A Christmas Meditation
The Sparrow Initiative has enjoyed partnering with St. Mary's by the Sea Catholic Church in Huntington Beach for their annual Christmas concert for the past several years. "A Christmas Meditation" unites Scripture readings with pieces by Mozart, Bach, Saint-Saëns, and more, along with sing-along carols to create a thoughtful spiritual journey leading the audience from Advent to Christmas.
Featured artists included Alyssa Wills, Amy Joy Stephens, Alex Stephens, Anthony Moreno, with organist Kevin Weed.
The Impresario and Other Opera Favorites
In August of 2022, The Sparrow Initiative presented an exciting evening of opera favorites, such as La Boheme and Elixir of Love, culminating with a performance of Mozart's playful one act opera, "The Impresario," where two divas battle it out to become the ultimate Prima Donna! This fundraising concert reintroduced Sparrow Initiative to the community post-pandemic and helped raise money to make our future projects possible. Featured artists included Alyssa Wills, Amy Joy Stephens, Dominic Salvati, Anthony Moreno, and Jasper Jimenez.
A Woman's Voice
A Woman's Voice was our inaugural concert in June of 2019. This concert took place at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach and was to raise awareness and funds for their human trafficking ministry. Exploring the theme of how women share their love as mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives, we sought to help the audience feel a connection to the victims they were there to support. We used both classical art songs and musical theater pieces, along with spoken excerpts from literature, poetry, and scripture. We gave a representative from St. Andrew's human trafficking ministry an opportunity to share the story of one of the survivors they worked with, and we were able to welcome other organizations who used fashion and jewelry to help raise awareness in the way we were using music. This recital featured Alyssa Wills, Amy Joy Stephens, Lesley Baird, and HyeJung Shin, with a musical program organized and curated by Alyssa Wills.
