CHORUS CELEBRATES 15 YEARS

"Some people call our singing a hobby," said Irene Stevens, "but it's really more of an avocation."

Stevens, the director of the Cape Girardeau chapter of the Sweet Adelines, known as the Girardot Rose Chorus, was speaking of the barbershop music the all-female choir sings.

The Girardot Rose Chorus celebrated its 15th anniversary in the Southeast Missouri-Southern Illinois region Sunday with an ice cream social and a concert at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. Judging from the applause and smiles of the crowd, the music was as rich and refreshing as the ice cream and as sweet as the pink lemonade.

"It's a unique art form when you do it right," Stevens said. "When the cords line up and ring, it's an awesome sound."

The 19-woman chorus, ranging in age from the mid-20s to the mid-60s, has members from throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. Four members -- Stevens, JoAnn Boch, Judy Hanebrink and Sharon Schwarz -- have been with the chorus since it started in Cape Girardeau.

In the late 1970s, a small group of women from the area became interested in learning more about four-part harmony and barbershop style music. They began meeting weekly. By 1980, a prospective chorus was starting to form. In 1981, the chorus began working for a charter as a member of the Sweet Adelines International.

The Girardot Rose Chorus became an officially chartered chapter on May 1, 1983. Since that time, they have continued to meet for 2 1/2 hours a week to practice and train in singing and performing four-part barbershop harmony.

Not all the songs they sing, however, are songs typically associated with barbershop harmony. Many are popular contemporary rock and country songs or Broadway show tunes, but the arrangements are strictly barbershop.

On Sunday afternoon, the chorus, doing a retrospective of favorites from past concerts, sang "Sentimental Journey," "Consider Yourself" from the musical "Oliver," and "The Age of Aquarius" made popular during the 1960s by The Fifth Dimension, as well as more traditional barbershop tunes.

In addition, several members, past and present, shared reminiscences about concerts in the past.

Concert emcee Sharon Schwarz, one of the chorus' charter members, recalled a number of performances the group had at Riverfest, some of which did not go as planned.

In 1981, the women, wearing long black skirts and long-sleeve blouses with high collars, sang in 90-degree weather while standing on a metal barge that sat on the Mississippi River.

Two years later, they were given a choice location singing on a stage in the parking lot across from Hutson's on Main Street. But when thunder and lightning came up, the group could use neither the microphones nor the stage for fear of being electrocuted. They stood under the awning of Hutson's and sang anyway.

The Adelines found their best concert location in 1985 when they were asked to sing on a stage across from the Port Cape restaurant. Things were going well until a freight train came by, blowing its whistle as the women tried to sing, said Schwarz, who smiled while reminiscing.

"After 15 years, we are still a chorus. After 15 years, we are still singing. After 15 years, we are still having fun," she said.

The Sweet Adelines began in Tulsa, Okla., more than 50 years ago and has become an international organization with about 30,000 members. There are chapters of the organization throughout the United States as well as in England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and across the Scandinavian peninsula.