Princeton Singers Pandemic Songbook

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.

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!