Singers to top off anniversary with bluegrass

o What: Vancouver USA Singers 50th Anniversary Gala Concert with Michael Ash and Nicholas Stevens and the Seton Catholic High School Concert Choir.

o When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

o Where: First Presbyterian Church, 4300 Main St., Vancouver.

o Cost: $20 at the door, $17 in advance.

o Information: Vancouver USA Singers website.

As a culmination of its 50th anniversary season, the Vancouver USA Singers will perform “The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass” in two performances this weekend. It’s a unique work that wraps elements of a traditional Catholic Mass with the music of bluegrass.

“The text, which was written by the poet Marisha Chamberlain, is powerful,” said Jana Hart, the choir’s energetic music director. “It mentions American history like World War I and World War II. There’s a movement that deals with 9/11 with the buildings burning and the people jumping. So it’s not a happy little bluegrass piece. It has beautiful music and a message that has depth and gives hope.”

This performance marks the second time that the choir has performed “The World Beloved.” Even though the singers performed this piece two years ago, they aren’t going to coast into the concert.

“The piece is very difficult,” said Hart. “It changes tempo and time signatures 218 times. The composer, Carol Barnett, purposefully wrote it that way, and if you listen to it for the first time, you have no inkling that it goes from 5/4 to 3/4 to 3/2 to 2/4 to 12/18. … Through this constant shifting, she tried to set the real rhythms of bluegrass music, and she gives it a contemporary sound.”

According to Barnett, it took her about three months to write “The World Beloved.”

“I spent about six months listening to nothing but recordings of bluegrass music until I got the style and the licks into my ears,” recalled Barnett. “I knew how to play guitar and a violin, but fiddle music was new to me, and I’ve never played banjo or mandolin.”

The VUSA Singers concert will feature an all-star bluegrass group that includes Jon Newton (fiddle), Paul Hirschmann (guitar), Michinobu “Mitch” Limori (banjo), and Brian Oberlin (mandolin). Newton got his chops working with Mason Williams, composer of “Classical Gas,” and learned bluegrass from the great players in Mason’s traveling music group. Hirschmann plays with the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra and the Rogue Bluegrass Band. Limori is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and teaches multiple instruments at Willamette University, Lewis & Clark College, the University of Portland, George Fox University, and Corban College. Oberlin is the founder and director of the River of the West Mandolin Camp and the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra and has recorded four solo albums.

The choir has invited its former longtime director Ron Frasier to conduct Johannes Brahms’ “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place” and an arrangement of Irwin Drake’s “I Believe” sung with the backdrop of Bach’s “Ave Maria.” The guest conductor will lead the choir in “Rhythm of Life,” which is from the musical “Sweet Charity.”

Also on the program are two tenors who won the VUSA’s young artist scholarship: Michael Ash and Nicholas Stevens. Both are students of April Duvic, who teaches music at Clark College. Ash, 18, is a senior at Columbia River High School, and Stevens, also 18, is a senior at Washougal High School. Ash will sing “Vainement, ma bien-aimée” (“In vain, my beloved”) from Edouard Lalo’s opera “Le roi d’Ys” (“The King of the Ys”). Steven’s solo is “O, del mio amato ben” (“Oh, lost enchantment of my dearly beloved”) by Stephano Donaudy. They will sing the duet “Sound the Trumpet,” which Henry Purcell wrote for the birthday of Queen Mary in 1694.

The concert will also feature the Seton Catholic High School Concert Choir, conducted by Janet Reiter. They will perform pieces written by American composers Eric Barnum and Z. Randall Stroope.

At the end of the concert, Hart and the VUSA Singers will welcome former members of the choir on stage to join them in a rousing rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Under normal circumstances, the choir would then retire for the summer, but the VUSA Singers are not quite done. A few weeks later, they will fly to New York City to perform “The World Beloved” at Carnegie Hall on June 8.

“We are incredibly excited about singing at Carnegie,” exclaimed Eric Sander, who has been a member of the choir’s bass section since 1980. “This wasn’t even on anyone’s bucket list. I’m still pinching myself. I can’t believe that this is happening.”

The headliners for the Carnegie concert are Dailey and Vincent, a bluegrass group from Nashville that has garnered countless awards, including three Grammy nominations.

“They are The Beatles of bluegrass music,” remarked Sander. “We jokingly refer to them as our backup band, but they are the stars of this concert, and there’s a big bluegrass following in New York City.”

Because he also serves as the choir’s vice president of business, Sander flew to New York last year to sign the contract with Distinguished Concerts International, the presenting organization.

“We are not paid to perform at Carnegie,” explained Sander. “We have to pay a fee to rent Carnegie Hall. We get the notoriety of having performed there, and that is worth it all.”

“For those of us involved in music, performing at Carnegie Hall is like going to heaven,” added Hart. “It’s going to be an awesome experience.”