The Island Community Chorus will open the 2008 season of programs at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs with a concert at 8 p.m. this Saturday, July 5.

The chorus of more than 100 voices, under the direction of Peter Boak and accompanied by L. Garrett Brown at the Tabernacle’s nine-foot Steinway piano, will present a program of music designed for the holiday weekend, music whose variety pays tribute to the richness of the American experience.

The program will include Irving Berlin’s setting of Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, from the poem written by Emma Lazarus and inscribed beneath the Statue of Liberty. The chorus will sing two pieces from Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Elijah, reprising its April performance to a packed house at the Performing Arts Center. It will sing American folk songs, spirituals, show tunes and songs in French and Italian. And from the director’s podium, Mr. Boak will invite the Tabernacle audience to join in the singing of America the Beautiful and Down by the Riverside.

This is the 11th summer in which the Island Community Chorus has been invited to give the first concert on the Camp Ground. Says Robert Cleasby, director of programs for the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association: “It’s a great tradition and a wonderful way for us to start the summer.”

There’s no charge for admission to Saturday’s concert; a freewill offering will be gathered. The next morning, in a ceremony after Sunday services in the Tabernacle, the Camp Meeting Association flag will be raised for another summer season.