SEQUIM — Singer, actor and medical doctor Joel Yelland will offer a noontime interlude of American songs and Russian folk tunes — a program called “Spirituals and Samovars” — in the next Music Live with Lunch this coming Tuesday.
Yelland, a baritone with the Peninsula Singers, will join accompanist Lorraine Martin in concert at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 525 N. Fifth Ave., for this public program.
It all starts at noon with 30 minutes of music, and then the kitchen crew, under Debby Kubly and Christine Hill, serve a hot lunch of beef stroganoff and rum cake in the parish hall.
As always with Music Live with Lunch, the public is welcome. Tickets, available at the door Tuesday, are $10 including music and meal.
This is the latest in Yelland’s series of programs at St. Luke’s, and like all Music Live with Lunch performers, he’s donating his time.
“Joel’s voice just soars in the sanctuary, and he sings the Russian folk tunes in Russian with the translations written in the program,” promised coordinator Sammy Greenwood, referring to songs such as “Ach, ti Step’ Shirokaya” (“Oh, You Wide Steppe”).
Also part of Yelland’s set are the spirituals “Ride on, King Jesus,” “Steal Away,” “My God Is a Rock” and Aaron Copland’s arrangements of “Zion’s Walls” and “At The River.”
Yelland was a music major at Central Washington University, and had the opportunity to sing lead roles in “Tosca,” “Otello,” and “Madama Butterfly.” After graduation he wandered for years in Europe and Asia, eventually settling in the New York City area, where he graduated from medical school in the Bronx. He spent the next eight years in the Navy, and after finishing his service he and his wife, Grace, moved to Omak in Okanogan County. Yelland also restarted voice lessons, with teacher Steve Mortier in Spokane.
Five years ago the Yellands moved to Sequim, where he performs with the Readers Theatre Plus and Olympic Theatre Arts troupes as well as with the Peninsula Singers. Also a percussionist, Yelland plays with the Sequim City Band, Sequim Community Orchestra and the Port Angeles Symphony.
Along with all of this, he is a practicing family physician and the medical director of the Lower Elwha Health Clinic in Port Angeles.
For information about Yelland’s concert and future Music Live with Lunch presentations, phone the St. Luke’s office at 360-683-4862. The office also has tickets available between 9 a.m. and noon Monday through Thursday.
