“This year’s music will ground us in our home and community,” Rhonda Muckerman said. Artistic director of the Durango Choral Society, she is known for thoughtful programming, solid preparation and creative flair.
“Our theme for the 2025-26 season is ‘Stream of Song’ – a broad title serving as a counterpoint to last year’s ‘Take Flight,’” she said.
If you go
WHAT: “Rivers, Rails and Roots,” Durango Women’s Choir, Rhonda Muckerman, conductor.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday.
WHERE: Sacred Heart Church, 254 East Fifth Ave.
TICKETS: $20 general, $5 students and free for children younger than 12. Available at www.durangochoralsociety.org and at the door.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.durangochoralsociety.org.
The first DCS concert will be performed by the Durango Women’s Choir at 7 p.m. Friday at Sacred Heart Church, a new venue for the singers and one with “exceptional acoustics,” Muckerman said.
“The centerpiece will be a new work: ‘Rivers, Rails and Roots: A Sesquicentennial Suite,’ by our own Carol Thurman,” she said. “She’s been a member of DCS and/or the Durango Women’s Choir for 31 years, and she wears many hats. She’s been a church musician since childhood and a music educator for 15 years.”
In 1996, Thurman’s “Trinitas” was performed by the Durango Children’s Chorale in Washington’s National Cathedral and later by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale in the Loretto Chapel.
“Rivers, Rails and Roots” is a five-movement suite for women’s voices, string quartet, headed by Fort Lewis College violin professor Richard Silvers, percussion and piano that has come into being with two historical celebrations in mind: Colorado’s 150th statehood anniversary and the country’s sesquicentennial – both in 2026.
“The concert is a ‘soft opening’ to the celebrations of 2026, so why not start celebrating in 2025?” Muckerman said.
The suite, she said, “is a programmatic piece featuring the sounds of the peoples who form the foundation of this area, including Native Americans, early settlers and the spirit of the railroad moment.”
Thurman’s suite centers a program “wrapped by a selection of American folk music which transmits the spirit of our Western home,” Muckerman said. That includes “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” “900 Miles” and John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.” In addition, “Ol’ Man River” will be performed by bass-baritone Charlie Dinsmore.
“I first performed this 60 years ago,” Dismore said. A retired Marine Corps combat engineer and officer, he moved to Durango a few years ago and quickly joined the Choral Society. High school music experience in Dallas led to a lifetime of singing. When he heard about the theme for the opening DCS concert, he contacted Muckerman and suggested the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein classic.
Composer, choir conductor and singer, Carol Thurman has polished “Rivers, Rails and Roots: A Sesquicentennial Suite” for more than three years.
She said the original idea to create a new piece for Colorado statehood came from fellow singer Katherine Reynolds. Former DCS Director Linda Mack Berven and Rhonda Muckerman joined in to advocate. That was a while ago, Thurman said, and now “Rivers, Rails and Roots” will be premiered Oct. 17.
“It’s been an interesting experience, and many things have happened in that time,” she said. “Whenever I got stuck or didn’t feel up to the task, I thought about Hildegard von Bingen and her music.”
The 12th-century abbess and poet-composer has long been “my muse,” Thurman said. “When I compose, I invite her music in. That’s all I need to do. I could call it inspiration.”
Born in Hammond, Indiana, as Carol De Vries, Thurman grew up in Boulder, singing in church choirs and taking piano lessons through high school. At CU Boulder, she majored in history, all the time continuing her interest in music. Writing arrangements for various choirs may have sparked the idea of composing.
In 1994, she moved to Durango, joined the Choral Society and became the organist for St. Colomba Catholic Church.
Like many musicians, Thurman has alternated between church and educational domains, always participating in community performance groups. In 1996, when she completed “Trinitas” for the Durango Children’s Choir, the group performed it at the National Cathedral. It was a high water mark in her career as a composer.
With “Rivers, Rails and Roots,” another high-water mark is on the horizon.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
