Elvera Voth

Elvera Katharine Voth was born to Johann (John) and Katharina (Katharine, given name also Voth) Voth on August 9, 1923, on their farm north of Walton (Section 32, East Branch Township, Marion County), Kansas. She had three older siblings—Irma, Arnold, and Wanda—and later, a baby brother, Willis (Bill). The Voth family was part of a tight-knit Mennonite community, but Warham Grade School, the one-room school that all the children attended, had both Mennonite and non-Mennonite (“English” or “Yankee”) students. Elvera, who spoke only Low German before starting school, wrote that her older sister, Irma, helped her to learn English. Perhaps they studied English as they walked the two miles to and from school, sometimes meeting up with the Goertz neighbors along the way. Elvera must have been a good student, given that she skipped the third grade and joined her older sister, Wanda, in the fourth grade. Wanda was her best friend and remained so until Wanda’s death in 1987.

Music was always part of Elvera’s life. As his father had done before him, Elvera’s father sang in the home. Elvera’s sister, Irma, in a family genealogy, reported that John would sing German songs such as “Can You Count the Stars” and “Abend Lieder.” On especially good mornings he would sing “Hallelujah, Schöne Morgen.” Irma also recalled that “when she was as small as our phonograph, she would climb up on the table, stick her head in and sing along for all she was worth.” Bill, her younger brother, could not remember a time when she wasn’t playing piano and singing. The family attended church faithfully, and singing hymns in four-part harmony was a joyous part of the church service. Elvera, who had perfect pitch, was recruited to play the hymn accompaniments for congregational singing as early as the age of eight. She couldn’t read the notes, couldn’t read German, and, as she later wrote, “This was a lot to sort out in front of a congregation of 300.” Elvera learned to recognize the hymns by their numbers, or, if that failed, the “Vorsänger” or lead singer would hum a few bars and then she would play by ear. When she was very young and playing on the pump organ, she would have to have someone else pump the pedals because her legs were too short to reach them.

After grade school, Elvera attended Walton High School and was finally allowed by church elders to take piano lessons, traveling 40 miles to McPherson in a Model T driven by her brother, Arnold. The elders originally had argued that her musical talents were a gift from God and should not be corrupted by lessons. In conversation with Andrea, a great-niece, Elvera said, “And even though my piano teachers didn’t share that point of view, they couldn’t teach me much because they didn’t know much other than how to play hymns.” Elvera’s high school music teacher, Viola Harris (described by Elvera as “the Harold Hill of Walton, Kansas”), convinced her father to get her a mellophone to play in the newly formed high school band and saw to it that she found a legitimate piano instructor. Ms. Harris was one of the few musical role models in Elvera’s young life. Elvera’s piano playing earned her the first official recognition of many kinds to follow when she attended a piano contest in Emporia, Kansas, and received a Highly Superior rating.

After high school, Elvera attended Bethel College. Following her sophomore year, when she was just 19, Elvera began teaching music at Walton High School and stayed for two years. Then she attended the University of Kansas for a year, returning to Bethel College for her senior year and serving as editor of Graymaroon, the college yearbook. Elvera graduated with a music degree from Bethel College in 1946. Moving to the small western Kansas community of Kismet, she taught music in the public school for one year, and then she moved to the Chicago area to earn a Master of Arts in music education from Northwestern University in Illinois.

Master’s degree in hand, Elvera joined the music faculty at Freeman Junior College in Freeman, South Dakota, teaching there from 1948 to 1952. At Freeman she made lifelong connections while enjoying and enhancing the community’s deep interest in choral music.

In 1952, Elvera returned to the Newton area and joined the music faculty at Bethel College. She immediately started a select women’s sextet, although, according to her, other music faculty did not support her plan. It did not help that members of the group could not be part of the Bethel College A Cappella Choir, because performance times were often in conflict. Renae Schmidt Peters, in her master’s thesis on The Bethel College Concert Choir, quoted Elvera as saying, “I was so driven to do choral work that I think I just ran over everyone.” The sextet developed in the fall of 1953 into a mixed select group called the Bethel College Vocal Ensemble. The group quickly gained critical acclaim and maintained a rigorous performance schedule during the school year and through the summer, traveling extensively in the Midwest, Northwest and Canada. Many in this group stayed in touch with Elvera for the rest of their lives. During her time at Bethel, Elvera also started a men’s glee club that was open to anyone who wanted to join.

Elvera needed a full-time job, and there were no open positions at Bethel College—or at any college during that era for a woman. Thus, in the fall of 1955, she started teaching music at Newton High School, where she taught for four years. These were busy years. In 1956, while still teaching, Elvera founded the Newton Civic Chorus and Orchestra Association. In the program notes for the Gala 35th Anniversary Concert, Elvera wrote that this “provided me the opportunity to learn and to conduct many great choral/orchestra masterworks. I have always been grateful for that privilege and am happy that subsequent conductors have also had this opportunity.” During this same period, she also directed the Eden Mennonite Men’s Chorus and developed an appreciation for arranging choral works for men’s voices. In 1956, Elvera was named “Newton’s Woman of the Year.”

During the summers of 1955, 1956 and 1957, Elvera attended The Workshop on Choral Art held in San Diego and taught by, among others, Robert Shaw and Julius Hereford. The first summer she drove by herself and had to stop in the Colorado Rockies to let the radiator cool. On her next two trips, Elvera traveled with David Suderman, a Bethel College faculty member. These summers were pivotal because that was when she made a connection with Robert Shaw, the best-known choral conductor of his generation, for the first time—and when Elvera met Mary Hale, conductor of the Community Chorus in Anchorage, Alaska, who invited her to move to Anchorage.

In 1960 Elvera successfully applied to teach at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but shortly afterward, the university received an application from a male and hired him instead. They said, “I’m sure you will understand.” Being a woman in a male-dominated profession was challenging! Fortunately, in 1961, Mary Hale hired Elvera to conduct the Anchorage Community Chorus and to prepare the Alaska Festival of Music Chorus for its conductor, Robert Shaw. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Anchorage Community Chorus concerts and the “Music to Match Our Mountains” Alaska Festival of Music became two of the most important cultural events in the city.

That first winter in Alaska was a time Elvera never forgot. “I lived in an old mobile home made of tin. It was so cold the sheets froze to the wall,” she remembered. Only three years later, on March 27, 1964, Elvera lived through the Great Alaskan Earthquake. Lasting four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, the magnitude 9.2–9.3 megathrust earthquake remains the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America. Elvera was unharmed but lived with a fear of earthquakes for many years.

Elvera found full-time work as an assistant professor of music at Anchorage Community College, which is affiliated with the University of Alaska. She was also subcontracted to Alaska Methodist University (AMU), where she directed the AMU Chorale. At the community college, in addition to conducting the Anchorage Community Chorus, she was conductor of the Anchorage Community College Lyric Opera Theater.

As if this wasn’t enough, Elvera also founded the Anchorage Boys’ Choir, was the co-founder of the Basically Bach festival, conducted the Arctic Knights Army Choir at Ft. Richardson, directed the Sunday Afternoon Concert series at the Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Museum, and was the third director of the Anchorage Opera. The Anchorage Opera website notes the following: “In the mid-1960s, Elvera Voth, a determined advocate for the performing arts in Anchorage, inherited the company. Under her direction, Anchorage Opera began to blossom.”

Elvera’s talents brought her to Washington, D.C., in 1976 when states were invited to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the nation’s bicentennial celebration, and she was chosen to lead Alaska’s presentation. She chose 22 Anchorage singers, the Kodiak Russian Dancers and Point Hope Eskimo dancers and singers to represent Alaska.

Later, in 1986, Elvera founded the Alaska Chamber Singers (ACS), one of the state’s finest music ensembles. In 1992, the ensemble was the first American chorus to perform in Magadan, Russia, Anchorage's Sister City, as part of a cultural exchange. Later in 1992, ACS and other area singers combined forces with the Kamchatka Choir from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, in a performance of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky Suite with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich. 

Elvera came to Alaska to prepare choruses for Robert Shaw and the Alaska Festival of Music, and this may have been one of the most satisfying tasks of her life. Mr. Shaw served as artistic director of the Alaska Festival of Music from its beginning in 1956 to 1973. Elvera prepared choruses for 12 of those years, from 1962 to 1973, and during this time the two developed a deep friendship. In a letter to Maestro Shaw written in 1998, Elvera referred to this time as the “Wonder Years.” In an interview with Helen Gillette of the Anchorage Daily Times she said, “Preparing many of the choral masterpieces for Mr. Shaw was the great privilege of my life. What good but terrifying memories I have, turning over to him the choruses from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Britten’s War Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem and others.” The admiration was mutual. Many years later, while preparing for the concert at Bethel College to benefit Elvera’s Arts in Prison organization, Shaw said, “I’ve met a few great people in my life, Eleanor Roosevelt among them, and Elvera is one of the half-dozen great people I’ve ever met . . .” The festival provided opportunities not only for great music but also for great adventure: plane rides, hikes, cabins in the wilderness, fishing, long summer days and social outings. Jan Stewart wrote in a letter to Robert Shaw in 1965, “We almost lost Elvera on the canoe trip—she can’t swim. You’d think with those long arms . . .”

Among Elvera’s many Alaskan awards, honors and accolades were the following: the 1979 Chamber of Commerce Anchorage Artist of the Year; for 1983, the Alaska Governor’s award for Artist of the Year; the presentation in 1987 of an Honorary Doctor of Music degree by University of Alaska Anchorage; in 1988, the naming of the Elvera Voth Hall, a rehearsal venue in the new Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, in her honor; the 1990 Denali Award as Alaskan of the Year; in 1993, selection as the British Petroleum/YWCA Woman of Achievement; a 1994 Congressional Tribute in the Congressional Record, introduced by Senator Murkowski; and in 2015, induction into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame. A bonus . . . the Bagel Factory in Anchorage named a celebrity bagel for her—the Elvera Voth Cream Cheese and Orange Marmalade Bagel!

On April 27, 1969, Elvera married her good friend, George Robert (Bob) Douglas. Although they later divorced, they remained friends until his death on April 30, 1995. In remarks she prepared to be shared at Bob’s funeral, Elvera said, “And you and I, Bob, were quite a pair: You liked opera; I was interested only in choral music—but you persuaded me finally to embrace both.” After listing more contrasts, she continued, “But through it all, how the love of the arts and the love of Alaska bound us together and made my life richer and infinitely lovelier.”

All through her life, Elvera maintained strong connections with family and friends back in Kansas and elsewhere. Elvera regularly wrote letters to her parents and to other family members. She often bragged about her 15 nieces and nephews, saying they were the best thing that had ever happened to her. Elvera was the “fun” aunt. She was not afraid to get down on the floor or to play at bullfighting while wearing her swirling red circle skirt. She didn’t complain when her nieces rummaged through “her” closet at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and tried on her flowing formal gowns. She brought home strange and wonderful gifts from Alaska made from seal skin or ivory, and she shared Alaskan children’s songs used on her choir tour of remote Inuit villages. Elvera gently encouraged her nieces’ and nephews’ musical interests, teaching piano lessons in her North Newton studio apartment and asking them to play piano for her even when there was little talent. She gave them good recordings (many can still sing Don Gato or Amahl and the Night Visitors for you) and later invited various nieces and nephews to join her when she attended musical conferences.

Elvera made regular trips home to visit her parents when they were still living and finally convinced John and Katharine to visit Alaska. It must have been quite the experience for them! Visits by any family member were always special occasions, and despite her busy schedule, she always found time to be a welcoming and excellent host. Family who visited ate salmon, walked on glaciers, attended concerts, and admired the farms in the Matanuska Valley—and some were lucky enough to go on plane rides over the ice fields. Despite numerous accolades and awards in the Alaskan years, back in Kansas her nieces and nephews just thought of her as the fun, exotic and glamorous aunt. Although Elvera shared stories of her life, many in her family were not truly aware of the impact she was having on the world around her. She did not put on airs at home!

As Elvera grew older, she began to find the Alaskan winters—with their ice and long nights—challenging. Finally, in 1994, at the age of 71, she decided to “retire” to Kansas City. There she reconnected with her extended Kansas family and church roots, attending Rainbow Mennonite Church. At Rainbow, Elvera developed many important and rewarding relationships, among them a valued friendship with Dr. Leo Goertz.

Shortly after arriving in Kansas City, Elvera took the position of Chorus Master of the Kansas City Lyric Opera. Then Elvera shared her interest in starting a prison choir with Janeal Krehbiel, a friend and former student. Janeal connected her with Roger Krehbiel, the Deputy Warden at the Topeka Correctional Facility in Topeka, Kansas, who contacted Warden David McKune of Lansing Correctional Facility. Elvera reported that when she told the warden at Lansing Correctional Facility that she wanted to start a choir there, he thought it was “a crazy idea.” However, crazy idea or not, the East Hill Singers were born. For the next 13 years, Elvera directed one or more choirs at the Lansing Correctional Facility. These choirs included both inmates and men from the community. With contacts at the Kansas City Lyric Opera and Rainbow Mennonite Church, Elvera was able to pull together a group of wonderful singers that rehearsed regularly with the inmates in the prison and that eventually went out into the community to present programs. Sometimes people cried because the programs were so moving. Elvera said this about conducting the East Hill Singers: “I don’t know how I could be so lucky . . . I’m now 75 years old, and (a few years ago) I found the most interesting work of my life. I have the freedom to do what I want to do, and what I want to do is work with inmates.” The goal was to help rehabilitate them so they could return to society “with hope rather than hate in their hearts.” She mentored others too, including Mary Cohen, who spread this prison choir movement through a dissertation, scholarly articles, directing another prison choir and giving talks at conferences.

Although Elvera had not talked to Robert Shaw for almost a quarter century, in late 1997 she received a call from him. He had heard about her work with the prison choirs through a mutual friend and wanted to know if there was some way he could provide support. As a result of this call, Elvera and Robert Shaw, with the assistance of many others, planned the Robert Shaw Benefit Sing-Along held on November 15, 1998, at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. All funds raised from this event went to support the newly formed Arts in Prison organization, which succeeded and included the East Hill Singers.

Again, during her time in the Kansas City area, Elvera was given many awards and honors, including receiving a 1999 Celebration of Women of Greater Kansas City Award; being named in 2008 the Educator of the Year by the Kansas Music Educators Association for her years of dedication to music and to the Arts in Prison program; and receiving one of the 2008 Kansas Governor’s Arts Awards.

In 2008, at the age of 83, Elvera decided it was time to retire—for the third time. She chose to retire to Kidron Bethel Village in North Newton, Kansas, close to where she had grown up and where many relatives were living. Moving to North Newton also allowed her to enjoy the companionship and care of her steadfast friend, LaVera Schrag. Elvera had great organizational skills that served her well, even when living in a retirement community. She skillfully maneuvered her nieces and nephews into their appropriate slots in her life. Some were assigned to manage her health care, some her property, some her transportation, and some her financial matters, while others provided conversation and support. All received her love and affection. Of course, music was still in her veins, and soon after her arrival she recruited former students, retired colleagues and others for a men’s chorus in North Newton. The chorus gave several concerts in the local area.

At Kidron Bethel Village, Elvera met and enjoyed the company of Lester Ewy. They were married on August 6, 2010, at the respective ages of 87 and 88, and remained married until Lester’s death on March 26, 2019. Lester and Elvera relished each other’s company and were always supportive of each other.

Elvera’s failing health and memory limited her activities in her latest years, but she never lost her ability to charm. If you walked into her room, she might not recognize you, but she would welcome you and make you feel as though you were exactly the person she was hoping to see. Elvera was beloved by the Kidron Bethel staff, who cared for her and treated her like family. For this, her nieces and nephews are grateful.

Elvera passed away at Kidron Bethel Village in North Newton, Kansas, on June 9, 2024. She was preceded in death by her parents, Johann (John) and Katharina (Katharine) Voth; her brothers, Arnold H. Voth and Willis J. (Bill) Voth; and her sisters, Irma Koehn and Wanda Dirks. She is survived by many of her adoring nieces and nephews and by the Lester Ewy extended family.

A memorial service will be held at the Kidron Bethel Village chapel in North Newton, Kansas, on November 2, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. Memorial gifts are suggested for Arts in Prison (P.O. Box 23502, Overland Park, KS 66283).