Our History
In 1984, a group of 25 singers met to determine whether there was enough interest to create a Puget Sound area elite chorus. By 1985 they had a director and a charter. In October of that year, the Bellevue Chapter, SPEBSQSA was created, forming the Northwest Sound Men’s Chorus.
We went on to win our first District Championship in Calgary in 1986 and represented the district at the Hartford International Contest. In its first ten years, Northwest Sound. won the district contest six times. Since then, we have added five more district championships. We have placed in the top three at the district contest for all but two of the years that we competed and have qualified for 15 International Contests.
Our history can be roughly divided into eras. The “elite chorus” era was led by Bob Brock, from the chapter’s founding until 1990. Then Bobby Gray Jr. convinced the chorus to merge back with its sponsor chorus, the Lake Washington Skippers, leading to the “big chorus” era when we had over 90 singers on stage and placed ninth in the international contest twice.
When Bobby had to leave the area, we entered the era of “finding ourselves”. We brought Bob Brock back, then hired Stu Turner, and eventually brought in Denny Stiers, who has always been highly regarded in the district – he directed both the Lake Washington Skippers and the Eugene Cascade Chorus to multiple International contests.
Under Denny and Stu as associate directors, the chorus grew back to 75 singers and won the 2005 District Contest in Calgary, qualifying for the 2006 Indianapolis International contest.
Next, we entered an “education and rebuilding” era under director Donny Rose. Donny helped create the “Sing Sing Sing” community outreach program, which continues to this day, and led the chorus to three International contests. We were also promoting “youth in harmony” during this time and had many younger family members join the chorus.
Shortly before Donny left to take a position at the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) Headquarters, he brought the chorus to yet another District Championship.
This is when our most recent era of the 40 years began – an era of “change and challenge”. In 2015 we hired Kenny Potter, who directed us to three district championships and five International contests. Kenny fully embraced Sing Sing Sing and twice brought the chorus to Harmony University – a week-long intensive training program for singers, directors, arrangers, and educators. We fostered a youth chorus and in 2019, after BHS introduced the Everyone In Harmony program, the chapter developed our mixed chorus, “Northwest Mix”.
We faced the challenges of the pandemic by hosting virtual online performances and “Carbershop” rehearsals, where members of the chorus gathered in a parking lot and each car had a microphone attached to a central system so everyone could sing together in their own space. We are so thankful to have had Kenny’s exceptional leadership through these past ten years, the longest tenure of any director at Northwest Sound. Now we are preparing for a new era as we celebrate this 40 year milestone as a chapter.
