Concert pianist and new music innovator Anthony de Mare's Liaisons project proposes a new way of considering the work of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim. In 2009, de Mare began commissioning some of Sondheim's most luminous contemporaries—including Steve Reich, Nico Muhly, Duncan Sheik, Wynton Marsalis, Tania León, and William Bolcom—to rescore Sondheim's best known songs as solo piano pieces. The result is a remarkable compendium of 36 homages, rhapsodies, and re-imaginings spanning the worlds of classical, jazz, film, pop, and musical theater firmly establishing the case for Sondheim as one of the 20th century's most influential composers.

Shortly before Sondheim's passing in 2021, de Mare and the Liaisons team revived the project with 14 new commissions from the next generation of creative voices, including: Christopher Cerrone, Timo Andres, Mark Bennett, Conrad Tao, Jeff Beal, Jon Batiste, Kevin Puts, and Max Richter. This evening concert at the Atrium celebrates the recorded release of Liaisons II with a live performance of these new classics.