I have sung most of my life as member of a variety of United Church choirs but my first exposure to barbershop harmony was at the behest of my dentist. My name is Doug Allan
Doug graduated from the University of Guelph in 1973 with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and moved to Stouffville, Ontario to begin his chosen career. He became a junior partner at the Holliday Veterinary Hospital in Cambridge in 1990, bought the practice in 2004, retired in September 2015.
Doug joined the Kitchener-Waterloo chapter And joined the Board of Directors in 2010 where he served for 5 years. He sings bass with the Twin City Harmonizers and the Hamilton Harbourtown Sound. He also sings in the Central Presbyterian Church choir where he is a bell ringer too.
My interest in harmony began when a music teacher explained that a song I particularly liked had close harmony. I was a dedicated member in the children’s church choir (often the only boy), had private singing and piano lessons, and played French horn in the Chatham Concert Band. I stumbled upon barbershop. My name is Paul Tunks
While at university, Paul dropped music hobbies, but resumed with the St. Luke’s United Church choir in Cambridge. His first exposure to barbershop was while rehearsing with the community band which used the same facility. He happened to hear a quartet in a restaurant during a district convention. He finally accepted an invitation to visit the Twin City Harmonizers and soon joined the chapter. As a member, he has had many opportunities to learn more about music. He remembers attending Harmony College North where the instructor explained harmony and some of the physics of music. That brought together both the enjoyment of the art and a passion for technology.
Paul has travelled extensively for work which has given him the opportunity to visit and sing with many chapters – particularly in Ohio. He loves the comradery and singing with different men.
He is currently getting established as our Webmaster and is a member of the Marketing and Membership Team.
My love of the “good old songs” goes back to my childhood when my family’s parties included gathering around my vaudevillian grandfather’s piano in downtown Kitchener to sing – my name is Fred Eagar.
Fred’s early exposure to singing led to membership in the St John’s Anglican choir, the grade school choir, and a massed choir in the Kiwanis festival. In high school, he sang in an all-male “Tech” choir and took up playing soprano trumpet in the 48th Field Squadron Band, The Flying Dutchmen Drum and Bugle Corps moving on to the Marching Ambassadors Drum and Bugle Band in Toronto. Years later he and his girlfriend Mary were at the Kitchener market where a quartet was singing. He and Mary attended a chapter guest night and she encouraged him to join. That was 39 years ago.
He soon got active singing in quartets for about 10 years including Overall Sound, and En Route. On the administrative side, Fred has served on the Music Team (Presentation Coach), Annual Show Team, Chapter President (3years) and Secretary (18 years and counting). He has twice been named Chapter Barbershopper of the Year and was elected to the KW Chapter Hall of Fame.
I first heard about barbershop singing at the age of twelve from my public school music teacher – including songs like “Goodbye My Coney Island Baby” and “Daddy Get Your Baby Out Of Jail”. It was not until 2004 that I met another barbershopper, and that was a result of my exuberant singing in church. My name is Richard Heuss.
Richard was a boy soprano in a school choir directed by the director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Sweet Adelines at the time. He also studied organ for five years, played clarinet at WCI, learned to transpose the music so he could play bass clarinet. After high school he sang tenor with the Renaissance Singers from 1974 to 1986 including a tour of England in 1984, then with the Highland Chamber Choir for 5 years. Along the way he plucked at ukulele and guitar.
He also used to “sing along” with the popular vocalists of the “big band “era in the forties and fifties – Perry Como, Doris Day, Bing and Frankie and the rest.
In 2004, while singing “loudly” in church, he attracted the attention of a member of the Etobicoke Mississauga Chapter who invited him to a chapter meeting as well as a rehearsal of the Tri-City Gospel Chorus. He immediately joined both but transferred to TCH five years ago. He joined the Tri-City Gospel Quartet, now called “For Heaven’s Sake”, in 2011 who perform about ten times a year. While in Etobicoke he sang with a quartet called Expression and in TCH with Prime Cuts (Murray Pearson, Doug Allan and Al Davis). He is currently singing with Dave Ryde, Terry Hallman and Bev Bowman known, for now, as CSQ (Christmas Show Quartet). That makes two choruses and two quartets at present, proving he “loves to sing and loves harmony.” He is also our Music Librarian.
A member of the Twin City Harmonizers for eight years, I sing lead and have been active in most aspects of the singing and administration programs of the Chapter – my name is Rich Hubick.
Our current Chapter President has been and still is a very active individual not only in barbershopping but also in his community and personal life. A member of the Doon Presbyterian Multi-Generational Church Choir, he was introduced to barbershopping at Dawg Haus nite for a couple of years before attending the Buffalo Bills fiftieth anniversary celebration at the Schwaben Club which we sponsored along with guests from Sweet Adelines and Harmony Incorporated. His sister Sherry, a thirty year Sweet Adeline in Oakville, also attended and encouraged him to join us.
He has become a stalwart member of the lead section in the Twin City Harmonizers chorus as well as the Classic Chordsmen quartet and has participated in the Ontario District annual quartet event at Harmony Ranch for six years which he considers one of the highlights of his singing experience.
He has attended a Presbyterian Music Camp near Bracebridge for six years where he plays guitar, instructs ukelele and sings in a massed choir. Before becoming Chapter President three years ago, he served as VP Membership, VP Marketing & PR, and Executive VP. And is still a member of the Marketing and Membership Team.
Recycling is also a key component of my oldest hobby and it is not too much of a stretch to say that it is a regular element of my newest hobby too. My name is Dave Litt.
His long term (thirty years) hobby, really a second occupation which keeps him very busy on weekends, is auctioneering – recycling second hand goods. But his latest hobby, of course, is singing. Most of our songs have been recycled many times – even the newest in our current repertoire is over ten years old!
While he always had an interest in music, vocal groups he stumbled upon barbershop while visiting a car show in Flint, Michigan. A local group was singing on a street corner and he bumped into them several times as he walked around. He liked what he heard and thought, “I could do that.” At home, he got on the internet and found our website, got directions and attended a guest night, all by himself. Despite self-doubts (a little of which still lingers) he is dedicated and committed to learning and improving. He welcomes constructive criticism and hopes to sing in a quartet. He was, and is, impressed by the abilities and stamina displayed by “older” members.
I met my future bride at the age of eight in a one-room schoolhouse near Nobleton, Ontario. Many, many years later while consulting with a financial advisor who was questioning me about what “toys” I owned – boat, sports car, motorcycle, snowmobile etc., she told him, “he has had most of those at one time or another but none now – he finally grew up.” My name is Murray Pearson.
Murray sang in church choirs most of his life. He joined Glen Morris United in 1980. Fellow dentist Martin Shelley finally got him out to our chapter where he became an active chorus member starting at baritone before switching to lead with some tenor from time to time. He sang in many pick-up quartets as well as the Short Cuts, later Prime Cuts, with Doug Allan, Richard Heuss and Al Davis. Murray is an active member of the Harbourtown Sound and competed with them at International in Pittsburg and Nashville. He also sang with the Maple Leaf Chord Company under Ray Danley at the 2017 Seniors Chorus Contest in San Antonio. Murray has been our Chapter Treasurer for fifteen or so years. In addition, he has been singing with Promusica, a Saint George community chamber chorus.
As a Boy Scout, I often sang on bus trips and at camp fires, at high school I sang in the Glee Club, as a fifty-four-year member of the Twin City Harmonizers I sing with two of my relatives. I’ve always been intrigued by harmony. My name is Ralph Scheffel.
Ralph and some other teachers were recruited into barbershopping by a fellow teacher at Eastwood Collegiate who was a member of the London Chapter and had transferred to the Twin City Harmonizers. He sang in a quartet called Overall Sound and in Second Career for twenty years. He has served as Program V.P., Membership V.P., and President twice, and has been the Team Coordinator for twenty-five years.
He is active in his church where he still sings in the choir on occasion.
Although I have worked at the same position for the same company since graduating from Sheridan College 35 years ago, I have lived in 14 different homes in that time, 5 of them since joining Twin City Harmonizers 9 years ago – my name is John Siderius.
John began singing in the Toronto District Christian High School choir but after marrying he joined Kenaniah, a small men’s group that performed in churches throughout southern Ontario. In 1996, he signed up for a 5 week “Learn to Sing” program sponsored by Guelph chapter and then joined Mount Forest chapter for the next 2 years. Because of his frequent moves for business he had to drop out of barbershopping for 10 years. In 2008, he moved to Elmira and made a New Year’s resolution to return – this time to the Twin City Hamonizers.
John became our Music Librarian and is now Vice-president, Programming in addition to our website Site Administrator. He was named chapter Barbershopper of the Year for 2012. He has often filled in lead, baritone or tenor for chapter quartets for shows and attended the Ontario District Quartet Event in 2016. He has also sung in Tenor Delight for Alfred Kuntz.
