Photo Courtesy of steve wilson
ULTIMATE LOVE GIFT. The Tacoma Barbershop Harmony Chorus, seen here ready to sing the National Anthem at Safeco Field, splits off into four-man quartets to sing Valentine’s wishes to lucky recipients throughout the greater Tacoma area.
Want to really surprise your beloved this Valentine’s Day? How about sending a barbershop quartet to sing a sweet serenade? For $50 four members of Tacoma Barbershop Harmony Chorus (a.k.a. Totem-Aires) will personally deliver your expressions of love to the place of your choosing in the greater Tacoma area with a beautiful rose, a Valentine’s Day card and the performance of two love songs, including the classics like “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”
Steve Wilson has been with the 30-member Tacoma Barbershop Harmony Chorus since 2002, and he never gets tired of seeing the looks on surprised recipients’ faces when he and his barbershop buddies show up and launch into song.
“People love it,” he said, noting that the singers are ready to go anywhere they’re asked to go. “We do it all over. For example, I’ve personally sung at the Tacoma Sewage Treatment Plant and it was really fun. Sometimes we go to people’s houses to sing to the wives, and one time I was at Poulsbo RV for the husbands. Wherever the people want us to go, that’s where we go.”
Tacoma Barbershop Harmony Chorus was formed 64 years ago by Edgar Eisenhower, brother of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and an attorney in Tacoma at the time, around 1946.
“It’s the longest continuous chapter in the whole Northwest,” according to Wilson. “There are barbershop groups all over – Puyallup has one, Seattle has several, Bellevue has them – but ours is the one that seems to spawn the most successful quartets.”
A non-profit 501(c)3 organization, Tacoma Barbershop Harmony Chorus organizes this Valentine’s special as an important fundraiser for Harmony Explosion, a summer camp the chorus and other barbershop groups hold every year at Pacific Lutheran University.
“It’s extremely difficult in today’s electronic age to attract young people,” Wilson said. So, to get young people interested in the barbershop genre, the four-day camp is held to teach young singers how to sing popular, recent songs in the acapella barbershop style. To cap off their camp experience, the singers exhibit their newfound skills in front of an audience.
“Young people…and the best teachers of this genre come from all over the country,” Wilson said.
Tacoma Barbershop Harmony Chorus is offering their singing quartets Feb. 12, 13 and 14. The $50 cost allows you to pick your location of choice for the Valentine to be sung, and requesting a specific time costs an additional $15. To sign up, call Wilson at (253) 752-5135. You will be asked for the recipient’s name, location for delivery in the greater Tacoma area, date, your preference for morning or afternoon delivery, and your personal message for the Valentine’s Day card. To get a sampling, visit http://www.singingvalentines.com.
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