M. Eugene Lysinger, Jr.

 1943 - 2022

Eugene Lysinger, a native of Boulder, Colorado, graduated from Loma Linda University, La Sierra Campus, now La Sierra University, in 1974 with a B.Mus. in conducting, the only degree in that area to be granted by that institution. He continued his music study at the University of Washington, where he completed an M.Mus in choral conducting in 1976. He was the recipient of scholarships at both LLU and UW. While studying at UW, Lysinger conducted choirs at Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Fremont Baptist, and Green Lake Seventh-day Adventist churches in the Seattle area.

While at LLU, he founded and conducted the Schola Cantorum in 1971, the first of several choirs he would start and conduct. These included the Nova Schola Cantorum in 1977 at Loma Linda; and Columbia Chamber Ensembles, Inc. in 1978 and a still active madrigal ensemble at Portland State University in 1982, both in Oregon. While living in the Portland area, he also co-founded the Sunnyside Seventh-day Adventist Church Choir in 1983, and founded the Portland Oratorio Society and Eastwind ensemble in 1984 and 1985, respectively.

Lysinger conducted several major choral works from 1975 to 2001. In 1975, while residing in Seattle, he conducted Schubert\\'s Mass in G, Pinkham\\'s Christmas Cantata, and Brahms\\' Liebeslieder Waltzer, repeating these in later years. In 1983, he presented the Mozart Exultate Jubilate and the Faure Requiem, repeating the latter in 1984 and 1989. He conducted Handel\\'s Messiah on seven occasions from 1984 to 2001 and performed Brahms\\' Requiem in 1999.

A lyric bass, Lysinger sang professionally in numerous choral groups since he was 21, when he sang in the Grace Cathedral Choir in San Francisco. Other groups have included the Seattle Symphony Chorale, the Portland Symphonic Choir, the Peter Britt Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon, and Choral Cross-Ties in Portland. He has also sung as a guest in Male Ensemble Northwest.

He performed as a soloist while at the University of Washington and subsequently in the Bach Festival in Carmel, California, and the Peter Britt Festival. Lysinger was a featured soloist with the Seattle Symphony and its chorale, and with the Salem, Oregon, and Walla Walla, Washington, symphonies, in the latter doing Rossini\\'s Stabat Mater in 1976. Other solo roles were performed with the Portland Symphonic Choir in 1981 and the Portland Lyric Opera in 1989. An active recitalist, he presented a series of recitals in 1983 at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington, La Sierra University, and Old South Church in Boston.

Lysinger taught music at San Fernando Valley Adventist Academy in California from 1977-1978, at Portland State University from 1980-1982, and at Lower Columbia College from 1982-1984. He was a lifetime member of the American Choral Directors Association. He resided in Phoenix, Arizona, from 2004 to 2007 and was living in Glendale, Arizona, when he died on November 30, 2022, at age 79.

ds/2006/12/22

Sources: Professional resume provided by Eugene Lysinger, 2006; Online Sources, 2022.