As any American choral historian knows, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians were doing show choir before show choir was cool. Long before television, audiences could see the Waring crew singing popular songs of the day along with accompanying staging and visuals – lighting, props, choreography and sometimes dancing. Show choir as we know it today, arrived by way of technology… and Waring rode that technological train all the way from phonographs, to radio, to synchronized sound (talking pictures), to television in 1949. Absolutely, Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians were the inspiration for the country’s first “swing choirs”.
The earliest singing/dancing choruses were The Indiana Singing Hoosiers (1956), The Young Americans (1962), The Ball State Singers (1963) and The University of Wisconsin Singers (1967) – with the latter two groups founded by UCLA Choral Master, Don Neuen. And just as university groups were appearing, vocal jazz, too, was being seen as viable and exciting to young music educators. The advantage that vocal jazz had over swing choir, however, was the fact that no universities were teaching young choral directors the skills needed to produce a quality singing, dancing ensemble. Newbie choral educators in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s (!) were on their own to figure it out. It would not be until the early 2000s that directors of show choirs would receive marginal assistance from the ACDA by way of separating the long standing category of “Jazz/Show Choir” into two separate entities – Thanks to, 2001 National Chair of Jazz/Show division, Diana Spradling.
Today, due to the hit television series Glee, the show choir art is enjoying being the fastest growing genre in music education. Featuring music from almost every genre – show choir not only attracts students to choral programs, but serves as a training ground for future musicians and performing artists. Bravo!
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
rpsabq says
A markedly “west coast” biased article. The “Singing Hurricanes” was started by Glenn Draper at the University of Miami in 1961. The first choral director at the school, his group was on Ed Sullivan, served as the pop choir for 3 nationally televised Miss USA pageants and sang with Perry Como and Pat Boone. He was truly the first and the most famous.