PORT TOWNSEND — For a midsummer concert, the Summertime Singers, starring members of the Wild Rose and RainShadow chorales and Port Townsend’s Community Chorus, are back together again.
The 18-voice choir, with accompanist Sandy Rawson, will give the next Candlelight Concert this Thursday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 609 Taylor St.
The program will include works by PDQ Bach, aka Peter Schickele; the poetry of James Agee; a Mass by contemporary composer Robert Ray; and love poetry from the Old Testament’s Song of Solomon.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. performance, to begin with William Billings’ 1790 piece “Modern Musick.”
Then it’s on to the Schickele songs, done in 18th-century European style with plenty of humor added.
Daniel Pinkham’s “Wedding Cantata,” with solos by Linda Bach and Jonathan Stafford, sets love poetry from the Song of Solomon in a 20th-century idiom.
Next come two settings of Agee’s poem, “Sure on This Shining Night,” the classic one by Samuel Barber and a newer version by Pacific Northwesterner Morten Lauridsen.
The concert’s second half will be given over to Ray’s “Gospel Mass,” with soloists Bach, Stafford, Brian Goldstein, Jill Ivey Hoins, Shannan Kirchner-Holmes, Sue Reid and Pat Rodgers singing in traditional gospel style.
To finish, the singers will offer “America the Beautiful” and local musician Karl Bach’s setting of the Adrian Swet poem “Flowers.”
“There seems to be an audience here for the entire spectrum of musical expression,” Summertime Singers conductor Colleen Johnson said, “and I appreciate the opportunity to share this with our Port Townsend community.”
Admission to Thursday’s concert is a suggested donation of $10, while children are invited to come free.
Refreshments will be served after the performance.
Proceeds will benefit the Jean Stanks Memorial Music Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships annually to young musicians in the Port Townsend area.
For more details, phone 360-774-1644.
