Best of the Halalisa Singers: Favorites from 25 Years of Singing

The Halalisa Singers under the direction of Artistic Director Mary Cunningham reprise highlights from their extensive repertoire in Best of The Halalisa Singers: Favorites from 25 Years of Singing. The group’s 30 singers hail from Arlington, Ayer, Boston, Chelmsford, Lexington, Lincoln, Lowell, Maynard, Medford, Newton, Reading, Sudbury, Watertown, West Roxbury, Winchester, and Woburn. They will be accompanied by percussionist Bertram Lehmann and pianist Trevor Berens. Tickets are $20, $15 advance. For information call 781-648-5579, email info@halalisa.org, or visit www.halalisa.org.

• Saturday, April 7, 8 p.m. at Follen Church, 755 Massachusetts Ave.,
• Sunday, April 8, 3 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading, 239 Woburn St.,

Among the pieces to be performed are Eric Whitacre’s luscious “Seal Lullaby,” Nick Page’s lively arrangement of “Hamishar Asar,” Joan Szymko’s African-influenced “It Takes a Village,” and Paul Halley’s monumental “Freedom Trilogy,” a piece that weaves Western classical music, popular South African songs, and “Amazing Grace” in a tour de force of choral power. “Abun D’bash’maiyo” presents a gorgeous setting of the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic. The Macedonian “Sto Mi e Milo” offers the unparalleled rhythmic joy of Balkan music, while Morten Lauridsen’s choral classic “Sure on This Shining Night” overflows with lush, exquisite harmonies.

Spirituals have long been a Halalisa staple, and the group brings back some of its most crowd pleasing with “Home in d’Rock,” “Lord, I Know I Been Changed,” “This Little Light of Mine,” and Sweet Honey in the Rock’s poignant and powerful “Ella’s Song.”

Comic relief comes in the form of the Irish song “Rakes of Mallow,” about the cads and rascals from the town of Mallow in County Cork. The Japanese round “Hotaru Koi” invites smiles with its precise and delicate homage to the firefly. The group goes south of the border with a rousing rendition of the Cuban favorite “Guantanamera.”