Performing or competing, Buffalo Gateway Show Chorus strikes the right chord
Singing the praises of harmony
The oscillating “brrr-ing” sounds coming from the lips and throats of the 60 women inside the Depew Community Center were not acknowledging the cold air outside.
Instead, the sounds were aimed at warming their vocal chords inside the room where, nearly every Wednesday, members of the Buffalo Gateway Show Chorus perform their vocal exercises before rehearsing. The vocal calisthenics preceded some rigorous voice aerobics led by the group’s choreographer, Pam Calveric.
“We have to really work on our stamina, especially when we’re preparing for competition,” said Diane Porsch, executive director of the chorus.
The Buffalo Gateway Show Chorus is a local chorus comprising over 70 members from Western New York, Rochester, Syracuse, eastern Pennsylvania and southern Ontario. The group, which is officially called the Buffalo Gateway Chorus, operates under the umbrella of the Sweet Adelines International, a worldwide organization of female singers committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony.
The chorus, which sings four-part, a cappella harmony, competed at the international competition in Honolulu in November. “We were 10th place out of 600 choruses worldwide,” Porsch explained, as the women, who range in age from about 20 to 91 years old, were put through their frenetic paces.
“They’re a little wired tonight because we haven’t seen each other since before Christmas,” Porsch added.
Porsch has been directing Sweet Adelines choruses since 1974, starting out in her native Wisconsin. She has been working in the Buffalo area since 1999, and has been directing the Buffalo Gateway Show Chorus since 2001.
The members love competing as much as they love performing. Last year, that competitive spirit propelled the chorus to second place behind a much larger, Toronto-based chorus in regional competition, qualifying both to compete in the Honolulu competition.
Caren Chaffee of Orchard Park, a chorus member since January 2002, called the competition in Hawaii “a fabulous experience.”
“It was fabulous in terms of the singing and the contest and the camaraderie,” Chaffee said. “It was wonderful for us in so many aspects, and then for us to make the top ten made it just . . . It was out of this world.”
While the Buffalo Gateway Show Chorus isn’t necessarily required to sing for its supper, the occasional paying gig does help defray the cost of travel and lodging for competitions.
“We try to earn our money singing, so we do perform in the community, sometimes gratis. Sometimes we are hired to [perform in] smaller groups or the whole chorus,” Porsch said.
The chorus will perform a cabaret Feb. 14 at the Polish Falcons Club.
“That has about 300 seats available and we will sell that. We don’t actually need to advertise it. The membership sells that,” Porsch said.
A free performance is scheduled Feb. 4 in St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, Maple Road, Amherst.
During a recent rehearsal, the chorus hosted a small group of teenage girl singers who aspire to sing at the level of maturity and proficiency of the Buffalo Gateway Show Chorus.
The older women performed for the girls and their parents, and the girls — who ranged in age from 13 to 16 — in turn performed for the chorus members. A couple of numbers that the Buffalo Gateway Show Chorus sang were the same ones the chorus performed in the semifinals in Hawaii, including “Lazy Day,” a song recorded by the 1960s pop group Spanky and Our Gang.
“We do about 80 percent contemporary, 20 percent straight barbershop, competitive material,” Porsch said.
The group’s oldest member is a retired Lake Shore Central School District teacher, 91-year-old Nina McMahon of Derby. McMahon has been a member of the Sweet Adeline organization the longest, 41 years.
“You can sing your whole life. That’s the beauty of music,” Porsch said.
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