King (or queen) of cake

Someone will be crowned king and queen Sunday evening at the Huntington Beach Central Library.

Granted, they won’t be king and queen of anything in particular. But they do get to wear crowns and have a slice of cake.

The Alliance Française of Orange County, the local chapter of a worldwide organization that promotes French language and culture, plans to host a concert of French and American music Sunday. After the show, organizers will wheel out the Galette des Rois, a traditional French cake served during January, and divide it among the patrons.

The Galette des Rois has a small item — typically either a bean or a figurine — hidden somewhere inside, and whoever finds it in his or her piece is named king or queen and has to buy the next round of cakes during the ongoing celebration. The winner at Sunday’s concert won’t have to do that last part, but he or she will get to choose a member of the opposite sex to be the other half of the royal couple.

Therese Ballet-Lynn, the president of the Orange County chapter, stressed that the figurine wouldn’t be edible.

“Whoever thinks they’re going to swallow the bean had better think twice,” she said.

It will be one of many unmistakably French touches at the show, where Huntington Beach pianist Vern Nelson, a regular at the library, will team with singer Tra Nguyen for a program of French classical and American pop songs.

Nguyen, a retired doctor who grew up speaking French in Vietnam and joined the Alliance last year, got the gig — his first formal concert — after Ballet-Lynn heard him sing at a members’ meeting. His repertoire contains some French material as well as hits by Nat King Cole, Andy Williams and other singers he heard upon coming to America.

“Over there, there was nothing to listen to,” said Nguyen, who moved to the U.S. in 1973. “When I came over here, I heard those songs.”

Nelson, who performs monthly concerts at the library, has a program of Debussy and Ravel, among others, ready for Sunday.

“Most of the French music we play is late 19th, early 20th century, and it’s called Impressionism,” he said. “It’s similar to a lot of the Impressionist painters we’re used to looking at. It’s got kind of an ethereal quality — sensual, you might say.”

That style, Nelson said, has a historical component as well, as French composers were trying to assert their own technique.

“All around the world, they were trying to find their own voices,” he said.

“They’d been dominated by Germany since Beethoven, at least.”

If You Go

Who: Vern Nelson, piano, and Tra Nguyen, singer

Where: Huntington Beach Central Library, Room C, 7111 Talbert Ave.

When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $5 for Alliance members, $10 for nonmembers

RSVP: (949) 251-1610