Music has a transcendent property that can connect one to something greater — a universal language that stirs the deepest emotions, from joy to tears.

Consider the music of Terry Barber, a countertenor whose voice evokes those emotions as he passionately weaves storytelling and song together.

Barber will present “A Broadway Holiday” on Saturday, Nov. 19, with performances from “Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables,” “Hamilton” and other classical musicals, at the Enchantment Resort to benefit the Sedona International Film Festival.

Barber is known internationally for his vocal range, which stretches from soprano or mezzo-soprano to tenor and even baritone. He has one of the rarest of all voice types.

“I usually joke with the audience and say, ‘you know, when they told you in school that tenor was the highest voice for men, they lied,’” Barber says. “Because a countertenor sings comfortably in the range above that, typically where we hear women, and in popular music, we don’t necessarily label them as such. But people have always heard it.”

Barber noted that singers such as Barry Gibb, Frankie Valli, Prince, Michael Jackson and Sam Smith sing in extremely high ranges. When it comes to classical singing, it may be strange for some to hear a man who can sing in an extremely high range, but “it’s historical,” Barber said.

“In every program I do, I will show my entire range. Most countertenors don’t really sing in what I jokingly call their ‘man voice’ … I want to show everything I can do in different colors and ranges. So, I will explain what it is and how it’s different from what they’re used to.”

Barber says that for as long as he can remember, he sang all day. He would sing in the shower, sing while playing with Lego bricks, sing while walking around his house.

“I’m pretty sure my mom sang and played guitar to me before I even came out of her womb,” Barber said. “My dad also loved to sing — even now — and has a very high voice. He was a boy soprano as well and sang as a hobby for fun.”

At age 7, his mother asked if he wanted to take voice lessons.

“There was one really good teacher in the town where I grew up in Hanover, N.H., and she said that she didn’t take kids. My mom said, ‘Well, would you just listen to him?’ And I went in and that was the end of it,” Barber said. “We were both addicted to each other. I found something that I could throw myself into at age 7.”

Barber’s first professional work was with Opera North, an opera company located in New England. He performed “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” a Christmas opera written by Italian composer, librettist, director and playwright Gian Carlo Menotti.

“I was a boy soprano in Amahl and it’s [a story] about a poor, crippled shepherd boy who, in a moment of inspiration, decides that he wants to give his crutch to Christ, as he engages with the Three Kings on their journey [following the star to Bethlehem]. And so, in that moment, the shepherd boy starts walking — it’s a beautiful story,” Barber noted, holding back tears.

While performing, Barber says that it is important to connect with the audience on many levels. At one time, performing classical music had a stigma surrounding it.

“When I was going through school, there was a certain formality about the education and how definitely with classical, you were taught to engage your audience or really in a lot of cases, not engage your audience,” Barber said. “To come out, perform and to have a certain formality about it. In fact, I used to liken it to golf. I would say what you’re doing is you’re creating a circle around classical and you’re saying to your audience, you don’t belong. You don’t know when to clap. You don’t know what to wear. And so that was not serving the art at all. It was putting off people who felt like outsiders.”

Today, storytelling is at the forefront of classical music. Barber says that conductors tell the story of the origin of the piece or make jokes and try to personally connect the audience to the art.

“You’ll hear me talking almost in between every piece and it’s not like a lecture, I want to just give the audience whatever insight I can or something funny or emotional or whatever that will help them experience the art in a different way,” he said.

Barber received his bachelor of music degree in vocal performance from Northwestern University and his master of music degree from London’s Trinity College of Music, from which he also received a post-graduate performance certificate with distinction.

“I didn’t really realize it was a viable career choice until I was in college, and I was doing a double degree in engineering and music,” Barber said. “My voice teacher asked me to prepare a piece for the Baroque period, and I’m a music nerd, I just love learning. I went to the library to do some research because I hadn’t done anything for the Baroque period before and I started hearing these recordings of men singing in very high ranges. I went into my lesson and said, ‘What octave would you like to hear that in? And [my voice teacher] laughed while I was thinking of the normal male tenor a cappella and then I sang it for him and he said, ‘Terry, this is an opportunity for you.’ And so, I went and did my master’s in England, because I was able to get the original scores of Handel and Purcell and other composers in my hands in the greatest music library.”

Barber later became a full-time member of the Grammy-winning ensemble Chanticleer.

“They had me sing soprano mostly, but I was the second highest one in that group.”

He has been a soloist for the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Moscow’s Svetlanov Hall. His voice can be heard on every major record label with artists from Madonna to the London Philharmonic. His most recent recording, a reimagining of songs made famous by Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury had eight Grammy nominations.

Barber has been in Sedona several times, performing for the Sedona International Film Festival. He visited a few years ago with his “rockumentary,” “Mercury: The Story of Queen’s Front Man.”

No matter what he sings, Barber’s heartfelt performance opens the window to his soul. His voice stirs powerful emotions and memories that transport listeners back to a particular moment. His music “gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, charm to sadness and life to everything.”