Sagola's Marsha Wainio wins Upper Peninsula Choral Leadership Award

Marsha Wainio of Sagola won the Upper Peninsula Choral Leadership Award, a recognition that points to the quiet, long-running work that keeps choral music alive in Iron County. She was nominated by the Crystal Falls Musicale, where she serves as director, tying the honor directly to the local arts network that depends on volunteer leadership, student participation and steady community support.

The award has been presented annually since 1991 by the Marquette Choral Society, which says it encourages choral music across the Upper Peninsula. The society describes itself as a mixed-voice adult choir of about 100 singers from a four-county region and says it serves the greater Upper Peninsula as an ambassador of symphonic choral music. In that setting, Wainio’s recognition lands as more than a personal milestone. It highlights the people who keep music visible in smaller towns where school, church and civic programs can be fragile.

Wainio’s ties to music in the Upper Peninsula go back decades. She attended Northern Michigan University with a major in music education and a minor in voice, was an original member of the Marquette Choral Society from 1971 to 1973 and sang in the University Choir. She also directed the junior choir at United Lutheran Church while still in high school, after graduating from Forest Park High School in 1971, where she played clarinet, sang in junior and senior high choruses and served as an accompanist.

After retiring in 2008, Wainio and her husband, Roy, moved back to Sagola. That same year she joined the United Lutheran Church Senior Choir and the Crystal Falls Musicale choirs. She became director of the church choir in 2011 and took over the Musicale Choir in 2015. Today she still sings liturgy, plays piano for services and participates in the handbell choir.

Her influence stretches well beyond rehearsals. The Crystal Falls Musicale, which has existed since 1930 and is one of the oldest service organizations in Crystal Falls, raises money to help Forest Park High School students attend Iron County Band Camp or pursue music studies in college. Wainio helped Forest Park band students prepare solos, duets and trios for the last two concerts and accompanied them on piano. The choir also sings at members’ funerals and at the Iron County Medical Care Facility, while its Christmas concert work has supported the Forest Park music pipeline and brought together community singers for large seasonal performances at the Crystal Theatre.

Wainio has also used grants to widen access. In 2011 and 2012, she secured funding from the Copper Country Community Arts Council to provide low-cost guitar lessons for local students through a partnership between the Crystal Falls Musicale and the Crystal Falls Contemporary Center. Students received six private lessons and then performed for their parents. In a recent National Music Week reflection, Wainio said music has the “unstoppable ability” to influence people, a view that now sits at the center of an award meant to honor leadership, not just performance.