NAHANT – The gentlemen of the Apollo Club of Boston will perform at Nahant Town Hall Sunday at 3 p.m.
Concert admission is free, but donations to the Friends of Nahant Public Library will be welcomed. Refreshments will be offered following the show.
“This is their first time coming back since COVID, and it’s exciting for everybody to be able to return,” said Nahant Public Library Director Sharon Hawkes.
She also said that in the past a couple of the performers in the club were Nahant residents, and at the end of the concert the group traditionally performs the “Nahant Hymn,” written in 1990 by Nahant residents Susan Dineen and Robert Risch. At their concert this year, the group will also feature their sea song and sea chantey group, “Three Sheets to the Wind.”
The Apollo Club is a member of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium. Its spring concert in Nahant is an annual event, along with their other annual performance – a Christmas concert at the Gordon Chapel of Old South Church in Copley Square. The Club performs for a variety of civic, religious, residential, and professional organizations throughout the Greater Boston area.
The Boston Public Library recently presented an extensive exhibit of the club’s rich history, highlighting the part it has played in Boston’s musical traditions. The Massachusetts Historical Society accepted the club’s archives for preservation and for supporting scholarly research on their role in the advancement of choral music in the Commonwealth.
Apollo Club of Boston is the second-oldest men’s choral group in the country, known for their confident and expressive voices. Founded in 1871, the club has a long choral singing history.
In 1874, the Apollo Club sang at the funeral services of State Sen. Charles Sumner and received a note of appreciation from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
In 1901, the club was invited to sing at President William McKinley’s memorial service at Faneuil Hall. When the George Francis Parkman Memorial Bandstand was dedicated on the Boston Common in 1924, 79 Apollo members sang to the accompaniment of the Boston Municipal Band.
In its 150-plus years of existence, the Apollo Club has evolved from a large chorus with a classical music orientation to a club. Today the group is made up of approximately 25 business and professional men with a repertoire ranging from folk songs, love ballads, and show tunes, to a selection of classical and semi-classical music pieces.
The club’s purpose is to promote musical literacy and an appreciation of the art of men’s choral music, and to share with the audiences the pleasure of men’s voices. For more information, please contact Library Director Sharon Hawkes at (781)-581-0306 or visit the Apollo Club of Boston website at https://www.apolloclub.org/.
Oksana Kotkina can be reached at [email protected].
