The Park City Treble Makers are ready to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.
But the community concert, which will be held May 31 at Park City Community Church, will not be all “Stars and Stripes Forever.”
Instead, the all-female a cappella chorus’ performance will be “America Sings,” said Artistic Director Colleen Earnshaw.
“I didn’t want all patriotic music,” she said. “I wanted music that made America.”
While the performance will feature the piece “America, My Country,” a medley of songs that include “America the Beautiful,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “You’re a Grand Ole Flag,” it will also feature music from different time periods and genres,” Earnshaw said.
“I tried to touch on things that helped form who we are today,” she said. “It was really kind of fun choosing songs because we had a title, and I thought we could just pull music from American composers.”
The song list includes a new version of “Simple Gifts,” an old Shaker hymn, and “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” and “Down in the River to Pray,” which Johnny Cash and Allison Krauss have recorded, respectively.
“(The last two) represent the Black spirituals, and I wanted to make sure we would pay tribute to and honor the slaves,” Earnshaw said.
Speaking of the Civil War period, the Park City Treble Makes will perform “All the Pretty Little Horses,” also known as “Hush-a-By,” and “Shenendoah,” according to Earnshaw.
“The ‘Shenendoah” arrangement is a new one by Kirby Shaw,” she said. “We haven’t done this arrangement before, and it’s very haunting.”
Continuing in that similar vein will be and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” Earnshaw said.
“This is such a great piece, and I did it for us, the Park City Treble Makers,” she said. “It’s a gospel hymn, and the message of us being a circle singing together means a lot.”
The concert will also honor American musicals with “Do, Re, Mi,” from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s, “The Sound of Music.”
“The ‘Sound of Music’ was one of the earliest musicals that put that genre on the map,” Earnshaw said. “There were some that came before that, but this musical is iconic. And we’re doing it in a way that people can sing along with us.”
“The Sound of Music” also boasts a Park City connection.
The late Heather Menzies Urich, who played Lousia in Robert Wise’s 1965 film adaptation with Julie Andrews, lived in Park City. She and her late husband, Robert Urich, of TV fame, helped establish Park City Performing Arts and the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts.
Park City Treble Makers will follow the musical wave with “For Good” from “Wicked,” which will unofficially serve as a prelude to Edina Menzel’s upcoming Aug. 8 performance at the Deer Valley Music Festival with the Utah Symphony.
Taking the musical cue, Earnshaw will lead the chorus in a nod to Disney.
“We have a medley of ‘A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes’ from ‘Cinderella’ with ‘Once Upon a Dream’ from ‘Sleeping Beauty,’” she said.
Earnshaw also wanted to pay tribute to World War II, so she selected Don Raye and Hughie Prince’s 1941 hit, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” which was recorded by The Andrews Sisters. And she continued the jazz flavor with “Feeling Good.”
“We did this last year,” Earnshaw said. “It’s all about that smokey jazz sound, and it’s awesome.”
American pop music is also represented in the program, according to Earnshaw.
“Taking a jump, we’ll perform some pop music going back to the (late 1950s) with ‘Blue Moon,’” she said.
The song, made famous by the Marcels’ doo-wop version, was actually written in 1934 by “Sound of Music” composer Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Lorenz Hart, before Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein.
“Then we’ll also do some ’80s pop, with Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time,” Earnshaw said. “This is a fun a cappella piece, and it’s great. We listened to Billy Joel a lot during the ’80s.”
One of Park City Treble Makers Soprano Renee Mox Hall noticed Joel borrowed quite a bit from the doo-wop style.
“All of us keep confusing ‘The Longest Time’ with ‘Blue Moon’ because they have such a similar feel to them,” she said.
The concert will also include other popular songs — Leonard Cohen’s trademark, “Hallelujah,” Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me” and the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.”
Earnshaw began thinking about honoring America’s 250th right before Christmas last year.
“When we finish Christmas, we have a couple of months before we start rehearsing for our spring concert, but I don’t have a couple of months,” she said. “I have to get everything ready, and besides finding the music, I make recordings of the singers’ individual parts so they can learn them.”
Coming up with the theme early helped Earnshaw, Mox Hall said.
“While I think it’s also effective to have a theme, Colleen also has to put some time into how all of these things fit together,” she said. “She has to figure out what the commonalities of the pieces are, so you don’t end up with a mish-mash.”
Mox Hall also designed the concert’s program cover.
“(It) features a border derived from an award-winning quilt created by our director, Colleen Earnshaw,” she said. “Like songs, patchwork quilts conveyed messages, recorded important events and brought people together socially. ‘America Sings’ represents the 250 years of the United States and, like a quilt, tells a story of our history.”
In addition to the May 31 concert at Park City Community Church, the Park City Treble Makers will perform May 21 at Spring Gardens in Heber City, a spring salon concert on May 23 and at the Park City Senior Center on May 26.
This year marks the chorus’ first Spring Salon, Earnshaw said.
“We have performed a winter salon concert, but not one in the spring,” he said. “So, we’re excited to give ourselves more opportunities to sing and create contacts with new audiences.”
The chorus will also perform at a May 24 Park City Community Church service and on Memorial Day morning at the Park City Cemetery.
“The Park City Community Church has always been so kind in letting us use their facilities,” Earnshaw said. “They have been such a great support for us, and that church is so lovely. So we want to pay the back somehow.”
Earshaw also hopes the community concert will touch those who attend.
“With America celebrating its 250th anniversary, I want to encourage people to just be kind and not cruel, Americans who love each other,” she said.
Park City Treble Makers Community Concert: ‘America Sings’
- When: 4 p.m. May 31
- Where: Park City Community Church, 4501 N. S.R. 224
- Cost: $12 in advance or $15 for adults and $5 for children ages 12 and younger at the door
- Venmo: Venmo@PCtreble-makers. Note: the name on the Venmo account is Jon Pierce.
- Web: parkcitytreblemakers.org