“Singing is so good for your soul,” says Dave Norman, a member of the Santa Clarita Valley Barbershop Chorus for the past 30 years, “It’s better than aspirin,” he adds with a laugh.
Norman, who recently performed locally with his fellow choir members in their 34th annual concert, is the Barbershop Chorus program vice president and show chairperson.
“I regret not joining sooner,” he says, “If I’m feeling grumpy or down, I go to a rehearsal and I forget all about it.”
He says rehearsals are a place where it’s not about what you do for a living. He says despite being a long-time member, he doesn’t even know what the occupations of his fellow members are because it’s not something they focus on. Instead, it’s all about sharing the common love of music with one another.
“We laugh a lot with each other, not at each other,” says Norman.
One of the men he laughs and sings with is Bill Swope who sings the bass lines.
“My dream since I was 12-years-old was to be able to sing in an all-star choir. During World War II, I heard The Great Lakes Naval Training Station Chorus on the radio and I was so impressed, it really stayed with me. Now being in the barbershop chorus keeps me feeling younger than I actually am.
Swope encouraged 83-year-old Cal Erickson to join the group.
“I’ve been a singer my entire life at weddings and funerals. I love singing with this quartet. They even give you tapes and CDs of the music that we are going to perform in public so you can practice it on your own,” says Erickson.
21 other enthusiast singers in the local fraternal group, part of an international a cappella harmonic group that has been a nationwide phenomenon for a century, join Swope and Erickson.
And while singing with the Santa Clarita Valley Barbershop Chorus may just be a once a week commitment to attend rehearsals, it is so much more.
“We’ve sung at the funerals of several of our fellow choir members. But, it’s very difficult to maintain your composure,” says Norman, who jokes with his wife that he wants to be buried with a pitch pipe.
Apparently, passion for singing dies hard. If you heard the way they harmonize, you’d understand why.
For further information about the local chorus or to join, call Dave Norman at 661-993-5396.