WHITE SALMON — A free concert on June 22 at United Methodist Church, 341 N. Main Ave., White Salmon, will feature Broadway tunes, jazz and opera performed by local musicians. Admission is free, with donations accepted.
Featured are GORGEous Music organizer and pianist David Kelly; soprano vocalist Rebecca Gooch; Portland bass vocalist Christopher Cheek; the Hood River trio All Jazz Considered; and Joel Rodriguez, pastor of United Methodist, who will perform his “closing song” in the Gorge before moving to a Stanwood, Washington, church, Kelly said.
Songs from Phantom of the Opera, Oklahoma, South Pacific and Don Giovanni will be included with jazz and Verdi, Brahms and Rachmaninov.
Rodriguez migrated from Central America to the United States and has served as a pastor in the United Methodist Church in Yakima and White Salmon for several years. He is also a guitarist and singer.
In January, he wrote the following, addressed to the Hood River Latino Network:
“I did not choose migration as a destination but found it imposed by life, ‘without wanting to, yet without another choice.’ I was born in Costa Rica, ‘the land that saw my first light,’ but I carry deep within me my beloved Honduras, the land of my parents. Among the mountains and sunrises of Central America, my story took its first steps. Yet violence, poverty, and insecurity tore me from that land. The way the world has been ‘ordered’ forced me onto a path I never would have chosen. I had no option but to ‘pack my story and my dreams to carry them on a journey toward a new horizon, a new life.’
“... With every step we take, with every sacrifice, we build new paths and hopes. We are a testimony that although one carries their homeland in their heart, the true homeland of every human being is dignity — it is the place where we are recognized, where our voice matters, and where our work is valued.
“To those who have migrated, I say this: your dreams matter, and your story counts. Every step in this journey speaks of an extraordinary resilience, a strength that transforms pain into hope.”
In solidarity, Kelly noted his own Scots Irish ancestors who migrated to North America before the American Revolution; his wife is Dutch-Indonesian and a naturalized citizen. “The population of the United States of America is primarily comprised of migrants from outside our borders,” Kelly noted.
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