After coming together in 2004 to create a one time sound as the Arts Ballard Festival Choir for the September Ballard Art Walk, five years later the now known Market Street Singers still sings on and will be celebrating their 5th anniversary with a free concert in Ballard this month.

The Arts Ballard Festival Choir was created in 2004 and grew out of a community desire for a performance art festival associated with the Ballard Art Walk.

“One of the members wanted a musical performance and they came to me to possibly pull a choir together,” said Chris Vincent, artistic director of Market Street Singers.

Posting flyers around the neighborhood and advertising in the News-Tribune, Vincent said by mid-summer they were able to pull together 30 singers, calling themselves the Arts Ballard Festival Choir. The group's first performance was for Art’fisk 2004.

After that, Vincent got a number of requests for the choir to continue on.

“We renamed ourselves as the Market Street Singers, kept rehearsing and added to our membership,” Vincent said. “It has become a 55- voice ensemble since that time.”

During the past five years, the group has performed in several venues and for events, such as Shilshole on the Pacific Rim at the Nordic Heritage Museum; All Roads Lead Home, a benefit for Habitat For Humanity and Thrivent Builds at Magnolia Lutheran Church; and Go the Distance, a benefit for the Ballard Northwest Senior Activities Center with the Sun-Hak International Youth Choir at Trinity United Methodist Church.

For its fifth anniversary this year, Market Street Singers has decided to do an anniversary concert that takes a look back at the group's highlights over the years and select pieces that represent the favorite music that has touched choir members and their audiences the most, said Vincent.

“We’re choosing favorite pieces from the past,” he said. “The concert will have a great variety of music of every kind, jazz, world, classical, just about every style and genre will be represented.”

Dedicating his time, effort and knowledge to the choir over the years, Vincent is well appreciated by choir members.

“After many years singing in a church choir, the Market Street Singers was an opportunity to sing other types and styles of music than what would be typically sung in a church,” said Russell Long, a member of the choir since the group started. “Chris Vincent was and is the type of director that teaches so much about the music and how to sing in a choir. I’ve learned much more about singing from him than I have in over 30 years singing in a church choir.”

John Marshall, owner of Episcopal Bookstore in Fremont, has also sung in several community choirs and in church choirs most of his life but sees the Market Street Singers has one of the best.

“Other notable choir directors have been instrumental directors who directed a choir, Chris Vincent has shown me what excellent choral directing is,” Marshall said. “There is a difference between making a choir sing well and making instrumentalists play well. Now I’m spoiled by Chris.”

Impressed with how the choir has grown during the past five years, Vincent said in the beginning it seem so unlikely that the organization would succeed since it’s difficult for most non-profits to compete with other performing arts organizations.

“Ballard did not have a community choir and I sensed at the time we began there would be a good response for a community choir other than choirs specifically for Scandinavian music,” Vincent said. “But I thought a general community choir where everyone was welcome and a large range of music would be sung would attract many and I was right about that.”

With a number of members now hailing from several Seattle neighborhoods, Vincent said the group's heart and soul will always be in the Ballard community.

The Market Street Singers fifth year anniversary concert is Saturday, May 30, 7:30 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church in Ballard. 6512 23rd Ave. N.W.

The chorus rehearses on Tuesday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Northwest Senior Activity Center, 5429 32nd Ave. N.W., where they cover a broad spectrum, from traditional favorites to the very unusual.

Choral singers of all ages and ranges (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) are welcome and are encouraged to join.

For more information on the free concert or the join the choir contact Chris Vincent at 297-3228 or director@ marketstreetsingers.org.