Islands a Cappella Sing of Good Cheer and Holiness

Islands a Cappella sing at Rosario Resort’s Music Room, December 2011. The singers will perform there again on Friday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m.

The Islands a Cappella singing group, with members from Orcas, Lopez and San Juan Islands and directed by Angel Michaels, will sing of Christmas cheer and reverence at three concerts:

• November 30 on Orcas Island at the Rosario Resort Music Room at 6 p.m. The Orcas Boys Choir will join Islands a Cappella in performance. Tickets are $10 at Darvill’s Bookstore. Seating is limited.
• December 1 on Lopez Island at the Lopez Center at 6 p.m.
• December 2 on San Juan Island at St. David’s Episcopal Church at 6 p.m.

The program at each venue represents the breadth of millenia with songs by Michael Praetorius (“Let All the World Rejoice”) and Heinrich Isaac (“A Virgin Shall Conceive”) from the 16th century; through Maurice DuRufle’s “Where There is Love” from the20th century; to contemporary composers Javier Busto (“Light Shines on Us Today”), Damien Mocnik — who with his family came to Orcas in 2007 —  (“Verbum Supernum”); and Morten Lauridsen, a Pacific Northwest native who once worked at as Forest Service lookout and now lives in Los Angeles and on San Juan Island. Lauridsen says his work, “O Magnum Mysterium,”  affirms “God’s grace to the meek.”

Interspersed with these pieces of the mysterious reverence of Christmas are bright, uptempo songs: the bright greeting “What Cheer;”  “Deck the Halls” with a “fascinating rhythm” of 7/8 time; “Where Riches is Everlastingly,” a joyful rumba; and a modern spiritual “Jesus is Born in Bethlehem,” featuring tenor solo Gary Alexander.

There are audience participation songs too —  “Lo How a Rose e’er Blooming,” “Away in a Manger” and “In the Bleak Mid-winter.”

Islands a Cappella started in 2002 as Orcas a Cappella with the mission of “Building Bridges and International Goodwill through Shared Musical Experience.” The group has performed at Europa Cantat choral festivals in 2003, 2006 and most recently in Turin, Italy in 2012. The choir has also sponsored local performances of composers, choral directors and choirs from Sweden, Slovenia, England and Romania.

Rehearsals are Sunday afternoons at whichever island is best served by the ferry schedule. For more information about Islands a Cappella, go to Islands-a-Cappella-