The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Croon In Tune: Garden City Chorus members say the group has the camaraderie of a fraternity. Jack Steck of Willow Glen (left) joins Dick Jenkins (right) and Jeff Snyder (center) in song.

Vocalists thrill to the resonant harmony of traditional music

Glen singers find that barbershop quartets' appeal is worldwide

By Michelle Ku

The days of lazy afternoons spent in a barbershop waiting to get a close shave might be long gone, but the music from the age lives on.

Each week, members of the Garden City Chorus meet to rehearse and preserve the music of the traditional barbershop quartet. For Sig Yoder and Jack Steck of Willow Glen, members of the more than 100-person chorus, it's all about the joy of music and the thrill of voices blending seamlessly.

"It's really a lot of fun if you like to sing. The harmony is more harmonious than most other singing," Yoder says.

The Garden City Chorus, a competitive performing chorus, is the San Jose chapter of the international Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA), created in 1938, says Fred Grometer, a five-year member of the Garden City Chorus.

This traditional music has its roots in the Deep South, from the time when men went to the barbershop for a shave every two or three days. While they waited for their turns, they started singing songs for their sweethearts. Eventually, the men formed what we know today as barbershop quartets.

Choruses sing in time-honored four-part harmony: lead, tenor, bass and baritone. The tenors, basses and baritones all sing around the melody that is sung and maintained by the leads. "People just like to sing in harmony," Grometer says.

Yoder's love affair with harmony stretches back 50 years. He first joined the SPEBSQSA in 1948 when he was a high school student in Colorado, but stopped singing when he went to college. And despite being a San Jose resident since 1955, he didn't join the Garden City Chorus until he finally found the time six years ago.

Soon after he joined the chorus, Yoder had an experience that made him realize the appeal of this traditional music worldwide. While in a railroad station in Stockholm, Sweden, he was surprised to see a Japanese barbershop quartet singing. But he quickly got over his wonder and joined in.

"All these people learn to sing from listening to American records. Just hearing the words and singing it, you don't have an accent. The Japanese quartet was just amazing," he says.

The chorus has also traveled to Australia and New Zealand for performances. While it was Down Under two years ago, the group put on numerous shows. "We sang at the Sydney Opera House--out in the foyer," Grometer says.

Besides the society's approximately 34,000 members throughout the United States and Canada, the society has affiliated organizations in Great Britain, Sweden, Holland, Australia, Germany, South Africa, Austria, Russia and New Zealand.

Steck has been a member of the SPEBSQSA for 12 years, but only joined the Garden City Chorus a few weeks ago. "I had never heard of the society until a friend of mine ran across it and invited me down. I've always loved harmony music, so I took to it," Steck says.

Steck joined the society as a member of the Palo Alto chapter. After a year or so he became a member of the Dublin chapter, where he remained from 1988 through 1996. He took a two-year break from being in a chorus, but during that time he visited the Garden City Chorus.

Recently, he decided it was time to get back into a chorus. "They're a good group. This is a fun chapter. They put on very entertaining shows," Steck says.

Chorus members also enjoy a hale and hearty feeling of fellowship. "It's like a fraternity; it's a good spirit. We have to cooperate with each other in the music and outside of it," Grometer says.

For the past five years, the Garden City Chorus has won the Northern California Championship and is ranked among the top 20 choruses in the SPEBSQSA, which has more than 780 competitive choruses. In the fall, it will perform in Hawaii as a part of the Pan-Pacific Convention.

For more information about joining or booking the Garden City Chorus, call 235-9744 or visit www.aq.com/barbershop.

[ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ]