Trinity United to present 2 concerts

Posted

Trinity United Methodist Church hosts two concerts in May. An evening with internationally acclaimed master organist Leslie Martin on Saturday, May 20 is followed by a Candlelight Concert featuring the Singers in the Rain chorus on May 25.

Both concerts are set for 7 p.m. at the church, located at 609 Taylor St., and are benefit events. The organ concert benefits the church’s scholarship program for local student musicians; the Candlelight Concert benefits Port Townsend’s charitable organizations and the church’s music and historic Victorian restoration programs. Admission to both concerts is by a $10 donation. Children are admitted free.

The organ concert, titled “Organ Music Through the Centuries,” is presented by the Peninsula Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Music selections from periods ranging from 1470 through the 20th century are performed by Martin on the church’s organ, a reproduction of a Baroque instrument built by Gottfried Silbermann in 1735 in Reinhardtsgrimma, Germany.

Martin, a Pacific Northwest native, is adjunct professor of organ, harpsichord and piano at Seattle Pacific University. He has presented organ recitals and organ festivals in Europe and locally in Seattle. He also teaches piano for the Suzuki Academy at the Music Center of the Northwest, and is director of music at Sand Point Community United Methodist Church in Seattle.

The 12-member men’s choral group Singers in the Rain is to present music from opera, theater and film at the Candlelight Concert in May. Songs include “Va, pensiero” (“Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”) from Verdi’s “Nabucco”; the tenor aria “Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot”; Gershwin’s “Embraceable You”; the theme song of the James Bond film “For Your Eyes Only”; and other selections.

The group, which began as a voice and sight-singing class led by Sydney Keegan and Hazel Johnson, has been performing annually in the church’s Candlelight Concert series under the direction of Johnson, with piano accompaniment by Diane Perry Thompson.

For more information about the group, or to join, call Johnson at 385-6000 or Keegan at 379-4735.