Mesa Musings:

Fall was Richard Raub’s favorite time of the year.

At this particular juncture on the calendar, the maestro was usually conducting a season-opening concert and preparing for an ambitious holiday production. I attended many of Raub’s concerts during his tenure here, including several unforgettable “Messiahs.”

His concerts were consistently superb.

Richard led Orange Coast College’s Chorale and Chamber Singers from 1970 to 1993, turning them into two of the finest collegiate choral groups in the nation. His choirs were recognized for their maturity, insight, articulation and sensitivity to text.

Richard died of leukemia two years ago this week at his home in Colorado Springs. He was 74. His wife, Connie, still lives there.

Hailed by musicians and critics alike, Richard brought respect and acclaim to OCC’s music program. Twice he was chosen to direct the Los Angeles Bach Festival.

A native Texan, Richard came by his superb musical ability naturally. His father was a violinist and Juilliard graduate. At age 4, Richard began studying the violin and piano.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in voice and master’s in conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. As a member of the Westminster Choir, Richard sang under such masters of the podium as Dimitri Mitropoulos, Guido Cantelli, Leopold Stokowski and Bruno Walter.

His students viewed him as a director who was obsessed by details.

“Richard drills and drills his singers, and then drills them some more,” a colleague observed in 1993.

“He brought out the best in his singers and also expected the best from them,” said Patricia McFarland, a member of Richard’s Chorale for a decade. “We worked very hard for him during rehearsal because he taught us that we needed to respect the composer, as well as the notes and nuances on a score.”

Raub admitted that he could be demanding at times.

“Thank you,” a student wrote to him in a note following a concert, “for the most frustrating, tiring, challenging, lovely, rewarding and inspirational musical experience of my life.”

When Richard took over OCC’s choirs in 1970, the transformation was immediate and striking.

“Richard changed an informal community college choir into a music course which gave serious singers an opportunity to work in a professional environment with professional musicians,” a longtime member of his OCC choirs said. “I sang nearly 40 great classical works with his choirs.”

Media critics offered regular praise of Raub’s work.

“Orange County is choral country,” wrote a critic in the 1970s. “Besides two master chorales, most of the major colleges in the county maintain chorales. Orange Coast College and its able young choral director, Richard Raub, needn’t take a back seat to any of the academic vocal ensembles.”

A four-year university conductor wrote a glowing tribute to Raub after an OCC concert.

“What can I say?” he noted. “Your Brahms last night was one of the most moving performances I’ve ever been a part of.”

In the spring of 1993, Raub shocked the campus by announcing his retirement. He was at the height of his creative genius, just 59 years of age.

“It’s time for me to move on to the next stage of my life,” he said.

His final concert provided a fitting farewell. His 34-member Orange Coast Singers performed Mozart and Haydn. Featured work was Mozart’s finest choral masterpiece, the Grand Mass in C Minor.

Many who studied with Raub went on to careers in music.

“I can easily name a dozen people with whom I sang who went into full-time music careers,” said a former Chorale member.

“I can name at least as many — myself included — who are part-time music educators or performers.”

Two years ago in his Colorado Springs home, as Raub lingered between this world and the next, his wife, Connie, saturated the house with the music he loved.

On the evening that Richard died, she played recordings of his performances of the Mozart Requiem, several Bach cantatas, and the Brahms B minor mass.

As he breathed his last, a Mozart oboe concerto filled the room.

How fitting. Mozart piped the gifted choral director into eternity.

JIM CARNETT lives in Costa Mesa. His column runs Wednesdays.