(Photo courtesy of Walla Walla Choral Society)
The Walla Walla Choral Society and Artistic Director Robb Harrison are inviting the community to attend the final performance of their 2024-2025 season. Take Flight — A Northwest Composer Premiere will take place at 3pm on June 1, 2025, at College Place Village Church, 715 SE 12th St., College Place, Washington.
The performance will feature songs by James W. Knox and other composers. The highlight will be the world premiere of Knox’s Take Flight, scored for chorus, string orchestra, brass ensemble, piano and percussion.
Knox is an internationally known composer and professor of music at Central Oregon Community College in Bend. He will conduct the Choral Society in a performance of his composition In Paradisum during the June 1 concert.
General admission seats are available for purchase online via Humanitix and through the group’s website, wwchoralsociety.org. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door prior to the event. With general admission, seating is first come, first served.
Adult tickets are $25; tickets for students (college and younger) and seniors (65+) are $20; and family tickets are $20 apiece if four or more are purchased simultaneously. Each attendee must have their own ticket, either on a mobile phone or printed out, since each ticket will be scanned as audience members enter the sanctuary.
Background of Take Flight — A Northwest Composer Premiere
The concept for this concert started with a blast from the past. Last spring, while searching for potential songs for the Choral Society’s 2024-25 season, Artistic Director Harrison encountered the name “James Knox.”
“I was surprised and thought ‘Could this be the same James Knox I knew from college?’ and sure enough it was,” Harrison said.
That school was Mt. Hood Community College, where Knox served as choral director when Harrison was a student there, more than two decades ago.
“Robb was a baritone singer in the Chamber Choir for two years and took private lessons from me,” Knox recalls. “We did a couple of tours including a variety of choir festivals.”
Harrison reached out to his former instructor via email, “to remind him of who I was,” Harrison said.
“In the email, he mentioned about what he was currently up to and how music has impacted his life and was particularly focused on saying how I was a big influence to him,” Knox said.
When Harrison told Knox he wanted to feature Knox’s music in the Choral Society’s performance in spring 2025, “he was thrilled,” Harrison said.
“I was very humbled that he reached out to me and that I made a good influence in his musical life and career,” Knox said. “I am especially touched and sincerely appreciative that Robb not only has been shaped by our time together in the classroom but now finds inspiration in my choral compositions. To witness a former student carry forward that shared passion and bring it full circle in this way is one of the greatest joys an educator and composer can experience.”
The concert repertoire
The June 1 concert will include a variety of music, with performances by the full choir, a women’s ensemble, solo piano, solo voice and string quartet. The program will feature four pieces by Knox, including the premiere of Take Flight.
“In Take Flight, you’ll be swept up in a story of courage, resilience and boundless possibility,” Knox said. “The text and music carry you through landscapes of sky and mountain, storm and sunrise — echoing the human longing for freedom, strength and purpose. The inclusion of the Latin phrase ‘libertas et arbitrium’ (‘freedom and free will’) reinforces the heart of the message: the call to rise, to soar and to embrace the full power of choice and possibility.”
Harrison and Knox both reference the cinema when describing Knox’s works for choir.
“I have always loved film scores — composers like Howard Shore, Thomas Newman and Hans Zimmer for example,” Harrison said. “James’ music is ‘film score’ in scope and tonality.”
“When you attend a performance of my choral compositions, you step into a sound world where music and poetry merge to create something cinematic, vast, and deeply resonant,” Knox said. “These works are crafted to stir both the imagination and the spirit, pairing soaring melodies and rich harmonies with vivid, poetic imagery.”
Attendees at the June 1 performance will be inspired, Harrison said. “This concert is going to be wonderfully moving and new,” he said. “New music — especially from a ‘local’ in terms of the Northwest — is always thrilling. It brings the art of composing and orchestrating home to roost in a way.”
Knox expects the concert will be “an enriching experience” for the audience and performers alike.
“I am deeply humbled and overjoyed that my music will resonate with the community members and singers of Walla Walla,” he said. “It is a profound honor to know that these works will come to life through the voices and hearts of such a dedicated ensemble. My gratitude to Robb and to this community runs deep.”
End of 2024-25 season
Although this is the Choral Society’s final official performance of its 2024-25 season, the group will bring the gift of music to the community two additional times in coming months. Members will perform the national anthem at Borleske Stadium before two Walla Walla Sweets home games — on June 15 and July 13. The Choral Society performed the U.S. national anthem at the Sweets’ inaugural game on June 8, 2010, and has continued to perform it regularly since then.
About James W. Knox:
At Central Oregon Community College, Knox directs two major performing ensembles and teaches a variety of classes and lessons, including voice, jazz piano, conducting, music history, ear training and sight-reading. He is an artist in residence at Central Christian School in Redmond, Ore., teaching middle school choir and a high school worship team.
Knox recalls several notable premieres of his works, including his first commissioned piece, Veni Veni Emmanuel, written for the Essen Youth Philharmonic in Germany.
“The piece was featured in their Advent program, and I have had a few smaller Europe choirs reach out to me for commissions including a write up on their Neu magazine,” Knox said.
Another memorable premiere involved a satirical, five-movement work titled Work from Home, reflecting on the COVID times.
“The piece was humorous and created a lightened mood for the choir that was just getting back to singing again,” Knox said.
This will be the first visit to the Walla Walla Valley for Knox and his wife, Heather.
“We are looking forward to the friendships that we will develop, the common love of music shared with musicians, and of course, good wine!” Knox said.