During the pandemic, when we couldn’t perform regularly, I wrote art songs for members of the Princeton Singers which form The Princeton Singers Pandemic Songbook. The text settings include Dickinson, Shakespeare, Rilke and contemporary poets. The accompaniment of each song varies – harp, English Horn, vibraphone, percussion toys, accordion, etc. Each song was recorded in 2021.
Birds of Paradise
New work commissioned by Chanticleer premiered at the Voces 8 Festival of Voices and reprised by Chanticleer on tour, most recently (Jan. 30, 2022) as part of a streamed concert with Cantus.
Lehigh Choir, Glee Club and Dolce perform at Alice Tully Hall
January 12, 2019, Lehigh University Choir, Glee Club under the direction of Steven Sametz and Dolce (Sun Min Lee, Director) performed as guests of the NY University Men’s Glee Club, along with the Yale GLee Club. Lehigh performed works of Reena Esmail, Jake Runestad, Steven Sametz, Carlos Chavez, Irving Berlin and more
Sametz heading panels at American Choral Directors Association national conference in Minneapolis, March 8-12, 2017
In his role as advisor on composition to the American Choral Directors Association, Sametz has designed a series of panels devoted to composition of choral music, including masterclasses for composers participating in the Brock Student Composition Competition, Canadian and American choral music, the Composing Conductor, and Business Models for Composers in the Age of the Internet. Guest speakers include Dale Warland, Libby Larsen and Barlow Bradford.
Sametz leads The Princeton Singers in concerts in China
In September, 2016, The Princeton Singers headlined the Fourth International Choral Festival in Shenzhen, China. At the invitation of the Chinese government, Sametz led masterclasses for over 100 Chinese choral directors and conducted The Princeton Singers in a concert of American works at the state-of-the-art Shenzhen concert hall.
While in China, The Princeton Singers also took part in a flash mob, which included a rousing rendition of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth, sung in Chinese and accompanied by fifty Chinese dulcimers. Memories were made!
A Child’s Requiem CD scheduled for release in March of 2017
The recording of “A Child’s Requiem” featuring The Princeton Singers, Princeton Girlchoir, soprano Tami Petti, treble Casey Durso, and tenor David Vanderwal under the direction of Steven Sametz will be available through princetonsingers.org in March.
The work honors those slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
Video of “A Child’s Requiem”
A video of “A Child’s Requiem” from the performance by Lehigh University Choral Arts on November 7, 2015 is now available. Videography by Steven Lichak adds a new dimension to the work, displaying children’s drawings and writings as part of the presentation.
A Child’s Requiem to be performed by the Metropolitan Chorale in Boston
A Child’s Requiem to be performed by the Metropolitan Chorale in Boston, under the direction of Lisa Graham, May 12, 2017. For ticket information, check http://www.metropolitanchorale.org/season.
Lehigh University Choral Arts to tour to Spain, May 2017
Steven Sametz will be directing eighty members of Lehigh University Choral Arts on tour in Grenada, Cordoba, Sevilla and Malaga, May 22-June 1.
Princeton Singers to perform Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil
The Princeton Singers will perform Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, in concert at Trinity Church Princeton on April 29th under the direction of Steven Sametz.