The Old Songs

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).

Scroll down, you can click on photos to enlarge and also click the gray boxes to hear audio clips as well.

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.

I recorded the dress rehearsal on my iRiver mp3 player with external stereo boom mic and an old hand held cassette player for backup. Funny thing was on the cassette the men's voices are very subdued but on the mp3 they're popping fine. I recorded 3 hours worth and then had to download some freeware to be able to edit it into tracks. The audio clips I can upload to this blog are low band mono but makes for a faster download (under 2 minutes for dial-up) and the singing is still phenomenal.

Click on the audio clips of The Grand Rapids Sweet Adelines below...

SA- It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

SA- Pinecones And Holly Berries (A Lot Like Christmas)



SA- Secret Of Christmas



SA- Santa Baby



SA- Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers



SA- When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter



SA- Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer



SA- Toyland

Continued below...

Singcerely

Moondreams

Cadence

Great Lakes Pride

Wildcard

Grand Rhapsody

Vintage Vibes

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.

Click on audio clips of the quartets below...

Singcerely- Holly Jolly Christmas

Moondreams- We Need A Little Christmas



Joyride- My Christmas Wish For You



Silhouette- Carol Medley



Vintage Vibes- You Ain't Gettin' Diddley For Christmas



Great Lakes Pride- Winter Wonderland



Cadence- TV Theme Medley



Wildcard- Mary Did You Know



Grand Rhapsody- Merry Christmas Darling


Continued below...

(note: the previous 2 photos are from
the Sunday show)

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!)

Click on audio clips of The Great Lakes Chorus

GLC- Jingle Bell Rock

GLC- White Christmas



GLC- Blue Christmas



GLC- Twelve Days Of Christmas (Barbershop) 1



GLC- Twelve Days Of Christmas (Barbershop) 2



GLC- Deck The Halls



GLC- Mary Had A Baby



GLC- The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)



GLC- The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy

(bonus track:) The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy

Continued below...

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!

Click audio clips of the Great Lakes Chorus and the Grand Rapids Sweet Adelines below...

GLC/SA- Baby It's Cold Outside

GLC/SA- Night Before Christmas 1



GLC/SA- Night Before Christmas 2



GLC/SA- Do You Hear What I Hear