Honoring Roger Doyle’s Legacy

THE DOWNTOWN PORTLAND headquarters of All Classical Radio are new and immaculate. The Irving Levin Performance Hall, in particular, with its high ceiling and vertical slats of blond wood in sound-shaping mathematical arrays, looks like a recording studio crossed with a Scandinavian modern-style cathedral.

In December, the Choral Arts Ensemble’s performance was the first by a large vocal group in the new space, a fitting launch to All Classical’s Roger O. Doyle Choral Series, a recurring showcase for the region’s choirs. As much as the series is a celebration of the music, this particular concert was a celebration of the man it’s named for.

“It’s a big love-fest for Roger today,” said Christa Wessel, the host of All Classical Radio’s Thursdays @ Three broadcast.

A native of Wichita, Kansas, the late Roger Doyle taught music at University of Portland from 1973 until 2010, when the symptoms of ALS forced him to retire. For all but a few of those years, he also directed the Choral Arts Ensemble and conducted for the light-opera company Mocks Crest Productions and the Multnomah Club Balladeers. He founded the Best in the Northwest Choir Festival for high school groups, served as president of the Oregon Choral Directors Association, and, when All Classical Radio still was known as KBPS, was the station’s Board Chair. In 1996, he received the University’s Culligan Award for excellence in teaching.

“Roger’s personality was so endearing and so powerful—not in a domineering way but a persuasive way, because he had such passion and joy for the music,” recalled David Stabler, former classical music critic for The Oregonian. “He loved religious music, like the great Masses of Schubert and Beethoven, but also folk music and all sorts of things that you otherwise wouldn’t hear very often. And people just loved singing for him.”

According to David De Lyser, Doyle’s successor as the head of the Choral Arts Ensemble and a member of UP’s music faculty, Doyle established a commitment to artistry, community, and a breadth of repertoire.

“There’s always been a strong connection between the ensemble and the University,” De Lyser said, estimating that about a quarter of the choir’s 50 or so members are alumni or otherwise associated with the school. That includes De Lyser himself, who studied conducting with Doyle and earned his Master of Arts in Music at UP in 2001.

“I never felt like I was a student to Roger,” he added. “He always made me feel like a colleague.”

However celebrated his musical skills and his many musical endeavors, Doyle’s greatest legacy seems to be his personal warmth and magnetism, his caring and confident manner.

So much so that Sarah Parks ’95 wore a “Doyle Devotees” T-shirt, a keepsake from an ALS charity walk.

“That was our team name,” she said. “Roger was in a motorized wheelchair by then, but he came along with us.”

Parks studied conducting, opera, and other subjects with Doyle, and performed with the University Singers.

“After growing up in a very restrictive choir, his approach was so refreshing,” she said. “It wasn’t about being strict, it was about bringing the joy into rehearsal. And even though he was not a Catholic, I learned so much about spiritual goodness through him and through the music that he taught us.”

Of course, it wasn’t just singers that Doyle moved and mentored. Choral Arts Ensemble shared the Thursdays @ Three program with the Northwest Piano Trio, whose cellist Hannah Hillebrand ’05 initially focused on a career in nursing.

“When I came to University of Portland, studying music was an afterthought,” she said. “But he had this ability to light a fire in you. He was infectious in his excitement and his desire to inspire you to do your best work. He never balked at putting students together with professionals, and he could not only make you feel like you were the most important person in the room, but that you already had everything you needed to succeed.”

She noted that Doyle had a way of breaking down barriers for students and that he always encouraged them to be “the best version of ourselves together.”

“What a beautiful way to be as a human,” she said.

And what a testament this new series is to a beloved teacher, whose legacy continues to inspire a new generation of musicians.