Meet our Mid-Valley: West Salem choir director Haole-Valenzuela drawn to "act of service"

West Salem’s High School Choir program celebrated a first-place win at Oregon School Activities Association’s Choir Competition this month when they were named champions in the 6A division.

Director Cole Haole-Valenzuela said the title reflected the hard work students did throughout the year.

"I'm really, really fortunate that I get to work with really amazing people — the kids," Haole-Valenzuela said.

The choir performed “Signs of the Judgment” by Mark Butler, “O Quam Gloriosum” by Tomás Luis de Victoria, “Spätherbst” by Johannes Brahms, “Cum Sancto Spiritu” by Hyo-Won Woo and “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Connor Koppin for the OSAA championship.

Haole-Valenzuela describes the students as "the heartbeat of what I do," and said he hopes to grow the 120-student choir program to 200 students.

He has been the director of choirs at West Salem High School for three years, and the program has placed at the top of the OSAA championship each of those years and earned a second-place win in 2022 and 2023.

It’s not the first time he has led an award-winning choir: the Silverton High School choir under his direction earned state titles two years in a row in 2018 and 2019.

Salem graduate now leading winning West Salem program

Born in Hawaii but raised in Oregon, Haole-Valenzuela graduated from Sprague High School and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oregon State University. He credits the support of his parents — who still attend every single concert— and two of his teachers — middle school choir teacher Jennifer Kercher and high school choir teacher Russ Christensen — for bringing him closer to music education and choir.

Haole-Valenzuela said he was hesitant about jumping into teaching after graduating with his master’s program, but a temporary four-month assistant choir and orchestra position at South Salem High School helped him realize he wanted to be an educator.

He says he feels “awesome” about this year’s championship but his favorite part of being a teacher is the people.

“Getting to know all the different students, all of my colleagues too. In general, just making music with folks and trying to come up with ways to serve students and people,” Haole-Valenzuela said.

His desire to serve has led to him joining a few different music boards in Oregon. He’s the music representative for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee at OSAA and the National Federation of High School Sports Students Committee, and is the Oregon Music Educator Association District 4 Chair. He also was named president-elect of the Oregon Music Education Association this year.

“It’s the act of service that really draws me to this job,” he said. “Trying to find best solutions so that my colleagues are happy and taken care of as best as I can, and same thing with my students.”

He said he asks students for input ahead of board meetings, hoping to bring student voices to the room.

He’s received the 2019 Emerging Conductor Award from Oregon’s American Choral Directors Association, the Outstanding Early Career Music Educator Award from OMEA and NFHS Outstanding Music Educator Award in 2023. This year, the Oregon Symphony in Salem named him Music Educator of the Year.

Students celebrate "Mr. H"

The Statesman Journal recently joined “Mr. H” while he taught Soundscape, West Salem’s Acapella Choir. The group was practicing and preparing ahead of the remaining end-of-the-year performances. They'll be performing in the Grand Floral Parade in Portland in June after winning first place in the Rose City Sing-Off.

In between his direction and singing, the students teased him about what the newspaper headline might be and joked while he had photos taken. And despite his request to not focus on him, his students were quick to praise “Mr. H” and his program.

Senior Emerson Juline Myers joined the West Salem choir her sophomore year when Haole-Valenzuela began teaching there. He had taught her brother at Silverton.

Myers said she appreciates a sort of motto Mr. H has shared with the choir: “Be the choir you are today.”

It reminds the students to take ownership of their own goals, she said. “It’s not even his goals for us. It’s our goals that he wants us to achieve for ourselves,” Myers said.

CJ Shuldberg, also a senior, said Haole-Valenzuela successfully threads the needle between creating a program emphasizing accountability, discipline and fun. There are high expectations and a lot of hard work but Haole-Valenzuela cares about seeing students grow, Shuldberg said.

Their description of the program and Haole-Valenzuela's style is not too far off his own definition of success:

"Give kids the opportunity to find their own definition of success and to experience that success too," he said.

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on X @DianneLugo

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Meet West Salem High School choir director Cole Haole-Valenzuela