PORT TOWNSEND — There’s big news to be shared at a concert this weekend: Dr. Vivien Nanfuka, a 20-something Ugandan with a connection to Port Townsend, is graduating from medical school. Nanfuka will start her internship this summer.
And another Uganda student, Haruna Mugonza, will finish his schooling and go to work as a community health nurse.
The pair were little kids when AIDS took their parents from them.
They also happened to live in rural Uganda’s Mpigi district, where the late James Ssemakula, an Anglican priest, worked with AIDS orphans.
In a twist of fate, they became part of a group of 19 youths in the care of Port Townsend’s Grace Lutheran Church.
For the past 10 years, Grace Lutheran Church has helped the orphans attend school, from elementary to college, with donations from church members and the wider community.
A significant portion comes from a concert held once a year; a gathering that makes a big change in 2018.
The Concert to Benefit Ugandan AIDS Orphans, repeatedly sold out at Grace Lutheran, moves to the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hall, 2333 San Juan Ave., this year.
Admission to the concert Sunday is by donation, with $15 to $20 suggested.
Drummer and bandleader Angie Tabor will bring her Port Townsend Steel Band in to warm up the audience from 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., and then comes the main program, featuring:
• Mozart’s aria “Ach, ich fühl’s,” (“Ah, I Feel It”) from “The Magic Flute.”
• “Whither Must I Wander” from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Songs of Travel.”
• Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.
• Gabriel Fauré’s “Élégie” for cello.
• Franz Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet.
• Camille Saint-Saëns’ Septet for Trumpet, Piano and String.
• Francis Poulenc’s Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano.
• “Czardas,” a piece for gypsy violin.
More than 25 singers, instrumentalists and music teachers volunteer their time to prepare for and perform in this concert, Lanza noted.
Vocalist Ginger Moore of Port Townsend is one who’s eager to be there.
“Lisa Lanza is an amazing musician,” said Moore, who has sung with Lanza before at Grace Lutheran.
She’s also welcomed her to Quilcene School, where Moore teaches music; Lanza has volunteered to accompany Quilcene students in their concerts.
Chimacum High School senior Owen Brummel, a baritone, will sing “Whither Must I Wander” along with “Gia il Sole dal Gange” (“The Sun from the Orient”) by Alessandro Scarlatti.
His voice teacher Sydney Keegan noted that Brummel is not only a gifted local artist, but also on his way to study voice at Pacific Lutheran University with a full scholarship.
Marina Gittins Rosenquist, Claire Jeanne Martin, Dave and Anne Krabill, Carol Rich, Mark Johnson, Maryann Tapiro, Mia Frederickson, Jo Hansen, Dana Kemp and Ayla Favati also will appear Sunday, along with the Port Townsend Youth Chorus and teenage violist Tusker Behrenfield, cellist Corinne Pierson and violinist Rowan Frederickson.
This is “a true extravaganza,” said Lanza, who shines the spotlight brightly on the other musicians. But then Keegan, who has known the pianist for many years, spoke up.
“Everybody wants to hear Lisa play,” she said. “It is always a thrill.”
Back in 2008, when Lanza became Grace Lutheran’s pianist and organist, the Uganda orphan project was already in place, thanks to the congregation.
Church members follow each child’s progress in school and hear from liaison Kenneth Kasule about their struggles and successes, from primary grades through college and vocational school.
Lanza, in the middle of preparing a half-dozen young musicians for the Solo and Ensemble Competition in Port Angeles, got the idea for a benefit concert that would showcase their talent.
“I believed it would give these young musicians a sense of sharing their work,” she recalled, “for the betterment of children who otherwise could not afford to go to school.”
The event has flourished ever since. And Lanza, besides hearing all that good music, takes joy in watching Grace Lutheran’s 19 Ugandans grow up healthy.
Sharon Dembro, organizer of the orphan program at Grace, added that Sunday’s attendees can plan on seeing a short video featuring Nanfuka and other beneficiaries, and hearing a message from Kasule.
“There is so much need. Obviously Port Townsend can’t take on all that need. [But] it’s very special to know that what we do here with the concert goes to these particular kids,” Dembro said.
“There’s very, very little administrative expense. Our dollars are well-accounted for and so well used. That means a lot to all of us at Grace.”
The church also has a pen-pal program between members and the young people in Uganda. Kasule scans and emails their handwritten letters, and Dembro gets to see them.
“I look forward to the letters,” she said. “These kids are so amazingly positive and grateful. They’ve lost everything, essentially. They know God will provide for them.”
At Grace, “That’s what we do.”
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Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Townsend.
