Seattle Metropolitan Singers Winter Concert, “Behind the Holiday Scene,” Sunday 12/15 7pm.

The Seattle Metropolitan Singers (“The Met”) is excited to present our Winter program, “Behind the Holiday Scene.” Join us at Alki UCC / Kol HaNeshamah Synagogue at 7:00 pm on December 15th, $20 suggested donation. (6115 SW Hinds)

The Seattle Metropolitan Singers (“The Met”) is an adult treble choir and we are welcoming new members for our Spring session starting in January. We rehearse in West Seattle at The Kenney on Tuesday evenings https://thekenney.org/. Laurie de Leonne is our artistic director, Nathan Shiu is our collaborative pianist.

Our Winter program features a piece called “Winter Suite, Songs Without Words…With Words,” words and arrangement by Laurie de Leonne set to music by Felix Mendelssohn. Laurie’s notes about the piece:

“Reorchestrating pre-existent music is a valuable tool for instrumentalists, rendering piano repertoire for performance by orchestras and offering saxophone ensembles string quartets to play, just to name a few. But surely any piece entitled songs without words is begging for choral access if we have that one essential and unique component of the vocal instrument–words!

Writing a text to a completely composed work felt like a backward challenge compared to the usual method of selecting a text to turn into a vocal piece. The phrases for songs without words already convey rhyme and balance and the music already conveys theme and tone. Any possibility of word painting – rising, falling, sustaining – must connect with everything present in the work

This piece was born in part of a need for a multi movement secular choral piano work for Redmond chorale a semi auditioned community choir to fit into a five year historic winter choral cycle which included a romantic era Christmas so much of our historical choral repertoire is sacred and so the need for this particular piece in the choral Canon presented the opportunity for singing a new work from the romantic era.” www.LaurieDeLeonne.com