One of the finest things about the Oratorio Chorale since Emily Isaacson took over as director is the movement from classical music as a spectator sport to a fully participatory activity for musicians, singers and the audience. That was evident in Isaacson’s first year with the baton, when she put together a program called “Shakespeare in Concert,” which included music performed for various Shakespearean plays, bringing in lecturers, actors, poetry recitals, and the Chorale to put together an amazingly intimate performance.

The preparation for such an event must be daunting. One doesn’t merely put together a repertoire and rehearse it with the singers; one has to identify particular soloists, find lecturers, costuming, artwork, and possibly actors as well.

But the Oratorio Chorale has done this every year since Isaacson’s inaugural. It’s not just music, it’s the full panoply of human creative endeavor. And it’s what the Oratorio Chorale does best.

Now, they’ve added history to the mix. This year, the theme was Negro spirituals, from pre-emancipation until the modern day. Isaacson said that even though she’d lived in Maine most of her life, she knew nothing about Maine’s rich history of the Underground Railroad and the Portland Abyssinian Meeting House, and so, she went to them and asked them to teach her about it. Members of the meeting house came to give a history lesson on the Underground Railroad that ferried slaves from the deep south to safety and security in Canada and other locations. Artwork by Ashley Bryan highlighted the tragedy and horror of slavery, while Judith Casselberry, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College provided readings by Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Bernice Johnson Reagon, to tie the musical offerings together.

The chorale, smaller groups of chorale members and soloists within the chorale performed a heady selection of Negro spirituals. They were joined by soprano Mary Sullivan, soloist in residence for this season, and counter tenor Reginald Mobley.

Mobley was simply spectacular. Despite being 6’3” with the body of a linebacker, Mobley’s delicate counter-tenor, somewhere in the treble II range, rang clearly and purely like a King’s College boy soloist. The sweetness of his voice was lightly underscored at times by the piano of Scott Wheatley. At other times, Mobley sang a capella, with the lovely voice soaring to the rafters of St. Paul’s Church in Brunswick, borne on the wings of unseen angels.

The bright spring afternoon paled in comparison to the beauty within the walls. Mobley’s Precious Lord, a post-emancipation spiritual written by Thomas A. Dorsey in 1932 and adapted to a previous musical piece written by George N. Allen, was the highlight of Mobley’s performance. He was joined by the chorale’s small ensemble, and together, they received a standing ovation.

The audience was invited to join in for several numbers, and to respond by clapping, swaying, foot-tapping, and more. Mary Sullivan sang the song she made known in the Christmas Concert, Mary Had a Baby, and she was joined for solo parts by Chorale members Natalie Landry, Jenna Quiggery, and Leah Israel in Wade in the Water.

If we are fortunate indeed, “Amazing Grace” will return to the Oratorio Chorale’s lineup sometime in the years to come. But in any case, don’t let their next season pass you by. The Chorale is a Midcoast treasure.