This is busy and exciting time of year for Idyllwild Master Chorale Musical Director Dwight “Buzz” Holmes. He is planning an event that will draw on a half-century of local holiday choral traditions, including classical and popular holiday favorites, newer additions to the canon, and original compositions and arrangements by two generations of Holmeses.
“Here we are at the 50th anniversary of the Idyllwild Master Chorale, which my father founded in 1975, with the first performance the Christmas Oratorio of Camille Saint Saens. It developed in later years with a full production of the Messiah, which we did in Bowman Theater until we outgrew it, and then we moved to the Desert Sun gymnasium, which became the Elliot Pope School gymnasium, and did a long run there. About 1987 I took over the conducting of the choir with my father as the guest conductor, and we moved forward through the years. Around the year 2000 we became a nonprofit and changed the name from the Idyllwild Chorale to the Idyllwild Master Chorale. Here we are 50 years later with a really celebratory event.”
Buzz described the program. “It’s going to be really interesting because we’re going to have a Hispanic set, a French set, songs from the British Isles, and we’ve got a contemporary set with Sherry Williams and (composer/arranger) John Rodby. We’ve got also a set by contemporary composers, including myself, my father, and my theory teacher from USC–Morton Lauridson–and we’re going to close with a salute to tradition with the Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah.”
Instrumental reinforcement will include a string quintet with piano: violinists Todor Pelev and Bobby Ye, violist John LaMar, cellist Julianna Buffum Holmes, and Dr Marshall Hawkins on double bass, and accompanist Jeff Bell at the piano. Homes referred to “luminary stars” Sherry Williams and John Rodby, Dimyana Pelev Dysart, Daine Burt Justin Holmes, and a “Special guitarist featured on Allegria, a song which I arranged, a song from Puerto Rico.” Williams will again be the soloist for the Chorale’s 2015 version of Rodby’s medley of holiday songs that they first performed in the gym of Idyllwild School.
Original compositions by Buzz and his father Robert have always given IMC’s concerts a unique local quality. This year’s program will include “I Remember Christmas,” which had its inspiration in an unlikely moment. “I was in the Second Street Tunnel underneath Bunker Hill (In Los Angeles) in a traffic jam. It was incredibly smoggy and traffic wasn’t moving at all. I got very claustrophobic, and suddenly this song burst forth, which was me singing “snowflakes are falling on a mountain of white.” I was remembering something to get my head out of that tunnel and get in a different direction. So I went home to our place, in Silver Lake at the time, and finished that composition in about five hours.”
Buzz’s father will also be represented with original compositions. “We’ve got a Hannukah song which he composed which we’re going to do as a salute to him, it’s called “Beams of Gentle Light.” It was published by Hal Leonard and various colleges and other choirs around the country have sung it, and a couple actually use that as their ‘album cover’ for their seasonal events.”
The chorus is bigger than it has been in years, with forty members, almost double its post-pandemic low. “We’re really looking forward to this. We’ve gotten a tremendous response. The choir kind of hit a lull after the Covid epidemic, but now we’re back at full force and absolutely thrilled that we can present this concert.” Holmes says the performers are “chomping at the bit” to present the music, and it has been “gratifying” to see the support in the community.
Board President Eric Bolton shared with the Town Crier his thoughts on the role that the Idyllwild Master Chorale and two conductors named Holmes played in his life. “My connection to Buzz and the Holmes family is the life-changing experience singing in the ISOMATA Festival Choir for three summers. Bob Holmes was Director Emeritus, so still very much involved. I had the pleasure of singing the “In Idyllwild” solo at the 1979 culmination under the senior Holme’s direction. I remember Bob putting a big Sparklett’s bottle (I think it was an old glass bottle) on top of the grand piano in Rush Hall, which we used for rehearsals, to solicit donations for the then-yet-to-be-built Holmes’ Amphitheatre. I became a member of the Pasadena City College Chamber Singers under the direction of Donald Brinegar. We were honored to sing at the dedication of the Holme’s Amphitheatre. I was able to join other ISOMATA alumni at the ISOMATA 50th anniversary concert at which we sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.”
Bolton was the subject of a 2018 Town Crier article by Marshall Smith. In it, he recalled his introduction to Idyllwild during four summers at ISOMATA. “It altered who I am and changed my life for the better. We were learning to sing such challenging music and perfecting it in such a short amount of time. And the setting in which we were singing, often outdoors in Studio D, was magical.”
After high school and ISOMATA, Bolton developed a successful career as an actor in Hollywood. Later, he earned a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Utah, and became the CEO of an addiction treatment facility in Napa Valley. When he decided to return to Idyllwild, he became clinic director for the Desert Comprehensive Treatment Center in Palm Springs.
“Idyllwild is a place of healing and a community of artists,” he noted. “My experience at ISOMATA opened me up to these feelings. I think that’s what drew me back here.”
To read more about Eric Bolton visit the Town Crier Archives: https://idyllwildtowncrier.com/2018/12/05/a-singer-ceo-finds-his-way-back-to-idyllwild/
To see the full interview with Buzz Holmes, visit the Town Crier YouTube channel: @TownCrier-IDY. Note that this is not the “legacy” channel, @idyllwildtowncrier, which has interesting older material.
Idyllwild Master Chorale presents “I Remember Christmas,” Saturday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, December 21 at 1:30 p.m., Lowman Hall, Idyllwild Arts Academy.
