Starting a community chorus in Buffalo Grove seemed like a good idea 30 years ago. Turns out, it was.
“Barbara Quinlan, Lynne Schneider, and I were working on the Buffalo Grove Performing Arts Council,” related Linda Rosen of Buffalo Grove. “We were tasked with bringing more fine arts to the village.”
They decided that local people might want to have a choral experience, like they’d had in high school, so they put notices in the local papers about an audition for a chorus.
“We were praying for 25 people to show up,” Rosen recalled. “Sixty-five people walked in the door that night.”
The chorus is celebrating its 30th anniversary under conductor and music director Rosen with a weekend of concerts, Sept. 19-21, “BG Singers Present: Reprise: 30 Years of Song.”
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, at the Community Arts Center, 225 McHenry Rd. Tickets are $18; $16 for children under 12. For tickets visit bgsingers.org.
To be sure they would present audience favorites at the anniversary concerts, the group polled audience members by inserting in last year’s program a list of 75 songs of the over 580 they performed through the years. The top vote-getters will be in the anniversary show.
The chosen songs include “Let it Go,” “Beautiful,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Do You Hear the People Sing,” “Come Alive,” “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” and many more.
Although there are only a handful of original members in the chorus, it is still 65 voices strong. Members are chosen by audition.
Rosen noted that most of the chorus members don’t read music. “We provide them with practice tracks so they have the opportunity to learn their parts during the week,” Rosen explained.
Barbara Quinlan of Wauconda and Bruce Bohrer of Buffalo Grove are two of the original members, along with Rosen, Robin Axel, and Lynne Schneider, both of Buffalo Grove.
“I’ve always been a singer and living in Buffalo Grove (at that time), I thought, ‘What a great idea to have a choir,’” said Quinlan who had a vocal concentration scholarship at Indiana University.
The soprano said that she stayed with BG Singers all this time because, “This is a very unique group. It is really like an extended family. Everybody cares about everybody.”
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Quinlan is looking forward to singing “Wheels of a Dream” from “Ragtime” at the Sept. 19-21 concerts.
“I had sung four years in high school in a choir and I hadn’t done it since then,” said bass Bohrer. “I remembered I liked it a lot.” That’s why he joined BG Singers.
He stayed with it 30 years because “It never gets old. It’s a great group of people. We socialize a lot. It’s part of my life now. Singing is fun. It’s great for the brain memorizing.”
Bohrer is looking forward to singing “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at the anniversary concerts.
The BG Singers rehearse from April through September, before performing for one weekend in September. A smaller group, called Encore, which has been together for 25 years, performs much more frequently.
“We go out into the community,” Rosen said. “We accept jobs that are done at various retirement homes, we’ve sung the national anthem at the Cubs’ field, we’ve done a lot of charitable organizations. We also do a holiday program.”
Singer Bohrer is the manager of Encore, whose duties include arranging gigs and handling details.
“One year we entered a national contest called ‘Sing,’ and we won that national contest,” Bohrer reported.
“We go wherever they want us,” Quinlan said.
In addition to performing, the BG Singers raise funds for charitable organizations. They have donated to the American Cancer Society, Make-A-Wish, and The Ukulele Kids Club, among others.
Singer Quinlan said, “Being philanthropic is one of the most wonderful things you can do. They think long and hard on which charities it’s going to be every year.”
“We have such a good time together we want to share some of that good feeling with those who aren’t as fortunate,” Bohrer said.
To celebrate their landmark anniversary, BG Singers is doing “30 Acts of Kindness.” Those acts include volunteering at the Vernon Township Food Bank, collecting choral sheet music for schools, packing backpacks for needy students, supporting the Buffalo Grove Blood Drive, donating to Wings (which helps women dealing with domestic violence), and many other acts.
Rosen explained, “We’ve always wanted to give back to the community.”
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.