PORT TOWNSEND — The goal will be to transport listeners, via live music, to Broadway, for “Cats,” “Les Miserables” and George Gershwin.
Along with conductor Dewey Ehling, the Port Townsend Community Orchestra’s players are at it again, offering a night of free music in the Chimacum High School auditorium, 91 West Valley Road, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
This pops concert — the last of the orchestra’s season — is all about show tunes, with classics from the Lerner & Loewe, Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Victor Herbert and Marvin Hamlisch songbooks.
Maestro Ehling, who assembled the program of 20th-century music, will give a short talk on it at 6:45 p.m. Saturday. Then, mezzo-soprano Vicki Helwick of Port Angeles will join the musicians as the evening’s soloist and narrator.
“It is always fun for us to play show music, and Vicki will be a real show stopper,” Ehling said of his guest artist.
Among the songs on Helwick’s list are Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch over Me,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” from “My Fair Lady” and Herbert’s “When You’re Away.”
“Once again, Dewey has put together a great program,” Helwick said of Ehling, who has led the Port Townsend Community Orchestra for 19 years now.
For Helwick, Broadway music is completely energizing. Singing it “doesn’t feel like work to me,” she said.
To find out more about the organization and its 58 musicians, visit www.PortTownsendOrchestra.org.
