Crown of the Continent Choir a multi-faith group of music lovers

Nancy Rose isn’t a member of any faith congregation, but once a month she finds herself singing in a house of worship.

As a member of the newly formed Crown of the Continent Choir, Rose has been part of performances for Bet Harim Jewish Community, Community Congregational Church and the Glacier Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. The choir will sing at a Shining Mountains service next.

“There’s something very special about it,” Rose, a 71-year-old retired teacher, said. “There’s a diversity of people and practices, with the people joyfully pursuing their own practices.”

Rose was talking about the choir’s purpose in providing music for these four different congregations, as well as the choir’s demographics. The group of about 60 singers is formed from members of the above-mentioned congregations, as well as people such as Rose who don’t belong to any of the groups but just want to be part of the singing.

Flathead High School choir director Kevin Allen-Schmid began the program in September. The choir’s purpose is to have fun; its mission is to sing for social justice, environmental sustainability and spiritual fulfillment, as well as to serve others.

“I think that there is a groundswell of feeling within our community for public expression of issues, themes that might be more in common among these four congregations than from other religious groups in the valley,” Allen-Schmid said.

He named songs from the choir’s repertoire that address these areas. “Gate, Gate,” a Buddhist mantra, approaches the spiritual angle. Allen-Schmid said they hope to sing the song for the Dalai Lama if, as rumored, he attends the Arlee dedication of the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas in 2012.

“The Pasture,” based on a poem by Robert Frost, has an environmental awareness theme, Allen-Schmid said. And for the Unitarians, Schmid said the group sang “Seasons of Love” from the musical “Rent.”

“It’s a celebration of freedom for people in various gender and sexual roles, a song that is in support of social justice for all people,” he said.

The group practices once a week on Wednesdays from 7 to 8:15 p.m. in the Flathead High School choir room. Once a month, the group will sing for a service at one of the four affiliated congregations. It also performs for community events such as the multi-faith Thanksgiving dinner and even private functions, such as a recent Jewish wedding.

The choir has been an education as well as a musical experience for its members.

“When we went to Bet Harim, we sang the sabbath prayer from ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ a Hebrew love song,” Allen-Schmid said. “We had a Hebrew teacher come in and help us with the pronunciation and the rabbi [Allen Secher] helped us with our Hebrew. It was fun.”

Chauncey Allison, 20, stresses that the experience is truly a democratic one as well.

When he was attending Flathead High, Allison was a member of Allen-Schmid’s select Concert Choir and the elite Choral-aires. He was tapped to be a section leader with the Crown of the Continent Choir after Allen-Schmid found out he was in town and invited him to join.

“The fun thing about this choir is that anyone can be in it,” said Allison, a member of Christ Church Episcopal. “You can think you can’t sing at all, and we’ll find a way to make you sing. It’s a good environment, the community part is the biggest part.”

Cissy Booth of Somers also joined the choir because of a longtime connection with its director. The interfaith idea was a bonus, but not the real draw.

“I think it’s really neat the music he chooses is such a variety that it captures the culture, diversity, ethnicity and spirituality of these different paths, that he embraces all of that,” she said. “But it was really the opportunity to work with a director like Kevin — that’s a pretty magical experience.”

The interfaith choir could be a steppingstone to something bigger, Allen-Schmid said. The four affiliated congregations are discussing the possibility of combining resources to build a multi-faith center.

“As a member of the Unitarians, I saw that this idea of a multi-faith center could be supported by just going ahead with something that could break the ice,” Allen-Schmid said.

If the center is built or established in a pre-existing building, Allen-Schmid said the groups would maintain their individual identities, perhaps sharing a space and administration and, if the Crown of the Continent continues, a choir. Though, Allen-Schmid points out, the choir’s success is not predicated on the creation of a multi-faith center.

Allen-Schmid has pledged three years to the choir.

“If the singers saw I was committed, the would know that they’re not coming to something that might fall apart,” he said.

The singers pay $15 a month to be part of the group, and Allen-Schmid is helping keep expenses low by borrowing music from his extensive library at Flathead.

Upcoming plans for the choir, besides the monthly congregational performances, include a concert with the Whitefish Community Orchestra in May.

Allen-Schmid is also using a model that has been popular with his Flathead students, an overnight retreat with workshops and performances, for the Crown of the Continent Choir.

The group will travel to Missoula on a Saturday at the end of this month, attending “The Mikado” at the MCT Center for fun and rehearsing and performing with the University Congregational Church for the bonding and the musical experience.

“We’ll come back from that with the singers knowing each other a lot better,” he said. “They’ll have some mileage behind them.”

Anyone interested in the choir, of any faith or skill level, is encouraged to come to a rehearsal and find out more. For more information, contact choir president Mike Dores at 751-8514.

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.