Whether you’ve been attending concerts for decades or simply love the beauty of classical music, Behind the Notes invites you into a deeper listening experience.
Led by acclaimed singer Sarah Hawkey, this 8-week series will take you inside the heart of great music: the composers, the melodies, the meanings behind the music. You’ll walk into your next concert or choral performance with fresh ears — and a renewed love for the music you already enjoy.

This series comes directly from my personal love of classical music. I never stop chasing the thrill that rushes through me when I hear a piece I love. Maybe it’s a melody while I’m driving, a chord progression as I’m cooking dinner, or an aria I’ve known for years. Each time I revisit these timeless works, I hear them anew; each time I discover something unfamiliar, and 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, and how it moves us. Those conversations always leave a mark on me. Even when I return to a movement I’ve heard fifty times, I find myself listening with fresh ears and feeling it more deeply, even on a physical, somatic level. 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. I still remember sitting wide-eyed with my best friend, listening in awe and realizing we had to learn how to make sounds like that, too. It was the most virtuosic, thrilling 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 especially the vibrant chamber music of the baroque era- which ultimately captivated me and is what I specialize in performing today. Singing chamber music, masterworks, and rare gems from this period has become my true artistic home, but my love of all classical music extends far beyond that time period, as I’m sure yours does.

In this series, I want to bring you into all of these worlds—familiar works, hidden treasures, and unexpected connections. We might hear John Williams alongside Holst’s The Planets (my all-time favorite symphonic work) or compare the speech-like musicality of Stephen Sondheim to the emotional high-Verismo intensity of Puccini’s La Bohème. These connections make classical music feel alive, immediate, and full of surprises.

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 or Pagannini’s 24 Caprices.

We’ll play the listening games I played with my baroque specialist friends over a glass of wine at parties after our concerts at Trinity Wall Street, like comparing, contrasting, and choosing our favorite tempi to the opening of Bach’s complex St. Matthew Passion, or why one conductor chooses a fast tempo for the Lacimosa from Mozart’s Requiem and another conductor interprets it slow, and why.

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 truly alive.