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This Saturday, a longstanding Twin Cities tradition will ring grandly when the “Sing-along Messiah” at the Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church tells the Old Testament prophesies of Jesus in some of the most glorious music ever written.
Many hands and voices make Handel’s oratorio come to life each year in Lewis County. I just had the chance to sit down with one of them, a musical man of two continents who helped bring the local “Messiah” performance back to life decades ago.
When Dr. Helgi Heidar came to Lewis County in 1974, there was a grand every-other-year production of Handel’s “Messiah” that was, he said, the biggest thing happening musically in the Twin Cities. Musicians practiced for months to put on a Saturday night performance in Centralia and a Sunday matinee in Chehalis.
However, when key leaders left the area, that tradition fell silent. For decades, there was no regular “Messiah” performance.
“I thought that was a tragedy,” Dr. Heidar told me during an interview last week at the Market Street Bakery in Chehalis, which his daughter and son-in-law have operated for almost 25 years.
He saw an opportunity to give this Christmas tradition a second chance when his Seventh-day Adventist congregation built a new church west of Chehalis. He and his wife were actively involved in helping design the church with musical performance acoustics in mind.
In 1998 they brought back the “Messiah” as a community event in the new church building.
With people so busy these days, they decided not to have months of rehearsals. After some adjustments, the plan these days is for a few nights of choir rehearsals (beginning this Tuesday; all singers are invited) and an early afternoon symphony practice the day of the event.
Our local “Messiah” has been going strong for almost three decades now in this reborn form, except for a couple years missed due to the 2007 flood and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Heidar played violin regularly until health issues forced him to set down the bow two years ago. After surgery this year, he is recovering well and will be there for this Saturday’s performance.
He’ll be joined by friends who say his leadership has helped support this and other major musical endeavors.
Dr. Paul Chung, a fellow eye surgeon, Seventh-day Adventist and musical enthusiast, calls Dr. Heidar a man of vision, and not just when it comes to cataract surgery.
“Dr. Heidar is a generous man who has contributed significantly to our community through his involvement with Centralia College and the music programs at Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church,” Chung said.
Pamela Burghart, office manager and administrative coordinator at the Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church, has coordinated their sing-along “Messiah” since 2013. Although the local tradition didn't start at their church, she said, Dr. Heidar has been instrumental in keeping the program going.
“He has been a good friend and mentor to me and continues to inspire and encourage me,” Burghart said. “For as long as I have known Dr. Heidar, his interest in music has benefited our church family and community... We are all blessed because of his efforts.”
She noted Dr. Heidar helped locate the church’s pipe organ and negotiated the purchase of their 9-foot Yamaha grand piano from the Kirk family.
“Both instruments have great ‘miracle’ stories of how they came to our church,” she said.
Heidar was also involved in bringing another 9-foot grand piano to Lewis County, as one of the leaders and funders for purchase of the “Charlie Albright piano” at Centralia College. (Heidar told me he wishes that piano would be brought out a little more often for students to use at recitals: “Everything needs to be used some, not just sitting in a room,” he said.)
As I chatted with him last week in his daughter’s bakery, he greeted one of his four grandchildren as she walked by.
He mentions to me in passing that she plays in the “Messiah.”
Violin, like he did for so many years.
The musical legacy, like the soaring melody of Handel’s masterpiece, resounds through the ages.
Annual ‘Messiah’ sing-along schedule
The public is invited to listen to Handel’s “Messiah” (and sing along, if desired) this Saturday, Dec. 6, at 4:30 p.m. at the Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church, 120 Chilvers Road.
While attendees are invited to sing along from the audience, those who would like to join the more formal choir on stage are asked to take part in rehearsals starting this Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. and again Thursday, Dec. 4, and at 2 p.m. the day of the performance.
Eye-opening autobiography details unique life of Icelandic doctor in Twin Cities
I’ve been enjoying learning about the remarkable life of Dr. Helgi Heidar in his 2013 autobiography, “Views Through My Lenses.”
It’s a fascinating and rewarding read. You see World War II unfold from his perspective in Iceland, how this “hopeless” non-musician overcame opposition to learn violin, how he financed his trip to the United States thanks to a clever car import scheme amidst a devaluation of the Krona, how he settled in Chehalis five decades ago, and how he rode the “Cataract Wave” of innovative care into Washington state as co-founder (with Dr. Bob Ford) of Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute, the first Medicare approved ambulatory surgery center in the state of Washington.
I love this description as he looks back on his life: “With determination, self-discipline, risk-taking, and networking, many good things happened.”
And this commentary on his own experience as an immigrant is apt these days: “America is a special nation and culture where people are willing to help those who are trying to help themselves. This I personally experienced in a most vivid way. May this unique land of opportunity and freedom continue to be the same for our next generation.”
Dr. Heidar’s book is available at Book ‘n’ Brush and the Market Street Bakery.
Brian Mittge is a community enthusiast who has written for The Chronicle since 2000 as a reporter, editor and columnist. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
