Humble and hurried beginnings.
Philip Bayles was the conductor of the Eugene Community Orchestra in 1974 when suddenly, out of nowhere but with help from orchestra members, he became the founder of a chorus. Starting from scratch, there were singers to recruit, rehearsals to conduct, a venue to select and fingers crossed that everything would go smoothly April 10 and 12, right before Easter, for the newly christened Eugene Community Chorus’ performance at Central Lutheran Church.
It was excerpts from George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. No pressure.
Bayles — now in his late 70s, still living in Eugene and the conductor of the Riverside Chamber Symphony that plays at Wildish Theater — chuckles at the memories and the fact that everything did go smoothly.
“It was a sort of thing that was hands-on. Quite a few people were involved,” he recalls. “It seemed to have a high level of group enthusiasm.”
From that start, the Eugene Concert Choir (its name since 1981) has, as Diane Retallack, the choir’s artistic director and conductor for the past 40 years notes, “become an umbrella organization” for so much more. From major works performed and lesser-known composers highlighted as well as social touchstones explored, to Asian and European tours and performances at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, to the creation of the smaller Eugene Vocal Arts ensemble and the Eugene Concert Orchestra as well as recordings and educational outreach programs, the Eugene Concert Choir is a presence in a community that cherishes the arts.
And that presence comes to full force March 9 with Golden Celebration: A Retrospective Concert featuring Eugene Concert Choir, Eugene Vocal Arts and Guest Artists at Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center, the choir’s home since 1997.
“This is a community that values the arts,” Retallack says. “It’s become a nurturing community for the arts.”
Forty years ago, though, Retallack wondered if she would get the chance to take the journey with the Eugene Concert Choir. She and her husband Greg Retallack came to Eugene in 1981 so he could take a faculty position in geology at the University of Oregon.
Bayles left the choir that year, and Retallack auditioned for the role of director. Instead, it went to Paul Wesland, who stayed only one year. Retallack auditioned again, but this time the position went to Peter Jermikov.
“I could not get a job here to save my life,” Retallack says.
So she took a choir director’s job at Seattle University and settled into “a commuter marriage” for two years until Jermikov accepted what was supposed to be a three-month Fulbright scholarship in Russia. Retallack filled in, Jermikov chose not to come back and Retallack got the job permanently.
From there, the choir’s and Retallack’s artistic journey has included performances in Germany, Austria, Australia, China, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Italy. Performances in Eugene have touched on Alzheimer’s (Shadow and Light in 2016), women in history (In Celebration of Women in 2021) and the Black experience in the U.S. (the Black is Beautiful project in partnership with the Detroit-based choir EXIGENCE in 2023).
The retrospective concert will have excerpts from these concerts as well as video of the choir’s past, new work by Bayles (“And So We Sing”) and commissioned works by Zanaida Robles (“Eagle Poem”) and Michael Bussewitz-Quarm (“Buufis — Refugees”). Additionally, there will be a tribute to singer-songwriter Mason Williams (a longtime friend of the Eugene Concert Choir who lives in Eugene), and a reunion choir will join the Eugene Concert Choir and Eugene Vocal Arts at the end of the first half of the program to perform the fourth movement of Johannes Brahms’ Requiem.
The Eugene Concert Choir has had many guest artists through the years, and the second half of the program will include performances by Darline Jackson, Paul Biondi, Siri Vik, Bill Hulings, Shirley Andress, Vicki Brabham and Nathan Waddell with John Vavrek serving as narrator.