About Town: New Choir Director Helps Redmond's Vocalists Find Their Voice

When musician Laurie Betts Hughes moved from Seattle to Redmond with her husband, she was surprised to learn there was no community choir in town.

Hughes said she assumed there would be such a group, in part because people who work in high tech fields are so often musically inclined.

“The joke is in interviews at , ’Oh, you’re an engineer? What instrument do you play?’” Hughes said.

In asking around to friends and neighbors, Hughes heard of many people who were driving to other communities to be able to participate in music and said she was encouraged by everyone she talked to to start something here.

“There was a body of people ready,” Hughes said.

At the time a doctoral student in the University of Washington’s music program—and pregnant—Hughes decided to go for it, and established the Redmond Community Chorale.

The group gave its first season of recitals last year, and right now is busily preparing for its first concert of this season, the Celebrations of the World holiday concert it will hold Dec. 4 at in Redmond. The church also donates rehearsal space for the group, though the chorale is a secular nonprofit.

Hughes says she quickly recognized, though, that the group needed to be about more than just singing.

“We have a dual purpose,” she says, to perform and also to benefit other community organizations. Proceeds from the choir’s three annual performances are donated to local charitable organizations.

“This is a concept that’s been bouncing around. We’re making a community,” Hughes said.

In recent times, Hughes said, the arts have gotten short shrift in the face of budget cuts in schools and communities, suggesting to some that those programs are extraneous.

Hughes disagrees.

She says having a bigger picture in mind, in which the choir benefits the community in more than one way, can help overcome the hurdle created by dwindling funds for the arts.

“If we’re getting together to make positive change, it’s not extraneous,” Hughes said.

There are benefits for the members of the Redmond Chorale, too. Hughes, who trained as a concert pianist at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio and taught music at the K-12 level as well as at Oregon State University, says a choir necessarily contains both performance and educational elements.

One of Hughes' favorite things about directing a choir is selecting the music.

“That’s such a creative thing," she said. "It feels like making a mix tape used to feel.”

Hughes likes for her recitals to tell a big story overall, rather than just being a series of songs strung together. For the holiday concert, for example, the songs come from a variety of geographic locations and religions, including an Iraqi peace song that will be sung by the women in the choir, accompanied by a cello.

“It’s a lullaby for peace. It’s really very poignant to hear the women’s voices in that,” Hughes said, especially because women are not allowed to sing out loud in some other parts of the world.

Redmond Chorale currently has about 40 members, from teens to retirees, and the group welcomes new members, though the choir is too far into rehearsals for the upcoming concert to add singers. Hughes said the next really good jumping in point for new members is the beginning of January, when the group will begin preparing for its spring concert.

In the meantime, Hughes said she is pleased with how Redmond has readily embraced the community choir.

“I really have a heart for choirs,” she said.