While many Eastsiders this week have been absorbed by the elections, a select group of residents has been focused on sun, sand and, most importantly, singing.
The Pacific Sound Chorus, which has 90 members from Issaquah, Sammamish, Bellevue, Redmond and surrounding cities, is in Honolulu this week to match their voices against other groups from around the world in the Sweet Adeline International competition.
“We are absolutely exuberant,” said Gayle Robinson, who lives on the border of Kirkland and Bothell and is the group’s scholarship chair.
Traveling to Hawaii as the champions of Region 13, this will be the group’s eighth international competition.
Like other Sweet Adeline groups, Pacific Sound sings everything acapella, or without accompaniment.
Director Susan Kegley of Black Diamond said the genre of music the group performs is pure enjoyment.
“It is a little bit pop style, a little bit jazz, sometimes Broadway and inspirational, somewhat ‘vaudevillian’ and always fun,” Kegley wrote in an e-mail. “Mostly, we hope our performances will cause the audience to sit back and relax, maybe tap their toe, laugh a little or want to sing along!”
The pieces are sung in barbershop harmony.
“Oftentimes people are surprised to find out that women sing in barbershop harmony, but there are 35,000 women who do it, and we’re prettier when we do it,” Robinson exclaimed.
Joking aside, Sweet Adeline groups are serious about producing quality music and continuing to educate their members.
“We don’t just get together and sing,” Robinson said. “That’s the best part, but we all have access to continued musical education so that we sing properly.”
And, they want to extend the chance to continue musical education to women in high school and beyond. In that vein, the group is offering several opportunities for women in the community to try out the group, perform and perhaps learn a few new things about singing.
• Four rehearsals on Tuesdays Nov. 18 through Dec. 2: Attendees will learn two holiday songs and be invited to perform along with the chorus at a show on Dec. 16 at the East Shore Unitarian Church in the Factoria area.
• “Acapella 101 — Harmony University” will consist of five one-hour classes on Tuesday nights starting Feb. 3. Those who attend the classes will also have the opportunity to perform with the group on the first weekend in March.
Practices and classes will take place at the group’s rented space at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island. To find out more or to sign up to try one of the free rehearsal series, call Robinson at 425-820-9825 or membership chair Glenny Law at 425-454-9808.
