Once upon a time, a long,
long time ago (2002), in a far away land, (Kennewick, Wa.),
two guys, Bob Steen and Ron Whisennant, decided it was time that the
area known as Tri-Cities, Washington should have a barbershop
chorus. It had been fifteen years since a barbershop chorus
had been in the Tri-cities. In December of 2002, after much
advertising, we had our first meeting at Southridge High
School. We had about 18 guys in attendance to see what barbershop
singing was all about. Some attendees were new to barbershop and
some had been singing it for years. Also attending our first
meeting were two quartets from Spokane, Washington and one quartet from
Yakima, Washington. These groups from Spokane and Yakima
were there to support this new venture of starting a Barbershop Chorus
in Tri-cities, Washington.
Our first director was Dan Pugerude from Pasco, Washington . Dan
was our director until he moved to the West Side because of his
job. Our next director was Duane Brecto, who had directed
barbershop before with the Sweet Adeline's Rolling Hills Chorus.
Duane was with us for three years until health problems forced him to
resign. After Duane, we were fortunate enough to bring
Steve Halliday on board with us. He is now our current director
and he is a music technician that has taught us much about our art of
singing.
Our members are shown
below; thanks to Wayne Hamilton for the photographs. You can see our
chapter officers by clicking here, and for
those who like documents and politics, here is a link to ourbylaws (.doc format).
Bob Burnett, baritone
