A voice for the ages Ellsworth soprano evolves into member of folk trio

Music dominates Kathleen Sikkema’s life.

A baby grand piano reigns over her living room. Drums hide behind its legs while a table harp leans against a bookcase crammed with well-worn volumes of sheet music. Her “oddball” collection of instruments – a banjo mandolin, two banjo ukuleles and a dobro tenor guitar – lines the stairs to the second floor.

Her gifted soprano has filled Lincoln Center and the United Nations Concert Hall in New York and the Tchaikowsky Hall in Moscow. The 76-year-old New Jersey native knew she would continue to sing in church, at home, for friends and family as long as her voice held out, but the last thing she expected was to become part of a folk trio.

Sikkema will perform Saturday night with Joel Gold and Larry Latour at the Keith Anderson Community Center in Orono. Last month, the trio, dubbed Maine-ly Folk for now, played in Bangor at the May Festival: A Celebration of Aging, sponsored by the University of Maine’s Center on Aging.

Saturday’s concert is a fund-raiser for the Orono community center organized by Latour, who lives in the university town. He and Gold both teach at the University of Maine and regularly perform at coffeehouses in Orono, Pittsfield, Skowhegan and Ellsworth. It was at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Ellsworth five years ago that Latour first heard Sikkema play the guitar and sing.

“I thought to myself, ‘My God, listen to that voice coming out of that woman.’ It was spectacular,” said guitarist Latour, 50, a New York native who’s been singing folk music since he was a teen-ager. “More important than the voice was her stage presence and the breadth of her music and the way she expressed it.”

Banjo player and psychology professor Gold, 62, said that when he first heard Sikkema sing in April, he knew he was listening to a well-trained voice, but was unsure of how the three voices would fit together. The performance for May Fest swept all his doubts away.

“This is all quite new to us,” said Sikkema after a Sunday afternoon rehearsal at her Ellsworth home. “We all three feel the same way. We’re just enjoying singing and playing so much that we want to continue for as long as we can and see where it goes.”

Sikkema grew up in Ridgewood, N.J., and by the time she turned 16 she had established herself in the area as a church soloist. She majored in music at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and studied classical guitar with Rodrigo Riera, a student of Andres Segovia, and with Aaron Shearer at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.

In the late 1950s, Sikkema became interested in American and international folk music. Throughout the ’60s she produced festivals in her home state while singing with a women’s a cappella group that performed at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. She has been a music instructor all her adult life, teaching guitar and other fretted instruments, voice, keyboard and school music, as well as filling organist and music director positions in many different churches and private organizations.

She moved to Ellsworth in 1968 with her four children and managed Victor’s House of Music on Main Street for a decade. Sikkema has been a soloist with the Surry Opera Company and participated in cultural exchanges to the former Soviet Union. She played flamenco guitar for the Spanish Dance Theatre. She also performed around the state in an outreach program sponsored by the Maine Arts Commission, playing her diverse collection of table harps.

“Music is the key thread that runs throughout my life,” she said. “But as a divorced, single mother, I had to hustle all through that period of time in the ’70s when my kids were in college. I learned bookkeeping to make more money here. It was a tradeoff moving to Maine. I was making good money in New Jersey with music, but I was sick of the smog.”

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, She said, there wasn’t much of a folk music scene Down East. There were opportunities to sing pop, classical and choral music, but little else. Sikkema said the folk music revival has afforded her an opportunity not only to perform, but to meet and play with other musicians like Latour and Gold.

Sikkema said she really doesn’t practice a lot, and tries to preserve her voice by not “misusing or abusing it.” While her body has felt the effects of aging, her vocal range has dropped just two notes. She used to be able to hit a high E. Now, she can consistently hit a high C.

“She’s a very young lady in a lot of ways,” said Gold. “I never think about her age when we’re singing. I’m close to retirement, and I had thought about traveling around the country singing with my dog. But, I hadn’t really thought about singing with other people. Now, I’m having a great time doing it.”

Latour and Gold both said Sikkema is so good, they’re surprised she puts up with a couple of amateurs like them. Sikkema countered that the men are so well-versed in folk music that the trio can work things out at rehearsals without having to spend weeks practicing at home before they master a song.

“She’s very, very humble,” said Latour, who’s on the faculty of the UMaine Department of Computer Science. “I try to sing with a lot of people, but what makes it great with her is the knowledge she has in her head. The voice is the least of it actually. Not only is she a great solo performer, but she’s also an outstanding team player. She can make everything right with everybody, which not too many solo performers can do. I just want to keep playing with her.

“Where we want to go with this is a lot different than someone who’s 25. We just want the quality time to play music together. We don’t care if it’s paid or a benefit. We just want to play for the freedom of playing. It’s not about us, it’s all about sharing the music.”

Sikkema couldn’t agree more.

Maine-ly Folk will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 1, at the Keith Anderson Community Center in Orono.