Start-up choir sings its way through summer

Early on in rehearsals with her Mixed Summer Chorus, conductor Terrie Ashbaugh noticed that the men - the few who there were - weren't singing exactly in harmony.

Some were singing too high; others sang too low. A few sang too fast; a few were too slow.

She had an idea.

"I tell the men to sing like Alvin the Chipmunk," Ashbaugh says. "Then I tell them to sing like a Russian bass. Then I tell them to sing somewhere in the middle, and they all blend."

Problem solved.

But what about those women, who make up a majority of the 45 singers in the upstart summer choir project that Ashbaugh launched in late May?

"Sometimes they are too rich-sounding, so I tell them to kind of lighten up," she explains.

And to stop taking themselves and the music so seriously.

That's the key with Ashbaugh's summer chorus, which was born last spring after a slip of the tongue - "I miss singing during the summer" - led to a proposition - "Why don't we form a summertime chorus for anyone who wants to join?"

In a matter of weeks, Ashbaugh, the longtime artistic director of the Southern Arizona Women's Chorus, found herself leading a group of singers representing eight Tucson choral groups. During the past two months, they have laughed - a lot - and explored a repertoire that ranges from sacred and hymnal to classical and contemporary.

Next Friday the ensemble will show off what it has accomplished with a free concert. Donations collected at the door will benefit Interfaith Community Services.

Ashbaugh says the concert is more of a celebration of Tucson's vibrant choral arts community than a showcase for her efforts on the podium.

"It's more about getting to know and supporting the choral arts in Tucson, and we have a lot. Why not get them to sing as much as they can?" says 52-year-old Ashbaugh, whose 35-year music résumé includes being the first director of the University of Arizona Faculty/Staff Choir.

The summer program includes singers from the Sons of Orpheus, the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, the University of Arizona Faculty/ Staff Choir, the Arizona Repertory Singers, the Southern Arizona Women's Chorus, Christ the King Episcopal Church, Ascension Lutheran Church and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.

"Terrie works with people and manages to get a really unified sound - that pure ensemble sound that is the goal of most choruses," says longtime violinist Lillian Meriwether, who sings with the choir at Christ Presbyterian Church and has sung with Ashbaugh in the past.

That unified sound required some coaxing in the first few rehearsals in early June. Ashbaugh found herself with a cast of vocalists with varied training and experiences.

Her approach was to emphasize the fundamentals, including impressing upon them more pronounced diction.

"The biggest thing that Terrie emphasizes is getting the words out, enunciating," says Craig Rendahl, a tenor who sings in a seniors choir at Ascension Lutheran Church. "And to have passion behind what you're singing. If the words are a love song, then sound like you actually mean it."

Music is serious business for Ashbaugh, who co-founded the Women in Song Festival for women's choruses; it held its inaugural gathering last April in Seattle.

But she also believes singers do their best when they are led with a light hand.

"Some people get a little too intellectual with their singing and they don't have a good time," she says. "We joke around a bit."

Her playful nature strikes a chord with her singers.

"She makes you feel comfortable. It's a nice sense of community," says mostly retired artist Murray Keshner, a bass-baritone with Masterworks Chorale who joined the summer choir to keep up his chops. "Every conductor has a different way of conducting. Her technique is quite nice. She keeps it light; she keeps it moving."

She also keeps it challenging, members say.

"There's a black gospel piece that we're doing," Rendahl says. "As a stiff old Lutheran, I have a tough time singing that stuff style-wise, and Terrie is bringing me along with that."

Next Friday's concert will end with Ashbaugh's take on "Chopsticks."

She wrote lyrics to the ubiquitous piano piece in 2002 when she headed the UA choir. The bass section sings "boom, bah, bah," while the sopranos and altos chime in with a series of "doot, doot, dooba, dooba."

"Chopsticks is fun / Now I know that it's done / I can sing it and know life complete / How neat," the men sing.

"I can sing chopsticks / I know it / Oh what bliss / I've done it / Now life is complete / How neat," the women sing.

"I remember in one of the rehearsals she said, 'Sing it like you're actually having fun,'" Rendahl says.

Says Ashbaugh: "Some of them didn't know what to expect from me, so it's been fun showing how silly I can be, but serious about music at the same time."

She also has marveled at how well the singers, many of them new to Ashbaugh, have jelled.

"I see them talking to each other after choir is done. I have to kick them out so I can lock up," she says.

If you go

• What: Mixed Summer Chorus in concert.

• When: 7 p.m. next Friday.

• Where: Ascension Lutheran Church, 1220 W. Magee Road.

• Admission: Free, but donations of money and nonperishable food will be collected for Interfaith Community Services.

"Some people get a little too intellectual with their singing and they don't have a good time.

We joke around a bit."

Terrie Ashbaugh

Conductor of the Mixed Summer Chorus

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642.