Coastal Voices’ artistic director Rhodd Caldwell calls singing “a transcendental experience”

By KATHLEEN O’CONNOR/Lincoln Chronicle

Here is how Rhodd Caldwell, the artistic director for Coastal Voices, describes his work: “Singing is a transcendental experience for me. When I sing I feel at one with myself and the universe. And, when I work with other singers as a coach/conductor I hope they learn the huge power of their voices and develop a similar awareness.”

Coastal Voices is Lincoln County’s largest all-volunteer community choir, and one of its informal goals is simple, but ambitious — to make Lincoln County the county that sings.

Caldwell has an extensive background in the performing arts – piano, voice, theater and dance. He credits the film stars of the 1930s and 40s with inspiring his dream of performing. Growing up as the son of a preacher in a small southeastern Missouri town, he often felt left out by his classmates. He spent his time after school watching old movies – his friends became actors like Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Gary Cooper. He fell in love with their voices, their dances, their drama.

After high school Caldwell went to Graceland, a small church college in Lamoni, Iowa. There were just two professors in the theater department, but one was an excellent acting instructor and the other a skilled director. They provided him with a firm foundation for what has been a lifetime of performing.

Question: Tell us about Coastal Voices and what has changed since you became the artistic director in 2021.

Answer: We have a very strong and active board of directors, and together we’ve accomplished several things. First, we’ve increased the size of our choir from 30 to 65, close to our maximum capacity of 70. Second, we expanded the number of performance venues, adding the Depoe Bay Community Hall in 2024. Now each concert is performed there and at the Newport Performing Arts Center, the Chapel by the Sea in Lincoln City, and the Yachats Community Presbyterian Church. Third, we have introduced community sing-a-longs, especially designed for families. There are two scheduled for the holidays, one at the Newport Elks Lodge and one at the Lincoln City Cultural Center. Fourth, we have created an internship program for high school students, choosing three students for our spring concert and four for our holiday concert. And fifth, we have added a major annual fund-raising event, our Broadway Magic Gala, which is held in July. We are proud to be one of the Newport Performing Arts regional artist teams — known as the PAC RATs – along with four local theater companies, two local dance ensembles, the Newport Symphony and the Oregon Music Teachers Association.

Q: How has life brought you from the Midwest to the Oregon coast?

A: I bounced around the Midwest for many years before making it to Oregon, spending most of my time in and around Kansas City and Cleveland.

My very first professional engagement was with the Music Theatre of Wichita as part of their summer stock program;I was cast as Judas in Godspell. I was absolutely terrified at the audition and then just as terrified about performing in a 1,500-seat venue. But the experience was an incredible high for me and confirmed that I wanted to pursue an acting career. Over the years, I played multiple roles and immersed myself in each of them. Some of my favorites were Higgins in My Fair Lady, Salieri in Amadeus and Harold Hill in The Music Man. To support myself I usually had side jobs – most often in churches as music director. In those roles I continued to develop my own voice and learned to teach others how to use theirs.

By the mid-90s I had become interested in pursuing alternative medicine – Chinese medicine, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic. I learned Portland’s culture supported all these techniques, which were less popular in the Midwest. I made the move and immediately felt at home in Oregon. In 2016 I was visiting a friend in Lincoln City when an ice storm cut us off from the Willamette Valley for 10 days. I spent my time talking with everyone I could, trying to understand exactly what life on the coast was really like. I was looking for a fresh start since a close relationship had just ended, and I found it in Lincoln City.

Q: What life experiences have most influenced the way that you relate to your choir?

A: There are two that have been especially important. The first has been my lifelong quest to understand my relationship with religion and spirituality. My childhood was strictly religious, and I first had to be brave enough to explore paths other than what I had been taught. Since then, I’ve studied about virtually every worldwide religion and many philosophies of spirituality, and I believe that has broadened my understanding of humanity and deepened my empathy, which hopefully impacts my work with the choir. The second experience was that I was a caregiver for a dear friend in the 1980s as he died of AIDS. It was he who discovered that the way I had chosen to spell my name – Rhodd – means “gift” in Welsh. Caring for him was a profoundly life-changing experience relating to humility, compassion and faith. I feel it made me a better performer in the theatre and, I hope, a better choir director.

Q: How does one join Coastal Voices?

A: The classic term is to audition, but I prefer the phrase “vocal introduction” because I simply want to get acquainted with the person singing. It’s very low key – I vocally warm up with each singer a little, then ask them to sing a round with a couple of our choir members. Finally, I ask them to sing My Country ‘Tis of Thee with and without accompaniment, and then finally as if their voice needs to fill up Carnegie Hall. The vocal introductions are held twice a year, in February and August. We welcomed 13 new singers after our last one. We have singers of all ages – one of our singers has been with the group since it started in the late 1990s, and our singers come from all across Lincoln County, from Yachats to Otis. Joining the choir requires a significant time commitment. There are 1.5-hour rehearsals every week, plus performances at two concert series, sing-a-longs at least twice a year, and the Gala. And each member helps with running the choir by participating in one of the committees such as setup or breakdown at the concerts, publicity, or finance.

Q: How does Coastal Voices support itself?

A: We have been blessed with excellent grant-writers. Abby Dominy, our general manager, does this now, having taken over from Lissa Davis, who handled this for three years. We have won grants from multiple foundations. In addition, we rely on income from ticket sales, raffles at the concerts, donations from our many supporters and ticket sales and silent auction sales at the Gala.

Tell us a secret.

I am a pianist, and when I was about 40 I broke my right hand during a workshop led by the renowned dancer, Twyla Tharp. She had asked us to use unspoken dialog to create emotion — I fell hard on my hand while I was in the process of trying to demonstrate anger with a dramatic handstand. Initially I was terrified that I might never play the piano again, but several years of extensive physical therapy brought me back to the keyboard.

Upcoming concerts

Coastal Voices has scheduled four concerts this month featuring songs from four winter holiday traditions — Kwanzaa, Chanukkah, Solstice and Christmas.

• Newport Performing Arts Center: 3 p.m. Sat., Dec. 6
• Lincoln City Chapel By The Sea: 3 p.m. Sun., Dec. 7
• Depoe Bay Community Hall: Sat., 3 p.m., Dec. 13
• Yachats Presbyterian Church: Sun., 3 p.m., Dec. 14

• Website: www.Coastal-voices.org; Email: [email protected]; Phone: 541-283-6295

• Kathleen O’Connor is a Waldport freelance writer who can be reached via email at [email protected]