TULSA, Okla., July 11, 2005 — Sweet Adelines International, one of the world's largest and most respected music associations for women, announces Barbershop Music Appreciation Day on July 13, 2005. In local events, listen for the sound of ringing barbershop chords as Sweet Adelines International members from across the nation and worldwide sing songs arranged in four-part harmony, barbershop style. More than 300 choruses and 15,000 members are expected to participate in this special event.
Barbershop Music Appreciation Day marks the organization's sixtieth anniversary. On July 13, 1945, founder Edna Mae Anderson of Tulsa, Oklahoma brought a few women together in her home. The women wanted to participate in the "chord-ringing, fun-filled harmony" that their husbands, members of the men's Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA), were singing. From that meeting grew the nucleus of what was to become Sweet Adelines International.
Sweet Adelines has matured from Inc. to International, from the days of filing membership records in the bathtub to beaming contests worldwide via the miracle of the Internet. The international contests have moved from hotel ballrooms to the largest sports arenas in the United States. They've crowned champions from Sweden to the U.S. to Canada and all parts in between.
Is Sweet Adelines succeeding? As Sweet Adelines International turns 60 years old, its leaders constantly assess that very question. With nearly 600 chapters encompassing 27,000 members worldwide, success seems obvious. Beyond the numbers, they see positive changes in everything from the diversity of their rosters to the expansion of the repertoire. The thread that began in 1945 with the FLORADORA GIRLS and Atomaton Chapter weaves its way through the quartets and choruses of today who set higher and higher standards.
Edna Mae Anderson and her friends in Tulsa, Oklahoma did not know where their idea would lead back in 1945, but they took the first step on a lifelong journey. That the journey continues today is their gift to the organization, and a tribute to them. Members enjoy the pulse, the connection, and the rhythm of possibility.
Sweet Adelines International is a musical force in the United States and around the world. The membership of nearly 27,000 women, all singing in English, includes choruses in most of the fifty United States as well as in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, Wales and the Netherlands. There are also prospective choruses in Denmark, Greece and United Arab Emirates.
Barbershop Music Appreciation Day offers thousands of people the opportunity to experience this entertaining art form. A Sweet Adelines chorus is full of energy, great sounds, and a spectacle of enthusiastic singers. For more information on local events in your area or to learn more about Sweet Adelines International, visit http://www.sweetadelineintl.org.
Contact:
Kelly S. Kirchhoff
Director of Communications
918-622-1444
Email