When soprano Taylor Burgess steps onto the stage at the Jamesport Meeting House this weekend, she will return to a place that helped shape her musical life long before the Metropolitan Opera entered the picture.

“It just comforts my soul that they are so inviting,” Burgess said of the Meeting House. “And honestly, it means a lot because I performed at the Meeting House as a young lady. I performed with the Riverhead Chamber Choir and different performances and events there. So it really feels like this homecoming experience whenever I’m back there.”

Burgess was about 16 or 17 at the time, a Riverhead High School student singing in a space she now returns to as a professional artist whose résumé includes one of the world’s most prestigious opera stages.

The journey from Riverhead High School to Lincoln Center — and back again — is at the heart of her upcoming performance, Winter Moon: A Tribute to the Harlem Renaissance, which weaves together spirituals, art songs and jazz in an intimate setting.

For Burgess, growing up on the East End was formative.

“I think that where a person is from is the mold of the person that you’ll become,” she said. “Growing up by the water and growing up in the countryside and just being able to remain youthful for longer definitely helped me hone in on my craft.”

Music was constant in her household. Her mother sang while cleaning — mostly gospel, with soul mixed in — while her father, a drummer, filled the house with rhythm.

“There was always Motown or gospel or just jazz or anything that really the spirit moved,” Burgess said. “It was always a very musical household.”

By the time she was 5, she already knew what she wanted to be. When her parents asked what she hoped to do someday, her answer never wavered.

“I would say, ‘singer,’” she recalled.

Formal training came early as well. Around age 14, while living in Wading River and attending Shoreham-Wading River schools, Burgess began taking voice lessons and was introduced to the idea that music could be studied seriously in higher education.

“I didn’t even know that you could go to school for music prior to that,” she said. “I thought the only way to pursue a career in music would be through teaching.”

That understanding evolved dramatically during her college years. Burgess entered Purchase College in 2014 as an opera major but soon found herself at a crossroads. When the program did not feel like the right fit, she faced a daunting choice: switch schools and lose credits, or pivot within the institution.

Jazz, which had long intrigued her, was the answer.

“I switched from opera to jazz, and I did the full jazz degree in the two-year span so that I could still graduate on time,” she said.

That two-track training now informs everything she does. While her jazz background does not change her operatic technique, it deeply influences her interpretation.

“In opera, usually we’re telling someone else’s story or we’re playing a character. But with jazz, it’s all from the heart,” Burgess said. “It’s truly circumstantial to how you’re feeling that day, with how you would interpret. Even if I’m singing an aria, I may have the intention a bit different than the last time I sang it, just because of the mood or the energy that I’m feeling.”

Burgess’ expressive flexibility is central to Winter Moon, a program named for the Langston Hughes poem and anchored in the Harlem Renaissance. She describes her programming approach as a journey in which pieces overlap in theme and message rather than feeling segmented.

“Whenever I program a set, whether it’s for a classical recital or a jazz set, I like to really take the listener on a journey,” she said. “This time, it happened to be the Harlem Renaissance and the celebration of Black poetry, Black composers and spirituals — that speaks for itself.”

Among the works on the program, Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” holds particular meaning for her.

“Lyrically, there are so many parallels: that we’re still asking God to intervene and to protect and to lead,” Burgess said. “That’s truly multigenerational.”

The historical weight of that music resonates with her experience at the Metropolitan Opera, where she recently stepped onto the stage for the second time during rehearsals for Porgy and Bess — and it was just as thrilling.

“I squealed,” she said. “I don’t even know if I slept the night before. I was too busy just staring, dazzled, at the marvel that is that space.”

Yet it is the intimacy of the Jamesport Meeting House, with its warmth, acoustics and sense of familiarity, that draws her back now.

“It’s a piece of home,” Burgess said. “It’s familiarity at its finest.”

As she prepares to sing for neighbors, former teachers and young musicians who may see themselves in her story, Burgess hopes her path offers encouragement.

“Try the passion first,” she said. “You can always change your mind. But to not even plant the seed — there’s no way for a tree to grow if you don’t at least plant it.”

For an artist who has carried Riverhead throughout an international career, singing at home feels like a natural return.