Usually, our music videos try to show off an exotic location or intriguing storyline. What you see on this video is the actual recording session where the audio was captured. Every musician in the same room — no click tracks, no Hollywood tricks, just raw and real music-making the way Bernstein intended. Keep in mind that these musicians come from a relatively small area of rural Utah and are high school aged. The day we recorded this video was actually the first time Nathan and Clara had sung together. We all learned our parts separately and then came together for the first time at the recording studio.

This may be one of the most beautiful melodies ever penned by the great Leonard Bernstein. The sheer beauty of Bernstein’s music pulls you in, but when combined Stephen Sondheim’s reverent lyrics the result is one of the most sacred and tender love songs of all time. Two star-crossed lovers taking each other by the hand and pleading, “Make of our hands one hand, Make of our hearts one heart.” Just as in a wedding ceremony, they take turns individually making their vows to one another and then culminate in beautiful harmony singing, “Make of our lives one life, Day after day, one life. Now it begins, now we start: One hand, one heart. Even death won’t part us now.” The maturity and purity of their love is the idyllic Shakespearean notion of eternal love. Hopefully, Steven Spielberg’s revival of the film and the passing of the great Stephen Sondheim gives this music and message a new life with the rising generation.