Women go barbershop

Area's Sweet Adelines headed for competition

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Wednesday, April 2, 2008.

By LINDSAY HYMAS
Valley Press Staff Writer

Norman Rockwell captured the barbershop quartet with his print depicting four men warbling a sentimental ballad. The familiar quartets often conjure images of four men wearing striped vests with handlebar mustaches.

The Harmony Showcase Chorus of Sweet Adelines International represents a new face of barbershop. They present the familiar style of music through animated performances and creative, often colorful, costumes. Sweet Adelines International is a worldwide organization of women singers committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony through education and performances.

"As a singer with the Sweet Adelines, you don't have to have a piano or a guitar, you've got three or four other women providing the different parts - and you've got music; with harmony. What more could you ask for?" asked Kira Wagner, director of Harmony Showcase Chorus.

Barbershop harmony is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music produced by four parts: lead, tenor, baritone and bass.

Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone covers the same range as the lead, sometimes singing below and sometimes above.

Wagner took her post as director for the area chorus a little more than a year ago. She stresses perfection in vocalizing and choreography, but in a fun and energized manner, group members said.

During weekly practices, the women participate in physical and vocal warm-ups, then sing songs and practice for competitions from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

"Our goal is to achieve a state of being," Wagner said. She believes the more her performers get into the song and make it a part of them, the more empowering it is for them and the more enjoyable it is for the audience to watch.

"It's like, I'm one with this song. This is something that interests me. If I get something out of it, the audience will," she said.

Club business is conducted from 9:30 to 10 p.m. The group functions through annual membership fees and donations. Fundraisers include private shows and performances, civic events and a few Internet ventures. The women have sung at several civic and community events, fraternal organizations and private parties. Their choral repertoire includes jazz, patriotic, religious, holiday, Broadway, classic and blues melodies.

Just talking with Wagner, one gets the impression from her animated voice and excited tones that she loves what she does.

"My father passed away when I was 4," she said. She learned a Kitty Wells song, "How Far is Heaven," and performed it in several locations in the San Francisco Bay area. She has been singing ever since, she said.

"Performers should sing because they love to, not because they have the ability," Wagner said. "If I'm only singing because I can, oh, please, go do something you love to do."

The Sweet Adelines participate in a regional competition each spring, and they are preparing for this year's competition April 4 and 5, where they will sing "Roses of Yesterday" and "Dr. Jazz."

There are 29 regions of Sweet Adelines worldwide, and the top winner from each region goes on to compete at the international level in the fall. This year, 33 choruses are competing in the international competition, Wagner said.

The independent, nonprofit association is one of the world's largest singing organizations for women. The area chorus was chartered in Lancaster 47 years ago.

For Ann Layton, one of the original members of the chorus, the group offers friendship and stress relief. "It's the Antelope Valley's best-kept secret. If people knew about the joy and relaxation you get out of it, there'd be a lot more members," she said. "You can get away from your problems for the two to three hours of rehearsal ... you can't sing and think about your problems at the same time."

Layton has sung in church choirs for most of her life, but she enjoys the a cappella aspect of the chorus. "It's very unique. There's no accompaniment; it's up to each voice to make it happen. And when it does, it gives you goose bumps."

The group fills her with a sense of belonging, Layton said. She often felt like she didn't fit in with church choirs because her low voice fit better in the men's section. But "in barbershop I sing bass," she said.

Harmony Showcase Chorus meets at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at United Desert Charities, Angel Hall, 2101 East Palmdale Blvd. Guests are welcome to attend weekly meetings. To join, guests must come and be placed by voice.

On the second visit, a guest is given a song to practice to audition and a tape with her singing part. Guests are given two weeks to practice the songs, and at the end of two weeks, if they do not feel ready to audition, they are given new songs and two more weeks to practice.

"We're looking for people who love entertaining and love singing," Wagner said. She wants people who will come to practices, focus for three hours and put their hearts into their singing.

"It just fills you up from the inside out. We get so caught up in the left-brain side of things that we leave out the creative aspects," Wagner said.

Club Member Brande McIlroy got involved 11 years ago.

"I was looking for a group to sing with in the Antelope Valley, and I opened the paper and saw the Sweet Adelines on the front page."

McIlroy never had formal singing lessons but has been singing for most of her life. In the years she has been a part of the group, her voice has improved greatly, she said.

Club members are: Linda Agner, Nicki Agner, Liz Antony, Ginny Bretz, Jenny Carr, Sheila Conary, Susan Hamilton, Marvelee Higgins, Frankie Johnson, Ann Kalocinski, Layton, Merrilee Leggitt, Linda Marlow, Sabrina McClinton, McIlroy, Diane McLemore, Darlene Mink, Karen Morrison, Lola Negaard, Michelle Niebla, Linda Ninekirk, Missy Pearce, Betty Spears, Judy Turkheimer, Marion Volk and Wagner.

For details about the Harmony Showcase chorus, call (661) 269-8818.

lhymas@avpress.com