GLC News

June 10, 2005 The Capitol City Chordsmen and Great Lakes Chorus bus trip from Lansing, Michigan.

This is the international send off show/glo, a fund raising dinner sponsoring our Pioneer District international competitors and hosted by the Windsor Chapter at the Hellenic Hall in Windsor Ontario Canada.

The Capitol City Chordsmen Lansing Chapter http://www.harmonize.com/CapitolCityChordsmen/index.htm

…had chartered a bus and were kind enough to invite our…

Great Lakes Chorus Grand Rapids Chapter
http://www.greatlakeschorus.com/

…to ride for free. This way the only expense for us was the $16.50 pasta dinner (and the bar of course:). We car pooled to catch the bus at a Lansing Meijers store’s parking lot where we met the Lansing Chapter. Then the bus made a stop I think in Jackson to pick up another group (Jackson Chapter?) and then headed for the Michigan USA / Ontario Canada boarder in Detroit. The boarder is only a couple hours away but I have only crossed it twice so it’s a strange mundane thrill, like waiting for the odometer to break 100,000:) The boarder guard (a girl in this case) was rather stoic, even when the bus sang the barbershop rendition of O Canada:)
(click photo to enlarge) My car pool driver Rev. Ralph Mueller and I chatted on the bus with the Lansing coed quartet Sidekicks (517-347-6153) so the 6 of us found a table together at the banquet hall. I’m on the far left (Michael Baribeau) beside the Lansing director Jessica Thompson then there’s Brain Dunkel, Ralph, Teresa Fuller, and Mike Hanson.
(click photo to enlarge) A number of choruses sang at the dinner including our combined CCC and GLC chorus. Both choruses knew Basin Street Blues and Love Letters but had never sung them together so here we’ve snuck off to a backroom of the banquet hall for a run through.
The Hellenic Hall is a huge banquet hall, this photo doesn’t even cover half of the room. Many wonderful groups sang including a mass chorus where many of us piled onto the risers (around 350) and sang several standards to rotating directors. It was so crowded I could only see the head in front of me so had to fudge a bit. It was a great time!
Wildcard
http://www.wildcardquartet.com/home.html

Here’s one of our quartets, the 2004 Pioneer District champs Wildcard which consists of both of the GLC’s co-directors left baritone Curt Struyk and middle lead Dave Miller, plus in back tenor Peter Westers and far right bass James Massalskis. We had a fun afterglow on the bus trip home singing and learning tags all the way back to Lansing well into the am.

June 28, 2005 Great Lakes Chorus rehersal every Tuesday 7-10pm at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church. Cascade, Michigan.

It started as a typical rehearsal. Songs we’d been working on lately that we’d sung at the Great Lakes Invitational (which I missed) we polished some more tonight. Plus we cracked out some pieces not done for awhile which for a newbie like me means some frantic sight reading. But the guys are super supportive and happy to help. Working with such gracious people I feel a real sense of brotherhood in the chorus.

While we practiced, some folks started wandering into the rehearsal hall. Since it’s a church we just kind of ignored them thinking they were on other business but soon about 30 had gathered watching in the chairs before us. I was afraid there was some scheduling mix up for the room but then from their ranks a Gary Branch stood up and introduced themselves. They used to be know as The Old Timmers, mostly barbershoppers retired from official performances. They had now adopted the more politically correct name, The Breakfast Club being that they meet the 3rd Thursday of each month, 10am at the Legend restaurant in Standale, MI for breakfast. Then they began to sing to us. Some 36 voices, a dozen that were women, bright and rich they poured out those old time harmonies. I’ve gone to plenty of concerts but never have I had one come to me. It was truly an inspiring display of camaraderie.

The GLC then formed a ring around The Breakfast Club, with some of them joining us, and together raised our voices to I’m Sitting On Top Of The World.

We had another treat this evening. The Bulldogs, baritone(?) Bud Kraft (GLC Pres.), bass John Baker, lead(?) Phil Johnson, and tenor Paul Slack, the winners from the Cascade 25th Annual Pick Up Quartet in May sang for us too! What a great night!

 
July 29, 2005. The Grand Rapids Chapter Great Lakes Chorus and about 4 members from the Battle Creek Chapter Cereal City Chorus (3 wearing purple, a 4th in blue far left is their director and also a GLC member, Mike O’Donnell) teamed up to sing at the baseball game between the Grand Rapids’ West Michigan Whitecaps vs Battle Creek’s Southwest Michigan Devil Rays. Before the game started we sang to the fans entering the stadium out beside the front steps.

The game was at the Grand Rapids Fifth Third Ball Park at 7pm. We also sang our national anthem The Star Spangled Banner on the field at home plate about center of the photo. What a rush to be singing to a record crowd of 12,171 !

After the game there was an opportunity for the kids to hit a T-ball on the Whitecaps’ minor league field. There were several hundred bags scattered onto the field and you would get the bag of small gifts your ball landed closest too which required an army of assistants running around the field (parents got to take a swing too:) For those of us at the back of the line it was an hour wait but worth the photo op:)

August 11, 2005 The Great Lakes Chorus as well as quartets Shades Of Gray and Wildcard performed for the summer concert series River Beat sponsored by the Cascade Township and Cascade Community Foundation. It ‘was’ to be at the Leslie E. Tassell Park along the Thornapple River (a substantial tributary of the Grand River and not far from the Forest Hills Presbyterian Church where we rehearse) of metropolitan Grand Rapids, Michigan.

However it was deja vou all over again. I arrived early and while I waited for the chorus at this beautiful park these guys showed up instead and started tearing down our risers and put up a sign that the concert had been moved to the nearby Pine Ridge Elementary School for fear of rain. I was surprised they had the foresight of preparing a ‘printed’ sign:)

 I heard snickers when we marched in and a little girl called out above the chatter, “Hi Grandpa!” I was pretty pleased with our performance, also the do wop song, In The Still Of The Night received a lot of applause and smiles. My chorus favorite here was, God Bless America where the audience joined in, it sounds great with those added women’s voices!

The gym was small and got quite warm with the good sized audience of about 150 in seats and a few dozen more lining some walls standing or sitting on the gymnasium floor. After the chorus sang then was the quartet Shades Of Grey, 1999 Pioneer District (Michigan USA plus Windsor Ontario Canada) Senior Division winners. From the left, baritone Gary Branch, bass Jack Sidor, lead Lynwood “Bud” Kraft, and tenor Ron Thomet. They had some great stories to share and prepared a very nice ‘river’ theme selection:)
The 2004 Pioneer District champs, Wildcard. From the left tenor Peter Westers, next one of our co-directors lead Dave Miller, bass James Masalskis and then our other co-director baritone Curt Struyk. Both quartets gave inspiring and also amusing introductions for their pieces. There were many laughs including sight gags such as Wildcard’s shorter member the tenor Peter struggling to reach up to the mic while their tallest member the bass James awkwardly hunched over, but I think it was Curt’s intro that got the biggest laugh:) Wonderful performances by all and now thanks to Wildcard, Swing ‘Down’ Sweet Chariot is one of my favs!

Tuesday August 23, 2005 I haven’t been able to find out how it started, why, or even when (over 30 years ago?) but the Barbershop Corn Roast is a favorite annual summer get together of the guys for an old fashioned corn roast and hotdog picnic with West Michigan area choruses from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Battle Creek, Holland and I think Muskegon. This year it was held in a wooded Jenison backyard by our host John Baker. There were large pots of boiling corn on the cob and hotdogs on a cinder block barbecue, a table of chips, fixings, and potato salad, long picnic tables, and plenty of great fellowship. There was a turn out of around 40-50 of us and a few brought their families.

After we finished eating, scattered about the yard, leaning against trees or cars we would mingle trying to form/find a ‘pickup’ quartet to teach one another a song or song endings called tags . It was tough sometimes to find one that didn’t already have a man for your part but they would also do double duty and form an additional group with many of the same guys so the odd man out could sing too. However there’s never enough tenors to go around for those ultra high barbershop ranges.

Then everyone gathered together on blankets and lawn chairs in front of a closet sized portable plywood theater shell where quartets would take turns performing a number to the crowd. There were lots of shouts for support and friendly teasing.

These picnic pickup quartets being impromptu was often reflected in their choice of names made up on the spot such as, I Have No Idea, At The Last Moment, and Spare Parts, plus the picnic themes Belch, and Hotdogs.

At the end is the traditional group Camp Shirt Chorus of singing without shirts. Not a pretty sight with all those aging bodies and pot bellies but sure was fun:)

Quartet; unknown- Till The End
Singers; unknown (Miller GR co-dir)
Quartet; unknown- Till The End
Singers; unknown
Quartet; Town Crier- unknown
Singers; Gillette Trestrail Coe Prescot
Quartet; Jenison Jewels- My Wild Irish Rose
Singers; Westveld Hatley Baribeau(me:) Gillette
Quartet; Hotdogs- Sweet And Lovely
Singers; unknown (Brown)
Quartet; Undertones- Melencoly Too, Run To The City Of Refuge, The One Rose
Singers; Westers Kraft(GR Pres) Bloomquist Casamatta
Quartet; Silhouette- Let The End Of The World Come Tomorrow, May The Road Rise To Meet You
*2003 Novice Champs
Singers; 2 Dumans Wheeler Baker(our host)
Quartet; Four Wheels- The Joy Of Being In Love, But Who knows Where Or When
Singers; 2 Burrels Wheeler Casamatta
Quartet; Grand River Serenade- Years May Come (love you so)
Singers; Chestnut Mueller Coe Gillette
Quartet; Never Be Four- Wait ‘Till The Sun Shines Nellie
*1997 Novice Champs
Singers; Shikowski Johnson Sidor Baker(our host)
Quartet; I Have No Idea- Heart Of My Heart
Singers; Shikowski(?) Thomas Hatley and Branch(our MC)
Quartet; XL- Sweet And Lovely
Singers; Coombs Johnson Baker(our host) Mueller
Quartet; At The Last Moment- Little Eyes I Love You
Singers; Smith/Smits O’Donnell(BC Dir) Hatley Carey
Quartet; Belch- That’s What I Call A Pal
Singers; unknown
Quartet; The Congress Of Sound- Down Our Way
Singers; Malquist Gimmon/Kimmon Webber
Quartet; I’d Rather Be Singing- When I Marry, Last Night Was The End Of The World
Singers; Westers Casamatta Prather Koning
Quartet; Fansome- Friends Seem To Be, My World Forever
Singers; Burrells O’Donnell(BC Dir)
Quartet; Shades Of Grey- I’ve been Working On The Railroad
*1999 Senior District Champs
Singers; Thomet Kraft(GR Pres) Branch Sidor
Quartet; unknown- One More Song
Singers; unknown
Quartet; Fishtown- When I Marry, By and By
Singers; Westers Young Sommerfeld Carey
Quartet; Having A Good Time- That’s What I Call A Pal
Singers; Coombs Johnson Johnson Pony
Quartet; California Dreamin- Last Night Was The End Of The World, To The End
Singers; unknown
Quartet; Spare Parts- Sweet And Lovely,
Singers; Sidor Webber Whipbouwer Ketchca
Quartet; Ralphs And Friends- Let Me Call Your Sweetheart
Singers; unknown (Mueller Brown)
Quartet; Golf Couse Foursome- I’m In Heaven When I See You Smile, Last Night Was The End Of The World
Singers; unknown (Battle Creek)
Quartet; Scorpianaeries- I’m Sitting On Top Of The World
Singers; unknown
Quartet; Singing Is Life- What More Can I Say, Happy Trails Untill We Meet Again
Singers; Burrells and Garlock
Quartet; Farts- I’m Sitting On Top Of The World
Singers; unknown
Announcment- In Memorial, Camp Shirt Chorus (no shirts)
Camp Shirt Chorus- Sweet And Lovely
Camp Shirt Chorus- After Dark
Camp Shirt Chorus- Sweet, Sweet Roses Of Morn
Everybody- Keep America Singing
(Barbershop Harmony Society’s motto song)

November 28, 2005 Grand Rapids Sweet Adelines directed by Ann Jarchow and The Great Lakes Chorus directed by David Miller & Curt Struyk was dress rehearsal at Devos Center for Performance and Worship at Grand Rapids Christian High School for December 2nd & 4th performances. It’s a large modern theater with wonderful acoustics and sound system. There are about 33 gentlemen from the GLC in the show(I gathered their names for the program) and I think around 90 ladies from the Sweet Ads (update: program listed 87).

The show has been in the works for some months and then the music selection was finalized, scenery built, and the scripting was done all just in time for this dress rehearsal. Many of us arrived a couple hours early to do set up. There were the 5 Christmas trees on stage that required having 3 sets of light each so that they could change colors for any given scene which made for quite a rat’s nest of extension cords running to a homemade switching box. There’s a toy shop front, real ‘open horse sleigh’ (minus the horse:), a royal looking chair for Santa and grand piano that need to be juggled on stage. The backdrop scenery is hung by ‘flybars’ like what the curtains and lights are suspended from. The mylar tinsel needed a lot of care unpacking and untangling, the snowflakes needed to all be strung, and the giant toy panel was stitched with toy props to look like a toy shelf. An enormous amount of preparation work went into the show.

While the men warmed up in the school’s music room I got to sneak out and snap a bunch of photos of the women folk rehearsing. It’s a pleasant shock singing with men barbershoppers all the time and then to stand in front of a powerhouse of women as well like the Sweet Ads, plus they have a few fun dance numbers as well. I was lucky to see their performances since during the show the GLC will be backstage in rehearsal rooms and don’t get to see it.

There are a number of quartets performing as well. Since I was bouncing back and forth rehearsing and helping on stage I think I missed photos of some of them. They would usually sing between costume or chorus changes and sometimes did their own skits too.

The Great Lakes Chorus has been hopping lately. We had a district competition not long ago and then began preparing for the Christmas show. I have been a member with the chorus nearly a year now and feel very privileged to sing with so many talented, good humored, kind hearted, and gracious barbershoppers. Since I’m rehearsing on stage with the GLC I didn’t get to take as many photos of them as I would like. We have a great selection of both moving and rollicking songs (the Twelve Days of Christmas with a barbershop theme and friendly rivalry is a blast!)

The finale is of both the choruses, The Sweet Adelines and The Great Lakes Chorus singing a few songs together on stage. Ain’t nothing like swirling in all that harmonizing. Baby It’s Cold Outside is a fun flirty piece between the guys and gals sung like an overlapping duet. I had never heard the girls’ part to the lyrics until the rehearsal, what a hoot! Night Before Christmas is an absolutely beautiful Gershwin like arrangement with an excellent piano accompaniment by Phil Pletcher. The last song is the carol Do You Hear What I Hear, a sweet ending for such a marvelous night!

March 14, 2006 after another break for Valentine’s Day Quartet performances and out-of-towners back to rehearsal Forest Hills Presbyterian Church in Cascade Mi.

We were coached by Music Judge Raymond Schwarzkopf. Here’s excerpt’s from CHORUS NOTES Editor, & Chorus Manager : John Trestrail (Lead)…

(1) Every vowel sung is a slight modification of the shape of the “O” vowel.

(2) Make a circle by touching the tip of your thumb with the tip of your 2nd finger. This is the size of your vocal megaphone. Singing within this space will stop over articulation. Singing is within this space. Everything from there on up (eyes) is “Broadway”!

(3) When emoting a song’s lyrical story, when you are seeing something show it with your eyes, when you are hearing something show it with your ears, and when you are thinking something show it with your mind. This helps to tell the story to the audience.

(4) Barbershop is three parts revolving around the “melody”! It is not necessarily three parts revolving around the Leads! The ownership of the melody changes in the song and is given and taken back by various parts. Always know with whom you are dueting. For those who are not musicians, the ownership of the melody should be pointed out by those in the know when the song is first presented. Everyone should be able to sing the melody, so that they know how their part properly is to revolve around it.

(5) Directors should not “mouth” the lyrics when they are directing. And their hand movements should be not overdone. Follow their hands.

HANDING OFF THE MELODY
Although the leads often have the melody they don’t always. Here the coach has us standing in a circle listening for when which parts need to back off to hand off the melody.

Some of our members are playing the quartet in the musical Music Man at the Civic Theater in Grand Rapids, MI. demonstrating to the chorus.

The Pioneer District Barbershop Harmony Society Spring Convention April 28-30, 2006 held at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo Michigan hosted by Macomb County Chapter. Our Great Lake Chorus of Grand Rapids performed Saturday the 29th at 11:50am scoring 780 and taking 4th out of 15. Wardrobe was the black pants and shirts (minus the coats) with the new shinny red vests and bow ties. Below are a few more photos.

Click photos to enlarge.
For ‘extra’ big enlargment of above GLC photo click here…
http://static.flickr.com/53/137408705_42e5411635_b.jpg

Joe Barbershop Chorus directed by Music Judge Joe Giallombardo. I heard the count was over 170 on stage!

Here we are rehearsing just before going on stage. I’ll Be Seeing You and Ballin’ The Jack went over great and the choreography was a big hit with the crowd! The audiance gushed at this hands on the knees move. I don’t know if it was because the move looks so cute or because the audiance recognized the Ballin’ The Jack melody there.

We did a ‘doing the twist’ type move which got hoots from the audiance. I saw only one wrong move on stage but he recovered well. I was only able to stay for half a dozen choruses before having to leave for work but I had a blast! I did get to hear Plateau 1 rated (to our Plateau 2 class) Mountaintown Singers from Mount Pleasant Chapter sing and their sound was fantastic! They took 1st Place so a big congratulations to them!

Although the GLC has co-directors Curt Struyk and David Miller the program listed Curt as the competition director which was how the chorus was introduced but actually it was Dave who was on stage directing. The speaker announced the correction as the chorus walked off stage, Dave waved sheepishly which got a chuckle from the audiance.

Nice work by our own quartet the 2004 Pioneer District (Michigan/Windsor) champs, Wildcard (which includes both our directors) who took 4th!

Final Scores below, congratulations to all the competitors…

http://www.harmonize.com/Pioneer/contestsummary/ScoreSheets/chspr06.pdf

Chorus:
1. Mt Pleasant= 917
2. Lansing= 829
3. Motor City Metro= 807
4. Grand Rapids= 780
5. Traverse City= 770
6. Kalamazoo= 761
7. Hillsdale= 759
8. Windsor= 712
9. Battle Creek= 704
10. Grosse Pointe= 690
11. Michiana Metro= 674
12. Pontiac= 664
13. Gratiot Co.= 653
14. Rochester= 629
15. Monroe North= 546

Quartets:
1. Fermata Nowhere= 1770
2. Infinity= 1750
3. Party of Four= 1745
4. Wildcard= 1739
5. Journey= 1626
6. Something Big= 1578
7. Border Crossing= 1524
8. After Intermission= 1511

Scores from other performances found at…

http://www.harmonize.com/Pioneer/contestsummary/contmenu.htm

May 20th, 2006 63rd Annual Great Lakes Invitational by the Grand Rapids MI Great Lakes Chorus at the Grand Rapids Christian High School’s Devos Center of Arts and Worship. Performances also by local quartets Grand River Serenade, Harmony Transfer, 1999 Pioneer District (Michigan USA plus Windsor Ontario Canada) Senior Division Winners Shades of Grey, 2004 District Champs Wildcard, and from Tennessee the 2002 International Champs Four Voices. Afterward was the afterglow, about 65 of us met at Pietros Backdoor Pizzeria for some barbershop songs, tags, and of course beer and pizza.

The following is from GLC Co-chairman Jeff Chesnut…

We had a great audience that whooped and hollered and laughed and cheered.  It was one of the best audiences I’ve seen at a barbershop show.  We offered free tickets to music students in 100 area high schools.  We had probably 40 high school students take advantage.  Several of us had a great time singing tags in the lobby of the auditorium with some of the high schoolers.  In fact, we have several who said they are coming to our guest night Tuesday evening.

On the second half of the show, 2004 Pioneer District Champion, Wildcard, performed a short set which really brought the audience to the edge of their seats, only to be knocked out of their seats by Four Voices.

Four Voices was great!  Even though Lestor Rector could not be there, the tenor was more than ably filled by two-time gold medalist, Kipp Buckner.  Even after a hellacious airline schedule, they were at the top of their game for the show and glow.  It was fun being behind the curtain for the reprise as Four Voices sang their final song.  At the conclusion, we could hear all the seats going, “Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!” as the audience jumped to their feet for a long, loud standing ovation.

Four Voices could not have been nicer, more gracious guys, either.  I agree, Alex, barbershop is in good hands with guys like these.

2006 GLI Photos http://greatlakeschorus.org/photos/album03