Chorale director shares love of music

The music bug (Muusica infectus) bit Irene Liden early in her life, and she has never gotten over it.

If you had a grandfather who played with Jimmy Durante in the vaudeville days, and a father who plunked the banjo, you'd probably be into music, too. She says that first music teacher, Ms. Dietrich, in the school she was attending in Rockford Center, Long Island, New York, also had a profound influence on her musical direction.

When Liden was a teen-ager, her banjo-playing father, who worked for the A&P Grocery chain, was transferred to upper New York state, close to where Eastman College is located.

Irene took her new and driving interest in music under her arm, marched into Eastman College and came out with a Bachelor of Music degree with emphasis in vocal training - and never looked back.

Next stop was the University of Southern California (USC), in Los Angeles, where she graduated with a MA, and then on to the University of Texas in Austin where she began her Ph.D. in music.

The beautiful mezzo soprano voice Liden shares with the High Desert Chorale from time to time was cultivated along the way between schools, thanks mostly to her training with Dame Friedlund Wagner in Bayreuth, Germany, granddaughter of one of the most famous opera composers in history, Richard Wagner.

Some people might say Irene was "lucky." Sure, you can get lucky, but the harder you work, the "luckier" you get. Liden's hard work got her roles in several opera companies, such as Carmen in "Carmen"; Octavian in Strauss's "Der Rosenkavailer"; Dorebella in Mozart's "Cosi Van Tutte"; Rosina in the "Barber of Seville"; and numerous oratorios, such as "Elijah"; "The Messiah"; and other choral and operatic works.

She also went to Norway to study under the best "Carmen" that ever was, Dame Ava Gustavson.

Then came 40 years of teaching music in all its forms in San Antonio College, Texas: theory, voice, and giving both scholastic and private voice lessons. And her experience doesn't stop there. While doing all those things at San Antonio, she also directed the college choir and the employee choir. And she also sang in church choirs - and is still doing it.

It is no wonder music is tied to everything Liden does. When asked what music she likes best, that frown her singers rarely see appears, and she answered, "That's very difficult to answer as I love ALL music... but if I had to take a pick it would be the Romantic Period of Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and the like."

At present, there are over 50 Sisters area people singing with Liden in her Sisters High Desert Chorale, and there's still room for more. To join in, come to rehearsal Monday evenings from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, located on 386 N. Fir St. in Sisters.