Singers across pond hosting group from another Braintree

The Braintree Choral Society rehearsed to sing with its British counterpart on a trip this week. (Braintree Choral Society)

A score of regional singers based in Braintree is making an international connection this week as they travel to England to perform with the UK's identically named Braintree Choral Society in a joint concert in England's Essex County.

On the way, the local chorus will also perform in London in one of the city's historic churches, St. James Church in Piccadilly Square.

Designed by Christopher Wren, England's noted 17th-century architect, St. James is famous for being the musical home of greats and the religious home of the fashionable set.

"I actually attended a concert in St. James," said Carole Zarenski of Abington, the local choral society's vice president who visits England frequently because her son lives there, "and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could perform here.' "

The fact that her wish came true involves a bit of serendipity.

The local Braintree Choral Society discovered the existence of the English Braintree group by accident in an Internet search. Member Kathy Mullen, a former president, then met one of the English group's members on a trip a few years ago and the two societies discussed collaborating. Last year, the English Braintree Choral Society invited its Massachusetts counterpart over to do a joint concert to celebrate its 40th anniversary in Braintree, England.

The two choruses will perform the program the English group sang at its first concert - music by English and American composers and also by another classical great with strong English connections, Felix Mendelssohn, some of whose works were premiered in England.

The joint concert will take place Saturday at St. Peter ad Vincula Church in Coggeshall, where the 16th-century church sits on a site on which Saxons and Normans had earlier built churches.

The Massachusetts Braintree group will then return to the South Shore to present its spring concert, fittingly named "Atlantic Crossing," on May 3 at the First Congregational Church in Braintree.

Choral society members are paying their own way to England, but the group did receive a donation toward expenses from the Braintree Rotary Club. As a result, it will present the flag of the American Rotary to the Braintree, England, Rotary Club.

The regional choral group's 35 members (not all are making the trip) range from ages 17 to 85, with members from Scituate to Boston. Paula Tennant of Braintree is president.

The Atlantic Crossing concert, to be performed on both sides of the Atlantic with some variations, will feature Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise," a three-movement choral symphony written in 1840 (the cause for praise was the invention of printing); "Five Mystical Songs" by 20th-century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams; and "I Was Glad" by Sir Hubert Parry, the musical setting of Psalm 122, a work widely used by the Church of England and traditionally sung at the coronation of English monarchs. The psalm celebrates Jerusalem.

The program also includes works by American composers: three 18th-century hymns by William Billings; four American folk songs orchestrated by 20th-century composer Aaron Copland ("At the River," "I Bought Me A Cat," "Simple Gifts," and "Ching-a-Ring Chaw"; two widely sung settings of Robert Frost poems by Randall Thompson, "The Road Not Taken" and "Something Like A Star"; and a medley of songs from the musical, "Carousel" by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

"I'm just loving it so much," Zarenski said of learning to sing the work.

Though England has a long musical tradition - stretching from Elizabethan composers like John Dowland and William Byrd to 20th-century giants like Vaughn Williams, Benjamin Britten, and Sir Edward Elgar - Massachusetts' Braintree Choral Society is older than their Braintree's, dating its founding to 1925.

For its return performance on May 3, the Braintree Choral Society will include more Broadway favorites in its 7 p.m. concert at the church at 12 Elm St. Tickets are $15, and $12 for seniors and students.

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.