How Does Fishing Help a Choir?

Howard Meharg knows how to catch more than salmon when he has a fishing rod in his hands. Meharg, the conductor and music director of Chor Anno, went fishing last year with Tim Sharp and ended up with a commitment from the composer for a new piece of sacred music, which Meharg’s Vancouver-based choir will sing this weekend.

Sharp isn’t just any composer, he also happens to be the executive director of the American Choral Directors Association, which is the national professional association for choral conductors, educators, scholars, students, and industry representatives. On top of his duties as the head of that 20,000 member organization, Sharp conducts the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus and is a highly respected clinician who works with choirs all over the nation. He also is an avid fisherman.

So, a year ago, when Sharp was in Portland for an ACDA conference, he got into a conversation with Meharg, who invited Sharp to go salmon fishing on the Cowlitz River.

“Tim had never fished in the Pacific Northwest before,” Meharg said. “He caught a nice steelhead, and I caught the largest salmon that I’ve ever caught. So we ended up trading our catches, and he took some excellent frozen salmon back to his home in Oklahoma. We also talked about a new work that he was writing for choir and a bluegrass band, and he agreed to let my choir do the world premiere.”

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