This month Orcas a Cappella will remember a forgetful but beloved musical genius, British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The March festival, SongShare 2010: The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, will present Vaughan Williams’ choral, organ and orchestral music, with concerts on Lopez and Orcas. Acclaimed conductor Richard Marlow from the Choir of Trinity College in Cambridge, England, will direct a week-long residency with Orcas a Cappella, conducting the choir in SongShare concerts. Marlow and Vaughan Williams were personally acquainted at Trinity College before Vaughan Williams’ passing.
“Orcas a Cappella is honored to sing under his direction here in our islands,” said a Cappella director Dennis Bonner.
Bonner and his wife Candy have a passion for cultural interchange through music.
“We try to encourage cultural exchange by singing, either by bringing in people to sing with us here or by going overseas ourselves. (SongShare) fits the mission we have, to share music with other people and other cultures,” Bonner said.
Orcas a Cappella, led by Bonner, has toured in Spain, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
According to Bonner, Vaughan Williams (1872 to 1958) is remembered for collecting more than 800 folk songs throughout England from pubs, villages, gypsy camps, and parishes, and incorporating these melodies into his work, sparking an English musical renaissance that continued in the compositions of Benjamin Britten, William Walton, John Tavener, and others.
Vaughan Williams is also remembered for his absentmindedness: he would often leave his groceries at the market.
In 2005 SongShare hosted Kor med Kor, a 67-voice choir from Karlstad, Sweden, and in 2007 brought in Slovene choral and orchestral composer and director, Damijan Mocnik.
On Lopez
The concert will be on Friday, March 19, 7 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church. Marianne Lewis will share the spotlight with the a Cappella singers, playing selections of Vaughan Williams’ organ compositions. Richard Marlow and Dennis Bonner will conduct. Tickets can be purchased for $10 at Blossom Grocery, Islehaven Books and Paper Scissors.
On Orcas
The first concert will be on Saturday, March 20, 7:30 p.m. at the Orcas Island Community Church. SongShare will collaborate with the Kindlings’ 2010 WinterFest lecture series, titled “The Languages of Music and the Gods.”
WinterFest lecturer Dr. Harold Best, professor emeritus of music, dean emeritus of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, organist and composer, will open Saturday’s concert with a short commentary on Vaughan Williams. The Linfield College Concert Choir from Oregon will make a guest appearance, Marianne Lewis and a brass ensemble will accompany the singers on the rousing “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing,” and choral pieces sung by Orcas a Cappella will fill out the evening. Saturday tickets can be purchased for $11 at Darvill’s.
The second Orcas concert will be on Sunday, March 21, 3 p.m. at the Orcas Center. The Islands Sinfonia, conducted by Jack Lynch, will play some of Vaughan Williams’ orchestral pieces. Orcas a Cappella will join in, performing under the direction of both Marlow and Bonner. To conclude the afternoon the directors will host a talk about Vaughan Williams’ life, works and the interpretation of his compositions. Tickets for Sunday’s performance can be purchased for $11 at the Orcas Center Box Office.
