Photos by Patrick Webb
ABOVE: Milt Williams conducts the Bayside Singers during a rehearsal at the Ocean Park Lutheran
Church. LEFT: Patten learned a musical piece in German ahead of the upcoming Bayside Singers
concert series. RIGHT: Christl Mack of the Bayside Singers.
Bayside Singers embrace
Schubert and show tunes
Peninsula music group
plans two concerts
BY PATRICK WEBB
Bayside Singers perform
Chinook School, 810 U.S. Highway 101, Chinook, Washington, Saturday at 2 p.m.
Ocean Park Lutheran Church, 24002 U St., Ocean Park, Washington, May 21 at 2 p.m.
Donations will be accepted at the door.
When Milt Williams thumbed through
his musical options for directing the next
Bayside Singers concert, he chose a Franz
Schubert piece called “Ständchen,” or
“serenade.”
It didn’t worry Williams that the song’s
lyrics are in German. He had an ace up
his sleeve, two in fact. Soloist Andrea Pat-
ten, who serves as the president of the Long
Beach Peninsula based singing group, has
German roots. Her friend Christl Mack,
who has been singing with the group since
it began, is also from Germany. Patten was
delighted, although she and former director
Barbara Poulshock weren’t familiar with the
1827 piece.
“Unexpectedly, Milt included a piece by
Schubert, neither Barbara nor I had known,
that has me singing with a chorus accompa-
nying my solo part, the chorus mostly echo-
ing my part, in German, no less.” Patten
said. She declared that the singers rose to the
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www.facebook.com/bayside.singers.
challenge in rehearsals. “It was quite a val-
iant effort on their part to learn the German,
21 pages of it,” she said. “Of course, Christl
was much help, and we both trained the
women in pronunciation.”
The Bayside Singers will include “Ständ-
chen” in two concerts this month.
Bayside members curtailed activities
during the pandemic, holding off on their
annual pre-Christmas show , but gathered
remotely on occasion. However, the unex-
pected break meant that many group mem-
bers drifted away. Members cautiously
resumed in-person rehearsals last summer,
masked and spaced well apart at the Ocean
Park Lutheran Church.
Two pieces they embraced last summer
will be featured in their upcoming shows.
The group will present “You’ll Never Walk
Alone” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
“Carousel” and Tim Osiek’s modern arrange-
ment of the old spiritual “Like a River in My
Soul.” Other Broadway hits planned for the
group’s performances include the title song
from Rodgers’ “Oklahoma!,” “They Call
the Wind Maria,” from Alan Jay Lerner and
Frederick Loewe’s “Paint Your Wagon,” and
“One” by Marvin Hamlisch.
Williams took over leadership of the
group from Poulshock some years ago after
he retired to a 5acre farm in Oysterville,
Washington. His career as a music educa-
tor included many years teaching at the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, and Stan-
ford University. He has sung professionally
in Europe and directed or assisted with per-
formances of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,”
including one at the Vatican.
His baritone voice will also be heard. “We
are very much looking forward to the piece
from ‘Les Miserables,’ ‘Bring Him Home,’
in which Milt will sing the solo part, though
brief, but gorgeous,” Patten said. The song
is presented almost in the form of a prayer,
in which a man worries about the survival of
his young friend as a group of revolutionary
youth storm the French barricades.
The Bayside Singers first came together
under Sandy Nielsen 15 years ago. Poul-
shock was then an accompanist and later
became the group’s director. Bayside now
has a new accompanist, Janet Williams, who
was Milt Williams’ choral and recital accom-
panist for more than 50 years.
Patten spends significant time recruiting
new voices for the group. Tenor, bass and
soprano voices are still needed. But despite
this, she is enthused about the group’s return
to live performances. “Very excited about
singing back in vivo, though we still have a
dire shortage of singers,” she said. “But we
are very much hoping to be able to sing with-
out masks next fall, and that will hopefully
bring our numbers back up a little.”