PORT ANGELES — The poet’s and the doctor’s findings: Music not only lightens the heart, it also can help the brain.
In that spirit, a band of singers and players will come together in the “Season of Light” festival concert at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 510 E. Park Ave., on Sunday.
It’s the feast day of the Epiphany, a kind of 12th day of Christmas, and the program is a rich one. The afternoon will include, among other works:
■ St. Germanus’ “A Great and Mighty Wonder” sung by the First United Methodist and St. Andrew’s choirs
■ A mix of sacred and secular songs by No Batteries Required, a local barbershop quartet
■ The premiere of “Organ Solstice,” a composition for the church’s Coulter pipe organ by St. Andrew’s music director, Jim Couture.
The program will begin at 2 p.m., and admission will be a suggested $10 donation to benefit Arts & Minds Memory Wellness, a nonprofit program providing music and art therapy for people with memory loss (see accompanying story).
“Music has charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak,” William Congreve wrote in his tragedy The Mourning Bride back in 1697.
And Dr. Oliver Sacks, the famed neurologist whose books include Awakenings and Musicophilia, regards music therapy as “a tool of great power in many neurological disorders — Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s — because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function.”
The Arts & Minds program, at the Encore! Adult Day Center inside Port Angeles’ Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, is about music and art therapy, exercise and support for caregivers.
Couture, a board-certified music therapist, coordinates it for Olympic Community Action Programs.
People from all walks of life come to the Adult Day Center, while all have key things in common.
They’re dealing with memory loss and want to do something about it, Couture said. And they have caregivers — family and friends — willing to support and encourage them.
He invites everyone to learn more about Arts & Minds at Sunday’s concert.
Early Music Ensemble
Also on the “Season of Light” menu are the Early Music Ensemble, led by retired Peninsula College music director Dennis Crabb, and a performance by the Moilenen Merry Music Makers, a vocal quartet.
The No Batteries Required quartet will round out the afternoon with some well-loved and some little-known: “I Feel a Song Coming On,” “Come Go with Me,” “San Francisco Bay Blues” and “Secret of Christmas.”
“If you want a diversity of music,” said No Batteries Required lead singer Rich Johnston, “come to this.”
When these men make music, “we just have too much fun,” he added.
The Season of Light finale will bring everyone together, Johnston promised, for a group sing.
And since this is Epiphany Sunday, the songs planned are “We Three Kings” as well as the J.S. Bach arrangement of “How Bright Appears the Morning Star.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
