30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SDA CANTATA
The first ever Christmas Cantata at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Ukiah was performed in 1991, with three angels, a humbly small cast and a cardboard manger. The original bravado of the Christmas program was the music, featuring a beautiful 35-piece orchestra that accompanied the soloists and performers.
“It was the sweetest program, I still have vivid memories of being up there with the girls,” Jeni Guth says. Guth is one of the original three angels who has now been a part of the Cantata for 27 years.
At the time, she was accompanied on stage by the two young daughters of Margie Salcedo Rice, who was then developing the Christmas program and directing her first orchestra as the newly elected choir director at the church.
“The Song” program in 1991 was the beginning of a new Christmas tradition, both at the Seventh Day Adventist Church and in the Mendocino County community. This year marks 30 years of the Christmas Cantata, commemorated by a special anniversary performance on Dec. 12, “The Glory of Christmas: Sing Joy, Sing Christmas!”
After the first two years of the holiday program being held during Sunday church service, the overwhelming response from the congregation resulted in the doors being opened to the greater community for a Saturday night performance.
“The community just flooded in,” Rice says. By the fifth year of the Christmas Cantata, there were close to 600 audience members packed in the church to watch and experience the concert, with some people even crowding in the aisles.
“Our main goal was to provide a beautiful, high-class Christmas concert that was free to the community,” Rice continues. The church continues to stay true to their initial intent and the Cantata remains free to attend—although the number of tickets is limited for seating purposes.
As the years have gone by, the
program has also grown and developed under Rice’s guidance. Live animals were introduced to the set, the cast has expanded immensely, a script was written and platforms for the narrators and manger were built for the stage.
“Every other year, we present it from an international cultural perspective,” Rice says. For the 30th anniversary, the Christmas story is being told from a South Korean perspective.
In a time of turbulence, Rice feels that it is important to show that the message being shared “crosses borders and cultures, and it’s a way to unite us.”
To maintain the feeling of tradition that the community often seeks in the Cantata, other parts of the Christmas program remain the same.
The performance continues to open with bellringers and Victorian carolers that signal the herald trumpeters to play. The story of Christmas is told biblically, with the cast depicting significant moments like Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and the shepherds’ and wisemen’s visit to the manger.
Most of the performers are church members—varying in age from young children to adults—while the choirs and orchestra are a collaboration between the church and community.
“I realize that this is also so meaningful to so many in the community, that they keep coming back year after year and have made this part of their Christmas tradition,” Rice says.
After the 2020 Christmas Cantata was cancelled due to the pandemic, she was determined to delight the community with a performance in 2021. Rehearsals with the 40-piece symphony orchestra began in September of this year, with Rice as the conductor.
“The program we’re doing this year is one of my favorite sets of music. There are certain tones with the choir and everybody together that resonate on such a deep level,” Guth says.
Aside from her one performance as an angel when she was ten years old and a few appearances in the choir, she’s spent the remainder of her years with the Cantata playing violin in the orchestra.
Guth took violin lessons from Rice for years and went on to play in orchestras throughout her schooling, but her leading public performances have been in the Cantata. Even before she moved back to the community 12 years ago, Guth would commute home during Christmastime to be a part of the concert.
“It’s nostalgic, in a way that we don’t get in many other venues anymore,” Guth says. “It just brings tears to your eyes.”
Guth’s fellow musicians, soloists and choir members have devoted long hours to learning their music as others behind the scenes have decorated the church in lieu of the Christmas spirit, helped build props and sewed costumes.
Kellie Corbett-olsen, an emergency room physician at Adventist Health, has fashioned new costumes to fit the South Korean cultural theme. Rice credits her with being fundamental to costume design and creation over the past eight years.
“It’s a group effort and labor of love,” Rice says.
Since tickets are free to the community, the expenses of the production are mainly covered by financial supporters such as Adventist Health Ukiah Valley and various private donors. An optional offering is also collected at the performances to help defray the costs.
Rice’s hope is that the production will give the audience a chance to focus on the beauty of the season and on “what the true gift of Christmas is.”
Her commitment to the program over the past 30 years has been beyond rewarding, as she looks back to her first production in 1991 and realizes how deeplyrooted it has become in the annual Christmas traditions of the community.
“To create this music with the musicians and vocalists, it’s one of the highlights of my life,” Rice concludes. “The sanctuary is filled to capacity with this glorious music and it’s an incredible experience to be a part of.”
“The Glory of Christmas” will be performed at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Dec. 12. More information on inperson tickets can be found by calling the Ukiah Seventh Day Adventist Church at 462-5455. There will also be a livestream of each performance available on ukiahsda.com, since tickets are limited.
Precautions against COVID-19 are being taken for the event—the audience is being asked to wear a mask if attending in person and to kindly stay home if displaying any flu-like symptoms.*