KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
This Sunday a group of Kodiak’s male and female vocal enthusiasts will put on a winter song concert. Jenny Stevens has been directing her male vocal group, the Alpha Singers, for about five years.
“There’s between 10 and 12 guys. They get together every night and sing their hearts out and have a lot of fun. As one guy said, we schedule our whole lives around Monday night rehearsal.”
The Alpha Singers will be in Sunday’s concert, but Stevens said they won’t be the only vocalists performing. She recently formed a women’s singing group, the Song Warriors, and they will also be singing seasonal songs for the event.
Meredith Pippin is a member of the Song Warriors and said she’s always loved singing with groups, so she was happy to find one here in the Kodiak community.
“We get together every Wednesday night at Jenni’s house at about 7 p.m. and we have a folder of music and we start reading through it and go from there. Sometimes we have moments where we’re just singing as if we’re professionals, but really it’s just a group of us who love to sing, not only who love sing but to sing in a group and with other people.”
Darcy Stielstra performs with the Alpha Singers and said the male group practices once a week as well.
“We randomly select music, Jenny usually does most of the music selection, but sometimes the guys get involved in picking music as well. And we do a lot of variety. We have spiritual music we commonly do but we also do many other forms of music: folk, sometimes hip hop, sometimes period music as well. We’ll jump into the 50s, the 60s and 70s. We do some old tunes and contemporary as well. So it’s a lot of variety.”
Stevens said the Alpha Singers usually put on a holiday concert of some sort, but this year they decided to hold one later in the season and include the Song Warriors. She said Sunday’s concert will be a little bit of everything and should cater to many musical tastes.
“It’s a combination of some sacred contemporary sacred music and winter songs and some old favorites. There are some small ensembles, there are a couple duets. It’s a little different from what we’ve done in the past but it’s really, really a nice balanced program.”
Pippin said it will be unique opportunity for the Kodiak community to see their friends and neighbors perform musically.
“It’s a good well rounded concert with different types of styles and I think that’s what’s going to be really interesting, and that most of us are just community members who just want to sing. And I think that that’s what’s so much fun about it is we’re all willing to be a part of us, that no one is making us and that we do it because we love it so much.”)
The Winter Song concert will be at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Little School of Dance on Rezanof Drive. Admission will be donation based and seating will be limited.
