and the Richard Tucker Award – no other singer has ever won both those awards in the same season. Four years later, he is one of the world’s leading tenors, in demand at opera houses all over the world – from Sydney, Australia to Zurich, Switzerland, from Houston and San Francisco to Chicago and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which is his “home house”. A Jersey boy, born in Morris County, Michael prizes the ability to stay close to his roots, which is one of the considerations that made him found ArtSmart, a non-profit organization that provides free voice lessons to students in public schools in under-served neighborhoods throughout the country. Started in Newark, N.J. in 2016, it is now also operating in San Francisco and Philadelphia. ArtSmart will be a beneficiary of Michael’s recital for Music in the Somerset Hillson Friday, January 4 in Pottersville.

Community Carol Sing
2018-12-23 15:00 - 17:00, 2018-12-22 19:30 - 21:30 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
December 22, 2018 at 7:30pm
December 23, 2018 at 3pm
St. Paul’s Chapel
Ticketed (Tickets go on sale soon)
Downtown Voices, NOVUS NY, and Trinity Youth Chorus; Stephen Sands, conductor

Come sing along with Trinity ensembles in this concert that has quickly become a holiday tradition and highlight of the season. Hear Downtown Voices, NOVUS NY, and the Trinity Youth Chorus perform holiday favorites, and sing along to carols arranged by Julian Wachner, Trinity’s director of music and arts, from his album The Snow Lay on the Ground.

Please note that due to the rejuvenation of Trinity Church, this year’s performances will take place at St. Paul’s Chapel at Broadway and Fulton Street with floor and balcony seating. Some seats are limited view or monitor-only view; ticket prices reflect this. Click here to view the seating chart for St. Paul’s Chapel.

TENET Messiah
2018-12-19 - 2018-12-20 | New York
Tenor in a chamber music version of Messiah. Performances at 7:30pm
For the first time ever, TENET Vocal Artists in collaboration with the Sebastians will share our unique take on this beloved, time-honored masterwork. This performance will be a rarity in that it will not be conducted, and with a choir of only 12 singers, this event is not to be missed!

Handel and Lang at the Met Museum
2018-12-15 19:00 - 21:00 | metropolitain museum of art
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra
Julian Wachner, conductor
The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street—”blazing with vigour…a choir from heaven” (The Times, London)— returns to The Met with a stunning double bill. Dixit Dominus(The Lord Said), Handel’s powerful setting of Psalm 110, is paired with David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Little Match Girl Passion, a “tender and mysterious” (New York Times) contemporary choral work based on the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

Messiah - Trinity Wall Street
2018-12-14 - 2018-12-17 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
Tenor soloist and choir member.
12/13, 14 & 17 at 7:30pm
12/16 at 3pm

Anthracite Fields at Carnegie Hall
2018-12-01 21:00 - 22:30 | Zankel Hall at Carnegie
Tenor in the Trinity Choir
The music compels without overstatement,” wrote the Los Angeles Times of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Anthracite Fields. “This is a major, profound work.” Inspired by miners living in the Pennsylvania coal region, Wolfe uses oral histories, interviews with miners and their families, speeches, children’s rhymes, and other sources to create a powerful cantata that speaks of the American worker’s experience. With music that is at times elegiac, hard-driving, and tender, Wolfe creates a soundscape that is deeply moving.

Voices Over Tallinn: Honoring 100 Years of the Estonian Nation
2018-11-30 20:00 - 22:00 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
Voices Over Tallinn: Honoring 100 Years of the Estonian Nation
November 30, 2018 at 8pm
St. Paul’s Chapel
Free
Downtown Voices; Stephen Sands, conductor
Choral music is woven into the fabric of Estonia—in a nation of 1.3 million people, there are more than 700 official choirs, and during the country’s quest for independence, choral tradition provided the backbone of the resistance. Voices Over Tallinn celebrates the music of Estonia—and the 100th anniversary of its independence—and pays homage to some of the most influential Estonian composers, including Tormis and Pärt. In Estonia, choral classics are as popular as modern “pop” music, and after you hear these performances firsthand, you’ll understand why.
Downtown Voices at St. Paul’s Chapel

Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil
2018-11-16 19:30 - 20:30 | St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Streets, New York, New York, United States
For the second concert of the “Now comes the setting sun” series, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street presents Rachmaninoff’s Vespers or All-Night Vigil, a hauntingly beautiful cornerstone of choral repertoire.
Sergei Rachmaninoff Vespers

Antioch at Washington and Lee
2018-11-10 20:00 - 21:30 | Wilson Hall Auditorium, 800 S Main St., MSC 3501, Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States
Founding tenor and Executive Director
November 10, 2018 at 8:00 p.m.
Wilson Hall/Concert Hall
Celebrating its 21st season, the Antioch Chamber Ensemble has become one of the most highly regarded professional choral ensembles in America. Antioch made its debut at Washington and Lee University in 2017, presenting a fabulous program of works by twentieth and twenty-first century composers. For its return engagement, the Ensemble will perform works by Robert Kyr, Morten Lauridsen, and Leo Sowerby.
Tickets are required:
Adult $20
Senior $15
W&L Faculty and Staff $10
W&L Student/Student $5
Tickets are forfeited if not seated 5 MINUTES prior to curtain time.

Bernstein at 100
2018-11-04 17:00 - 19:00 | Hauser Auditorium at Pingry School, 131 Martinsville Rd, Basking Ridge, NJ, 07920, United States
Artistic Director and Conductor
An all-Bernstein program featuring the Somerset Hills Chorus, New Jersey Youth Chorus Young Men’s Ensembles and The Bernards High School Madrigal Ensemble
A joyful celebration of the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth.

Antioch - In Praise of Music
2018-10-19 19:30 - 21:00 | St. Ignatius of Antioch, 552 West End Ave, New York, NY, 10024, United States
Antioch is thrilled to be collaborating with legendary choral composer Robert Kyr for this concert that features his works along with complimentary English madrigals and motets. In November, Antioch will record a CD of the works of Robert Kyr at Washington and Lee University. The works of Dr. Kyr that are on this program will be on this CD. Come enjoy an evening of transformative choral music and meet Robert Kyr and the artists after the concert!
Composers include: Bennett, Weelkes, Morely, Kyr, Lauridsen, Sowerby, Whitacre and Brown
TICKETS: https://www.showclix.com/event/antiochkyr

THE MILE-LONG OPERA, A BIOGRAPHY OF 7 O’CLOCK
2018-10-03 - 2018-10-07 | The High Line, New York, NY
Music Director of Downtown Voices
http://milelongopera.com/

For five consecutive nights, October 3-7, 2018, 1,000 singers from across New York will come together on the High Line for the first-ever performances of The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock – an ambitious, collective, free choral work that shares personal stories from hundreds of New Yorkers about life in our rapidly changing city.
The stories sung in the The Mile-Long Opera have been gathered through first-hand interviews with residents throughout the city, asking what 7:00 pm means to them. They reveal a vast spectrum of feelings and perspectives—and, by extension, represent the diverse character of the city’s inhabitants and their individual experiences.

Set in one of the most dynamic public spaces for observing New York City and its multitude of intersecting lives, The Mile-Long Opera invites audiences to move in and out of groups of singers as they walk along the High Line.
At the heart of the work is an extensive community engagement initiative that activates non-profit cultural organizations across all five boroughs. Seven Anchor Partners serve as a hub for engaging local audiences—from recruiting singers, to holding and welcoming the public for open rehearsals and workshops, to hosting social and cultural events in the lead-up to the October performances.

Bel Canto - Fire and Grace
2018-09-23 17:00 - 20:00 | New York
Bel Canto featuring Fire and Grace, September 23, 2018
Virtuoso violin meets Celtic guitar—Edwin Huizinga and William Coulter present an
astonishing exploration of the fire and grace which connect the elements of classical, folk and
contemporary music.

Summer Voices
2018-07-30 - 2018-08-02 | Somerset Hills Performing Arts Center at Bernards High, 25 Olcott Ave, Bernardsville, NJ, 07924, United States
Artistic Director and Teacher:
Sing like you’ve never sung before when you join the popular Summer Voices! Now in its seventh year, Summer Voices provides a vocal music camp experience unlike any other, where participants will join in solo singing and voice training, ensemble-based music-making, music theory and aural skills, and special interest sessions which enhance every student’s musicality in a fun and safe summer camp environment.
Within the camp, students will be placed into age-based, developmentally-appropriate groups to give students the most optimal musical experience. In these groups, each singer will develop their love of music, further develop vocal skills, and increase musical knowledge and understanding.
