Beaverton's ISing Choir gears up for 20th anniversary with 'at the movies' tribute

While one might expect to see a group of professional musicians take the stage at a choral concert, that's not true when it comes to the ISing Choir.

In fact, the original group was comprised mostly of Intel engineers with degrees in music who worked at the Jones Farm Campus in Hillsboro.

In 2005, a manager at the Intel campus asked Stephen Galván if he would be interested in becoming the choir’s new conductor after the previous conductor was transferred to California. Galván agreed to lead the innovative choral music group, now based in Beaverton, on several conditions, including that he be the one to select the music the choir would sing.

“I wanted to have an artistic wherewithal to decide what the programming was going to be, and then that we would do benefit concerts for nonprofits, and then that we would tour internationally,” Galván said.

Not long after assembling, ISing traveled to Spain for its first international concert.

Today, ISing practices at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, which allows them to use the space free of charge.

“The concerts move around as far as venues,” Galván said, adding that the choir has even been fortunate enough to perform at such locations as The Patricia Reser Center for the Arts. “And we would love to continue to do that.”

Over the years, ISing choir has grown from a beginning roster of about 30 singers to around 80 now, ranging in age from 18 to one member who is likely in their upper 80s, Galván estimates. With the addition of more singers came an improvement in the quality of the organization, the conductor observed.

ISing is funded by grants through the city of Beaverton, which has been extremely supportive of the organization over the years, “especially during the pandemic, which was really difficult to go through,” Galván said.

The group has also received grants from the Washington County Cultural Coalition and Intel. The chipmaker supports the choir by matching the time employees spend singing with money donated to the organization.

The largest homegrown choir in Beaverton, ISing is an all-volunteer organization, said Galván. While instrumentalists who perform during ISing concerts are paid, the conductor isn’t, and while there is a strong board of directors, there is no executive director.

“With that, we’re able to give back to the community. In that way we’re so unique because I don’t know of any organization that has done this in the arts, specifically in our area but even nationally," Galván said. "We’re getting up to the half-million dollar mark of just having money go out to really worthy non-profits."

He said one observer estimated the choir had performed in 80 different languages — although Galván thinks that number is a little high.

“We have toured internationally to England, Germany, Japan, France and we were supposed to go to Italy during the pandemic," he said. "Of course that didn’t happen.”

In 2025, ISing will return to Spain after a 20-year hiatus to perform “Out of the Americas” choral music from the Western Hemisphere, and will perform at the Castile International Choral Festival during one of the tour's stops.

“We already have six to seven concerts scheduled. It’s falling into place,” he said. “What I’d like to do is be at Gaudí’s (Sagrada Família) Cathedral in Barcelona, to do a concert there. I would love to do that. That’s a long shot, but anyway, we’re working on it.”

(Groundbreaking for the cathedral — designed by renowned architect Antoni Gaudí — occurred in 1882 and it’s the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world today.)

In the meantime, ISing Choir will perform one of its most popular concerts of the year: ISing at the Movies.

Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27, at Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ in Beaverton. An additional performance is planned for 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 28.

“What we do is choral music for the movies, and this concert we will play a short trailer of the film that we’re doing the music out of and then go into the piece,” Galván said.

This year’s lineup includes choral pieces from such movies as “The Scarlet Letter,” “Excalibur,” “The Phantom Menace,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Moana.”

The choir will be accompanied by Big Horn Brass Octet along with a huge battery of percussion and guitars. Dan Miller, an internationally renowned organist, will accompany as well.

“We try to do things that are new that aren’t repeated, and there’s quite a few that we’re not repeating. Obviously new movies that come out. We’re able to do that.” he said, adding that the “Dual of Fates” from "Phantom Menace” has proved very popular among audiences.