95-Person Barbershop Chorus To Perform In Wheaton, St. Charles

WHEATON, IL — "When they hit the end of the song at full volume it just sends shivers up and down your spine.”

That's how Bill Miller described the mixed barbershop chorus of 95 men and women, from high schoolers to 90-year-olds, who are coming together to perform "Together Again for Christmas" Dec. 11 in St. Charles and Dec. 17 in Wheaton. He said the group, presented by Chorus of DuPage, is the "largest congregation of barbershop singers in the Chicago area in quite some years."

"You get 100 people singing and you can generate a lot of enthusiasm and power," he added, explaining that the chorus is made up of smaller barbershop choruses from "Rockford and Elgin to Wheaton."

Miller chairs the upcoming holiday concerts and also performs with the chorus. He told Patch the venues at which the chorus will perform —Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles and Barrows Auditorium at Wheaton College— are both well-designed to help the wave of voices reverberate.

For both concerts, the group will perform a two-part program. The first half charms with traditional holiday favorites, including "Jingle Bells," "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" and "Winter Wonderland."

The program's second portion focuses on the story of the birth of Christ and features more flute, organ and piano, Miller said.

In 2021, Miller helped gather 50 chorus singers to perform at Baker Memorial. After the success of that show, Miller met with Kevin O'Connell, president of Chorus of DuPage, and made the decision to expand the chorus to 95 singers.

Over the past year, the singers have rehearsed with their individual chorus chapters. They have gotten together every week or two to practice as a mass chorus with many of the 95 singers in attendance.

Miller told Patch those rehearsals have been helping him and the other performers get "charged up" because we just love the mass chorus sound."

The barbershop chorus sound is one that's heard all too infrequently these days, Miller said.

He explained that during the 1940s and 1950s there were barbershop chorus chapters in just about every little city along the Fox River.

"Popularity has waned with the generations, so this is an important precedent for people to see barbershop music at its best," Miller said.

He's also hoping the holiday concerts will help rekindle the magic of the season for those who attend, "especially [with those] songs that you heard for the first time when you were a child and the mystique of Christmas was part of your whole person."

“As an adult you lose some of that," Miller told Patch. "Every once in a while you’re able to recapture it and I think this concert is one of those occasions."

General admission tickets are $25 and tickets for students who are 18 or younger are $15. Children younger than five years old get in for free with paid adult admission. Click the link to buy tickets to "Together Again for Christmas."

What: "Together Again For Christmas"

When and Where: Dec. 11 at 3 p.m. at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles; Dec. 17 at 3 p.m. at Barrows Auditorium at Wheaton College, 500 College Ave., Wheaton