Wichita Choral Society celebrates 75 years of ‘regular people creating art’

When Harold Decker arrived to teach music at what was then the Municipal University of Wichita, he felt something was missing from the city’s cultural landscape.

“He arrived in ’44 from a small town in Missouri,” his daughter, Kathe Thomson, recalled. “His belief was that a community based on music meant creating community.

“The story is he talked to several people at the university and several people in the community and put an ad in the paper, a little article, saying ‘You don’t have to try out for this, you can come simply if you love music,’” she continued. “Apparently 200 people arrived at the first session.”

The group became the Wichita Choral Society, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary – which should have been in 2020 but was delayed by COVID – with a concert Sunday at First United Methodist Church.

Decker, the first of a dozen directors of the ensemble, stayed with the group until 1956, when he was hired by the University of Illinois, where he also began a community chorale, his daughter said.

Thomson said a turning point for the group was a collaboration with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra — which was also in its infancy — for Brahms’ “Requiem.”

“It was a huge, huge, not just success, but it brought people together. It’s that togetherness that Dad thought was important. When you make music together it’s hard to scream and yell and be angry because you’re focused. That’s a good thing,” she said. “We could use more of that right now.”

Thomson will be in the audience for Sunday’s concert, a collaboration with the Wichita Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

“There’s a continuation of the mission,” she said. “It just stands that after 75 years the Wichita Chorale Society is still a vital part of Wichita’s music scene. That’s his point of creating an opportunity for regular people creating art.”

The chorale’s current director, Shawn Chastain, also is its longest-tenured, beginning in 2001.

“I’m honored that after 75 years that tradition continues,” he said. “I love working with that non-auditioned, community singer who comes for the joy of singing.”

Chastain is executive coordinator of fine arts for Wichita Public Schools and said the Wichita Choral Society succeeds in continuing a musical education.

“Our goal as fine arts educators is to instill a lifelong love of the arts,” he said. “These community singers are really my heroes. They epitomize that lifelong participation in singing. It’s more than talent — it’s being able to work together, dedication, commitment, rehearsals — and they’re the perfect example of lifelong singers.”

Before COVID, Chastain said, the group numbered 100 singers. Since a reboot earlier this year, it numbers about 50.

The chorale rehearses for about 90 minutes every Monday night.

“The group certainly fills my soul every Monday night,” he said.

With a handful of exceptions, the society’s fall concert has traditionally been Handel’s “Messiah.”

Dorothy Crum, who directed the group from 1984 to 1996, is one of the former conductors being brought back for the concert to direct a piece from their tenure. The others are Jim Jones, who directed from 1975 to 1980; and Doug Riney, representing his father, Cecil Riney, who conducted in the 1960s.

Crum, the chorale’s first female director, took the group on its first overseas tours, to France in 1989 and England and Scotland in 1992. A retired voice professor at Wichita State, Crum also orchestrated the first scholarships in the society’s name given to high school students.

She counts a choral society performance with the WSU choirs, directed by choral great Robert Shaw, as one of the highlights of her time with the group.

Crum said she was grateful that the choral members were as willing to perform and learn as her college singers were.

“There are still a number of people out there who enjoy making art through singing together,” she said. “I enjoy the human voice and helping whatever human is in front of me create the best sound they can.”

WICHITA CHORAL SOCIETY 75TH ANIVERSARY CONCERT

When: 2 p.m. Sunday, April 24

Where: First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway

Tickets: $10 at the door or from choral society members