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A holiday choral concert this month will mark the debut of a brand-new chamber choir in town dedicated to serving East Portland.
Northwest Vocal Arts (NWVA) features 16 professional singers, eight high schoolers and eight collegiates. Unlike most performing ensembles who charge upwards of $1,000 in annual tuition, NWVA offers free tuition for their youth choir, who are recruited from East County. The students are paired with professional vocalists as mentors.
The program is a project of former Cleveland High School choral director Samuel Barbara. Barbara, the executive artistic director, says the choir came to be after he received seed money from the Chance to Excel Foundation, which supports youth mentorship projects.
“The first rehearsal kind of blew my socks off,” he says. “It’s sort of a dream of mine come true.”
Barbara, a University of Portland graduate, has been teaching for about 20 years. It’s been a long-term goal to combine teaching into a professional choir. Mentorship has been key in his career—his mentor was the celebrated, late Portland conductor Roger Doyle—so he’s thrilled to also be able to include that component into NWVA.
The inaugural concert is called “Voices of Winter: What Sweeter Music” and will be held Sunday, Dec. 22, at Rose City Park United Methodist Church. The show will feature songs of the season—including a Christmas carol singalong— and new works by local composers Duncan Tuomi and Timothy Stephens. Other repertoire includes Personent Hodie by Lara Hoggard with a full brass quintet, percussion and organ and the titular What Sweeter Music by John Rutter.
“We’re pulling out all the stops,” he says.
“Voices of Winter: What Sweeter Music,” at Rose City Park United Methodist Church, 5830 NE Alameda St., eventbrite.com/e/voices-of-winter-what-sweeter-music-tickets-1049914140457. 3 pm (doors at 2:15 pm) Sunday, Dec. 22. $15-30.