With what’s described as a “walk through musical history,” the Peninsula Singers are preparing for their spring concert later this month.
The Singers will offer up songs from varying epochs starting at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 28, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave., with a musical selection covering five different musical eras and styles.
Admission is free, though cash donations are welcome.
“We want people to come and enjoy and be lifted up by the music,” board president Karla Morgan said.
Joan Reeve Owens, interim conductor, said that the concert will be “a little taste of five different time periods.” She said there will be 20 different songs, sectioned into Renaissance sung a cappella, Baroque, classic and romantic oratorio selections, intermezzi, folk, and contemporary.
Mark Johnson will accompany some songs on piano.
Mark Johnson will accompany the Peninsula Singers on piano at the group’s spring concert set for April 28 at Trinity United Methodist Church.
Intermezzi are light interludes, Owens said, which will consist of two songs, one of which will be a duet by Deb Unger and Sage Bateman entitled, “Duetto Buffo di due Gatti,” or “The Comic Duet of the Cats” by Gioachino Rossini, which is composed of only one word: “meow.”
Other songs include “Come to the Music” by Joseph Martin, “Three Hungarian Folk-Songs” by Matyas Seiber, “Lift Thine Eyes to the Mountains” by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and “Chorale from Cantata 147” by J.S. Bach with Melissa Marshall on cello.
In need of conductor
The Peninsula Singers is a chamber group that has been sharing their love of choral music on the Olympic Peninsula since 1988.
Owens, who was new to the group in February of 2023, said that “it’s been a wonderful experience to work with committed, knowledgeable people with different gifts. We have composers in the group. We have people who have sung professionally in operatica and symphonic choruses.
“To be in the Peninsula Singers you have to be able to change your tone and be familiar with various styles of music.”
Owens, whose expertise centers in children’s chorus, stepped up as an interim conductor after the group lost Jerry Wright, their previous conductor, last summer.
The group is actively searching for a new conductor/music director.
Owens said that a good candidate would be someone with choral conducting background and a knowledge of appropriate musical styles and “they need to be good with people.”
Photo by Emily Matthiessen / Joan Reeve Owens, interim conductor with the Peninsula Singers, helps lead a rehearsal in early April. The group hosts their spring concert on Sunday, April 28, at Trinity United Methodist Church.
“When we didn’t have a director,” Morgan said, “[Owens] agreed to be our interim director. She’s very qualified and very skilled. She’s an incredibly compassionate woman, which is just what we needed.”
Owens committed to the group until the spring concert. From there she plans to research starting a children’s choir in Sequim. Teaching children to sing is her area of professional expertise, she said.
Morgan said that the group, whose membership began at 12-16 people and swelled to the 6os in the 1990s under the conductorship of Dewey Ehling, now has a membership of 15.
“It’s a very comfortable number,” Morgan said, though the group welcomes more singers.
“Some of us are oldies but goodies and we’ve got some new people who are just delightful. We would love to have people who love this kind of music to join us.”
Sharing their singing, said Owens, brings the Peninsula Singers joy.
“They are exercising an ability, a voice, a way of communicating in a community where they can still make a contribution. They do it for their own spirit,” she said. “Singing is an exercise of the mind, body and spirit.
“Everyone wants to be able to give gifts into their senior years. We want to give this as a gift.”
Peninsula Singers spring concert
When: 2 p.m. Sunday, April 28
Where: Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave.
Admission: Free, donations accepted
More info: peninsulasingers.org
Photo by Emily Matthiessen / Joan Reeve Owens, interim conductor with the Peninsula Singers, helps lead a rehearsal in early April. The group hosts their spring concert on Sunday, April 28, at Trinity United Methodist Church.
