Our concert of art song offers poetry and music, including songs by Brahms, Schubert, Ravel, Quilter, among others. These songs highlight the importance and symbolism of birds from the Romantic period until today. The music will be accompanied by readings from naturalists which bring to life our wonderment at the world of birds.
Musicians:
Soprano
Mary Hubbell
Soprano Mary Hubbell enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to contemporary music. She has appeared with a variety of ensembles in both Europe and North America, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Louis Andriessen’s Tao), Orkest Vereniging Musica (Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3), Beaufort Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Exsultate jubilate), South Hadley Chorale (Haydn’s Creation), and the Williams College Wind Ensemble (Jayce Ogren’s Evening). An accomplished recitalist, Dr. Hubbell has performed art song and chamber music in a variety of venues, including the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Dr. Hubbell maintains a strong commitment to new music and has appeared as a soloist with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Composer’s Voice Series, and counter)induction. In the Netherlands, she performed at the contemporary music venues of the Young Composer’s Festival in Apeldoorn and the Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam. Her album of new art song, All these little things, featuring music by Alice Jones, Sarah Rimkus, Ronald Perera, and Gregory W. Brown was released in March 2026 on Navona Records. Also in March, she was the featured guest performer at the Electronic Music Midwest Festival.
Dr. Hubbell earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, as well as degrees from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Boston College.
Pianist
Sarah Puckett
Sarah Puckett is a musician and educator based in Greenfield, MA with an extensive background in collaborative piano. She has appeared in numerous recitals at the University of Connecticut and the Hartt School where, from 2015-19, she was staff accompanist and vocal coach. She has been invited to play for and music direct several collegiate, community, and professional opera and musical theater productions (including Hartford Opera Theater's A Bridge for Three, UConn Opera's She Loves Me, and Ghost Light Theater’s Lizzie, a musical about Lizzie Borden with a four-part, all-female cast and six-piece rock band) and to serve as faculty/coach at various young artist programs (including San Miguel Institute of Bel Canto in Mexico, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and BU’s Tanglewood Institute). She has organized and performed on benefit recitals to support Syrian refugees and hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico, as well as themed recitals including “Lifting the Veil” with Elizabeth Hayes, mezzo-soprano, and “Black Music in Motion” with Kareem Mack, baritone. Praising her performance as soloist in Carnival of the Animals with the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra and Virginia Ballet, the Virginia Gazette wrote: “Sarah Puckett…lent dimension and color to the characterizations” and “ably assisted the orchestra.” Honors include a grant to premiere new compositions in Pavia, Italy, at the soundSCAPE festival, and 2nd prize in the 2012 Conrad Art Song competition with Courtney Wallace, soprano.
Sarah maintains a private studio, and her approach to teaching and playing is informed by a variety of embodied disciplines including Alexander Technique, yoga, and qigong.
New folk song adaptation and readings by
Greg Brown
Songs:
French
Le colibri – Chausson
Le rossignol des lilas – Hahn
Villanelle des petits canards - Chabrier
German
Liebe Schwalbe – Zemlinsky
Schwanenlied – F. Mendelssohn
Lerchengesang – Brahms
English
Song of the blackbird –Quilter
The Little Pretty Nightingale – Ned Rorem
Wild Swans – H. Leslie Adams
There will come soft rains - Perera
Sweet Suffolk Owl - Hundley