From “O Tannenbaum” to the Kenyan song “Jambo,” the Community Chorus of Port Townsend will celebrate the season — and the legacy of the late Nelson Mandela — with a pair of weekend concerts.
The singers — 30 children and 78 adults — will gather at 7 p.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, 1111 Franklin St., Port Townsend, and at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Chimacum High School Auditorium, 91 West Valley Road.
The concerts, titled “Gloria Fanfare,” are “just fun,” said longtime member Lynn Nowak.
“There are old holiday standards, sometimes with a twist; a jazzy-bluesy piece; the rhythmic African pieces with drums and kids; beautiful classic choral pieces and plenty of lively numbers,” added Nowak, who has sung in some 64 concerts since joining the chorus in 1980.
Admission to “Gloria Fanfare” is $15 at the door, while those who want to purchase in advance can stop by Crossroads Music at 2100 Lawrence St. in Port Townsend or visit www.brownpapertickets.com.
The ensemble, whose official name is the Community Chorus of Port Townsend and East Jefferson County, will offer songs in seven languages: Latin, Hebrew, Swahili, Zulu, Yoruba, German and English. Their repertoire will travel from “The Little Drummer Boy” and “How Lovely Are the Messengers” by Felix Mendelssohn to the contemporary pieces “Gloria Fanfare,” “Sweeter Still: A Holiday Carol,” and “Waltz for an Open Sleigh.” The African set features “Hope for Resolution: A Song for Mandela and de Klerk,” the Nigerian Christmas song “Betelehemu,” and “Jambo,” by Teddy Kalanda Harrison.
“Christmas Goes Classical” by David Maddux, which borrows from music by Strauss, Wagner, Grieg, Verdi, Bizet and Tchaikovsky, is the program’s crescendo. Chorus director Rebecca Rottsolk is reveling in it all.
“I love the colors of the various songs, the broad variety of the repertoire, the African songs and seeing the delight on singers’ faces,” she said.
These concerts pay tribute to Mandela, Rottsolk emphasized. The South African emancipator, who died Dec. 5, 2013, was an “international emblem of dignity and forbearance.”
The Port Townsend Youth Chorus and conductor Leslie Lewis will also sing this weekend, with pianists Lisa Lanza and Jan Stone, percussionists Bill Kiely and Paul Becker, ukulelists Germaine Arthur, Pat Hartman and Sue Reid, bassist Bruce Cowan and flutist Judy Johnson playing alongside.
“This is a hard-working, high-spirited group,” Rottsolk said, “and it’s a joyous, multicultural celebration.”
To learn more about the Community Chorus of Port Townsend, visit www.PTchorus.org or phone 360-385-1402.