"Stevie Wonder is the singer/songwriter who has always been a part of my musical foundation. I constructed and premiered this program for Lincoln Center's 'American Song Book' series in 2004, and was asked to reprise the cocnert for them in 2005. I find that audiences love his songs, whether big popular hits or lesser known gems, as much as I do."

Instrumentation:

"For a fastidious theater singer like Darius de Haas to take on the music of Stevie Wonder is a little like a gymnastics champion deciding to enter a weight-lifting competition. One sport is synonymous with grace and symmetry, the other with brute strength. Throughout his career Mr. Wonder has aspired to carry the whole world on his shoulders. Until he created his tribute, "Wonder: Songs of Stevie Wonder," for Lincoln Center's American Songbook, Mr. de Haas had seemed happy to balance a few choice territories on one hand while executing double somersaults. So who knew that Mr. de Haas harbored an earthy vocal forcefulness to match his agility?

As he performed 19 Wonder songs from the 1970's and early 80's at the Allen Room of Frederick P. Rose Hall on Friday evening, Mr. de Haas elicited the same sense of awe produced by Mr. Wonder's best records. The earth opened up and released a torrent. The seasons flashed by; passions flared and died; new life took root.

If Mr. de Haas's voice is noticeably higher and lighter than Mr. Wonder's, his connection to the music's spiritual and emotional sources is just as deep. Both singers are childlike nature boys. Both are musical impressionists in whose pantheistic visions voluminous tears and laughter flow from the same fountain."

by Stephen Holden

"As"