PORT ANGELES — When Jolene Dalton Gailey stepped up to turn 100 youngsters into a choir this past Saturday, she brought with her a clear intention.
“I want them to walk away from this experience saying, ‘I can do anything.’ The music really does reflect that,” said Gailey, who taught music and other subjects in public schools for 35 years before retiring in 2020.
Twenty-six of those years were at Port Angeles High School. But when Gailey retired from classroom teaching — with plans for a big farewell concert — the global pandemic prevented her from performing with her students.
Then, this winter, the Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) chose Gailey to lead the Junior All-State Treble Choir in a concert at the February conference in Yakima — an event that had been on hold for the past two years.
Jolene Dalton Gailey.
Her selection came after another one in another county: the RainShadow Chorale tapped Gailey to be the guest conductor for its May concerts in Port Townsend and Chimacum.
She steps into this role following the departure of artistic director Rebecca Rottsolk, who recently moved to Seattle.
RainShadow’s theme for its spring performances, Gailey noted, is “The Illumination of My Soul.”
At the same time, she and her husband Doug, also a music teacher, run the Gailey Music Studio in their home in Port Angeles, and have voice, guitar, horn and piano students among their pupils.
They teach two days a week, which Gailey feels is ideal.
For the WMEA concert last Saturday at Yakima’s Capitol Theatre, Gailey selected seven songs to lift her singers up. One of them, “The Inishmore Hornpipe” by Andrea Klouse, was a world premiere that called for a violinist to perform with the choir.
Gailey called on James Ray, the longtime Port Angeles School District music teacher who’s now a Western Washington University professor, to come and play.
Gailey and Ray joined the singers, an all-auditioned ensemble of seventh- and eighth-graders, all wearing face masks, in a performance that roamed across the musical map.
In addition to “Inishmore,” the choir sang “Feel Good,” a gospel song by Barbara Baker; “Et Misericordia” by Kim Andre Arneson; two songs by Clara Schumann; “We are Blessed” by Andrea Ramsey and Andra Day’s R & B hit “Rise Up.”
Gailey said she wanted a program celebrating female composers, composers of color — and personal strength.
The message of these songs, she said: “We are powerful people and we can rise up and make something fantastic.”
In Saturday’s concert, Gailey and her choir sang that message in English, German and Latin.
Standing in front of singers again, making music again, she added, was “a glorious experience.”
________
Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
