Our History

    The Northwest Sacred Music Chorale didn’t spring full-blown from a single thunderclap Eureka! moment. The idea for its creation grew slowly, more from a series of divine nudges experienced by Cynthia Marlette in her youthful and adult years as she developed and honed her own musical skills. The Chorale, as she put it, “is woven so deeply into my personal life that one doesn’t make sense without the other.”
    Cynthia said she became enamored with quality classical music in high school, thanks to “an amazing choir director” who introduced the singers in a tiny Iowa school to the repertoire. She also sang with a high school Christian folk group which inspired her to form her own such group in college. After graduation she directed church choirs, formed a number of children’s choirs and created a successful contemporary Christian choir in Sioux City, Iowa. Cynthia also accompanied a Master Chorale which became the blueprint for the Northwest Sacred Music Chorale.
    In light of her experiences, it dawned on her that she had a gift for organizing and nurturing successful vocal groups, that she could tap the yearning of many Christian choir members to more fully express their faith through great music. This was at a time when many churches were abandoning classic masterworks in favor of “praise” music.      Upon moving to Coeur d’ Alene, Cynthia set about transforming her vision into reality. In the spring of 2001 she called together some seasoned musicians to brainstorm ideas and was mildly amazed to hear them opine that a new group might even be able to pull off a premier concert by December of that year. In the end, that’s exactly what happened, although not without huge quantities of  “grunt” work - invitations, auditions, teaching musical theory to aspiring singers, rehearsals, designing, printing and distributing publicity posters, flyers and tickets. She had made it a practice to send out e-mails to each choir member after Tuesday night rehearsals, staying up into the wee hours, outlining things that had gone right and - more often than not - things that needed work.
    When the question of an artistic director arose, board members of the nascent group all pointed to Cynthia, even though she hadn’t planned to take on the job herself. That fall, she said, was a blur, given all the work that had to be done. But it paid off with the Chorale’s first two concerts performed before a packed 1st Presbyterian Church in Coeur d’ Alene. Said she, “It was a success beyond what we could have imagined, and we did it on a shoestring budget of $700!”      The following spring, as Cynthia turned her attention to planning the second season for the new Northwest Sacred Music Chorale, she was baffled and disheartened to realize that she had lost all motivation to keep going. Put simply, she had overloaded herself. Cynthia had hit a brick wall. She resigned as conductor after the first rehearsal in January, “heartsick that I couldn’t understand what had happened to me.”
    It was a classic case of burnout, of total exhaustion.      Not surprisingly, the young Chorale was thrown into utter chaos, facing the specter of complete collapse after only two public performances. It would take a miracle of sorts to resuscitate the Chorale, to pick up the pieces and prepare a new concert program, including a demanding major masterwork, in less than three months.
    And it got one, in the person of Al Gratz, at that time a member of the Chorale. 
    Al was a veteran musician. Cynthia called him a God-send.
    After earning undergraduate and masters degrees in music, Al studied with notable musicians including Norman Luboff, and went on to a 33-year career teaching high school choral music, and 40 years directing church choirs.
Upon retirement, he continued making music with the Spokane Symphony and the Bach Festival chorales prior to his joining the Northwest Sacred Music Chorale. In his short tenure as Chorale artistic director, Al pulled together a concert in spring 2002, featuring one of Franz Joseph Haydn’s glorious works, “Mass in Time of War,” along with shorter pieces, including two by local artists Jane Orto and Rick Frost.
    When Al stepped down in 2002, Chorale board members again launched a talent search which turned up a recent arrival in Coeur d’ Alene, Gary Munson, a piano technician, choral director and teacher. At the time, Gary knew nothing about the Chorale, but he fully understood and endorsed the group’s mission - to promote and celebrate the tradition of sacred choral music. He presided over two concerts in the fall of 2002 and the spring of 2003 with various works, including Felix Mendelssohn’s classic “As the Hart Pants.”
    Although Al Gratz’s and Gary Munson’s leadership stints were short, they kept the Chorale on track and gave Cynthia the time to recuperate, to rejuvenate herself, to rekindle her longstanding determination to create a first-class choral group. So when in 2003 the Chorale board asked her to pick up her directing work again, she said, “I excitedly agreed!”
She eagerly plunged into the nitty-gritty of preparing about 40 singers to do justice to great works in at the fall, including Vivaldi’s magnificent “Gloria,” performed at North Idaho College’s Schuler auditorium, accompanied by the Coeur d’ Alene symphony. That was followed by a Christmas concert a few weeks later at 1st Presbyterian Church.     But again, Cynthia paid a steep price, this time in her physical health. She had received a stunning thunderclap medical diagnosis while working up to those two concerts - breast cancer. She had to undergo surgery, chemotherapy and, as she put it, “having to contemplate a shortened future.” By the end of the 2003 concerts, Cynthia was sick and exhausted, and she knew she couldn’t handle a spring session. So for the second time, she was forced to step down from leadership.
    She couldn’t walk away, however, from the group she had founded and nurtured, so she served on the board and kept her hand in designing posters, programs and other graphics. As devastating as the cancer diagnosis and ensuing recovery battle was for Cynthia, however, it may have indirectly led to a significant turning point for the Chorale in its effort to establish itself as a pillar of musical excellence in the community.
    At some point, Cynthia had met John Lemke, a young graduate of St. Olaf college in Minnesota, world-renowned for its unequaled choral training. John had earned his undergraduate degree in music theory and composition, and had begun working on a master’s degree there before he transferred to Eastern Washington University to complete that degree. At the time he was music director at two churches, one in Spokane and at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Coeur d’ Alene. As if that weren’t enough to keep him busy, he was also an adjunct voice teacher at North Idaho College in charge of the vocal jazz ensemble. At Cynthia’s invitation, John became a member of the board for the Chorale, and when she realized she could no longer direct the group, she asked John if he would step in. His reply - “Absolutely!”
    That decision led to John’s eight-year tenure as artistic director and conductor, a time in which he expanded the Chorale’s repertoire and performance venues. Apart from his music ministry, John had made a living as a marketing consultant, so, as he said, “I brought that experience to bear in pretty much everything I did.” He took the singers to stages large and small, indoors and outdoors, to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Aloysius Gonzaga in Spokane, to 1st Presbyterian Church and the Kroc Center theater in Coeur d’ Alene. John devised programs combining “then” and “now” music: “Then” works meant classical treasures, requiems, passions and cantatas. “Now” music included newer pieces, formal anthems and various types of folk music with religious themes.
    John’s crowning achievement came in the spring of 2010 when he persuaded two world-class musicians, the husband and wife team of Jackson and Almeda Berkey, to come to Coeur d’ Alene to perform Jackson’s epic Easter cantata, “Come Follow Me!” The Berkeys were well established in the world musical orbit, partly because they were co-founders of the fabled Mannheim Steamroller group and had been associated with it for 30 years; Jackson as the lead keyboardist. Almeda was known for her work as a conductor, singer and librettist. “Come Follow Me” is a huge work, scored for a large mixed chorus, varied soloists, piano, two organs, a synthesizer, a full percussion section and a narrator. It has been performed annually in Omaha since 1980 with the Berkeys at the helm.
    John said the event was a whirlwind for him, an endeavor which was “…a massive group effort to get the Berkeys to town, house them, rehearse and perform with them over several days, all while putting finishing touches on the rest of the concert.” The two performances of that cantata were performed to large and enthusiastic audiences in the spacious Kroc Center auditorium in Coeur d’ Alene. The 2010 spring concert was the first in a remarkable musical double-header featuring world-class contemporary works never before heard in this region.     For the Chorale’s fall concert the next year, John handed the conductor’s baton back to Cynthia to celebrate the group’s 10th anniversary. She had “requested the opportunity to direct one last time for what felt like a ’swan song.’ ”
It became, she said, “the pinnacle of my musical career.”
    Here, Cynthia tells her story of finding a hitherto unpublished original work by Philadelphia composer and conductor Joseph Fitzmartin; several years before the 2011 concert, “I came upon a CD of the Philadelphia Boys Choir in a music store bargain bin. It intrigued me because my own son had been a member of the American Boychoir and I loved the boy choir sound. That recording included an original work entitled ‘Concert Mass’ and I immediately fell in love with its unique rhythms and hauntingly beautiful melodies. I was determined to perform it one day with the Chorale.”
    But her hopes were dashed when she contacted Fitzmartin to ask about purchasing “Concert Mass” scores; he told her the work had never been published. “But I HAD to perform that work,” she said, and she persisted. About three years later she called Fitzmartin again, but initially his answer was the same. No.
    However, something about her earnest plea touched Fitzmartin, and he offered to do something he had never done before: he’d lend Cynthia copies of his original hand-written composition, including scoring for a 25 piece orchestra. These were laboriously hand-written scores, harkening back to 17th and 18th century composers. Cynthia was elated but apprehensive at the same time. “Can we really pull this off?” she wondered. “We need more rehearsal time.”
    “How do I put together a 25-piece orchestra? How do we pay for it?” Reading the hand-written conductor’s score was a nightmare. “Is that note a C or a D?” While Cynthia fretted over the mechanics of creating a musical masterpiece from the ground up, her concerns about underwriting the venture were solved with a huge gift from a noted Coeur d’ Alene couple, Charlie and Susan Nipp.
    Ever since Charlie’s father, a city employee, died in a truck accident in 1961, he had developed a determination to pay back the outpouring of support and friendship he and his family had gotten from community members. After a teaching and coaching career, he made a name for himself as a leader of the Lake City Development Corporation and as a real estate developer.
    Susan is perhaps best known for her 2008 children’s book “Mudgy & Millie,” the adventures of a moose searching for a mouse friend. The book led to a 2-mile designated trek through Coeur d’ Alene with five near life-size bronze sculptures of Mudgy along the route. She was also familiar with the Chorale, having sung with it in its first year.
    As for the Nipps’ underwriting gift, she said, “It is a privilege to sponsor this concert and to thank the dedicated and talented musicians who enrich the lives of our citizens.” To cap that performance, the first presentation in the U.S. apart from its premiere in Carnegie Hall, the composer himself was in the audience.
    Cynthia’s summation following two performances in a filled-to-capacity Kroc Center auditorium - “No, it wasn’t perfect, but it was remarkably beautiful.”     Those 10th anniversary concerts also featured talented musicians and works from inside and outside the Chorale.
Former Santana lead singer Leon Patillo came up from Las Vegas to draw the audience into two of his rousing compositions.
    The Ensemble of the Chorale - a small group of auditioned singers led by Gaynell Coppess - presented a work by Chorale member Jane Orto.
    And perhaps most importantly and personally for Cynthia, her eldest son, Joshua Haberman, a countertenor and composer in his own right, had the Chorale singers perform his work, Nunc Dimittis for Double Choir. 
Afterward, Cynthia was emotionally and physically drained, yet fulfilled. “My thirst to direct one last time was quenched.” She stood “humbly proud,” in this, her final concert at the head of the organization she had created 10 years past.     With John Lemke’s departure and Cynthia Marlette’s decision to henceforth be “satisfied to delight in and support the Chorale from the audience” the volunteer group had to once again turn its attention to finding a new artistic director and conductor. It had to be done quickly because there was only about a month between the fall and Christmas concerts that year, 2011, meaning a very narrow window in which to install a new conductor and prepare the choir.
It was accomplished with close collaboration between Mary Sims Johnson, the newly confirmed conductor, and Gaynell Coppess, an original member of the Chorale, a long-time assistant conductor and leader of a small group of selected singers called The Ensemble. Mary was a music professor at North Idaho College. Gaynell, who had earned her master’s degree in voice performance, was the Chorale’s first soloist in the 2001 premier concert. She was a long-time member of the Spokane Symphony Chorale and the Bach Festival Chorus.
    While Gaynell prepped the Ensemble singers, Mary led the larger group through pieces for Christmas, focusing most heavily on the major work for the concert, Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols” written for treble voices.
Britten’s cantata called for a harp to be the sole accompanist.  To find a skilled practitioner of the unusual instrument, Mary had to look no further than Coeur d’ Alene where Leslie Stratton Norris made her home.
    At the time of the concert, Leslie was principal harpist for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra in Ohio, she had appeared with orchestras all across the country and had made and released four solo recordings. To open the 2012 season with the spring concert in April, Mary and Gaynell again collaborated, with The Ensemble first up with selections ranging from the 16th century to popular contemporary pieces by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The heart of the spring concert was “Four Mystical Songs” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, featuring baritone soloist Dr. Randel Wagner, a professor of music at Eastern Washington University.
    In a first for the Chorale, the 2012 Young Artist Competition winner, then 18-year old Madison Mataban was tapped as soloist for the Faure movement “Pie Jesu.” At the time she was a senior at Lake City High School with a heavy musical schedule in advanced band and choir courses.
    Dr. Wagner made an encore appearance with the Chorale in the fall concert that year, as baritone soloist in Gabriel Faure’s lush masterwork “Requiem.” He and the Chorale were accompanied in that work by a seven-member chamber orchestra, led by violinist Karen Hoatson who went on to appear regularly in Chorale concerts in succeeding years. For the Christmas concert in 2012, Mary modified a traditional religious practice of presenting the story of Jesus’ birth with “Lessons and Carols,” that is, reading of scripture amplified with sacred music. She tapped the Chorale’s Cody Bray, a tenor, and baritone Max Mendez, a widely known choral professor at North Idaho College, as both lectors and soloists for the concert. She also invited a newly formed youth choir, called Juvenes Dei, to perform two pieces in the concert, assigned major portions of the evening to Gaynell’s Ensemble, and even had audience members singing along in familiar carols.
    The following spring, April 2013, George Frideric Handel’s glorious masterpiece “Messiah” marked the liturgical seasons of Lent and Easter with parts two and three of the famous oratorio. For that concert at the Kroc Center, Chorale singers were augmented with soloists Becki Stevens, Debbie Raby, Cody Bray, all members of the group, and Dr. Randel Wagner.
    Early- to mid-2013 also marked significant changes in leadership of the now 12-year old choral group, with the death of Chorale board president Dr. Lowell E. Renz and the need to appoint a new artistic director/conductor with the unexpected departure of Mary Sims Johnson.     Dr. Renz had joined the Chorale in 2005, and had just completed a three-year term as president at the time of his death.
Board member Becki Stevens quickly stepped in to fill the leadership post, and was instrumental in finding a new artistic director, Kent Kimball.
Kent drew on a wide, varied background in military service, business, acting and musical training for his tenure with the Chorale. As he put it, “whenever I see an opportunity I pursue it.”
For his first concert in the fall of 2013, he pursued three top-tier Spokane musicians and featured them, backed up by the Chorale, in some seldom-heard masterworks.
He opened with J.S. Bach’s “Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen” (Shout in joy to God in all the lands) a virtuosic musical scamper in which a trumpet and a coloratura soprano chase each other all over the musical map.
Kent landed soprano Dawn Marie Wolski who had recently starred in an Opera CdA production, and long-time Spokane Symphony principal trumpet Larry Jess to perform the exquisite duets in the Bach piece. Kent wryly noted that “some would call it more of a battle than a duet.” 
Both musicians later returned, Dawn as a soloist in Joseph Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass,” the anchor piece for the concert, and Larry to partner with veteran Spokane Symphony percussionist Marty Zyskowski in American composer Ron Nelson’s “Fanfare for a Festival.”
For the Christmas concert less than a month later, Kent introduced several firsts for the Chorale.
He recruited a brass quartet of local musicians, he added a bagpiper, Tom Carnegie from Spokane valley to augment the brass quartet in a rendition of Adeste Fideles, he invited the Spokane Area Youth Choir to perform two traditional Christmas carols with the brass players, and he introduced a soloist and new Chorale member, Charles Sorensson, a lyric tenor who had studied the Italian bel canto style in several countries.
Kent even ventured into the realm of secular Christmas music with a narrated version of “You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch.”
To begin the Chorale’s 2014-15 season, Kent mixed classical sacred works, spirituals, film music and melodies from Broadway musicals in the April, 2014 spring concert.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Mass in C Major” anchored the first half of the concert featuring soloists Lynette Ryan, Debbie Raby, Cody Bray and Bob Brannon, followed by four selections performed by Gaynell Coppess’s Ensemble.
The second half was given over to spirituals - one performed by Tanner Beamer, the previous season’s Young Artist winner - and songs from Broadway productions.
For two of those numbers, Kent displayed his musical chops by shucking his conductor’s hat and donning his baritone soloist hat.
Johannes Brahms’ choral masterwork “A German Requiem” was the centerpiece for the fall 2014 concerts, and Kent had to look no farther than the Chorale to find soprano and baritone soloists.
He picked Jeanne-Marie McPherson and Charles “Chuck” Ethridge for the demanding parts.
Jeanne-Marie’s dad was nationally acclaimed bass-baritone Dr. Rolland “Woody” Hurst, a soloist with the Robert Shaw Chorale and the New York Philharmonic. Woody had retired from his musical career by the time of this concert, and had become a member of the Northwest Sacred Music Chorale.
Chuck Ethridge was a veteran performing arts professional in music and theater. Since 2021 he’s been executive director of the Coeur d’ Alene Summer Theater.
The Christmas concert that year showcased the composing talents of three members of the Chorale. 
The program included a piece called “Little Boy” by Jane Orto, one titled “Love Was Born on Christmas” by original chorale member Beverly Sewell, and a medley by Woody Hurst, titled “Jubilate Deo/More Than the Stars.”
Those pieces were bookends for works by Randall Thompson, J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel.       
To launch the new year, 2015, Kent turned to a monumental classic, Felix Mendelssohn’s “Elijah.” Kent called the oratorio “One of the major peaks of sacred music between Beethoven and the 20th Century.”
For the title role, he tapped Aaron St. Clair Nicholson, who at the time was artistic director of Opera CdA. Aaron had won acclaim as director of three opera productions there and was in demand nationally for his portrayal of well-known characters, notably as Figaro in “The Barber of Seville.”
The Chorale performed two “Elijah” concerts in Coeur d’ Alene in April that year, and traveled to Spokane for another performance at Central Lutheran Church.
New performing venue, new artistic director on the horizon
Changes were in the offing again for the Chorale in the summer hiatus of 2015.
Kent Kimball stepped down as artistic director, and the Chorale board, now with Charles Sorensson at the helm as Chair, chose Dr. Stan McDaniel to lead the group.
Stan was already well-known in the region as a singer, choral conductor, composer and founder of the Westminster Chamber Orchestra.
He had earned his masters degree in vocal performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then migrated cross-country to finish his doctorate in sacred music at the University of Southern California. Along the way, he studied under several top choral conductors across the country.
Another notable milestone that year was Chorale founder Cynthia Marlette’s return to the group, this time as a member of the Ensemble, under the baton of Gaynell Coppess.
For his first concert which kicked off his five-year tenure as artistic director and conductor, Stan highlighted patriotic themes - Veterans’ Day and Thanksgiving - with American composer Randall Thompson’s epic work “Testament of Freedom” as the anchor piece. Thompson used Thomas Jefferson’s writings as the text.
To further the musical atmosphere of celebration and patriotism, Stan invited iconic Spokane composer, arranger and founder of Clarion Brass, William Berry, to assemble an all-professional group of brass and percussion players for the concert.
The 2015 Christmas concert found the Chorale singers in a new home venue in Coeur d’ Alene, Trinity Lutheran Church, a sanctuary with outstanding acoustics.
Two major works were the bookends - Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Christmas Carols.” and J.S. Bach’s thrilling “Magnificat.”
Stan featured concert guests Paul Grove of Spokane, an internationally acclaimed classical guitarist, and Spokane’s “Crescendo Community Choir” a youth group directed by Sharon Rodkey Smith.
He also took the Chorale to Spokane for an encore performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
As the spring of 2016 dawned, Stan and the Chorale returned to Spokane’s Central Lutheran Church for the group’s first-ever presentation of René Clausen’s “A New Creation,” with soloists and a chamber orchestra, plus selections from Joseph Haydn’s “Creation.” Two performances at Trinity Lutheran Church completed the spring concerts.
After the summer break, the Chorale returned to Central Lutheran in Spokane for the first of three fall concerts with a program titled “Praise Unending,” opening with a short work by Dr. McDaniel himself, called “The Lord Is In His Holy Temple.”
Mozart’s “Solemn Vespers of the Confessor” was the showcase of the concert.
This is widely considered one of Mozart’s greatest choral works. But the only “solemn” part is the opening slow chant. The following movements are exuberant, lilting, sometimes downright playful, all rich with Mozart’s masterful scoring.
Hard on the heels of the fall concert came the Christmas presentation featuring Vivaldi’s enduring fan favorite “Gloria” and Gerald Finzi’s “In Terra Pax: A Christmas Scene,” both accompanied by a chamber orchestra.
After the turn of the calendar, the spring concert was devoted to parts two and three of Handel’s “Messiah,” considered by many, in Dr. McDaniel’s words. “to be the greatest expression of faith through music ever written.”
All three Chorale concerts in 2016-17 were presented in Coeur d’ Alene and at the Central Lutheran Church in Spokane.
Leadership transitions
After three terms as Chair of the Chorale, Becki Stevens, a charter member of the group, handed the gavel to Charles Sorensson, who shortly thereafter handed it off to his Co-Chair Judith Horton who would go on to serve five terms, even during the chaotic years of lockdown at the height of the COVID epidemic.
Becki also gave a farewell tip of the hat to four retiring members, key assets, as they made the decision to retire after years of service - Gaynell and Lee Coppess and Marietta and Todd Hardy.
Marietta had been accompanist for the Chorale and the Ensemble from the very beginning. She earned her bachelor of music degree from BYU in 1989, had studied under some of the top organ masters in the county, and had established a private studio in Post Falls.
Her husband, Todd, a Post Falls High School science teacher, had worked behind the scenes as an usher and as a board member for the group.
As noted earlier here, Gaynell joined the Chorale at its inception as an alto soloist, and had expanded her work to become an assistant conductor and leader of the Ensemble.
Lee Coppess was a pillar in the baritone section, and had led the organization as board president for five consecutive terms.
…a rose by any other name…
In many religions, taking a new name marks a significant milestone in life.
So it was with the Northwest Sacred Music Chorale as Chorale leaders decided in 2017 that the group’s name should more accurately reflect and pinpoint its regional nature.
Thus, it became Chorale Coeur d’ Alene.
As board chair Judith Horton pointed out, the name change did not alter the Chorale’s primary mission of bringing quality choral music of breadth and depth to life.
She noted the new name simply emphasized the regional identification as the group planned concerts at the Panida Theater in Sandpoint and at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox in Spokane.
For their venture into wider regional appearances, Chorale singers gathered at the restored Panida Theater in Sandpoint with the fall, 2017 concert.
The event was dual-themed. “Spirit Awake” evoked human-kind’s deep yearning for being at one with God. Dr. McDaniel chose settings of the powerful Psalm 42, from the Renaissance era, the 19th Century and the present day.
The second half of the concert called “Music of the Heartland” featured American folk songs and spirituals, largely the works of Aaron Copland.
The “Christmas by Candlelight” concert in December that year was programmed around Camille Saint-Saens’ “Christmas Oratorio” with soloists and string accompaniment. 
For the spring 2018 concert, Stan drilled Chorale singers in two major Requiems. The first was Gabriel Faure’s haunting, gentle “Requiem” which emphasized, rather than God’s wrath, a sense of comfort in eternal rest. One critic of the time even called it a lullaby of death.
The second Requiem was the regional premier of contemporary composer Dan Forrest’s masterwork “Requiem for the Living,” released in 2013. It retains several of the traditional movements of sacred requiems, but Forrest ditched invocation of the wrath of God in favor of a recital of the transience and fickleness of life.
His thunderous “Sanctus” was inspired by new images of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Stan also introduced another first for the Chorale by tapping two very young singers as soprano soloists, both members of the Crescendo Community Chorus, in the Forrest piece. Emma Allington was then a 7th grader in Cheney schools, and Jillian Pomeroy sang with the Ferris High School Treble Choir.
Following two performances of the Requiems at Trinity Lutheran Church in Coeur d’ Alene, choristers made their debut in the Fox’s lovingly restored Martin Woldson Theater in Spokane.
Chorale singer reunites with an old friend at the Fox
For one Chorale singer, bass Richard Trudell, the Requiem performances at the Fox were a reunion of sorts with a magnificent concert level organ which had once been a centerpiece in his home.
Leaders of the Fox Theater renovation project knew that removal of the original Wurlitzer theater organ in 1961 left an enormous hole that had to be filled to regain the luster and character of the old building.
Richard was then a member of the board for the Spokane Symphony, and he realized he might have just the instrument to fill that gap.
In the summer of 2007 crews moved the organ from his home to the Fox where it has since starred in major works for organ and orchestra.
Richard said the instrument is played from a three manual console plus pedals, with the equivalent of more than 21-hundred pipes from less than an inch in length up to 32 feet. It speaks from the two original pipe organ chambers on either side of the stage.
Not incidentally, Richard was instrumental in securing the concert date with the Fox, and he was a significant underwriter for the event.
Serendipity in finding new talent
It was during this time that Stan was searching for a new accompanist for the Chorale.
One of his vocal students, Carla Roland, a Chorale soprano, was preparing for a solo in a service at Christ the King Anglican Church in Spokane. She asked Stan to drop by during a rehearsal to critique the way she and her accompanist blended.
The accompanist was David Brewster, a pianist who was already widely known in Spokane musical circles.
It took Stan no time at all to ask David to come aboard as the Chorale accompanist.
David had earned undergraduate and masters degrees in music, had taught at Whitworth University in Spokane, had toured nationally with Irish tenor Michael Londra with his Celtic Fire show, and had worked with theater productions in Spokane and Coeur d’ Alene.
Featuring American composers
 For the 2018 fall concert, Stan picked works by four titans of American music in the 20th Century - Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Randall Thompson and Morten Lauridsen.
Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” was chosen to mark the centennial of his birth, and it was the toughest challenge the chorale singers had faced to date. 
They had to learn phonetically Hebrew pronunciation for the four psalms, they had to deal with unusual, difficult-to-maintain musical intervals and rhythms, and had to stay mentally sharp to be accurate with sudden and frequent changes in meter.
For the Christmas concert that year Stan put together a musical cornucopia overflowing with traditional and surprise Christmas arrangements, guest artists, a superb children’s choir, a string quintet and an audience sing-along.
* The youth choir Crescendo Community Chorus in its second appearance with the Chorale was led by its founder Sharon Rodkey Smith.
* Harp accompaniment was offered by Janna Bisceglia Engell.
* The Chorale’s own Larry Almeida, a classical guitar master, accompanied himself in solo pieces.
* Belle Coeur, the women’s ensemble of the Chorale, made its debut with a unique version of “The First Noel.”
Vienna - the music capital of the world
In the 18th and 19th Centuries, any composer with ambitions to land on the musical A-list lived or worked in Vienna.
Chorale concerts in the spring of 2019 focused on four pillars of western music - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Josef Haydn, Franz Schubert, and on a lighter note, Johann Strauss - all of whom had close connections to Vienna.
To do the music justice, Stan gathered a 10-member string orchestra, and he persuaded noted Spokane soprano Andrea Olsen to showcase her superb voice as soloist in several of the works, both sacred and secular.
Selections included Mozart’s “Regina Coeli” (The Queen of Heaven), a joyous musical romp of praise, Schubert’s lyrical “Mass in G” and, just for the sheer fun of it, selections from Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus” (The Bat).
Going into the fall 2019 concert, Stan was struck by the lyrics in a little anthem written by Mary Elizabeth Caldwell (1909-2003), a major, if largely unrecognized composer.
The text read “I want a singing faith, I want a joyous song, I want the world to hear my voice.”
He realized that “sacred choral music could and should be about more than performance, that ultimately, both those who sing it and those hearing it feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and God’s love.”
So he put together a concert with old and new anthems which captured that spirit, ranging from Heinrich Schutz (d. 1672) to pieces by Dan Forrest and Kim Andre Arnesen written in 2012.
The program included the Belle Coeur Women’s Chorus singing a traditional Jewish chant called “Ani Ma’amin” (I believe) and a couple of old American camp meeting songs.
For the finale, Stan and the Chorale launched into a thigh-slapping, hand-clapping version of a 19th Century spiritual called “The Gospel Ship” arranged by Gwyneth Walker in 2016.
To usher in the Christmas season in 2019, the Chorale presented a smorgasbord of musical treats, ranging from Benjamin Britten’s landmark work “Ceremony of Carols” to an improbable morph of Mozart’s “Turkish Rondo” into “Jingle Bells.”
The concert was also a reprise for groups and individual musicians who had been featured guests of the Chorale just the year before.
Young singers of the Crescendo Community Chorus of Spokane led by Sharon Rodkey Smith performed the centerpiece of the concert, a movement from Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols,” accompanied by harpist Janna Bisceglia Engell.
American composer Joseph Martin’s work “Tapestry of Light: A Celtic Christmas Celebration” was featured in the second half of the concert, and the evening ended with the young singers joining the adults in two Christmas cradle lullabies.
COVID suddenly shuts everything down
As 2019 gave way to the new year, Stan was inspired to draw up a concert of all-Beethoven music since the nonpareil master’s 250th birthday (the semiquincentennial or the sestercentennial, take your choice) was to fall in 2020.
He said “the music was challenging, but we had worked hard in rehearsal and excitement was building among the singers…”
But then, suddenly, disaster.
The pandemic struck.
The severity of the rapidly spreading disease was driven home to Chorale singers when they learned that members of the Skagit County Chorale in Washington had been heavily stricken. Two of their singers died. Many others were seriously ill.
News of other outbreaks across the country began to trickle in, and before long, it seemed the entire nation was shut down - business, government, commerce, social gatherings - everything.
Stan, along with stunned members of the Chorale board, finally realized the only decision they could make, a painfully terrible one, was to cancel the rest of the year’s work.
They had no idea how long the shutdown would last, whether or when the group could be reconstituted, if singers would dare to assemble again in a group context.
Not surprisingly, Stan and the Chorale board members were shaken to the core, but almost to a person, they were determined that the group would revive, Phoenix-like, once the COVID scourge had passed.
Stan had planned to retire from Chorale leadership following the Beethoven concert and the 2020 season, but the sudden shutdown made the decision for him.
Re-building from scratch
With face masks firmly in place, Chorale board members met that year and put out word that they were looking for a new artistic director.
For Dr. Keith Whitlock the announcement was serendipity.
After earning his doctorate from the University of Southern California, Keith had taken on the job as director of choirs at the Gonzaga Preparatory High School in Spokane, but he was also eager to link up with a large community chorus.
He had begun researching Chorale Coeur d’ Alene, when to his great surprise, as he put it, “I heard that the Chorale was looking for a new artistic director.”
“And so of course, I applied.”
Keith began the daunting process of singer auditions in the summer of 2021, hoping that applicants would turn out, but fearful that many would shun close group contact to avoid airborne COVID transmission.
“But we were all pleasantly surprised that many people were ready to move forward, and we were blessed with a great deal of talent and a nice balance of singers,” he said.
He presided over the first post-COVID concert in October 2021, and it turned out to be “one of the most memorable concerts I have ever directed.”
Face-masked attendees filled the auditorium. Keith sensed “a distinct air of excitement and anticipation in the room.”
The final piece of the evening was Joseph Martin’s “The Awakening,” which declared, “Awake my soul and sing! The time for praise has come, the silence of the night has passed.”
Keith said it was truly an unforgettable thrilling moment.
Buoyed by that success, Keith turned his attention to working up Christmas offerings and the spring 2022 concert titled “America Sings of Faith and Liberty.”
But his tenure was short.
The whimsical jack-in-the-box of life popped open that year in the form of a family crisis, forcing Keith to return to his hometown San Diego, California to take on “unexpected challenges and opportunities.”
He left with “warm thoughts of genuine, friendly, talented and hardworking singers who enjoyed making beautiful music.”
A short-lived retirement
Dr. Whitlock’s abrupt departure put the Chorale board into a scramble mode, a search for a new artistic director and somehow to salvage the rest of the 2022 - 23 season.
Board chair Pat Matson knew just the person - the recently retired veteran Dr. Stan McDaniel.
Even though Stan at the time was deeply engaged in wrapping up several years’ work on his definitive book “Servanthood of Song: Music, Ministry and the Church in the United States,” he answered the call to take up the baton again as interim artistic director until a permanent leader could be installed.
Drawing on his years of musical leadership experience, Stan led the Chorale through the fall 2022 concert titled “For the Beauty of the Earth,” and the Christmas offering called “Come Quickly Lord Jesus.”
Stan’s post-retirement tenure gave board members time to sort through potential candidates for the Chorale’s leadership and they quickly narrowed their focus to one individual who was associated with Whitworth University in Spokane, which had been a rich source of talent in the past.
Taking the Chorale to the 25th anniversary milestone
When Dr. Joshua Chism wasn’t standing still or sitting down, he apparently had only one forward speed - stomping on the gas to go from zero to 60 in 10 seconds flat.
He brought that energy to his new job as the Chorale’s artistic director in 2023 as the organization renewed itself with veteran singers, with those who had stepped away during the COVID crisis and with some who joined after auditioning. Altogether, more than 100 singers filled out the Chorale ranks.
The ink was barely dry on Joshua’s doctorate degree when he accepted a professorship in music education at Whitworth University where he was associate director of choral activities and conductor of the Whitworth Community Chorale.
He had earned his doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, after completing a master’s degree from the University of Missouri and an undergraduate degree from Missouri State University.
Joshua set to work immediately in the early summer of 2023 devising a program of four themed concerts to carry the group into the next year.
The alliterative concerts were titled “Love- My Very Own” for the fall of 2023, “Light - Carols and Candles” for Christmas, “Life & Liberty - Lift Every Voice” for the spring concert 2024, and a lighter program called “Laughter - Unquenchable Joy” to end the season in May that year.
Thanks to a grant from the Coeur d’ Alene Tribe, the Chorale was also able to continue a unique program dating from 2008 - awarding small scholarships to outstanding young high school students, encouraging them to continue their musical growth.
Three young scholarship singers, all newly minted graduates of Post Falls High School, were also featured soloists in the spring concert. They were Ben Callister, Teagen Chatterton and Bella Short. They joined five other student choristers in the Chorale, giving the group the largest ever contingent of fresh talent.
The three scholarship recipients, by the way, were all students of Post Falls High School choral director Melody McCleod (aptly named) who was also a member of the Chorale.
A new approach to another leadership challenge
As the time approached for Chorale leaders to begin planning for the new concert season in the summer of 2024, they were shocked to hear that Dr. Chism was leaving his post at Whitworth and planning to accept a tenure-track position at a small Oklahoma university.
But Joshua proposed a solution, a “hybrid” format in which he’d continue as artistic director, planning and administering the entire season from Oklahoma and then enduring long-distance commutes to lead the Chorale through technical dress rehearsals and concerts.
He had identified three veteran Chorale singers, all skilled musicians, who would lead regular rehearsals and stay in close touch with him.
Joshua chose soprano Allyson Gross, alto Toni Chittester and tenor Don Callister as his preparation conductors. They stepped in to take the singers through the weekly nitty-gritty work of learning and refining new music while Joshua looked on and evaluated progress and problems through a computer Zoom hookup.
The new plan worked!
But it wasn’t long before it was put to the acid test.
As choristers were assembling for the fall 2024 concert they learned to their horror that just that very afternoon Joshua had been urgently summoned home. His mother was critically ill. He had no choice but to fly to her bedside.
A quick survey of the singers indicated that they’d gladly press on with the performance and that the three rehearsal leaders would take the podium to conduct the pieces they had drilled the singers on.
And so it came to pass that the concert, called “Servanthood of Song” and built around Dr. McDaniel’s new book, was a rousing success.
To a person, the singers put a little bit of extra care into their performance, perhaps partly to stress their empathy for Joshua and his family, and partly to demonstrate that they could rise to the challenge.
A silver anniversary and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
An old joke about Carnegie Hall had a lost passerby asking a musician how to get to Carnegie Hall. “Practice, practice, practice,” was the answer.
And that’s exactly how members of Chorale Coeur d’ Alene will get to Carnegie Hall in 2026 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the group.
Lots of practice plus raising and saving money for airfare, hall rental and lodging costs in New York City.
Carnegie Hall, whose stage was graced for decades with the country’s and the world’s finest musicians - long the summit of aspiration for vocal and instrumental musicians.
The Chorale singers, along with many of Dr. Chism’s students at Oklahoma Baptist University, will be in New York over the Memorial Day weekend to perform contemporary composer Dan Forrest’s “Te Deum.” (We Praise Thee, O God) a three-movement work with roots dating back to at least 500 AD, along with a commissioned piece by composer Patti Drennan who has more than 250 published choral octavos to her credit.               
25 years of inspiring choral music
The Chorale Coeur d’ Alene’s raison d’être is deceptively simple. “Chorale Coeur d’ Alene brings great choral music to life.”
But behind that statement of being is years of grit and determination, toil, sweat and sometimes tears, but more importantly, continuing gifts of ageless, enriching, inspiring music for our community.
Our 25th anniversary artistic director, Dr. Joshua Chism, put it this way. “More than just a collection of voices, our choir embodies a vibrant sense of community.”
“Together we sing not just with our voices but with our hearts, sharing the transformational gift of music that brings us all closer together.”
Victor Hugo was a 19th Century wordsmith, a poet and playwright. He realized that great music transcends even the best writing. “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent.” he wrote.
The Chorale was born 25 years ago from Cynthia Marlette’s deep condition that great choral music ought to be saved, heard and brought to life. Her vision has been, is being, honored.
So, on to the next 25 years!