Plymouth Magazine-Fall26-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 33
The Family and Friends Connections
Family ties have long played a major role
in sustaining Matins. Talk to an alum and
odds are they’ll mention sisters, brothers,
even cousins and parents who sang with
or before them. Tempero, for example,
followed in the Matins footsteps of
three older siblings as well as both of
their parents, Howard and Megan. Even
Matins founder John Dexter’s four eldest
children all sang with the choir.
Friends bring along their friends, too.
Harrison Abbott, who enjoyed two
years with Matins before graduating
from Waukee High School in May 2026,
remembers asking a school friend to
sing with him. “We had a blast,” he said.
“People come and see what this group
does, the welcoming community and just
how much fun it is on a week-to-week
basis, and then they go out to recruit
their friends. That is such a cool part.”
The choir’s ranks nearly always included
members not just from Des Moines high
schools like nearby Roosevelt but from
schools around the metro. First came West
Des Moines Valley and Dowling Catholic
high schools, and the list just grew. In the
2025-2026 season, Abbott’s Waukee High
was one of nine schools represented.
Brimeyer, who became director in 2023
while still head of choirs at Urbandale
High, said he learned about Matins
after realizing some of his busiest, most
accomplished students were making time
for this “other” choir in Des Moines.
“It’s like, ‘Wow, you’re doing yet another
thing that meets essentially twice a week?’”
he remembered asking.
But the Matins stood apart, offering a
rare chance to forge lasting friendships
regardless of school districts. “I don’t
think we would ever have met had we not
been in Matins together. That became
our connection, right? Not a sport, not
anything else. And we became really good
friends,’” said Howard Tempero about the
ties he made in Matins from 1988-1992.
Singers of all skill levels also filled the choir
loft, from top-caliber All-State vocalists
to some who couldn’t even read sheet
music. Yet together, they inspired each
other to bring out their best as a group.
Ted Brimeyer, current director
Carol Stewart, former director
Dexter once told an interviewer,
“Sometimes a child comes to choir who
never had any music at home…There’s
nothing more rewarding than to work
with that child and see the light finally
dawn as he learns to sing.”
Matins Choir Directors
Directors like Dexter helped grow
Plymouth’s wider reputation for offering
top-caliber music and fine arts programs.
They all invested in helping Matins singers
grow musically but also recognized they
needed an atmosphere where teens just
wanted to “be.” Carol Stewart, for example,
could skillfully walk the line between
musical discipline and having fun. “You
really wanted to do well for her,” recalled
Jodi Tice Gruening, who sang from 19801984. “You really wanted to do well for
her,” Gruening recalled. “And when you
worked hard, you got to have more fun.”
1967 − 1972 Carol Stewart
Aristella Tempero, who played musical
instruments before joining choir, never
saw herself as a singer because “I always
felt like I was just bad at it.” She credits
Brimeyer for changing her mind. She and
her father Howard collaborated to perform
the Taylor Swift song, “Everything has
changed” for the 2026 Variety Show.
The choir is expected to sing two anthems
most Sundays, and it regularly adds new
repertoire but proudly draws from its
library of beloved favorites that many in
the congregation know by heart. Aristella
remembers her father singing Matins
tunes from his choir days as her childhood
lullabies, which is how the song “In This
Very Room” became her personal favorite.
YEAR
NAMES
1955 − 1967 John Dexter †
1967
Richard Baber*
1972 − 1977 C. Richard “Dick” Morris †
1977 − 1978 Linda V. Jones*
1978 − 1979 William C. Evans †
1979 − 1984 Carol Stewart
1984 − 1988 Tom Janssen
1988
Carol Stewart*
1989 − 1995 Anita Micich
1995 − 1996 Rebecca Woodburn*
1996 − 1998 Jim Larabee
1998 − 1999 Rebecca Woodburn*
Adam Claypool*
Linda Vanderpool*
1999 − 2005 Rick Ashby
2005 − 2006 Bill Connet*
2007 − 2017 Susan Waller
2017 − 2018 Christopher Goodson
2018 − 2023 Susan Waller
2023 −
Ted Brimeyer
* = Interim director.
† = Also served as organist.
Other organists for Matins have included:
Ruth Harris, Jan Brueke, Richard Robertson,
Phyllis Mains, Carl Gravander, and Sohee Lee.
Plymouth Magazine 33
