PORT TOWNSEND — PT Songlines choir will present its annual Winter Concert and Participatory Sing at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Cotton Building, 607 Water St.
Suggested donation for the benefit concert is $12 but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
The choir is noted for its invitations to the audience to join in the joyous connection of group singing. Co-directors Laurence Cole and Gretchen Sleicher will teach the audience easy-to-learn rounds and layered songs.
Prepared songs
The choir will also present an array of prepared songs, both original (by the co-directors) and by noted songwriters Leonard Cohen and John Lennon.
Guest artist for the concert will be Leaf Lovetree, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, teacher at Sunfield Waldorf School, and tenor in PT Songlines, who will present original works.
All proceeds will be donated to strengthen the work of Jumping Mouse Children’s Center, which serves the children and families of East Jefferson County.
Jumping Mouse provides expressive mental health therapy for children.
“We are making Jumping Mouse the beneficiary of our concert proceeds again because so much of the content of our songs comes from the underlying ethic that all flourishing is mutual,” Cole said.
”The health of the community begins with how we care for the children and keep renewing our commitment to making the world safe and nourishing for the coming generations. Jumping Mouse plays a vital role in healing families in our community.”
Cole and Sleicher are committed to sharing the joy and power of group singing, where all voices are welcome.
‘A partnership, a vessel’
“When all the parts are singing together, we become a partnership, a vessel which carries us to places we could never reach alone,” said Cole, the original founder of the group.
“We love it when the room fills with such passionate expression of meaning, harmony, rhythm and beauty.”
PT Songlines is part of a network of similar “Ubuntu” choirs in the U.S., Canada and throughout the world, which are dedicated to community building through song.
Ubuntu is a South African word meaning “I am because we are.”
Those interested in experiencing the joy of singing together in community on a weekly basis are invited to join the next Songlines singing season, which meets Tuesday nights starting February 6 at 7 p.m. at the Rosewind Common House, on Umatilla at Haines.
All voices are welcome, there are no auditions and ability to read music is not required.
For further information, contact Gretchen Sleicher at 360-643-1595, gsleicher@igc.org.
