Before two deeply appreciative audiences at the Oak Bluffs Tabernacle last weekend, live choral music returned to the Vineyard for the first time since before the pandemic took hold 14 months ago.
Friday and Saturday’s concerts by the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Minnesingers packed more than a year of pent-up musical longing — by both the singers and their fans — into an hour-long show that brimmed with optimism and joy.
“We are so thrilled to be here, live, in front of an actual audience,” choir director Abigail Chandler told the capacity-limited crowd Saturday afternoon.
“These people behind me are rock stars, every single one,” Ms. Chandler said. “What we have gone through this year to stay together as a group has been really remarkable to watch. In the cold, in the rain, in masks, under a tent, then we lost the tent... It’s been a year. It’s been quite a year.”
Titled A New Day, the program for the Minnesingers’ Mother’s Day weekend shows began with an a cappella performance of How Can I Keep from Singing. An 1868 hymn that has crossed over into the American folk songbook, the piece is also known by its first line, “My life flows on in endless song.”
Under the vaulting Tabernacle roof on Saturday, the choir’s clear harmonies rose and resonated, as the afternoon sun shone through colored clerestories laying red, blue and yellow patches at the singers’ feet.
After How Can I Keep from Singing — which would have been comparatively new when the Tabernacle roof went up in 1879 — Minnesingers director Abigail Chandler and pianist Nancy Rogers took the choir back to 1791 with Mozart’s reverent motet Ave Verum Corpus.
Ms. Chandler also led the group through inspirational 21st-century works including Susan LaBarr’s My Very Own, a contemporary setting for words of love and devotion from the Bible; an ethereal arrangement of Fly Away Home, by a mysterious composer who uses the name Pinkzebra; and Ubi Caritas by Norwegian choral composer Ola Gjielo.
Reaching back into the folk songbook, the Minnesingers went a cappella again for a lively rendition of Will the Circle Be Unbroken, featuring soloists Grace O’Malley, Lily Jones and Amanda Moraes.
Ms. O’Malley and Ms. Moraes also teamed with Mia Jeffers to perform the Fleetwood Mac hit Landslide with backing by a trio of MVRHS alumni: Skylar Hall on guitar, Jack Holmes on bass and James Murray on mandolin.
Soloist Margaret Sykes delivered a flawless and moving performance of the spiritual Deep River, and Kaya Seiman sang a powerful interpretation of Andra Day’s anthem Rise Up with Jack Crawford at the piano.
From the 20th century, the Minnesingers performed songs that were hits for Cyndi Lauper (True Colors, 1986), Ben E. King (Stand By Me, 1961/1987) and the Angels (My Boyfriend’s Back, 1963), as well as the 1920s classics Ain’t Misbehavin’ by Fats Waller and The Charleston by James P. Johnson and Cecil Mack.
For the 1960s numbers, costume designer and Minnesingers alumna Chelsea McCarthy outfitted the boys in two-tone baseball jackets and added sassy colored kerchiefs to the girls’ concert blacks.
Ms. McCarthy went all out on the 1920s costumes, with fringed and sequined flapper dresses for the sopranos and altos while the tenors and basses had a snappy black-tie look.
Minnesingers concert veterans know that when the costumes come out, the dancing — choreographed by Ken Romero — is soon to begin. With rehearsal time limited by pandemic restrictions, this spring’s show had just three dance numbers: My Boyfriend’s Back, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and finally The Charleston, ending the concert in a flurry of swing-time footwork and song.
Ticket proceeds from the spring concerts will go to help fund a planned singing trip to Austria for the Minnesingers in 2022. The choir is also taking donations and raffling off a weekend trip to Boston on its website, mvrhsminnesingers.org.
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