BY TY VINSON – Published in the The Olympian – June 16, 2023
Gary Witley, 74, realized at a young age he was meant for leading. Now, he’s stepping down from his leadership role as conductor of the Masterworks Choral Ensemble in Olympia, a position he’s held for 42 years. His final concert, titled “Golden Age of Broadway,” is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 17, at the Washington Center for Performing Arts. Ben Luedcke will take over as artistic director and conductor July 1. “I’m ready to release my leadership role and pass it to a very capable person,” Witley said. “Everything is poised to not just continue, but continue to excel and improve, and I’m just excited to see what happens next.” Those who have worked with Witley for decades said it’s been an honor to have him lead, and it’s bittersweet to see him go.
Angi Swan, the group’s piano accompanist, met Witley 25 years ago when she was a singer in the ensemble. She said she was just looking for a place to sing, and she grew to love being a part of the group. She said the chorus acts like a family, and its positive force kept pulling her back in. She later took up the accompanist position. Swan said Masterworks is a staple in the community, so seeing Witley go is a big change, but the group isn’t going anywhere. “He’s left a positive mark on music culture in Olympia,” Swan said. Swan said Witley has a way of connecting people through music, both listeners and ensemble members. She said he makes rehearsals and concerts fun, and he’s brought together numerous arts and music organizations in Thurston County. She said though people attend their concerts for the music, they leave with new friends and a larger support system. Both Witley and Swan have backgrounds in teaching music to young students, and Witley was a long-term substitute for her music class when she was on maternity leave. Witley let her channel her inner Carole King with singing and playing the piano during one concert, and her kids get to sing alongside them in this weekend’s concert. “It’s been an honor to make music with him,” Swan said. “It’s been such a joyful time of my life.”
Mary Tennyson has been a member of Masterworks since 1983. She, too, said it’s bittersweet Witley is leaving, but she thinks he deserves to focus on himself and his family. She said there will be scrapbooks at the concert detailing Witley’s career, and she expects there to be a lot of tears at the end of Saturday’s concert. A PASSION FOR MUSIC Witley has always had an interest in music. He said his father was a jazz musician, and his grandfather a band musician. He grew up in Santa Barbara, California, where evening gigs and at-home jam sessions were the norm. Witley said he’d been writing and creating music since he was a kid, and he wanted to learn how to write it all down. He decided to major in music in college with no end goal in mind. He found he excelled in composition and conducting, the latter having never crossed his mind as a profession. It piqued his interest, and it paid off. He was invited to graduate-level conducting classes as an undergrad. He then got a job as a conductor at a local church. “From that it became clear to me that conducting was really a passion,” Witley said. “I’ve always found it positively challenging to work with people, teach them and get them to a place where they can perform with confidence, and turns out that’s one of the things I’m pretty good at.”
Witley graduated from college with a teaching credential and moved to Olympia in 1979, where he taught music to K-8 students in the Griffin School District. He later taught music and was the computer specialist for the Tenino School District. But it was in 1981 when he got together with some other local musicians and formed Masterworks Choral Ensemble. Their first performance was at Saint Martin’s Abbey in Lacey, where they ran out of chairs for concertgoers. A few years later, the group helped open the Washington Center for the Performing Arts with a concert. Since its inception, the group has commissioned five new choral works for its repertoire, traveled to Australia for concerts, and partnered with local arts organizations such as the Olympia Symphony and youth symphony, and Harlequin Productions. The group has performed countless pieces, including original arrangements and hours-long performances. Witley said he and his family aren’t planning to go far. They’re still going to live in the community and be in the audience of future performances. But he said he’s looking forward to visiting family around the world, including Scotland and Hawaii.
“I’ve often said I’ve been extremely lucky in life to not only have music as my creative outlet in life, but it’s also my passion and it’s allowed me to have a career by being involved in education, as a church musician, and with the community choir for 42 years,” Witley said. “All my life has been built around music, and I can’t think of a better outcome.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2023, 12:45 PM.
