"It's a Lark," on June 5 and 6, is Harmonium Choral Society's celebration of spring, and the close of their 30th season. This amazing concert runs the gamut of inspirations from Bach through Monteverdi to the Beatles. In fact, I'm getting a wee bit ahead of myself.

The concert begins with the Claudio Monteverdi's joyous "Vago Augeletto," or wandering bird. Joy and pain alternate, as it does in life, and the melody flits, as birds do, among the chorus and the soloists. Joining soprano Heather Baxter, soprano II Kathy Ornstein, and alto Beth Shirley, are tenor Emmanuel Meli and basses James Douglas and John Lamb. The artful selection of the timbre of these voices is highlighted further by the acoustics of the lovely Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, New Jersey, where the concerts are held. The sweet spots the soloists find enhance their natural talents, all, providing "Grace" notes to a nuanced concert.

Guest conductor Ronald E. Verblaauw conducts John Barlets's "Of All the Birds," a fetching Renaissance piece, artfully led and sung. Then a sweet Felix Mendelssohn suite, including "Die Nachtigall" and "Die Waldvogelein," helmed by conducting intern, Marty Sedek. The Mendelssohn pieces make for a pairing of the proper balance of light and sweet with soothing, with one a lullaby and one a calling forth to the joys of spring, and both very Teutonic in harmony and alpine in structure, pure European homespun sugar.

Changing pace and countries, Imant Raminsh' 20th century "Bye, Bye Baby" featured soprano Sarah Kuhns in a relaxing simple piece granting simple peace, with a canon-esque section sounding like birdflight. This was followed with Aaron Copland's "Lark," featuring Jason Haddox as the baritone in the performance I saw, while Greg Voinier will do Sunday's honors. Charlies Villier Stanford's "The Blue Bird" formed a delicious bridge to Leonard Bernstein's "French Choruses from 'The Lark'," which were originally incidental music for 20th century playwright Jean Anouilh's play about Joan of Arc. Including "Spring Song" featuring Joe Keefe's pure counter tenor, "Court Song" with soprano soloist Virginia Hicks, and the martial "Soldier's Song" accompanied by a martial tambour, a small flat drum whose reedy deep voice bounded up to the vaulted ceiling of Grace, while we bathed in the glow of the stunning stained glass windows, it was a brilliant way to bring the musical journey of Act I to a close.

Act II brought further delight. Harmonium Chamber Singers presented a short program including more Monteverdi in "Quel Augellin Che Chanta," and what goes more with spring than the lilt of Italian song? "Corpus Christi Carol," featuring soloists Caitlyn Roper, Marilyn Kitchell, Kiera Casper, Ted Roper, Ben Schroeder, and Chris Jacoby, segued into the more modern "Sparrow's Jig" and thence to Beatles favorite "Blackbird," arranged by classically trained composer Daryl Runswick. In the program notes, we learn that Sir Paul and George Harrison incorporated Bach's Bourrée in E minor into the guitar accompaniment for the piece and used it to show off as youngsters.

Student Composition Contest winner Tim Laciano's piece is sung one hundred voices strong as his "Hark, Hark! The Lark!" is presented, featuring Ken Short in the tenor solo. This is a superb 21st century lead in to what is, for me, the guiltiest pleasure of the event-Mozart's "Missa Brevis in C," the Sparrow Mass, K. 220. Honoring us with solos are Ellie Escher, soprano, Cathy Solomon, alto, tenor Matthew Shurts, and bass George Aronson. I say guilty pleasure because for me this is a Baroque-flavored hat trick-a string section, including upright bass, several violins, viola, cello and trumpets, combined with glorious voices, in an acoustically and visually rich space. Mass needed to be over quickly, back in the day, so Mozart was enjoined to write something that ran less than an hour. Thank goodness he was up to the task! The sparrow keening we hear from the strings reminds us that spring is always within.

While still rolling the flavor of Mozart around the mind, we come to the final piece of the concert, which is Ward Swingle's "It Was A Lover and His Lass," with Adam Aguanno and Laura Kosmich on solos. Their voices blend like honey and the spare features and open song are captivating. Harmonically tasty, as well as painting the picture of lovers inspired, it sent us off into sweet warmth, one hundred voices strong, tender and ringing in the summer by celebrating a late spring evening.

Learn more about Harmonium Choral Society's upcoming season at their website, www.harmonium.org, and friend them on Facebook. You'll be glad you did.