This weekend, Sophia Stark will be singing with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra (HSO) in a concert featuring the music from Disney musicals.
I believe the last post I wrote about Sophia was when she did a fundraiser for the HSO back in 2022 (“Sophia’s Night”) on her way to study at the Manhattan School of Music.
The Sheraton Starlight Festival concludes with a spectacular Disney finale! Highlighting iconic songs with special guest singers and orchestra, Hawaiʻi’s own Sarah Hicks returns to conduct your HSO in unforgettable favorites from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, Moana, and so much more! Disney lovers get your tickets and join us under the stars for a summer night no-problem philosophy!
Vocalist Sophia Stark is the daughter of HSO’s own associate principal violinist Darel Stark. You might recognizer her as the winner of Miss Hawaii Volunteer Teen in 2021. She also competed in Miss Teen Volunteer American Pageant in 2022, and cooked for Chef Gordon Ramsey on season 6 of “MasterChef Junior” in 2018.
But hey … I knew Sophia when she was but a twinkle in her parents’ eyes, Georgine and Darel Stark, in fact, I knew Georgine and Darel before they were even married! So it is with unspeakable joy that we have seen her grow up (along with equally-talented brother, Raphael!)
I found this video online of Sophia last year as a freshman singing in a workshop at Manhattan School of Music:
Wow!
In early June, Sophia’s mom, Georgine, texted me to let me know Sophia was coming home to Hawaii for the summer.
Since then, Sophia has had a few organ lessons with me and what was amazing, was that her organ playing was “intact” — the same as it was before our last lesson, which was right at the beginning of the pandemic, four years ago! It was as though no time at all had passed! I don’t have a recent picture of Sophia at the organ, but here’s one from the past:
Since coming home from England about ten days ago, I have tried to recuperate from Covid as well as jet lag, all the while trying to get back in the swing of things, like teaching organ lessons, practicing, and playing for the Assumption of Mary solemn high mass last night. I was surely tempting disaster when I dusted off Marcel Dupré’s “Ave Maris Stella IV” from the Fifteen Antiphons, a piece I probably have not played in more than 15 years, maybe more than that! Unfortunately, I was only confident that I started and ended on the right notes—ha ha ha! What happened in between …..
I also designed the new season brochure for Early Music Hawaii — the first concert, Baroque France: From Discord to Unity under the Sun King, is coming up on September 14th, and I have a lot of figured bass to figure out!
