by Denise Reed
Guest column in The Astorian
8/18/20
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the North Coast Chorale.
While I’m sure singers are singing to themselves at home from time to time, the coronavirus pandemic has brought this community’s sharing of artistic expression to a sudden hault.
Beginning in January, the chorale was planning a yearlong celebration of our 30th anniversary. The year was to include two performances of Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” in March with the River City Singers of St. Helens.
Concerts in May were to have featured favorite songs selected by chorale singers from previous programs. The chorale had also planned our seasonal Handel’s “Messiah” sing-and-play along benefiting the regional food bank and two concerts of holiday music.
All performers create something from nothing. Since music exists in time, then it is only music when it moves in time. Something vibrates and awakens the spiritual inside of the listener. It is a complex process that we all may have forgotten without live music over the last six months.
To put this sudden silence into perspective, here are some facts from 29 years of music making:
• Sixteen performances of Handel’s “Messiah”; 14 with community instrumentalists as a benefit for local food banks raising over $15,000
• Presenting at least 116 concerts requiring over 2,320 hours of rehearsal focusing on a wide diversity of subjects and themes
• Many concerts were accompanied by guest artists who were compensated by the chorale to the tune of approximately $20,000
• Concerts by the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, Vancouver Orpheus Male Choir and two female choral groups from Portland Community College, with some as benefits for the Clatsop Community College Performing Arts Center
A memorable concert of Handel’s “Messiah” at the Liberty Theatre fell on a night when snow and ice blanketed most of Astoria. All of the singers showed up. After the concert, Astorian Don Morden shared with me that his wife, Anne, put the chains on their car tires so they could drive on the hills.
The tenor soloist was unable to make the concert so yours truly sung the beginning recitative and aria. The audience was composed of maybe 30 people.
We performed Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” the next time we were at the Liberty in 2008. There were over 60 singers and 28 instrumentalists. The auditorium was filled with over 400 attendees. Astoria’s favorite Deac Guidi played Elijah.
During our 20th anniversary in 2010, we presented a program of favorite music from the seven directors of the chorale.
Some of the notable music the chorale has sung over the years: performances with the Clatsop County Children’s Chorus of Rutter’s “Mass of the Children”; the Bach and Rutter “Magnificat”; Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols”; a bicentennial concert of folk music from the various nationalities that settled in Astoria; “The Voyage,” a commissioned work by local composer Barbara Poulshock; “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace,” by Karl Jenkins; “Songs of the Earth” music based on Native American poetry and prayers; a concert of spirituals and gospel, jazz, folk and holiday music of many cultures and customs; and many more individual selections of great choral music in many languages. We also presented two staged productions of Menotti’s opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” and the musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
The chorale has also performed with local ensembles like the Astoria Music Festival, Cascadia Chamber Opera and the North Coast Symphonic Band, sang at care and retirement centers and displayed art by local artists and college students at performances.
Throughout our 29 years we have had one singular goal: to touch the hearts of our audience with our music.
We urge you to be patient and wait for us to serenade you again with more music. Consider this an intermission. Our group may not look the same, but our desire to uplift you with our singing will be the same.
We truly appreciate your undying support for the past 29 years.