This Richland native is coming home to sing a classic Christmas tradition

Michael Drumheller’s love of music runs deep.

Growing up in Richland, “I was always the kid who sang in junior high and high school,” he said.

He was in choir and would often bring home accolades in singing competitions.

Now a celebrated baritone who’s studied and performed across the country, he’s returning to the Tri-Cities to take part in a performance of Handel’s Messiah.

The Walla Walla Symphony is presenting the classic piece, with help from Mid-Columbia Mastersingers and a slate of soloists, including Drumheller.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Central United Protestant Church in Richland and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Walla Walla University Church in College Place.

Drumheller, based in the Seattle area, said he’s excited about the east side performances.

His daughter attends Whitman College, and he has family ties in Walla Walla.

And Richland is his hometown.

“It means a lot to me to go back to Richland and perform,” he said.

After graduating from Hanford High School in 1979, Drumheller went onto the University of Washington, where he continued to sing.

He earned praise and encouragement from faculty, but he also loved the math and science courses he was taking. Eventually, he chose that latter path and transferred to MIT.

However, his love of music didn’t go away. He played drums and sang in a rock band with friends.

“I was kind of keeping the voice up but wasn’t too serious about it. I was really into my technical and scientific career,” Drumheller said.

Then one night, in the midst of his PhD program, he woke up with a revelation: if he was going to be a serious singer, he couldn’t wait. It had to be now.

So Drumheller left MIT with a master’s degree and enrolled at Boston University to study voice performance.

He worked with famed instructors there and after graduation. He eventually moved back to the West Coast and settled in Seattle.

Drumheller worked in the technology world and sang in his free time. Then several years ago, he got an infection that led to paralysis of one of his vocal cords.

It was unclear if he’d be able to sing again. Drumheller was referred to Kari Ragan, a Seattle-area voice instructor who also happens to be a Tri-City native.

She worked wonders.

“My voice really opened up and relaxed for the first time. (The illness) was a gift, because it forced me to rebuild my voice from the ground up. And let me do it with a really great teacher,” Drumheller said.

He’s performed around the Northwest and beyond, with organizations from Seattle Symphony and Orchestra Seattle to Cleveland Orchestra and Boston Lyric Opera.

He’s looking forward to this week’s Messiah, a work he’s performed many times.

“Messiah is some of the first classical music that I ever learned,” he said.

For Drumheller, its beauty is in its challenging complexity.

“It reveals a new layer, a new perspective, every time you sing it. It’s an endless source of teaching,” Drumheller said.

He advises audience members to give it a listen before they attend, so they can be familiar and ready.

They won’t be disappointed, he said.

“To me, it’s about enjoying that paradox of the structure being so big that you have to hear it over and over in order to get it, and yet it’s new every time,” he said.

Along with Drumheller, soloists are soprano Courtney Ruckman, mezzo-soprano Hannah Penn and tenor Daniel Buchanan.

Yaacov Bergman is the symphony’s music director and conductor. Justin Raffa is artistic director of the Mastersingers, with Reginald Unterseher as chorusmaster.

Tickets for each performance are $25 for adults, $15 for university/college students with ID and $5 for kids age 17 and younger.

They’re available at wwsymphony.org, 509-529- 8020 at the symphony office at 13-1/2 E. Main St., Suite 201, Walla Walla, and at the door.

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 12:50 PM with the headline "This Richland native is coming home to sing a classic Christmas tradition."