NonProfit NewsPod: Come Celebrate Sacramento Choral Society's 30 Years of "Home for the Holidays".

Jeff Holden: [00:00:00] Welcome to this nonprofit podcast News Pod. I'm joined by James McCormick, CEO of the Sacramento Choral Society. James, welcome. It's a pleasure to be here. Ja. We're getting this message out through our network as it truly is a newsworthy one. Each year, the Sacramento Choral Society performs a program called Home for the Holidays.

This year is particularly special. Would you share the novelty of the program that's coming up this December? 

James McCormack: Absolutely. Well, as it turns out, Jeff, we are celebrating our 30th anniversary. So this would be the 30th time that we've had a chance to draw our community together in early December. Families that come together to enjoy great music and a warm sense of community.

So that's three decades. So we've had quite an impact on Sacramento over the past 30 years, and somehow. With our 30th anniversary and the beautiful memorial auditorium where we will be performing, [00:01:00] do you know that it's turning 100 years old next year? So we're really celebrating a lot of historical musical cultural events because the Memorial Auditorium is the grand dom of Performance 

Jeff Holden: Arc Centers.

Boy, what those walls and hallowed halls of Memorial Auditorium have seen and heard. When you think of it, Jeff, 

James McCormack: that's where people went to their first prom. They graduated there, they went to opera and ballet. They even tennis matches, boxing, wrestling. And we had a lady about 15 years ago, she was in the audience in 1945 when they, they were interrupted at the beginning of the concert.

There was a radio announcer that told them that World War II had ended. Can you imagine being in Memorial Auditorium at that moment because we dedicated Memorial Auditorium to veterans and there she was at the source. 

Jeff Holden: How amazing. There's something else that many people don't know and that's that [00:02:00] two gentlemen have been with the organization for all of these 30 years as well.

One of them yourself? That's correct. And the second person is Don Kendrick, who has been the conductor of each of every one of these 30 performances. 

James McCormack: That's right. He's the, the Energizer Bunny performances, and Don is the retired professor at Sac State. He was the director of choral activities there for 33 years.

And in 1996 when the symphony went bankrupt, our chorus asked us, what can we do to keep everybody together? And so we formed nonprofit and we established our own orchestra. Professional orchestra, a union, and sure enough, Don Kendrick has been in our community for some 40 years. He's also the director of music at Sacred Heart Church, and he helped establish Sacramento Choral Society back in 1996, and Don has headed up the artistic side of everything for the last 30 years, and he's still going strong.

Jeff Holden: [00:03:00] For those who aren't familiar, James, what is the performance? What takes place that evening? 

James McCormack: It's pretty amazing. First of all, Jeff, I'm delighted that people, especially new people to the community, they might come to the historic venue. Memorial Auditorium itself is worth the trip downtown because it was built in 1926.

They improved the sound. They've made seats more comfortable, and the acoustics too. So people come and enjoy the history of this old building, and especially in December when we're all. Looking forward to doing something together as a family. The idea that seating plan where you can look across the room and see friends and neighbors, and the orchestra and chorus are not too far from you.

The chorus and orchestra, when you think of it, they're a mighty team of 185 musicians on stage. And so we'll have 185, that's, that's 50 some, uh, orchestra members and about 1 35 chorus members. We'll [00:04:00] also have a headliner from San Francisco, a tenor with big personality. Uh, Stein, she's been featured in Carmina Bar with us, the Crazy Swan, the tenor being roasted.

He's also done rods and Hammerstein with us, uh, Broadway. And he's just, he's, he knows how to put on a show and sell a song. But the beginning of the concert, we urge people, make sure you come on time because the beginning of the concert is magical. For those of you who know the Memorial Auditorium, the the first balcony has the beautiful railings all around the audience.

And so our members start, the concert starts in darkness, okay? And the members are all around the audience in the first balcony and. They sing a wonderful opening piece of the, the, the joy of the season. So in darkness you'll hear five chimes, a sense of mystery, and then the orchestra begins a short interlude and then out comes this beautiful chorus and you can't [00:05:00] help but feel surrounded by beauty, uh, beautiful sound when they start that and at the beginning, then they, they process down because the orchestra will play a beautiful.

Overture at that point, and they process down with candles. So it's, I, I think it's a magical opening and it really touches people that we go to the trouble of making this happen. 

Jeff Holden: What people can expect is the traditional holiday songs for the entire performance, which lasts about how long 

James McCormack: the concert starts at 3:00 PM and it's definitely done before 5:30 PM A lot of people wanna make plans to go to dinner, so we even put it on the website that the performance will be over by 5:30 PM and there's a 20 minute intermission.

And also we decorate the hall. It's just beautiful to see that place decorated. We have crafts in the lobby and then the heavy set guy from the North Pole, he'll be there. He texted me this morning and he got the address. He, he wanted permission to land his sleigh on the roof. I [00:06:00] said, not really. Don't do that.

You get me in big trouble. So he'll be there to greet the kids who are arriving with their parents around 2:00 PM before the concert. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. We don't want to disrupt the California seismic requirements for the building, right? Yeah. That fly off 

James McCormack: the roof. I think Jeff, to one of the other high points is the audience sing-along.

See the makeup is a lot of families young and old. And if you look around the hall, you'll see at least three generations of people that come together for the right reason of enjoying music. But they also want to make music. After the intermission, the Donald Kendrick, our conductor, will turn to the audience and you'll say, okay, give me your best.

And they all stand. We turn the lights up and they sing this medley of Christmas carols. But the orchestral arrangements, really every piece on the program as Silling orchestral arrangements underpinning the chorus. So I tell people, come and make your [00:07:00] debut with the Sacramento Choral Society in Orchestra.

Jeff Holden: Who is it? You mentioned this audience, James, who, who is it that attends? Who do you see? You've seen 30 years of this, so certainly al almost generational for families. Yes. 

James McCormack: You know what I noticed in the last four or five years, Jeff, the families that are coming seem to be younger and younger and I think it's also, while they all love their social media outlets, I think at this time of year especially, I think they wanna feel that they belong to something special and.

Since this tradition, this is a downtown tradition that we've kept now for 30 years, and to think of beautiful Memorial Auditorium. A time like it's, it's nostalgic to get together, but we'll all relive our own memories. And also the repertoire itself should foster lots of memories. Again, I wanna emphasize how these are new arrangements of old carols, so it's not just your traditional silent night in oam Faithful.

We'll have sleigh ride by [00:08:00] Leroy Anderson, the orchestral part, and the, the orchestra just has a field day with these pieces. They just love it. And so, you know, I, I kind of think that we are blessed to have younger people now at these concerts and during the audience sing along. I turn around, I like to look up in the first and second balcony, and I see these families hugging each other and singing at the top of their lung.

And there are some good voices in that audience. Sometimes we recruit right after the show. So that really is something. And this year, Jeff, we're proud to tell you that everyone can see and hear and they can definitely see the stage. They wanna see the percussion, they wanna see all the orchestra playing with their hearts out.

So we have improved 

Jeff Holden: seating on the main floor, and I'm going to guarantee you that this voice singing in the audience would not be one that you would be recruiting. Matter of fact, people be leaving the section saying, please stop singing. 

James McCormack: Uh, yeah, it's just great. I do wanna mention one [00:09:00] particular section of the concert is Gary Fry.

Gary Fry is an American composer, lives in North Carolina. He did a lot of work with the Chicago Symphony and he, he did a setting of, uh, Charles Christmas in, in Wales. And that piece is all about memories and it, it's a view of Christmas through a child's ears and eyes. So we're doing a wonderful setting for a narrator and orchestra.

I, I really think the idea of, of seeing Christmas through a child's eyes is gonna bring it all home to us all. 

Jeff Holden: And I think the beauty of the event, the beauty of the performance, the beauty of the families in attendance is really those memories that we have of what Christmas is all about. That's right.

It's family in, in some cases, depending on where we came from, Chicago is my home. It's that warmth in the house outside snow and smells of whatever is cooking for dinner pies and Turkey and ham. Yeah. [00:10:00] Whatever it may be. Right, and this brings it all home and the orchestral part of it with the choral part of it really makes it warm and everybody sings.

You have audience participation at so many parts of it, and just the beauty of the facility as you say it, it really is reminiscent almost of a Christmas past, 

James McCormack: right? When you think of it 100 years. That's pretty amazing for Sacramento. 

Jeff Holden: Let's talk a little bit about the details of the event. I would love to see this be one of the largest performances ever, 30th anniversary.

So let's have a number there of, of 3000. That'd be a good number, right? 

James McCormack: That's music to my ears, that that would really be amazing to spend an afternoon together in a community that, that relishes, you know, a strong sense of being together and enjoying good music. Feeling that they belong to something special.

[00:11:00] And to that end, Jeff, we will have, as our special guests, we have complimentary tickets, a few of them for veterans because the building in 1926 was dedicated to veterans. So we'll honor veterans at this concert by offering them some free tickets. 

Jeff Holden: That's 

James McCormack: wonderful. 

Jeff Holden: Dates, times, let's go over that just one more time for everybody.

Absolutely. 

James McCormack: So Saturday, it's always the second Saturday of December. So Saturday, December 13th at 3:00 PM matinee. Again, the concert's done by five 30. We urge people to plan ahead and come downtown because they, they wanna make sure they get good parking and I don't want 'em to miss the opening section of the concert itself.

And tickets are available on our website, sacramental, choral, that's C-H-O-R-A-L. DO org, and you'll see it's CC to buy tickets via Ticketmaster on our website. Or you can go straight to Ticketmaster and search for Sacramento Coral Society. [00:12:00] But if you can call the box office, call the box office between Tuesday and Friday, between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM because if you do, you will save a ton of convenience fees, and that box office number is 9 1 6 8 0 8 5 1 8 1.

Jeff Holden: That's a great recommendation and we will put both the website and the phone number in this episode notes so that people can find it pretty easily. James, an award-winning, internationally recognized choral society is unique enough in itself, but 30 years with the same two gentlemen who have been running the organization.

Conducting the performances is really unique. Holiday traditions speak volumes for creating memories. And home for the holidays has not only been creating those memories for generations of families, but it also gives families today the opportunity to start the tradition for those new to the [00:13:00] performance.

So thank you for your commitment to deliver something so personal, yet so wonderful for the entire family. And here's to another 30 years, I'm all for it. Thank you so much, and we'll look forward to December 13th at 3:00 PM. Thank you, Jeff.