LOCAL CHURCH CHOIR TO TOUR FINLAND, ESTONIA & RUSSIA
Their bags aren’t packed, but they’re ready to go! Rehearsals began in January, and since Easter they’ve been meeting every Sunday night. 33 singers plus another 15 family members leave July 1st for a 2-week musical outreach mission in the Upper Baltic region with a concert program they’re calling, “The Old in The New.”
In preparation for departure to Finland, Estonia & Russia, the tour singers will join with members of the music ministry at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Santa Rosa (UUCSR) for a joint “Family & Friends Concert” on Sunday, June 29, 7 PM at The Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Avenue. The concert is open to the public, with a goodwill offering welcomed and a “farewell” reception on the patio following the performance.
The Santa Rosa First United Methodist Church (SR FUMC) has supported singers on two other international tours. One was to Central Europe in 2001 and the other to Australia in 2005. The main goals of these trips are to meet people, share the faith community and energize the singers of the church.
Director Doug Albertson says, “This program with UUCSR typifies the approach of how our international tour concerts go. You get maybe an hour warm-up and sound-check on a foreign stage, you combine your group’s singing with the host group, and afterwards you visit and share a bite.”
The SR FUMC tour songs are billed as the “Best of the New Millennium.” The singers entire tour repertoire comes from living American composers who are nationally renowned for writing popular contemporary church choral music. The 15 different anthem-length songs encompass a variety of sacred Christian messages and beautiful tonal landscapes.
Says one of the singers, “Sometimes modern music turns me off; but this set of songs is such a pleasure to sing, and our congregation likes it, too. I’m really looking forward to sharing this music and our choir with the people we’ll meet on tour.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT DOUG ALBERTSON AT 707.545.3863 OR Doug.Albertson@FumcSantaRosa.org