I’m Julia Ingram and I’ve been singing at First Church since 1982.  Mark has asked me to write some articles about our choirs and the approach I’m taking is to acquaint you with a few of the unique people who fill the choir loft each Sunday morning.  Beginning in January, look for “Meet the Choristers.”

Music is an important part of any church service, and we at First Church are blessed with an enormous music program. Four adults choirs: The Unitarian Choir, The Chamber Choir, The Chalice Choir, and the new Women’s Choir. 230 Singers. No matter which choir provides music for the service, you can be assured that every singer has made a commitment to attend the weekly rehearsals, study the music outside of rehearsals if necessary, and show up on Sunday morning at 8:15,  prepared to do their very best.

A choir is by definition a group of people who sing together, and it is the oldest form of music there is.  To sing in a choir is to become part of a single entity designed to create a unity of sound.  That’s one of the things we love about being in a choir. We breathe together, laugh together, and sometimes weep together, which happened in the Unitarian Choir recently the first time we sang through a new piece of music at our annual retreat.  I love to sight read so I eagerly opened this piece entitled Requiem, and for a moment, just glancing at it, thought it was going to be too easy to be interesting. I was wrong!  It begins with four measures of simple harmony on the piano, then the women sing ooh in unison for  several measures and then the rest of the choir comes in with, “mother, mary, full of grace, awaken. all our homes are gone, our loved ones taken. taken by the sea.” In that moment, tears sprang to my eyes, and I began to cry.

It was written as an invocation to compassion after the Asian tsunami of 2004, but the images that came to me were of the more recent one in Japan, and then of the others whose lives and homes were taken by the sea in New Orleans, and Haiti
When we finished that first read through it was obvious by the snuffles and tissue, that most of us had wept at the beauty and sentiment in the music.

So, yes, we are an entity, a hive, a gaggle, a colony, but we are also individuals, and as I said, over the next few weeks, I’m going to introduce you to a few.

But first, some data.  I recently conducted a little survey, and 98 of the 230 singers responded.  I learned that most of us have been singing since we were children (one said In the womb), but there are a couple of dozen people for whom being in the non-audition Chalice Choir is their first choral experience ever. Elizabeth Gern was in third grade when she sang the part of the Angel Gabriel in a Christmas Pageant in Zurich, Switzerland, where she was born. Gaye Rumsay-Riggs played Maria in The Sound of Music in high school in Plainfield, Indiana.  Seventy-one of us have had voice lessons and eighty took piano lessons.  Enough of us play other instruments that we could have our own band or orchestra, (well, not really, since most of us didn’t keep it up after high school) but every band and orchestra instrument except the harp was represented.  Three of us learned the accordion, three play the marimba, and we have two pipers (as in bag pipes).  Fifteen studied the clarinet, and eighteen learned to play guitar.  One of us was a band drum major, one a majorette,  and three are composers.

Fourteen choristers have university degrees in music, and several of us reported interesting experiences singing or studying abroad.  Susan Rinker sang with a British group at the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore; Christine Peterson studied an esoteric 17th century notational system in Hamburg; Ryc Williamson toured the South Seas with an army band; I sang for the wedding of a member of the royal family in Vienna, Austria.  When Joel Godbey  was 15 he won a scholarship to sing with the American Youth Chorus, and toured Europe for six weeks.  You’ll read about Sylvia Gates’ astonishing musical experience in Berlin in 1948 in our first “meet the chorister” profile in January.

We have several professionals in our numbers, too.  Six teach music, three are choral conductors (school and church), and one is a music therapist.  Several people in their younger days were members of jazz, blues or rock bands, some performed on street corners, and others for weddings and funerals. Folk singer, Diane Nealey, performed at festivals and in restaurants.   Marti Mendenhall, toured the country at a variety of jazz venues, and Carol Rossio and Dustin Hunley currently perform jazz together around town.

The survey revealed touching stories of how music brought couples together, Like Lynne Bacon who met her husband Warren in the clarinet section of their high school band,; Gail Durham and Benno Philippson met in the Portland Symphonic Choir, and when Mona Warner, and Ryc Williamson met, Ryc says, “it was love at first hearing.”

Mainly the comments revealed just how much making music means to the choir members of First Unitarian Church of Portland.  We are fortunate, and grateful to a congregation that supports the music program.

 Look for “Meet the Choristers” In January

Julia Ingram, Soprano
Unitarian Choir