Handel’s Messiah
with Cappella Festiva
Saturday, December 20, 2025 | 3:00 PM
Vassar College, The Chapel
3 Chapel Rd.
Poughkeepsie, NY
Christine Howlett, guest conductor
Sara LeMesh, soprano
Holly Sorensen, alto
Lawrence Jones, tenor
Michael Hofmann, bass
Premium Reserved Seating: $68
General Open Seating: $55
Senior Open Seating (60+): $38
Students K-12 and college: $15
Children 5 and under: FREE
Free admission to Vassar students, faculty, and staff with I.D. at the door.
Our holiday tradition returns! The HVSO and Cappella Festiva join forces to present Handel's Messiah at the Vassar College Chapel. Conductor Christine Howlett will lead the orchestra and chorus in this beloved work, joined by soloists Sara LeMesh, Holly Sorensen, Lawrence Jones, and Michael Hofmann. Bring family and friends and celebrate the season with us!
This concert will be approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
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Romanian-American soprano Sara LeMesh, praised by San Francisco Classical Voice for her "lush tone, exceptional high-register clarity, dramatic breadth, and fearless command," is equally at home on the opera stage and in the concert hall. Garnering praise at international vocal competitions, Ms. LeMesh’s success includes a string of First Prize victories: at the PARTNERS for the Arts, Inc. National Opera Competition; the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall; and the Federation of the Art Song Fellowship Competition. She was also awarded Third Prize at the Zenith Opera Competition in Berlin and the Josep Palet International Singing Competition in Spain. During the 2025-26 season, Ms. LeMesh joins Annapolis Opera to perform the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Boheme Opera NJ to debut Adele in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. She also joins the Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) to perform in Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen. As a frequent regular guest artist with the group, she most recently sang Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock at the Lake George Music Festival in June 2025. In May 2026, Ms. LeMesh will debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, conducted by JoAnn Falletta. Additional highlights of 2025 include debuting the role of Contessa in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and The Rose in Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince with Opera North (Lebanon, NH). During the 2024-25 season, as a Baumgartner Studio Artist with The Florentine Opera, she performed Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Luigia in Donizetti’s Viva la mamma!, Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, and Kate Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Ms. LeMesh is a proud graduate of Rice University and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music.
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Mezzo Soprano, Holly Sorensen, is known for her rich, colorful and expressive timbre. A gifted singing actor with great versatility, Ms. Sorensen has been described as having, “a grand time!...dispensing attitude with relish and producing some impressively chilling tones.” – Opera News.
She has performed a wide variety of repertoire ranging from the more dramatic leading mezzo roles to comic Rossini and musical theater.
Some highlights include performances with Utah Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Bronx Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera , Gulfcoast Opera, and Utah Festival Opera.
Ms. Sorensen was the First Prize winner of the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition, and she recently joined Distinguished Concerts International New York as the mezzo soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall
Ms. Sorensen has a wide range of roles performed on both the operatic and concert stage, where she has been described as, “glamorous to see and hear” , and a mezzo with “earthy warmth”-Greenwich Citizen. She has performed with; American Festival Choir, Salt Lake Choral Artists, Connecticut Grand Opera, Opera in the Ozarks,Boston Classical Symphony, and the Gulfcoast Symphony. On the concert stage, Ms. Sorensen has toured Venice, Italy with Dicapo Opera, and has sung numerous oratorio works including Verdi Requiem, Bach St John and St Matthew passion, Mendelssohn Elijah, and the Yizkor Requiem. This past year She was a soloist with the Gulfcoast Symphony, singing both the Lord Nelson Mass and Bruckner’s 3rd Symphony. She most recently returned to her Alma mater, Greenwich High School, to sing in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra and Greenwich Choral Society.
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Praised by the New York Times as “an impressive tenor”, Lawrence Jones has established an active presence on the concert and operatic stages. He has sung as a soloist with New York City Opera, Utah Symphony, Boston Baroque, Naples Philharmonic, Musica Sacra, New Mexico Philharmonic, Opera Saratoga, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He has received recognition for his portrayals of Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Princeton and Aldeburgh Festivals, for which Opera News praised him for his “clean, ringing tenor.”
Recent performance highlights include Mozart’s Requiem at Lincoln Center with American Classical Orchestra; Liszt’s piano transcription of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with pianist Christopher Taylor; the tenor solos in a performance of Cantatas with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem at BachFest Leipzig; and appearances at Carnegie Hall in Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Riverside Choral Society, and the title role in Handel’s Samson with the Oratorio Society of New York.
Lawrence has been a member of many acclaimed vocal ensembles, including the chamber group Cut Circle, with whom he has toured across Europe and the U.S. He can be heard on the recordings Du Fay: The Tenor Masses, Ockeghem: The Complete Songs, and Josquin: Motets & Chansons.
Last season, Lawrence performed the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with the Grammy-nominated Clarion Choir; the Mass in B Minor with Bach Society of Saint Louis; and Handel’s Messiah at Epiphany Seattle. This season, his engagements include Mozart’s Requiem at the National Cathedral, with the Cathedral Choral Society and Washington National Opera Orchestra; Messiah with the Rhode Island Philharmonic; Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten at Jordan Hall with Chorus pro Musica; and Monteverdi’s Vespers with Voices of Ascension.
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Michael Hofmann is an opera stage director, administrator, performer, and artist based in Hudson, New York. His frequent experience with premiere works and devised performances has positioned him as a specialist in contemporary opera direction dedicated to genuine, engaging, and accessible storytelling.
His directorial debut, a semi-staged performance of Bernstein’s Candide with The Orchestra Now in February 2017, was noted as “stunning in its brilliance, humor, and overall gestalt... an astonishing accomplishment” (Millbrook Independent). Hofmann has since directed or stage-managed performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School, University of Connecticut, Fresh Squeezed Opera, the Bard Music Festival, and the Bard College Music Program, among others. Most recently, he directed Hudson Hall’s November 2024 production of Anthony Knight’s No Cowards in Our Band, a musical drama based on the life of Frederick Douglass, and served as assistant director to R.B. Schlather for his spring 2025 production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare, also at Hudson Hall.
As a baritone, he has sung regularly with several New York-based choral ensembles and small opera companies, and currently is a staff singer at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran in Poughkeepsie. In January 2026 he will appear in the role of John Raymond for Vassar College’s production of Computing Venus by Timothy Takach. Since fall 2024 he has been the music director and conductor of the Hudson Community Choir.
In addition to his professional work as the Audience & Member Services Manager at the Fisher Center at Bard, he serves on the Board of Trustees for the Hudson Festival Orchestra (President), Clarion Concerts (Treasurer), the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society (Treasurer), and Columbia Opportunities, Inc. He was an honoree in the inaugural Columbia County “40 Under 40” Awards in October 2022. Hofmann holds a B.A. in music from Vassar College and an M.M. in voice from Bard College Conservatory.
This concert is graciously sponsored in part by the Bruderhof Community
Parking
Free street parking is available on Raymond Ave and a short walk away in the large South Parking Lot near Skinner Hall. Accessible parking is located on Main Gate Drive and directly in front of Main Building.
Accessibility
There is ramped access to the left of the stairs into the main vestibule of the Chapel and first floor only. Currently, there are no accessible restrooms in the Chapel. The closest accessible restrooms are located in Taylor Hall on the second floor via the elevator under the main gate entrance during regular business hours. When Taylor Hall is not open the accessible restrooms in Main Building near the accessible entrance are available. (There are restrooms downstairs in the Chapel for those who are able to use stairs.)
Accessible parking is located on Main Gate Drive and directly in front of Main Building. Assistive listening devices are available with advance notification. For all accommodation requests, please contact Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370 for events scheduled in the Chapel.