Islands’ A Cappella Concerts — “Songbirds in Season”

Islands’ A Cappella, an interisland choral group, will sing at four venues this month, at Lopez, Orcas, Shaw and San Juan Islands.

Their spring concerts, called, “Songbirds in Season:Larks, Laughter and Nightingales” bring music from the combined libraries of three choral groups — Lopez Sound, Orcas A Cappella and San Juan Singers — for lively and soulful performances in celebration of spring.

Concert dates are as follows:

May 5 Lopez Island, Lopez Center at 5:30 p.m.Tickets are $10/adults, $7/Seniors and $5/Students;
May 6 Orcas Island, Rosario Resort Music Room at 4 p.m. Tickets are $10, on sale at Darvill’s Bookstore

Then the group takes a two-week hiatus, before performing on

May 18 Shaw Island, Community Center at 5:30 p.m. by donation
May 19 San Juan Island, St. David Church in Friday Harbor at 4 p.m.

The jazz- and soul-filled spring concerts have plentiful “zum za wah dahs” and “Yes Lords!,” slinky slides and cha-chas, along with lovely, spirit-filled “Amens” as the repertoire unfolds:

• Birdsong of spring begins the concerts in Mendelssohn’s “The Nightingale,” and “The Lark”
• Emily Dickinson’s advice to herself, “Heart We Will Forget Him,”
• A suite of poems by William Butler Yeats, set to music in 2006 for Orcas A Cappella by local composer James Hardman. The five pieces tell of a variety of mystic moods of the poems from Yeats’ “The Rose” and “The Wind Among the Reeds.”
• Spirituals from the Tuskegee Choir Series by William Dawson bring a soulful strain to the concerts, as the choir sings, “Ain’-a’That Good News!” and “Soon-ah Will Be Done”
• Randall Thompson’s poignant “Alleluia” composed just as France fell to German occupiers in 1940, is already a favorite of the interisland choir’s audiences
• John Rutter’s Birthday Madrigals, a choral suite for mixed choir that was originally written to celebrate the 75^th birthday of jazz pianist George Shearing. Texts for all five pieces in the suite are from the madrigal era, by Shakespeare, John Wilbye, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Philip Sidney. The music is characterized by jazz syncopation and modern harmonies.
•  “Moon Medley,” with the lively music of the Swing Era, arranged by Dayton, including excerpts from “Paper Moon,” “Moonlight in Vermont,” The Moon Was Yellow (and the night was young),” and “No Moon at All.”

At the May 6 concert in the Moran Mansion, Islands’ A Cappella will be joined by the newly-formed boys choir, who will sing three pieces, one the original composition by Boys’ Choir Director Mary WillAllen, “Northern Sky Lullaby.”

The group of about two dozens singers started in 2002 as the Orcas A Cappella Singers, under Dennis Bonner’s direction. Last year, the group formally changed its name to the Islands A Cappella Singers, reflecting the members from Shaw, Lopez and San Juan Islands, as well as from Orcas. They are now directed by Angel Michaels, who lives on San Juan Island.

The group rehearses on whichever island is most accommodating to the singers’ schedules: last fall the group practiced on Orcas Island; this spring they moved to San Juan Island.

Members of the choir will take many of these pieces to the 2012 Europa Cantat (International Choral Festival) in Turin, Italy this summer. Members of the public who wish to join the group on their tour to Lake Como and Turin are welcome to contact Angel Michaels at angel.michaels@gmail.com.