Our History

Foundation

Observing the current shift among many churches to more contemporary music, our six founding members gathered in the fall of 1999 to discuss new and different ways of ce­le­brating the great legacy of Christian music they had grown to love. Thus was born the Sacred Music Chorale, an inter­denominational community chorus based in the Puget Sound region, whose focus was clear: to sing the great music of the Christian Church, and to give the gift of that music to our listeners.

To direct the newly-formed group, the found­ing members selected Brad Klostreich, who as interim director of University Pres­by­terian Church had led several of them in the past. Brad brought with him a great passion for and understanding of the music the group de­sired to sing, and proved to be the perfect match. Along with Brad, the group also se­lect­ed Thelma Strand, a talented pianist and organist, to be the chorale’s accompanist.

Brad challenged the original six to double their number; they recruited even more — about two dozen singers — for the first rehearsal, January 9, 2000. The Chorale per­formed its first concert, with 28 members, in June 2000, in the Great Hall of Trinity Parish Episcopal Church in Seattle, where we continue to hold our rehearsals and remain artists-in-residence.

Since then, we have presented concerts twice yearly, before Christmas and in the early spring. We ended our second season with 40 members. In the ensuing years our group has grown even larger, currently counting about 60 singers among our ranks.

In July of 2009, about 1/3 of the chorale toured Germany and Switzerland, presenting concerts in Berlin, Leipzig, and Zurich. The highlight of the tour was participating in the International Choral Festival at the Thomaskirche, which was Bach’s church in Leipzig.

Evolution

After completing his Divinity Degree, Brad was ordained in the Presbyterian Church and accepted a pastoral position in Florida at the end of the 2008-2009 season. Fortunately, we were blessed with the choice of our assistant director Dr. Rachel Root to lead the group on its mission into its second decade. That same year, members of the Chorale created a new endowment fund, with the goal of ensuring the group will continue to perform the great music of the Christian church for many years to come.

After a successful first year as director, Dr. Root received a call to serve in a new ministry, ironically also in faraway Florida. Thus the Chorale decided that its 2010-2011 would be helmed by an interim director, Mark Adrian, while a nationwide search was made for a permanent artistic director.

A year of musical fellowship working and growing with Mark, however, convinced the group that the best choice of director was in fact already with us, and so the “interim” was stripped from his title and Mark was named our permanent Artistic Director in May of 2011.