The Mission
The mission of the Oregon Adventist Men’s Chorus is to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through inspirational music.
Thousands of lives have been touched and changed as they have been moved through the Gospel message in song. You can help share the Gospel message.
History
In 1994, Pastor David Schmidt asked Lou Wildman and about 20 other men to sing for worship services during the Easter season in Salem, Oregon.
The group was so well-received that they were invited to perform at the final meeting at the annual Campmeeting of the Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Realizing that 20 voices would be lost in the huge outdoor pavilion, Schmidt and Wildman invited other men from around the conference to participate, hoping to have perhaps 50 voices. For the evening performance, 112 singers filled the platform. The group brought the audience to its feet, singing the newly-commissioned Four Hymns of the Second Coming, and established a tradition
From that first camp meeting experience, Schmidt and Wildman envisioned a festival concert for the following Spring, expecting it to be a one-time event. Instead, the Festival has become an annual event with concerts in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA.
The concerts and invitations from other churches in the Pacific Northwest increased the group’s visibility and attracted dozens of men, some from as far as Arkansas, Nebraska, and Tennessee.
There’s something special that happens when people make music together, especially when it’s praising the Lord. Shared interests, shared skills, and shared expertese forge bonds of friendship quickly. Men from around the Pacific Northwest and beyond found their way together.
In 2000, 115 members of the Chorus sang at an international convocation in Toronto’s SkyDome to an audience of more than 50,000 people. They were joined by 35 singers from the greater Ontario region. The international exposure led directly to an invitation to go to Romania. That trip created the model for several other foreign tours, all of which are as a result of a direct invitation by some organization and teamwork with local musicians to form a truly international experience.
Tours included East Africa in 2001, and a tour of Romania in 2009, where they were joined by more than 100 Romanian men. In 2014 there were plans to visit Ukraine, but political tensions in the country were such that it was deemed unsafe. The mission was redirected to Romania. By 2017, much of Ukraine seemed stable enough that a mission was carried out there.
In addition to international travel, there were opportunities domestically. In 2005, a tour of the Inland Northwest took the group to Gem State Academy, where the choir teacher, Ben Purvis, and some of his students had a chance to sing with the Men’s Chorus. This was especially fortunate for OAMC, as Ben became involved, and in 2014, when Lou Wildman decided to step down from the director’s podium, Ben Purvis was ready to step into the role. Under Ben’s talented guidance, OAMC has weathered the challenges of Covid and an aging population, and is building a strong chorus for the future.