PORT ANGELES — This Sunday afternoon for the first time, Jim Couture of the Arts & Minds Memory Wellness program will host Showtunes for Health, a community event studded with local singers.
This is both a concert and a sing-along, to start at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 510 E. Park Ave., with admission by donation.
The suggested amount is $10, with proceeds to benefit Arts & Minds, a part of Olympic Community Action Programs.
Performers from recent local productions including “Forbidden Broadway” and “Godspell” will appear.
Richard Stephens, Ron Graham, Denise McClain, Betsy Brown, Riley Sanderson and Couture himself are in the lineup.
So is Cherisse Martinelli, a singer who is Miss West Sound, a preliminary to the Miss America pageant.
Martinelli, 23, has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater from Central Washington University and a passion for musical therapy, making her ideal for Sunday’s event.
She’ll sing “The Sound of Music,” just one of the solos.
The song was also part of a 2013 George Mason University study of how Broadway show tunes can enhance brain health.
After reading the research, Couture was inspired to plan this Sunday’s sing-along.
To start the whole thing off, Couture chose “The Music Man’s” “Seventy-Six Trombones,” a rousing number if ever there was one.
Then come classics such as “Ol’ Man River,” “The Impossible Dream,” “Try to Remember” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” all selections from musicals in which an older, wiser character sings about life.
In addition to the sing-along, the soloists have picked out their own numbers to perform.
They range from the wistful to the joyous: “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady,” “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess” and “A Place That’s Green” from “Little Shop of Horrors.”
“This is something we can all do together,” said Couture, who will accompany the songs on St. Andrew’s Coulter pipe organ.
Besides just making you feel good, lifting your voice is good for your brain because it’s “effortful engagement,” he added.
“So come on out and get engaged.”
For more information about Sunday’s concert and about Arts & Minds, contact Couture at JCouture@olycap.org or 360-457-6801.
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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.
