Orcas Cappella Prepares for SongShare 2010 and Major Changes

Dennis Bonner, Richard Marlow and Candy Ver Brugghen, preparing for the Orcas a Cappella Ralph Vaughan Williams Concerts this weekend

Orcas A Cappella , directed by Dennis Bonner, is preparing for one of its signature “SongShare” concerts, while at the same time anticipating Bonner’s and his wife Candy Ver Brugghen’s move to Oregon this summer.

SongShare 2010 will take place with performances Friday, March 19 at Grace Episcopal Church on Lopez Island at 7 p.m.; on Saturday, March 20 as part of the Orcas Island Community Church’s “WinterFest” at 7:30 p.m. at the Church, and Sunday, March 21 at 3 p.m. at Orcas Center, with a public reception following the performance.

Orcas A Cappella will perform the songs of British composer Ralph Vaughn Williams, under the direction of Richard Marlow of Trinity College, Cambridge University. Orcas A Cappella will be joined by the Linfield College Choir of Linfield, Oregon, directed by Anna Song, on the Saturday night concert.

Other special guests for the concerts are:

• Marianne Lewis, who will give an organ performance at the Lopez Concert
• Harold M Best, Professor Emeritus of Music and Dean Emeritus of Wheaton College Conservatory of Music and WinterFest Lecturer, who will speak on “The Languages of Music and the Gods” at the performance
• Islands Sinfonia, Jack Lynch, Conductor, at the Sunday afternoon concert March 21 at Orcas Center

In past performances, Orcas a Cappella has performed several of the works of Ralph Vaughan Williams, the British composer who lived from 1872 to 1958. Most recently, Bonner was featured as a soloist in Vaughan Williams’ version of “The Turtledove,” one of the more than 800 folk songs collected throughout England from pubs, villages, gypsy camps, and parishes. Williams incorporated these melodies into his work, sparking an English musical renaissance that continued in the compositions of Benjamin Britten, William Walton, John Tavener, and others.

This weekend’s series of concerts will reprise the songs the Orcas a Cappella sang in their Madrigal Concert last November, namely, “The Willow Song,” “Greensleeves,” “What is Love?;” added to these compositions will be “Just As the Tide Was Flowing,” “The Springtime of the Year,” and “Three Shakespeare Songs.” They will also sing sacred Ralph Vaughan Williams’ arrangements, such as “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing, “O How Amiable, ” “Te Deum in G,” and “Valiant-for-Truth” based on the “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan,

Tickets are available on Orcas at Darvill’s and Orcas Center for $11; they are available on Lopez for the Friday performance at Blossoms, Islehaven and Paper Scissors for $10.

After this performance by Orcas a Cappella, the group will take a new direction, with Bonner commuting back to Orcas for his new home in Oregon, to prepare Orcas a Cappella for seasonal concerts and tours.

SongShare

“The overarching purposes of the SongShare concerts, since their beginning, have been “to bring a new understanding of other cultures and music, to forge global friendships, and to share our common love of singing,” Bonner has said.

SongShare started nearly 25 years ago, when Bonner was director of a choir in Tucson, Arizona and and traveled behind the Iron Curtain to Hungary in the late 1980s to participate in the Bela Bartok Choral Competition. A Hungarian choir reciprocated with a trip to the U.S., during which Hungary was declared a republic.

Then, in 1999, came the move to Orcas Island, where Ver Brugghen was hired as Executive Director of the Orcas Center. She retired from that position in late 2005.

In 2002, Bonner started another choir, the Orcas a Cappella, and in 2003, took the group to the Europa Cantat, a choral festival held in different European cities every three years. In 2003, it was in Barcelona, Spain.

While at Europa Cantat in Barcelona, Bonner met the director of the Swedish university choir, Chor med Chor, and invited them to Orcas Island for SongShare 2005. Orcas Islanders opened their homes to the more than 60 university students who arrived for the week-long tour of San Juan, Lopez and Orcas Islands.

Later in 2005, Henri Loiselle, the “Pavarotti of the[Canadian] Prairies” came to Orcas to thrill audiences with the “Toreador” song from the opera “Carmen” accompanied by Orcas a Cappellac, and a solo “cabaret” dinner concert the following night.

By the time of the 2006 Cantat, in Mainz, Germany, Orcas A Cappella was a fully-incorporated 501(c)3 non-profit organization; and they had produced their first CD, “Simple Gifts.” While in Germany, Bonner engaged Slovenian composer Damijan Mocnik in a discussion about performing his works following a week-long residency on Orcas.

In October 2007, the Orcas A Cappella hosted Mocnik, his wife and three sons (a fourth son was born to the couple the following summer).

Since its beginning eight years ago, Orcas A Capella has performed 140 pieces in repertoire. Bonner figures they average about 40% sacred, and 60% secular or poetic in nature. The choir has sung in Swedish, Hungarian, Catalan, French, Czech, Latin and Russian.

The choir has also sung compositions and adaptations by local composers and arrangers such as Vince Monaco and James Hardman.

Choir members Pam Loew, Karen Blinn and Ginni Keith have accompanied the singers on harp, oboe and trumpet, respectively. Anthony Richardson, Chris Thomerson and Alan Tamm, all choir members, have filmed and recorded most of the choir’s performances.

Mireille Paulson of Lopez Island, has served as Choir Manager, attending to many of the details involved in coordinating the performance choir to make for smooth-running performances as the group dons their eggplant-colored outfits.

In recent years, the choir has said goodbye to former members Anthony Richardson, Judith Struthers and RoseAnn Dolan. It has also expanded to include members from Lopez, Shaw and San Juan islands with rehearsals at the Orcas Landing, Camp Orkila, Shaw Landing and Shaw Community Center, Madrona Room, Black Box at the Orcas Center, Episcopal Church Hall and at various members’ homes.

In 2009, the choir recorded regularly at the Victorian Valley Chapel before final recording sessions at Bredouw’s Barn produced their second CD “Encore.” Also last year, A Cappella members sang in the final production of the Funhouse benefit, “A Christmas Carol,” as they had in 2003 and 2006.

Last summer, the choir divided into groupings by section and geographical areas (Eastsound, West Sound, Deer Harbor) to prepare for the sold-out Madrigal Concert Dinner held at Camp Orkila last fall.

The success of that experiment led Bonner to consider that the choir could rehearse on its own, with refinements to be added prior to concerts in the winter and spring. Another Madrigal concert is planned this December, to take place at Rosario, and an international tour, probably to the Maritime Provinces in Canada, is on the boards for early summer, 2011.

Meanwhile the Bonner/Ver Brugghen household is pulling up stakes to settle near Portland, in order to be closer to their children. The Orcas A Cappella Board and singers have agreed to continue under Bonner’s direction, rehearsing together for several months independently before intensive rehearsal schedules prior to performances to be conducted by Bonner.

He also plans to rehearse with the singers early on when introducing new music, but with its extensive repertoire, he feels that the choir is prepared to reprise many familiar pieces.

Orcas A Cappella has been characterized by their willingness to learn new and challenging music, to experiment in rehearsal and performances, to meet wherever possible, and to extend open-armed hospitality to visiting performers.

Bonner’s commitment has always been to challenge his singers to improve, offer them a variety of performance opportunities, provide an atmosphere of spiritual enrichment, and develop unity through choral singing as an ensemble, both in rehearsal and performance.

Now the choir is intent on continuing their voice and cherished songs with a “Traveling Director.”