PORT TOWNSEND — Trinity United Methodist Church will feature Singers in the Rain for its Candlelight Concert tonight.
Doors to the church at 609 Taylor St. will open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. concert, with entry a suggested $10 donation and children admitted free.
Proceeds will benefit various Port Townsend charitable organizations and the church’s music and historic Victorian restoration programs, organizers said.
Refreshments will be served following the performance.
This year’s theme is “American Gospel Sound,” but the performance also will include sacred pieces from earlier periods as well as solos from American blues and hymnody and the British folk tradition, organizers said.
Aaron Copland’s “Zion’s Walls” from his collection of “Old American Songs” will open the program.
Also performed will be “When Jesus Wept” by William Billings.
Other pieces from the world of Gospel, spirituals and hymnody include the round “All Night, All Day,” arranged by Jan Mulder; “Shine on Me,” arranged by Rollo Dillworth; and “Down by the Riverside.”
Singers in the Rain is a 10-member chorale, the only such all-male group in the East Jefferson area, organizers said.
The group was founded six years ago as a singing and music-reading class for men under the leadership of mezzo-soprano Sydney Keegan and music education graduate Hazel Johnson.
The two already had taught classes for men and women together but decided to offer one for men only.
The trainees were so enthusiastic, they decided to continue into the spring and give a concert, choosing the name Singers in the Rain, and were asked to sing in that year’s May Candlelight Concert — an annual tradition they have participated in every year since.
Because the group is small, the men perform almost entirely without a conductor and are accompanied by pianist Diane Thompson.
For more information, call 360-774-1644.
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.