At the end of 1984, the chorus changed conductors again.
A weekly commute
The Bay Area Reporter’s Allen White reported on January 3, 1985, that just before its Christmas Eve concert, the chorus had accepted the resignation of director Ernie Veniegas, effective after the holiday concerts. Members then voted to hire Dennis Coleman, 34, who had led the 125-member Seattle Men’s Chorus since June 1981, as interim conductor.
Coleman would commute from Washington state every week, charging nothing beyond travel costs. Rehearsals moved from Monday to Thursday to fit his schedule: San Francisco Thursday through Saturday, a church choir in Bellevue on Sunday and Wednesday, and the Seattle Men’s Chorus on Monday. He would lead one major concert, on April 24, 1985, at the War Memorial Opera House, and a joint San Francisco–Seattle concert was planned for the fall.
Chipping away at the debt
After near-sellout Christmas concerts, the chorus planned a large payment on its 1981 tour debt, which still topped $160,000. The payment would save almost $16,000 in interest. The BAR noted that paying off the debt could take four years or more.
From the archives: this post retells reporting by the Bay Area Reporter. The original articles survive only in newspaper archives, so we have told the story here in our own words. Details attributed to those outlets are their reporting; see the sources below.
Sources
- Bay Area Reporter, “High-Flying Seattleite Lands S.F. Chorus Job” by Allen White, January 3, 1985. ebar.com
