PORT TOWNSEND — When the PT Songlines choir holds its Winter Concert and Participatory Sing this weekend, everybody — right away — will become part of the show.
Co-directors Laurence Cole and Gretchen Sleicher will start the festivities at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Cotton Building, 607 Water St., with admission a suggested $12 donation.
Proceeds will go to Port Townsend’s Jumping Mouse children’s counseling center.
The evening promises PT Songlines’ spirited version of the Sting song “Love Is the Seventh Wave” and several rousing African pieces — plus ample opportunities for the audience to join in on easy-to-learn songs, chants and rounds.
Guest vocalists
This time around, Sleicher noted, the choir will have guest vocalist Hanna Lose-Frahn and pianist Evan Millman, “adding more spice and soul to the evening.”
Cole, Sleicher and company are committed to sharing the joy and power of group singing, according to their concert announcement.
PT Songlines is a group where all voices are welcome, said Cole, the choir’s founder.
“We hold it as an ancient human birthright,” he said, “for all people to feel the connective, infectious pleasure and fun of making big, gorgeous sound together.
“We love it when the room fills with such passionate expression of meaning, harmony, rhythm and beauty.”
PT Songlines is part of a network of similar Ubuntu choirs in the U.S., Canada and beyond.
These groups are dedicated to community-building through song, Sleicher added.
Ubuntu is a South African word meaning “I am because you are,” she noted, adding that philanthropy is the namesake choirs’ central value.
Next month, PT Songlines invites new singers to join its weekly gatherings at the Rosewind Common House, 3131 Haines St.
All voices are welcome, no auditions are required and singers don’t need to be able to read music to be part of the group, which will meet at 7 p.m. every Tuesday starting Feb. 17.
For more information, contact Sleicher at 360-643-1595 or gsleicher@igc.org. Online, visit the PT Songlines page on Facebook or at https://sites.google.com/site/ptsonglines.
