By Justine Chahal
Donald Kendrick’s teachers fostered his passion for music.
Kendrick’s father, a pianist, taught him to play the instrument when he was 6 years old and living in Toronto. His love for music grew from here — he performed wherever he could, playing the organ at his church and joined his school’s choirs.
He doesn’t remember much from his science or math classes, he says, but he remembers everything from his music class and how influential his high school teacher Lloyd Erickson was in his desire to pursue a music career. Choir, for Kendrick, is an experience unlike anything else.
Now, the Sacramento-based conductor has traveled internationally with various choir groups, sharing this experience with others and educating any who will listen on the importance of choral music.
“There’s so much bad stuff going on in the world and so much war and hatred, and we are bringers of beauty,” Kendrick says. “We bring music to people and uplift them and inspire them by the texts we sing and by the kind of music that we perform. It helps to inspire and make people want to be better people.”
Kendrick founded the Sacramento Choral Society & Orchestra, a nonprofit chorus with an orchestra which is quickly approaching its 30th anniversary. He has also been a part of other choral groups, including the Hamilton Children’s Choir which he founded in Canada as well as the Sacred Heart Parish’s Schola Cantorum.
The choral group has performed concerts across the world in locations like Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Great Wall of China; a fact that Kendrick takes pride in.
The chorus is made up of 150-170 volunteers, Kendrick says. The volunteers come from different backgrounds, including doctors and lawyers who joined the nonprofit to relieve the stress they face on a daily basis.
“I’m proud of the fact that a nonprofit here in the city has become one of the most significant arts organizations in this town thanks to the hard work of the endless number of volunteers,” Kendrick says. “One common goal is that they love to sing. They love to express emotions through their voice and they have changed the face of Sacramento in the last 29 years.”
Kendrick likens his role as conductor to one of a teacher, where he must instruct choral members through his gestures, creating a language where he presents a visual cue which inspires a verbal response. His conducting work can lead others to new ideas and develop themselves as artists, he adds.
Kendrick is no stranger to teaching. He originally moved to Sacramento in 1985 to teach at Sacramento State, becoming its director of choral activities. He says it was one of the happiest times of his life where he was able to travel, perform and record music with his students who had no experience doing so before.
“It was a great passion of mine,” Kendrick says. “I’ve studied with so many different people and so many different approaches to teaching over the years that I metamorphosized a little bit of everybody I’ve ever met into my own approach.”
Through teaching, Kendrick says he was able to repay his own teachers including Mr. Erickson who he remembers fondly. Now, Kendrick’s own students have pursued careers in education, promoting the importance of choral music in schools themselves, he adds.
After retiring as a professor, Kendrick has also considered what the future for SCSO holds in the event he is no longer there to lead the group. He says he is working with a firm to consider who will take over as conductor to ensure that the transition into the next stage of the choral society is a smooth one.
“I want to continue doing this forever but on the other hand, I know I can’t go on forever,” Kendrick says. “The other part of it is I’m glad that I’m in the position to offer this back to the city and to help bring in a new successor who will lead them to the next decades ahead.”