A choir in the key of F: All-woman choir starting in Greeley

By Dan England

Julie Palagi planned to retire. She had directed choirs for 25
years, taught voice lessons for a decade and sang for more than 30
years. It was time to try something else.

But she works in Denver, and that means a lot of time in the car
commuting from Greeley, and that means a lot of time to think.

And that, more than anything, explains how Greeley Harmonix came
about.

The all-female choir will compete in Sweet Adelines
International, which is sort of like barbershop for women, but the
goal is to expand the repertoire to include some contemporary
music, such as the Beach Boys, Manhattan Transfer and hip-hop.

Hip-hop? What artists?

“Oh, I don’t know,” Palagi said.

OK, they will work on that.

“We did mess around with Lady Gaga one day,” said Janelle
Knespel of Fort Collins.

Knespel sang in the Fort Collins Sweet Adelines group that
competed for years with Palagi as director but disbanded after she
decided to retire. But once Palagi decided she wasn’t quite ready
to retire, thanks to all that darn time in the car, they decided to
put something together. Tonya Olson of Johnstown is helping as
well.