Gloria Anna Scheer of Clearwater keeps a pencil handy to mark notes on her music at a Clearwater Chorus rehearsal.
PINELLAS COUNTY – Almost 100 people take seats on a Monday evening in the Murray Studio Theater, the smaller theater on Ruth Eckerd Hall’s east side. They’re not there to listen to others make music. They’re there to massage each other’s backs?
That’s part of the warm-up routine for the 100-member Clearwater Chorus. After a standing stretch or two, the group – altos on one side, sopranos on the other, tenors and basses in the middle – faces left and join hands to necks and shoulders. Then they face right and gently pummel each other’s backs.
Laughter ripples through the theater as director Dr. Johnny Ray Jones leads them in singing that old playground taunt, “nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah.”
“Sing it like a small child, but one with classical training,” Jones said. “Like a prodigy with attitude.”
Then the group launches into their first piece, “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” from Cole Porter’s 1934 musical “Anything Goes.”
Across town, the Largo-Seminole Community Chorus also rehearses this evening at Imperial Palms Apartments in Largo. Director Melanie McWilliams said the 25 to 30 members take their show on the road to mobile home parks and apartment complexes.
“We’ve even sung in a department store,” said McWilliams.
Tuesday evenings, Gulf-to-Bay, a Sweet Adeline Chorus, blends 30 some female voices in tight four-part barbershop harmony at First Christian Church in Largo.
Member Hari Barrett of Clearwater, explained that barbershop harmony is almost always a four-part chord.
“Each part in the chord has to be extremely accurate to create that ring,” Barrett said.
The Sweet Adelines don’t just sing old-fashioned songs and they don’t just sing.
“It wouldn’t be any fun without some choreography,” said Barrett, who also said the group has sung Petula Clark’s “Dancin’ in the Streets” barbershop-style.
Across the Bay, one of the area’s most acclaimed volunteer choruses also meets on Tuesday evenings at the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida. Drawing members from both sides of the Bay, the 170-member Master Chorale of Tampa Bay sings what Lynda Ruckman calls “works of the masters.”
Ruckman of St. Petersburg, said she had sung all her life, primarily in church choirs. And she had heard the Master Chorale on numerous occasions.
“They moved me to the point of tears,” said Ruckman, who works at All Children’s Hospital.
Finally, Ruckman said, she worked up the courage to audition for the Master Chorale.
“It was a tough, individual audition with sight-reading, scales, and repeating rhythms,” Ruckman said.
Not all the singers in the Master Chorale are professionally trained.
“There are a number of highly trained music directors and choral conductors who sing with the Master Chorale,” Ruckman said. “But there are also those of us who are community singers. They’re not looking for that solo voice; they’re looking for voices that blend.”
Ruckman said the Tuesday rehearsals help relieve stress.
“I’m so focused on the music, there’s no way I can think about what’s on my plate at work,” Ruckman said.
Many singers sing with more than one group. Ruckman sings on Thursday evenings with First Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg. Dennis Clements, music director at Faith Presbyterian Church, Seminole, sings on Tuesdays with the Suncoast Singers – which also rehearses at Faith Presbyterian Church – then directs his own church choir on Thursdays.
Clements said people can come and practice with the Suncoast Singers for awhile before deciding whether they want to audition.
“People grow in their ability,” Clements said.
People also benefit physically from singing with groups. British medical studies concluded that group singing helped improve lung function, boosted the immune system, and reduced stress. The social interaction also helps people feel more positive, alert, and uplifted.
“It’s the ultimate team sport,” said Mitzi Kurmos of Clearwater, who has sung with the Clearwater Chorus for 12 years.
“How can you be in a bad mood when you sing? I love it,” said Gloria Anna Scheer, also of Clearwater. Scheer said singing with the Chorus is her way of saying ‘thank you’ to people who were kind to her family when they moved here from Venezuela four years ago.
Singing challenges the mind, too. In a later telephone interview, Jones said he loves the “added aspect of text” in choral singing.
“It goes beyond the articulation of note, melody, and pitch,” Jones said.
Back at the rehearsal hall, the Clearwater Chorus attacks Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna” from
“Carmina Burana.” The voices swirl and swell, filling the hall with eddies of sound that seep into the listener’s bones.
Out of the shower and onto the stage
• Clearwater Chorus, the official resident adult choir of Ruth Eckerd Hall, rehearses Mondays, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Call the Marcia P. Hoffman Performing Arts Institute, 712-2706, for audition dates and information.
• Gulf-to-Bay, a Sweet Adeline Chorus, rehearses Tuesdays, 7 to 10 p.m., at First Christian Church of Largo, 1645 Seminole Blvd. Call Hari Barrett at 447-4744.
• Largo/Seminole Community Chorus rehearses Mondays, 7 to 9 p.m., at Imperial Palms Apartments’ East Clubhouse, 1300 Imperial Palms Drive, Largo. Call Melanie McWilliams at 393-4843.
• Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, the principal chorus of the Florida Orchestra, rehearses Tuesdays, 7:30 to 10 p.m., at the University of South Florida. Call 813-974-7726 or go to www.masterchorale.com.
• Palm Harbor Crystal Aires, a chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, rehearses Mondays, 6:45 to 9:45 p.m., at the Palm Harbor Community Activity Center, 1500 16th St. Call Joe Roan at 772-7043 for membership and concert information.
• Suncoast Singers Show Chorus rehearses Tuesdays, 7 to 9 p.m. at Faith Presbyterian Church 11501 Walker Ave., Seminole. Call Don or Marilyn Bayer at 399-0599.
• Sunsational Show Chorus rehearses Tuesdays, 6:45 p.m., at Faith United Methodist Church, 403 First Ave. S.W., Largo. Call Joan Scott at 541-4501.
Correction Changed Dr. Johnny Ray Cook to Dr. Johnny Ray Jones.
![[Image]](/content_images/030107_pco-08.jpg)
