Music From Home

Andrea VanDyke, June 2025

In the winter of 1978, around a campfire, a choral community was born. The midwife was a petite brunette named Diane Masura, of Irish descent, with a long braid down her back and a vision. She lived in Occidental, a small western Sonoma County community known for its Italian restaurants. Singers gathered around the bonfire, they sang and they lingered; they did not want to leave.

At the former school site of the town, a small group of dedicated volunteers was attempting to realize a gleam in the eye of social worker Doris Murphy and classical music enthusiast Kit Neustader to create a “Home for All the Arts” at the now-abandoned-due-to earthquake- concerns elementary school campus in town. Developers Orrin and Terri Thiessen had begun to re-purpose the school grounds to create a space for housing in Occidental. The founders’ mission was to find a permanent home for the Occidental Community Choir and the Red- wood Arts Council. The Thiessens gifted the former school auditorium to the fledgling arts organization, which opened its doors in 2010 as Occidental Center for the Arts.

Choir Elders, 2024: Diane Masura, Sue Smith, Steve Fowler, Andrea VanDyke, and Gerry Schultz

I moved to the small hamlet of Monte Rio on the Russian River with my husband in 1978 when we purchased a fixer-upper in the hills above town. I saw an ad in a local newspaper asking interested singers to join a choir forming at the little white church on the hill in Occidental. I became a soprano in the choir under the direction of an earnest young man named Phillip Rolnick. I sat on the right side of the church for rehearsals with sopranos and altos; on the left side were the tenors and basses. They included one Steve Fowler, who with his wife Rene joined the choir shortly after I did. We rehearsed Beach Boy medleys and songs about stars for concerts at the church, and in neighboring towns like Bodega.

In 1979 I became pregnant with my first born; but I continued to sing with the choir until he was born in February of 1980. After a childrearing period which also included the birth of our daughter four years later, I auditioned to be re-admitted into the Occidental Community Choir. I was crushed when, one anxious week later, I received a telephone call from a male choir member who informed me that alas, the OCC was “seeking leaders, not followers.” Being busy with childrearing and house remodeling, I stayed away for some years; until I attended a concert and began to pine for the choral experience once again. This time, I auditioned with the song “Follow Me,” from the musical Camelot. I got in.

Choir members, date unknown. Author Andrea VanDyke is seated at the bottom left.

Over the next forty-five years, I have intersected with this choral community and the singers, weaving in and out as life and circumstances dictated. We have had many conductors, mostly male; some were very focused on their own vision of a choral legacy, and others were more inclusive in their outreach and temperament. Steve’s wife Rene died of breast cancer; their daughter Sarah became the choir director not once, but twice. Steve and I - he widowed and I soon to be divorced - danced a waltz together during a song that he co-wrote with Lou Gottlieb of the Limelighters and Morningstar Ranch called “Star-Crossed Lovers,” at the little white church on the hill. In 1998, Steve and I began to circle round each other and started a love affair that was to last for twenty-five years, to the soundtrack of the Occidental Community Choir. Our Spring and Winter concerts still  invariably end with the beloved choir anthem “Music from Home.” Former members are invited to stand in circle with us as we surround the audience. Now there are two of us who interpret the lyrics in ASL. This finale always brings tears and cheers from the community, including ourselves.

In 2010, OCC moved into “anchor tenant” residence at the Occidental Center for the Arts. The choir expanded and contracted with the years. Our choral community has endured for over forty-five years, continuing to write original songs, as well as performing classics of many genres and styles. Choir Mother Diane Masura is still singing and writing songs in her eighties. Her long brown hair, now flecked with grey, still travels down her back.

I am now a Choir Elder, along with a handful of other oldsters which used to include my sweetheart, who died suddenly last year, at age 84, while playing golf with a dear friend. One week later, we opened our Spring concert series, and I was tenderly embraced by my choral community as we paid tribute in song and poetry to him. There was a video recording of Steve’s inimitable poetry reading during the last spring concert. I was helped on stage to introduce a song poem he had written on our trip to Ireland in 2002. It was a public mourning that was intensely meaningful to me.

The Occidental Community Choir now has a dynamic young (thirty-one years old!) director who, with his warm and welcoming wife as Program Director by his side, has attracted many younger members with their compelling mix of technical expertise and compassionate stewardship. We have expanded into songs about social justice, gender, sanctuary; paid homage to spirituals, and offered lessons on our nations’ conflicting and troubled history with the oppressed and people of color. We sing about coffee, and giving peace a chance. The choir tackles songs in South African and Indian raga dialects and styles, with the oldest choir members trying hard to wrap their mouths around the challenging lyrics that trip off the tongue of the younger members. Our Spring and Winter concerts have expanded to other venues besides Occidental, and attract robust crowds and sometimes full houses with standing ovations.

The recipe for building a choral community from the ground up seems to be quite straightforward. Start with a vision and a person to initiate that vision. Find a suitable and supportive home in the community. Invest the time and energy into developing a program and style that is inclusive, by encouraging members to write their own stories in song, and to experiment and test their boundaries. Add a huge dose of inclusion and compassion; along with skilled accompanists who come from the ranks of the choir. Acquire a dynamic and skilled director, who along with his wife is both technically and personally a perfect fit as a leader. Make a collaborative effort to support and expand the art of singing in choral community, and broadcast this enthusiasm to the wider audiences to make them appreciate and enjoy our “Music From Home.” Works for me.