Week 3: The Harvard Din & Tonics

The bitter cold couldn't keep away a capacity crowd on Sunday afternoon for the Harvard Din & Tonics a Capella men's chorus performance at Christ Church Cathedral downtown.

We were slightly apprehensive about going to this show, mainly because we were concerned my atheist husband would spontaneously combust upon entry - but our worries were unfounded. Church and husband both survived.

Christ Church Cathedral - still standing!

The show, brought to Cincinnati with the help of the Harvard Club of Cincinnati, highlights jazz and pop standards from the 1920s to the present. The chorus features 12 phenomenally talented guys currently attending Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of whom, Will Jaroszewicz, is a local Cincinnati boy. His presence is most likely the reason the choir morphed into a tongue-in-cheek homage to Cincinnati's beloved chili with the jingle "Skyline Time" (to the tune of  "Twilight Time" by The Platters) in the middle of "Life Could Be A Dream" at the opening of the show, eliciting cheers and chuckles from the audience. Well, most of the audience anyway. An old dear sitting behind me declared it "corny."

Harvard Din & Tonics perform

The choir offered fresh arrangements of classics like "It Had To Be You," "That Old Black Magic" and "I Got Rhythm" as well as beautiful renditions of the Scottish ballad "The Water Runs Wide" and the black spiritual "My Lord What A Morning."

A select group from Cincinnati Boychoir opened the show.

This was a special, one-off performance, but Christ Church Cathedral also hosts a free music series called "Music Live at Lunch" every Tuesday from noon-1 p.m.