The Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association (CGOA) is a nonprofit organization that sponsors several performing ensembles in the Columbia River Gorge area of Oregon and Washington. Founded in 1978 as the Mid-Columbia Sinfonietta, the CGOA was created in 2005 and now encompasses six ensembles: Sinfonietta (community orchestra), Voci Choir, Jazz Collective (big band jazz), String Quartet (classical), Stages (musicals), and Youth Choir. As of 2020, Mark Steighner is the artistic director of the association.

History

Early musical groups in Hood River

The earliest musical group in the

Hood River Valley Hood River Valley is the river basin of Hood River in northern Oregon, U.S. It is bounded by the Columbia River to the north, Mount Hood to the south, the Cascade Range crest to the west and an apparently unnamed ridge system to the east which c ...

was the Hood River Music Association (HRMA), founded in 1942 by parents and members of the local community. The HRMA would come to be led by Boris Sirpo, the founder of the Portland Chamber Orchestra, who dreamed of turning Hood River into the " Salzburg of America". Under Sirpo, the association would twice put on the Hood River Music Festival, a four-day event held in 1948 and 1951, and sponsored the Hood River Symphony, a children's orchestra, and junior and senior choirs. Sirpo would break ties with the HRMA in 1956 due to contract disputes, and would be replaced by a string of conductors over the next 22 years.

Mid-Columbia Sinfonietta

On May 14, 1978, the Mid-Columbia Sinfonietta presented its first concert, held in Hood River under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. Dorothy McCormick, a Hood River native who had studied violin under Sirpo in the 1940s, served as the first director of the sinfonietta. The orchestra became a member of the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Chamber Music Society, but remained as an amateur ensemble. The local youth orchestra would also be brought into the fold, being renamed as the Mid-Columbia Junior Orchestra and also being conducted by McCormick. McCormick passed away in 2004 after suffering a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

while conducting the junior orchestra in concert. She was replaced in the role of conductor by Mark Steighner, who directed his first concert in charge of the Sinfonietta on March 4, 2005. Steighner, the music director at Hood River Valley High School, led the charge to "increase the professionalism" of the Sinfonietta, highlighted by a name change to the Columbia Gorge Sinfonietta and the June 2005 formation of the Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association (CGOA).

Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association

The CGOA was officially formed as a nonprofit organization on June 25, 2005, with Faith Ackerman named as the first president of the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. Upon the founding of the CGOA, the Sinfonietta began to collaborate with artists from outside the Columbia River Gorge area, including

Storm Large Storm Large (born Susan Storm Large, June 25, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and author. She attracted national attention as a contestant on the CBS reality television show '' Rock Star: Supernova''. For many years solely a rock ...

Stephen Seifert Stephen Seifert (born September 29, 1973) is an American folk musician and virtuoso Appalachian dulcimer The Appalachian dulcimer (many variant names; see below) is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or fo ...

Blair Tindall Blair Tindall (born February 2, 1960) is an American oboist, performer, producer, speaker, and journalist. Early life and education Tindall was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to historian George Brown Tindall and Blossom Tindall. She start ...

, and the Vienna Boys' Choir. The association also began expanding beyond orchestra, originally with the addition of the VOCI choir in December 2006. A youth choir, a big band, and a theatre ensemble were all added over the next ten years. In 2016, Steighner founded the Performing Arts Initiative (PAI), an all-volunteer effort to develop a dedicated

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

building in the Columbia River Gorge. The PAI signed a land lease agreement to build a 600-seat multi-use facility for performing arts in Hood River; architectural renderings of the complex were released in 2019.

Ensembles

The founding ensemble of CGOA is the Columbia Gorge Sinfonietta, the largest and oldest of the association's six ensembles. It typically has about 45 musicians, with five to nine being paid, professional musicians from the Portland metropolitan area. The Sinfonietta existed alone until the creation of CGOA, when VOCI was created in 2006. The choir performs both alone and with the Sinfonietta, and after years of flux has settled to become a mixed-gender group of about 50 singers. The CGOA also includes the Gorge Youth Chorus, open to children ages eight to 13. It had been created in the early years of the CGOA but went on hiatus before returning as an active ensemble. Two more ensembles were added to CGOA in 2015: The Gorge Jazz Collective and the Hood River String Quartet. The Jazz Collective is a contemporary big band, but also has collaborated with local

banda Banda may refer to: People *Banda (surname) *Banda Prakash (born 1954), Indian politician *Banda Kanakalingeshwara Rao (1907–1968), Indian actor *Banda Karthika Reddy (born 1977), Indian politician *Banda Singh Bahadur (1670–1716), Sikh warr ...

and marimba groups. The

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

is the only one of the six CGOA ensembles that does not perform public shows, but instead plays private house concerts, weddings, and special occasions. Professional violinist Chari Bickford, also a member of the Sinfonietta, became the first leader of the quartet. The newest CGOA ensemble is Stages Theatre, added to the association in 2016. The theatre group presents both

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

and nonmusical productions, including '' Murder Ballad'', and is the only CGOA ensemble that is not solely a musical group.

References

External links

Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association

Performing Arts Initiative

Sinfonietta 40th anniversary history video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association Modern big bands Sinfoniettas (orchestras) American string quartets Orchestras based in Oregon Choirs in Oregon Theatre companies in Oregon 1978 establishments in Oregon Musical groups established in 1978 Columbia River Gorge Companies based in Hood River, Oregon