Council Oak Men's Chorale concert

Council Oak Men's Chorale concert travels a circuitous path

Courtesy The chorale, led by Elizabeth Curtis, will perform 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the DoengesTheatre of theTulsa Performing Arts Center.

By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
4/27/2007

Maybe the idea for the Council Oak Men's Chorale upcoming concert isn't exactly head-spinning, but it does offer an intriguing spin on how to program a show.

The chorale, led by Elizabeth Curtis, will present "360 Degrees of Music" at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Doenges Theatre of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Second Street and Cincinnati Avenue.

Tickets for the show are $15 each, and available by calling the PAC Ticket office at 596-7111, and online at www.MyTicketOffice.com.

"So much of our lives involves circles," Curtis said. "Why shouldn't music link together in a similar fashion?"

The way the concert will do that is to take 22 seemingly unrelated songs -- pop songs, Broadway tunes, folk melodies from Russia, spirituals and hymns, even a bit of musical mischief by P.D.Q. Bach -- and find ways to link them together so that the last song harkens back to the first.

"As each song ends, it will connect to the next, until we have traveled 360 degrees, back to the first song," Curtis said.

That first song will be "Festival Hosanna" by Kansas City-based composer Mary Lynn Lightfoot. The final song of the show will be "Toccata of Praise" by Joseph M. Martin, a well-regarded and prolific composer of sacred music.

In between will be everything from Bobby Darin's novelty "Splish Splash" and the doo-wop classic "The Great Pretender," to the Russian folk song "Dark Eyes" and the hymn "How Can I Keep From Singing?"

The concert also will feature flutist Tammy Kirk, and a few songs will be choreographed by Phyllis Brown.

By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer