The alert about a last-minute concert at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House came too late for an announcement in the newspaper. Jennifer Shannon, president of the congregation, emailed on Friday night to say that the Harvard University Choir would be singing on Wednesday afternoon.
The students and their conductor, Edward Elwyn Jones, were supposed to have been in Copenhagen, Denmark for a long-planned end-of-semester concert tour. But the news about customs and immigration enforcement had grown progressively worse over the winter and spring. Twelve members of the choir are international students, and “people were having trouble at the border,” Jones said. The group decided to cancel their trip rather than risk having some members unable to return to Cambridge.
This all happened before many of the president’s actions targeting the university, including his proclamation barring all international students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard. “We made the right decision,” said Jones.
The choirmaster, an organist and native of Wales, quickly organized a substitute local concert tour, with performances in Boston and Beverly. He wanted to bring the choir to Cape Cod, and an organist friend said, “You must go to Provincetown.” Jones called the Rev. Kate Wilkinson and asked if the chorus could come here. She said yes.
They didn’t expect a crowd. “They said it doesn’t matter if 10 people or even two show up,” said Jen Shannon. “They are just grateful for the opportunity to make music.”
News of the upcoming performance spread, and at 2 p.m. last Wednesday the Meeting House was full. When the young singers started down the aisle to the front of the church, the crowd erupted in a roar that shook the rafters.
“It was amazing,” said Jones. “We had good receptions at the other two concerts — but not a standing ovation before we sang a note.”
It was an unforgettable moment in a town that is unlike any other.
The Rev. Kate welcomed them. “Provincetown knows something about adversity, disappointment, and fear,” she said. “But we also know about the balm to the soul which is the solidarity of allies. Please keep singing. Keep being your full selves in the world. And keep looking out for each other. That’s how we’re all going to get through this.”
The music was heart-rending, from Nathaniel Dett’s “Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler” to Andrea Ramsey’s “That Which Remains,” with words by Helen Keller: “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose: a sunset, a mountain bathed in moonlight, the ocean in calm and in storm…. All that we love deeply becomes part of us.”
Afterward, conductor Jones spoke of the cruelty being visited on his students who don’t know if they will be able to come back to school in the fall — and of what musicmaking means at such times. “I’ve never taken for granted what we do as a choir,” he said. “It is more important and more needed than ever.”
