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The San Benito Oriana Chorale, the county’s only community choir, has begun rehearsals for its 40th anniversary fall concert, to be held in December at Christ Fellowship Church in Hollister and Mission San Juan Bautista.
For Rachel Romina, who joined the choir in 2008 as an accompanist and became choir director in 2014, the annual concert gives singers and audience members a chance to slow down for a moment and find healing in music.
“The pace of the world is so fast,” she said, “and music causes you to pause and breathe in a way that is very healing. I hope the audience experiences goosebump moments where the music resonates deeply as a spiritual thing.”
According to choir board president Kozean Wright, who joined Oriana in 1999, musician Jeanna Balda founded the choir in 1986 as a former cantor at the Mission church.
A native of Scotland, Balda wanted to develop a choir like the ones she remembered from her childhood. She brought in organist Nettie Fields, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, to help guide the choir, which began with a mostly classical focus and has since broadened to include pop and international selections.
Under her direction, programs have included “Rock to Bach,” exploring music from classical masters to modern rock; a concert where every piece centered on the theme of water; and a spring program devoted entirely to musical theater selections. The choir has sung in a variety of languages, including, within a single concert, Swahili, Finnish, German, Spanish and Latin.
The choir took its name from a book of madrigals by Thomas Morley, “The Triumphs of Oriana” (1601). Each piece in the collection ended with the refrain: “Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: long live fair Oriana,” a reference to Queen Elizabeth I, honoring her long reign—she had ruled for 43 years at that point—and her role as a patron of the arts.
The first efforts were strictly casual affairs, with mimeographed programs and performances that featured Handel’s “Messiah.” Then, as now, Oriana was open to any community member who wanted to participate, regardless of their strengths as a singer.
“We don’t audition,” Wright said. “Oriana just accepts people who come in the door as long as they’re good people and enjoy singing. We’re pretty much like a family. We care about each other.”
While it might be a challenge for Romina when someone’s aptitude is not quite up to normal choir standards—“I put them in the back and ask them to sing quietly,” she said—the mix of talents, to her, is a plus.
“What I love about choir is that it can be for every level of ability,” Romina said. “We can get the whole spectrum of abilities and talents and skills. We somehow put it together, and it just makes this beautiful thing.”
That’s not to say that the choir does not have some exceptional musical talents, the people Romina calls her “ringers.”
“We have some amazing people with us,” she said. “We have one family where the mom teaches piano, and the dad is a cello player. We have a soloist with a phenomenal voice that could have sung professionally in opera.”
This year, Romina decided to celebrate the anniversary by having the choir members and alumni suggest pieces for the performance, and she would make the final cut.
“I’ve never tried this before,” she said. “I put out an email asking them to send me two or three pieces that they just absolutely love for Christmas time. I tracked the repeated songs and built this entire program off that list.”
Think of it as an Oriana Greatest Hits concert, with about 50 different songs scaled down to 18.
Romina said she is likely going to start the concert with a dramatically staged piece, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” performed by the choir as they make their entrance through the house to the stage at the altar.
“It is something I like to do,” Romina said. “One thing I love about the Mission is you always get that big expansive sound, even starting from the back of the church or in the round.”
The program will include pieces that have become favorites of the audience as well, like the “Hallelujah Chorus,” a rendition of “Silent Night” in German, “Silver Bells,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” “O Holy Night” (in a new arrangement), and a medley as performed by Pentatonix of a cappella Christmas songs in varied rhythms.
The choir will also perform one of Romina’s favorite pieces, “O Magnum Mysterium,” a work in Latin that she says she hopes will be played at her funeral.
In a special arrangement, Romina said, the men, who are usually divided into two parts, bass and tenor, are going to be divided into four parts. The women, usually soprano and alto, will be divided into three and sometimes four parts.
“The amount of notes being sung at one time gives you a rich, full sound,” she said. “If you don’t like this piece, I have to think there’s something wrong with you. I just don’t know how you can’t hear this and not just melt into a puddle because it’s so beautiful.”
Wright said that the choir coming together to produce that kind of beauty for the audience to enjoy is what makes all of the hours and days of practice worthwhile.
“Singing is good for the brain, good for your core, and generally just good for you,” Wright said. “When Oriana is on and following Rachel, we have ‘aha’ moments, and you can tell when the audience feels that too. And when that happens, we enjoy it as well.”
To learn more about participating in the choir, contact Oriana Choral by email or through the website.
The Oriana Chorale’s Fall performances will be held Dec. 11 and 13 at Christ Fellowship Church (2066 San Benito St., Hollister) and Dec. 16 at Mission San Juan Bautista. Ticket information will become available on the chorale’s website closer to the performance dates.
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Rachel Romina leading the choir in a rehearsal of “The Chanukah Song.”