Crown of the Continent Choir ends season with finale at O'Shaughnessy

Apr. 26—Started in 2010, the Crown of the Continent Choir has spent over a decade performing music across northwest Montana. After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this season was the choir's first full year back to performing.

The Crown Choir is not audition based and is welcoming to all experience levels. The choir travels to various locations throughout its season which runs from November through April, with December off, to perform concerts that raise money for charities and local causes. The choir holds a concert at a nonprofit and/or church to sing and raise funds for them. Concerts are all donation based and the donations from attendees go directly to the organization.

After five successful concerts this year that raised almost $8,000 in total donations, the Crown Choir will host its season finale concert at the O'Shaughnessy Center on Sunday, April 30 at 4 p.m. The concert will be over an hour of a mix of tunes from a West African chant to gospel numbers and everything in between. The season finale acts as the only fundraiser for the Crown of the Continent Choir itself, as money raised at the other concerts throughout the year is donated 100% to that charity.

At the finale, the choir will also perform its theme song, "One Voice" by The Wailin' Jennys which is a great way to end another season of singing together for fun.

"It's a song about bringing people together in harmony which is pretty much the mission of this choir," says Crown Choir Director Craig Thomas Naylor.

This is the first year with Naylor directing the choir and his experience is welcomed by members; Naylor is the choir's fourth director.

Naylor's wife had sung in the choir, but he wasn't involved until this year. Naylor has a doctorate in music composition and spent many years as a choir and band director.

He grew up in Southern California and was active in music. While completing his dissertation for his doctorate from the University of Southern California, the 1994 earthquake struck and destroyed his studio and apartment. With nowhere to go, a friend invited him to stay at their cabin in the Flathead Valley for a while. Naylor met his wife and inherited two kids through marriage. He pieced together a living directing band and choir at Trinity Lutheran, other school districts and the college as well as his composing career.

In 2001, he took a university position in Virginia where he and his wife stayed for 10 years. In that time he had the opportunity to conduct at the Kennedy Center and the National Museum of the American Indian. He had composition projects through the American Composers Forum and he's had about 80 commissions.

Naylor returned to the Flathead and he and his wife built a house on 10 acres of her great-grandparents' original homestead. He now still creates music, has an heirloom apple orchard, is president of the Authors of the Flathead and teaches Aikido a couple times a week.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to add another commitment to his schedule, so he almost said no to taking the choir director job three times. But in the end, he's glad he took it.

"A little voice said just go ahead and take it," he recalled. "So I took it and I'm having a lot of fun."

The choir reportedly loves him and the energy he brings as well.

"Our whole choir is thrilled with [Craig]. He's a genius," says Crown Choir Board Chair Randy Carspecken. "He's good at working with people because he's been a teacher and he has incredible music background, so he's got the whole choir engaged."

When the Crown Choir first began it was to help local churches that had lost their own choirs due to people aging. The choir would travel from church to church and sing at Sunday service. Over the years the choir morphed into what it is now, which is an organization that performs to raise money for local charities.

This season they performed at the Mennonite Church to raise funds for Ukrainian relief, the historic 1894 St. Ignatius Mission, the Samaritan House and the Veterans Home. In the past, they also have done an MLK day program where they combine with Flathead High School.

The choir is 36 members strong and is run mostly by volunteers with small stipends going to the director and the pianist. Carspecken says the choir is welcoming and it creates a community environment.

"It's a community unto ourselves, people come out of these rehearsals happy," he said. "You make a new community of friends.

The Crown's season finale is on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the O'Shaughnessy Center. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. for a silent auction. The performance is free, but donations are accepted.