North Coast Choral Artists
Christ Episcopal Church Eureka
The North Coast Choral Artists, led by artistic director Rachel Samet, will present a distinctive and inspiring choral program called “The Promise of Living” at the beautiful Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka. There will be two performances, one on Saturday, June 28th at 7:30 p.m. and the other on Sunday, June 29th at 4:00 p.m. Tickets will be available for $20 at the door.
The North Coast Choral Artists is a unique musical program where the singers work together for only two weeks from the first rehearsal through the final performance. This intensive musical experience allows for the cultivation of a strong sense of community, especially since the singers rehearse together for four evenings a week during the two-week period. And because North Coast Choral Artists is specifically designed for experienced choral singers, the group is able to achieve a very high level of artistry within this short period of time.
This year’s concert program is inspired by its final piece, “The Promise of Living” by Aaron Copland. Copland became famous in the twentieth century for having a quintessentially American sound, with open, slowly changing harmonies evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. “The Promise of Living,” derived from Copland’s opera The Tender Land, is no exception. The Tender Land was composed during the years 1952-1954 and takes place on a farm in the Midwest. “The Promise of Living” is the closing number of Act I and is a celebration of harvest, its traditions, and community.
For this concert, Samet included works that relate to the various themes in “The Promise of Living.” For example, sentiments of hope and faith are conveyed with “Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” a delightfully rhythmic take on the poetry of Emily Dickinson by American composer Kenney Potter, and Elizabeth Alexander’s “Faith is the Bird,” which sets the poetry of Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore in a slightly bluesy style.
The passing of the seasons is presented with English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’ expressive part song “Sweet Day,” and Canadian composer Sarah Quartel’s “Wide Open Spaces” relates physical spaciousness with internal freedom. Several pieces celebrate humans’ connection with nature, including Joan Szymko’s stirring “The Peace of Wild Things” (based on the poetry of iconic American poet Wendell Berry), and Patti Drennan’s sensitive arrangement of “Wild Mountain Thyme,” which includes flute accompaniment.
A sense of community and connection is conveyed with Iris Levine’s arrangement of the traditional Hebrew “Hineh Ma Tov,” which emphasizes a sense of community while giving a nod to Copland’s Jewish heritage. J. David Moore’s toe-tapping arrangement of “Will the Circle be Unbroken” blends bluegrass trio and gospel quartet styles. The idea of gratitude is felt deeply with Susan LaBarr’s slowly building prayer of thanks, “Grace Before Sleep,” and the concert concludes with Copland’s humble yet powerful “The Promise of Living,” accompanied by four-hand piano.
A DreamMaker Program of The Ink People, the North Coast Choral Artists was founded by Rachel Samet in 2019 as an intensive choral workshop featuring 40 dedicated local singers. In 2020, the workshop was put on hold indefinitely, was revived in 2024, and now has over 50 outstanding local choral singers slated to participate. “I am so excited about this program!” says Samet. “The themes of ‘The Promise of Living’ are so beautiful, meaningful, and relevant today. I’m honored to be in a place to explore these themes and this diverse program with incredible singers.”
The North Coast Choral Artists has evolved from Samet’s work at Cal Poly Humboldt, where she is the Director of Choirs. One of the ensembles there, Humboldt Chorale, is made up of both students and community members, and many singers have expressed interest in continuing to sing over the summer when the university choirs do not meet. Since the first iteration of NCCA in 2019, the number of community members involved in Humboldt Chorale has skyrocketed. Many of these singers are highly experienced and some of the top singers in the community.
“I created a summer intensive program for these singers in a ‘work hard, play hard’ kind of experience,” says Samet. “The singers have come to call the experience ‘choral camp’ and have been looking forward to doing it again since last summer. The singers receive their scores about two weeks before our first rehearsal, and they prepare on their own as much as they are able before the first rehearsal. Their advance preparation and helps to accelerate the choir’s progress during this short rehearsal period.”
Samet has lived in Humboldt since 2015, when she moved here to teach music and direct the choirs at the university. She grew up in New York and has lived all over the country, from Boston to Colorado to Hawaii, before landing here. “I was fortunate to grow up in a public high school program in New York that had an incredible choral program, so I think my love of choral music evolved from that experience.”
She was a piano major as an undergraduate, but choral music was always her main love, so she went on to get her master’s and doctoral degrees in choral conducting. Before coming to Humboldt, she directed collegiate, community, and semi-professional choirs, taught middle school and high school, and served as the music director for numerous musical theater productions.
Samet has been keeping the choral community in Humboldt quite active. Several of the singers participating in North Coast Choral Artists returned just last week from New York City with Samet, where they participated in a performance at Carnegie Hall for which Samet conducted Mozart’s “Regina Coeli.” “Performing at a historic venue in New York City with our Humboldt singers was a thrilling experience, and we are excited to come back to Humboldt and delve deeper into choral music back in our hometown community. This program has a different feel and I believe it will be engaging and enjoyable for both singers and audience.”
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- Email: Rachel.Samet@humboldt.edu
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