Oregon Spirit Chorus Takes Home Second-Place Medals

By Jennifer Halley, The West Side Newspaper

Salem’s award-winning, all-women’s Oregon Spirit Chorus took home second place medals on May 16 at the Regional Chorus Competition held in Reno, Nevada. 56 singers competed out of the 70 plus that make up the Oregon Spirit Chorus (OSC).

“We are so thrilled and proud of our performance and of our special new medals,” said Director Kathy Scheel.

The Oregon Spirit Chorus has been around since October 2005. Scheel, a West Salem resident, has directed the group since its first performance. Nine of its members live in West Salem, and the rest live across Salem, Portland, Vancouver, Corvallis, and all throughout the Willamette Valley.

“We were just a small group back then, like 15 ladies gathered to sing for Christmas,” Scheel said. “We sang in McMinnville, and downtown, we sang at the [Oregon State Capitol] Rotunda, and we just had a great time.”

That experience was so much fun, they became an official chartered member of Sweet Adelines International, a choral group based out of Tulsa, Okla., connecting thousands of women who love to sing and compete together regionally and internationally.

The chorus’s long history is rich. In 2011, Scheel was awarded the coveted title of Master Director after the chorus surpassed the incredible 600 score at regionals. In 2015, they competed at the Sweet Adelines International Harmony Classic Contest, and took third in the world. Two years later, they performed aboard the USS Missouri for Pearl Harbor’s 75th Anniversary in Honolulu, Hawaii. And since 2009, with the exception of 2020 (canceled due to the pandemic), every regional performance has resulted in a medal, including nine first-place medals.

Since 2005, Oregon Spirit Chorus choir has grown to over 70 members. Even during the pandemic, the chorus prevailed, by using Zoom. “That was awful,” Scheel said. She recounts one rehearsal where they gathered in the parking lot for practice — six feet apart and with masks, but together all the same.

Coming out of the pandemic, the OSC had dwindled down to just 14 members.

“And so we said, ‘okay, we need to make a concerted effort to grow,” Scheel said. “So we put in a system called Zooming to Membership Growth that we hoped would work, and it did.”

A year later, the chorus was up to 28 members. Then 37. By the end of December 2024, there were 54 members.

“We were really proud of that,” Scheely said.

Chorus member Chris Moyers, who’s been a part of the crew since 2019, remembers this time. “Not only did we grow, but other choruses were asking Kathy, ‘what did you do? How did you do it?’ Because we were the only ones who grew as rapidly as we did that first year coming out of COVID.”

On January 6, 2025, 25 singers from all across the Portland area showed up to join the rehearsal and, eventually, the OSC. Scheel looks back on that evening with fondness.

“I didn’t know they were all going to come,” she said, laughing. “That was the most incredible evening. I laughed all night long. It was so much fun. Every time somebody walked through that door, I was like, ‘ah, here’s another one.’”

That evening, the chorus expanded to 75 members.

“We all of a sudden had this massive sound that we’d never experienced in this chorus at that point,” Scheely said. “But it was not quite gelled yet. So we didn't do as well in the contest as we had hoped. So now that we've had another year under our belt together, I think the sound is more cohesive, and I feel like the chorus is cohesive in a different way, too.”

Moyers said that cohesiveness is what she loves about the OSC, and why she keeps coming back.

“It’s the camaraderie, the sisterhood, the friendships,” she said. “I haven’t found it anywhere else this wonderful. It's just amazing. These are people who'll be there for you, and who've got your back. I don't know that there are that many places where you find that quality of friendship in that abundance.”

The chorus rehearses throughout the year on Tuesday nights from 6:30-9:30PM, and are always welcoming new members. They will be having an open house/guest night this summer.

If interested, contact Director Kathy Scheel at director@oregonspirit.org or visit the website at www.oregonspirit.org.