Occidental Community Choir presents
When I Rise Up
Live concerts featuring an eclectic mix of locally composed music, classical and contemporary choral pieces, poetry, and spoken word from our community in the redwoods of Northern California.
Music helps us to make sense of the world, gives voice to that which matters most, and serves as a reminder that none of us have to stand alone.
This season we'll explore songs of joy, hope, resilience, justice, and protest. Some of our programming will challenge us to confront difficult truths and some of it will remind us that even in times of division, compassion, courage, and community can light the way forward.
We don't answer those questions all at once. We endeavor to answer it by the choices we make, by the people we stand beside, and by the hope we refuse to surrender. As a choir, we answer those questions every rehearsal. We listen. We support one another. We bring our unique voices together in the pursuit of something greater than ourselves as individuals.
This season, When I Rise Up will remind us that: hope is not passive, justice is not someone else's work, and the future is something that we create together.
Together, may we rise with courage, sing with the strength of conviction, and leave every performance believing that our voices, joined together, can help to bring a little more light into this world.
How do we rise together and what kind of world will we leave behind?
Winter 2026 Concert Dates
Join the Occidental Community Choir for When I Rise Up, a testament to the strength and resillience of the human spirit and our indominable desire for love, justice, peace, and goodwill. These powerful songs will resonate far beyond the walls of our concert halls!
$25, kids 12 and under FREE!
December 4th
Occidental Center for the Arts
3850 Doris Murphy Ct, Occidental, 95465
December 5th
Occidental Center for the Arts
3850 Doris Murphy Ct, Occidental, 95465
December 6th
Occidental Center for the Arts
3850 Doris Murphy Ct, Occidental, 95465
December 11th
The Tomales Town Hall
27150 Main St, Tomales, CA 94971
December 12th
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
282 S High St, Sebastopol, CA 95472
December 13th
The Glaser Center
547 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, 95401
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The Occidental Community Choir is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, directly funded by membership dues, local grants, and local company sponsors. We’ve been creating and promoting local music in the West Countysince 1978, and we have big plans for our next 50 years of singing!
Your donation or sponsorship helps fund our directors and accompanists, marketing and posters, venue costs, and more. Sponsors enjoy prominent placement on our website and in our concert programs - a valuable tool that reaches hundreds of local Sonoma County concert goers. Our last season sold out nearly all of our concerts!
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Our Mission
To create, collaborate, and promote great music, much of it composed by our members. We mentor and support one another in developing our skills as singers, lyricists and composers.
Our music encompasses a wide range of personal experience and reflects the authentic connection we have with one another and the larger community.
Our Beginning
Back in 1978, on Christmas Eve, a group of musically-minded souls from the hills surrounding Occidental, California gathered around a campfire in the center of town to sing carols.
We didn’t want to go home, so we started a choir.
Through the decades the choir has solidified its reputation for excellence by producing unique concert experiences that combine humor, storytelling, poetry, varied instrumental accompaniment, and an off-the-beaten-path repertoire.
"And we breathe in our daily labors
and breathe out songs in four parts;
we bring life to the notes on the pages,
and the music gives light to our hearts…"
— Choirsong Chorale by Marcy Telles and Doug Bowes