This series comes directly from my passion for classical music. I’ve been wildly enthusiastic about learning it, performing it, and teaching about it my entire life. I can experience a piece a hundred times, and each time I revisit it, hear it anew. It’s as if every time I experience it, I fall in love with the genre all over again.

One of the most meaningful parts of my life as a musician has been the conversations I’ve had with colleagues—singers, instrumentalists, composers—about what we hear in the music, as the experts who devote our lives to it. Those conversations always leave a mark on me. Behind the Notes is my way of sharing that same experience with you.

If you’ve ever felt that “lit-up” sensation when hearing a favorite symphonic theme, a beloved aria, or even one unforgettable chord, you know the joy I’m talking about. My hope is that through our time together, you’ll experience more and more of those moments—and that our conversations will make the music you already love come alive in new ways.

My own path into classical music began in middle school. I loved musical theater first, but then I stumbled across an LP of Leontyne Price singing Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs. It was the most virtuosic, thrilling vocal music I had ever heard, and it opened the door to art song, opera, and the vast world of classical voice.

At the same time, I was studying violin at a serious level, as well. I spent my teenage years immersed in chamber music and orchestral repertoire, playing Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, works by Aaron Copland, and so many others. I fell in love with the great violin concertos—Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Barber—as well as Bach’s unaccompanied violin and cello suites. These works shaped me as much as studying classical voice did, and they gave me a deep appreciation for symphonic music that still informs how I perform, listen to, and interact with it today.

As my career developed in New York City, I pursued opera and art song, but was also drawn in new directions. I worked with living composers in contemporary music—thrilling collaborations where the composer could sit in the room and shape their work with me. I was also welcomed into the early music community, singing Medieval song, Renaissance polyphony, and the vibrant chamber music of the baroque era- which ultimately captivated me and is what I specialize in performing today. Singing chamber music and masterworks from this period has become my artistic home, but my love of all classical music extends far beyond that.

In this series, I want to bring you into all of these worlds—familiar works, hidden treasures, and unexpected connections. We’ll learn about and hear music from many perspectives - how a particular triplet them ripples throughout a work (say, the opening 4 notes of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony), how theme & variations play out over the history of classical music (take Bach’s Goldberg Variations, for example) or the sheer virtuosity of works like Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin.

We’ll play listening games like comparing, contrasting, and choosing our favorite tempi to the opening of Bach’s complex St. Matthew Passion, or discuss why one conductor chooses a fast tempo for the Lacimosa from Mozart’s Requiem and another conductor interprets it slow, while we listen in real-time to the differences.

Over eight weeks, my hope is that your love of classical music will deepen, that you’ll learn to hear more layers within what you already know, and that you’ll come away feeling engaged, enriched, and fully alive.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Classical soprano Sarah Hawkey invites audiences into the heart of classical music with Behind the Notes: Classical Music from the Inside Out, a listening and lecture series that unpacks the musical complexity, stories, history, and expressive depth behind beloved works of the classical oeuvre.

Known for bringing warmth and clarity to complex ideas, she bridges the worlds of performer and listener, offering fresh insight into how classical music lives and breathes for today’s audiences. She often reminds listeners that historical performance is never really old—its vitality continues to speak with relevance today.

Sarah has performed with organizations such as the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Bard Summerscape Music Festival, and in countless performances at Carnegie Hall. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, on NPR, WNYC, and PBS Great Performances.

She also had the pleasure of being in the original cast of Ellen Reid’s p r i s m, produced by Beth Morrison Projects at LA Opera and the PROTOTYPE Festival, which was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

A specialist in baroque performance, as soprano soloist her credits include numerous cantatas by J. S. Bach as well as his St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, B Minor Mass; Vivaldi’s cantata for soprano soloist In furore iustissimae irae; and Handel’s Messiah.

Sarah is currently embarking on her first recording projects. Her debut solo album, featuring the music of 17th-century Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi, will be the first, followed by an album of English baroque works by Henry Purcell & John Dowland.

Sarah is also a champion of contemporary classical music. Her world premiere performances include Amie Morrison’s Surprisingly Poetic Moments from an Otherwise Typical Hiking Guidebook (inspired by her love of Yosemite’s high-country wilderness), Pamela Stein-Lynde’s Trespass (poetry by Sokunthary Svay about growing up as a refugee in New York City) and I will not go, and Gisle Kverndokk’s opera Upon This Handful of Earth. She also premiered numerous choral works through her tenure at the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street and many other professional choral ensembles in the US.

Through her Fairfield County voice studio located in Weston Center, Sarah has become a leading mentor for the next generation of singers, empowering young artists, emerging professionals, and adult singers.

Whether performing on stage, teaching voice, or in conversation with today’s audiences, Sarah is devoted to making classical music feel resonant, alive, and deeply human. She wants contemporary listeners to feel as connected to this music—so old, yet so vital today—as she does herself.