POCATELLO — For Cindy Mickelsen, this evening’s 28th annual “Messiah” Sing-In, which starts at 7 p.m. in the Stephens Performing Arts Center, is a bittersweet memory of the first ever Sing-in held many years ago. She’s performed in every “Messiah” performance since its inception in 1985, but it’s that very first performance that meant the world for Mickelsen and her family.

    That’s because it was the one and only time she was able to share the experience with her then 1-month-old daughter Megan. Less than a month later she and her husband Mike lost their daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. So every year she plays her oboe for the Idaho State Civic Symphony in front of the hundreds gathered to watch the “Messiah” Sing-In, she relives that precious moment she had years ago with her daughter.

    “My husband brought Megan to the performance that night and I remember looking out and watching her little eyes wide open listening to the music as if it was angels from heaven,” she said.

    The ability to look back at that memory each and every year when she gets on stage is one of the main reasons she feels so passionately about performing in the “Messiah” year after year.

    “You know I don’t think there is a time when I hear that choir for the first time that my eyes don’t swell,” she said.

    Born in Burley, Cindy attended Idaho State University on a music scholarship where she met her husband to be before graduating with a teaching degree. She’s taught fourth through sixth grade students at Gate City Elementary School for the last 27 years and has been a member of the symphony and Pocatello City Band for nearly as long.

    Players of her soprano-ranged instrument, the oboe, are highly sought out because of it’s rarity and difficulties faced when playing. At nearly 2-feet long it has a double reed and features a conical bore, as opposed to the cylindrical bore found in flutes, and is readily audible over other instruments in large ensembles. Making the precision in which it’s played crucial during live performances.

    “It’s kind of a random instrument, and it’s double reed definitely complicates things,” she said. “My dad told me when I practiced as a kid that it sounds like a sick duck, but I think it gives a rich sound and often brings a more melancholy feel and not the jazzy sound of a clarinet.”

    She said although most people aren’t familiar with the name or look of the instrument almost everyone has heard it in one way or another.

    “You’ve heard it all your life,” she said. “If you watch a movie you’ll hear one often.”

    Having picked the instrument on a whim when asked by her sixth grade band teacher if she’d like to play it, she quickly discovered how many doors it could open in her life. As a senior in high school she played in the Kennedy Center as part of the bi-centennial band that visited the nations capital. It’s become a life-long hobby and consistent way for her to find peace and tranquility in her life.

    “It’s a great way to express yourself, to maintain, to stay involved, and a way to surround yourself with great people,” she said.

    Sharing in her musical endeavors over the years are her four children, Keelie, 32, Kolay, 25, Brandon, and Megan who would have been 27.

    Brandon is a doctor at Pocatello’s Intermountain Health Care center, and her husband Mike has worked his whole life in the emergency room at Portneuf Medical Center.

    She says having the ability to share the message that lies within the “Messiah” Sing-In with her family each year is a blessing on its own and invites people of all faiths to take the time and come watch this evening’s performance and feel the spirit that resonates throughout the Stephens Performing Arts Center.

    “I think people need let go a lot of the busy things in life and things of worry and come celebrate in music and song,” she said.  “It’s a peaceful feeling that happens when you hear people sing and hear the orchestra playing, it’s incredible the spirit you feel.”

    What started as a small gathering over two decades ago in the Highland LDS stake center, has now grown into a community event  and way for people of all faiths to come together and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

    Cindy says every year around this time of year she recalls that very first  performance of the “Messiah” and the joy she felt as she gazed into her daughter eyes not knowing how much that night would ultimately mean to her and her family.

    “It’s been a long time but there are just a few memories I have of her and that is one of them, that’s why the “Messiah” is just so tender and special to me.”