Sacred music chorale director retiring
At first glance, Gaynell Coppess’ feet don’t appear to be all that big, but it’s going to take an exceptional human being to fill her shoes. Coppess, executive director of the Northwest Sacred Music Chorale, will be stepping down sometime after next week’s spring concert to make room for some new blood and to rediscover her own voice.
For the past three years, Coppess has worked tirelessly, volunteering countless hours as executive director and assistant conductor. Although planning to continue conducting, she’s ready to retire her director jersey to spend more time at home with her family and to “come back to my own voice,” she says.
As the search for someone to take her place begins, a five-page job description has emerged. The chorale members were astonished at the lengthy list of duties and responsibilities.
“My hope is that we can find someone who is interested enough and who has the time and the financial freedom to give of his or her time and who can help the chorale grow to the point of one day being able to pay a director,” Coppess says.
The NWSMC was founded by Coppess’ friend, Cynthia Marlette, in 2001, to promote and celebrate the tradition of sacred choral music in Coeur d’Alene. For the first two years, Marlette did everything, according to Coppess, but by the third season, it was apparent that reinforcements needed, and Marlette asked Coppess to help conduct and to take over as executive director.
“The most exciting thing about serving in these positions in the chorale has definitely been the people I’ve met,” Coppess says. “Our chorale is unique. We sing together. We pray together. We work together. We support one another in good times and bad.”
Conducting, she says, is challenging.
“You take what you have in the way of voices and adapt that sound to what you want to hear, seeing if you can get the sound you hear in your head,” she says. “It’s different from working with instrumentalists, in that the sounds change week to week, depending on illness or emotional stresses.”
A talented mezzo soprano, Coppess has performed opera, oratorio and musical theater throughout the Inland Northwest since 1969. She has sung with the Spokane Symphony Chorale since 1985 and has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She has already retired once, from teaching in public schools for 31 years. She’s currently the voice student of Patti Blankenship Mortier and, after her next retirement, looks forward to having more time to “just practice … just sing.”
Singers audition to join the chorale and pay $80 a year to belong. The fees help pay for music rentals and acquisition and to sustain the organization. The chorale has received a couple of grants, from Kootenai Electric and Allegra Printing, is hoping to get an endowment in the near future and is searching for donated office space.
The chorale’s spring concert will feature John Rutter’s “Requiem,” one of the best-loved choral works of the 20th century. A showcase for the 50-voice chorale, the piece’s seven movements express themes of life and death in prayer, psalm, and praise. John Lemke, former conductor of the North Idaho College Jazz Ensemble, is the conductor of the chorale, and Marietta Hardy is the accompanist.
The second half of the concert will feature a selection of African American spirituals, several of which will be conducted by Coppess.
“The Rutter Requiem is fantastic – ethereal and beautiful – and suitable for all ages, Coppess says. “It will feature a young soprano boy, Jesse Ward, from the Spokane Area Children’s Choir.”
After the concert, Coppess is looking forward to her father’s Edmonson family reunion in Madisonville, Ken., and to being the music leader for her church’s summer Bible school, which two of her eight grandchildren will attend.
“Could life possibly be any better than that?” she asks.