Choir director steps up to full plate

By Kristen Hoverman

The Collegian

HER SMILE BEAMS across the stage, she turns to the audience and the crowd stands to praise her work and the work of her choir. Another concert comes to an end, but for Anna Hamre her career at Fresno State has just begun.

Returning to Fresno State’s concert hall after conducting at Carnegie Hall, Hamre has a full schedule ahead of her and the passion to keep her going.

Hamre came to Fresno State in 1999. As the director of choral activities, Hamre is responsible for the management of the choral program. She directs the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Community Chorus and occasionally the Women’s Choir. Hamre also teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting as well as literature.

In fall 2004, Hamre was invited to conduct at Carnegie Hall in a MidAmerica Productions performance.

“They try to find conductors that will make them survive financially and so they ask periodically directors around the country to come and conduct concerts,” Hamre said. “I was one of the conductors they called and of course I jumped at the chance.”

Hamre brought the community choir, as well as members of Fresno State’s concert choir, Fresno State alumni and students from three local high school programs: Porterville’s Monache, Hanford West and Kingsburg, to perform Faure’s “Requiem.” “We had approximately 283 singers,” Hamre said.

“There are a handful of spectacular halls in the country and even in the world that are as fine as it gets,” she said. “Carnegie is still one of the largest. It’s such an incredible acoustical marvel. I would go back in a heartbeat.”

Mike Stratton was involved in the concert choir and chamber choir while attending Fresno State. He returned to Fresno State for the opportunity to sing at Carnegie Hall.

“She invited the alumni to join with open arms,” Stratton said. “It is amazing the endurance she has. We had a lot of fun, in part because of her energy.”

Before New York, Hamre had already made an impact on the music department.

“She has a terrific reputation around the state and around the country,” said Matthew Darling, interim chair of the music department and professor of percussion. “The thing about Anna is she has a wonderful spirit.”

“Students are attracted to professors who respect them and are accomplished in their field,” he said. “The word has gotten out that she has these qualities.”

Students of all majors chose to be involved in choir at Fresno State.

“I’m always wanting to come back to sing for her,” said Stratton, a geomatic engineering graduate. “She’s very professional and diligent in getting what she wants.”

“She was always making us work harder, but I never felt like I was working in her choir,” he said. “She loves it and you can tell with all of the stuff she has done for the choral program.”

On Aug. 19, 2003, Hamre was honored by the College of Arts and Humanities as the Outstanding Teacher award winner for the 2002-03 academic year.

The Music Department has changed since Hamre came to Fresno State. “From my perspective it has grown,” Darling said. “The choirs have improved under her direction. I couldn’t ask any more from her as a colleague.”

HAMRE DID NOT always want to be involved with music. “In college I did not want to go into music,” Hamre said. “I resisted, I felt I was type-cast, but it was the thing I was good at so I thought why don’t I just go in and see.”

Hamre said she grew up in a musical family in South Dakota. “It’s just what my family does,” Hamre said.

“My mother’s a music teacher, my sister’s a music teacher, my aunt’s a music teacher. Everybody in my family does music.”

Hamre did her undergraduate studies in vocal and instrumental music education at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“As soon as I graduated it was ’75, those were the days of John Denver ‘Rocky Mountain High’ in Colorado,” Hamre said. “I wanted to go there.”

While living in Colorado, Hamre taught at public schools in two districts. She also finished her master’s degree in choral music and her doctorate in choral literature and performance.

“I started teaching and I hated it for the first couple of years and then I gradually started liking it; kind of getting the swing of it,” Hamre said. “Now I just love it.” At Fresno State, Hamre found a working environment she wanted to be a part of. “I felt so at home with the students and the faculty,” Hamre said.

“The students were so sweet, they had absolutely no pretense and I loved the generosity of spirit I felt. I met the faculty and they were just tremendous teachers.

“I just saw fabulous teaching and I really wanted to be a part of this faculty,” she said. Describing Fresno, Hamre said, “The culture is an agrarian culture, it’s a big athletic school and I find that an interesting culture to be in, because we have this pocket of arts with just some phenomenal people in the program.”

Darling has nothing but good things to say about Hamre. “She has done her best to make choir known regionally and nationally,” Darling said, “She’s done great things to get the department out on the map. She’s a fine musician.”

With no plans of retirement Hamre wants to get through all of the music masterpieces on her list beginning with Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem. “Gosh I’ll probably die in this room,” Hamre said. “The big things I have planned are always literature.”

“They’re incredible masterpieces and the chance to immerse yourself in each one is an incredible gift,” she said.

Hamre has a full plate this semester. The next major concert is in April. The concert choir and community choir will be singing Verdi’s Requiem with the Fresno Philharmonic at the Saroyan Theatre.

Hamre also works with choirs that pass through Fresno State as an judge of choral festivals. She’s judging in Clovis May 22-23. She is also involved with a World Projects Festival in San Francisco.

“I guess there’s still quite a bit on my plate,” Hamre said.

“You can’t ask for a better job. You work hard. But gosh I get to go to school and work with great people and make music,” Hamre said. “Just think about it; gosh is there a better job? I don’t think so.”

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