Event - First Night® Morris County

Get your buttons for First Night Morris! Hickory Tree Chorus and many other area artists celebrate the New Year! Catch one (or both!) of our sets at 9:45 and 10:45 pm, Assumption Church. Fireworks before and after! Discount buttons still available! Click link for program, map, and artist information.
Event - First Night® Morris County

Sing in the New Year! Register for HTC's 'Sing Acappella Series '

Sing In the New Year with Free Voice Lessons

Sweet Adelines International’s Hickory Tree Chorus invites women singers in the north/central New Jersey area who want to improve their vocal skills to register for the chorus’s Sing A Cappella Series, 7:15 pm January 6, 13, 19, and 27 at 570 Central Avenue, New Providence, NJ. The Hickory Tree Chorus is one of the hundreds of Sweet Adelines International choruses that make up this worldwide organization of women who sing four-part barbershop harmony.

Any woman of average singing ability, with or without vocal training, will find a part that fits her voice range with the help of Hickory Tree Chorus’s Music and Performance (MAP) team. Sing A Cappella participants will have the opportunity to work with Renee Porzel, Sweet Adelines International Certified Faculty, who will coach the chorus in Performance and Expression January 19. The other evenings, guests will work exclusively with Hickory Tree Chorus’s MAP team, and participate in portions of the chorus’s weekly rehearsals.

The Hickory Tree Chorus performs regularly throughout the community, produces an annual show, and awards an annual $1,000 scholarship to an area high school girl continuing her vocal music education in college.

Singing, performing and music education are only some of the benefits that members of Sweet Adelines International enjoy. Members experience genuine friendships, increased self-confidence, renewed vitality, and the unwavering motivation and inspiration of others that becomes invaluable.

For Sing A Cappella Series registration and directions contact Membership Chair, Dolly Power, at 908-307-6327 or members@hickorytreechorus.org. Visit on the web at hickorytreechorus.org

Museum Mayhem Show Tickets On Sale

The Hickory Tree Chorus chapter of Sweet Adelines International presents its 2009 annual show, Museum Mayhem, 3 and 7:30 pm, November 21, West Morris Mendham High School, 65 Main Street, Mendham, NJ.

The madness begins when the museum shuts down for the night and the chorus is locked inside! Spine-tingling harmonies by the award-winning Hickory Tree Chorus, WMMHS student singers, and guest men's quartet 'Round Midnight, the Barbershop Harmony Society's 2009 Mid-Atlantic District Champion.

Advanced tickets $20 adults, $18 seniors 62+, $10 youth 12 and under. All +$2 at the door.

E-mail: tickets@hickorytreechorus.org or phone 908-790-0334. More at hickorytreechorus.org

Meet and Greet at New Providence Farmer's Market

Members of the Hickory Tree Chorus chapter of Sweet Adelines International perform and speak to women interested in membership 1:30-2:30 pm, October 7 and 14 at the New Providence Farmer's Market.On those same evenings, as well as October 21, at 7:30 pm the chorus hosts "seat-to-stage!" free classes for women interested in learning a fun-filled song to perform on-stage with the chorus on its annual November 21 show.

Hickory Tree Chorus performs popular music in four-part, a cappella harmony, barbershop style. Its 55 members hail from 40 area communities and rehearse 7:30 pm, Wednesdays, at 570 Central Avenue, New Providence.

The chorus also awards an annual $1,000 scholarship to an area high school senior girl pursuing vocal music studies in college. The chorus will be selling cookbooks at the Farmer's Market to help fund the scholarship.

The New Providence Farmer's Market is located in the Municipal Building parking lot on the corner of Elkwood Avenue and Academy Street.

For membership, performance and scholarship information about Hickory Tree Chorus visit hickorytreechorus.org or e-mail: info@hickorytreechorus.org

seat-to-stage! An Opportunity to Perform with Hickory Tree Chorus

seat-to-stage! is an opportunity for women to get out of the audience and onto the stage as a performer with the award-winning Hickory Tree Chorus on their November 21 original show, Museum Mayhem. After completing a series of three, free classes participants may experience the joy of singing a chord-ringing, fun-filled popular uptune in front of an audience of friends and family.

Georgette Chrystal, baritone of three-time Sweet Adelines International Regional Champion Quartet Escape, will host a series of three, free classes teaching women singers one of four a cappella voice parts. The ability to read music is helpful but not required. Like Hickory Tree Chorus members, participants will be aided by learning CD’s and sheet music, as well as patient, personal guidance.

seat-to-stage! free classes will be held three nights only — October 7, 14, and 21, 7:30 pm, 570 Central Avenue, New Providence, NJ. Register with Membership Chair Dolly Power at 908-307-6367 or: members@hickorytreechorus.org. More information at www.hickorytreechorus.org

HickoryTree Chorus Honors 'Woman of Note'

Jeannette “Jeannie” Allen was named the year’s ‘Woman of Note’ by the Hickory Tree Chorus chapter of Sweet Adelines International in ceremonies held September 12 at the Sheraton Parsippany during the annual education weekend of the Greater New York Region of Sweet Adelines International. Each of the fifteen regional chapters honored a member who has inspired others by their contributions to the organization.

Allen has been a member of the New Providence-based Hickory Tree Chorus chapter since 1971. She has held the offices of Chapter President, Treasurer (for several terms) and Secretary and has also served on most chapter committees at one time or another, most notably as Business Manager for the Show Committee and currently as Chair of the Costume Committee. She is a former bass Section Leader and a current member of the Music Team.

Allen also serves the fifteen chapters of the Greater New York Region as Regional Management Team Finance Coordinator. She served three terms as the Regional Convention Committee’s Assistant Competition Coordinator and the last three years as Competition Coordinator, a position appointed annually by the Sweet Adelines International Board of Directors. In that capacity she coordinates the Region’s annual chorus and quartet competition and convention.

In her hometown of Florham Park, Jeannie is both Cantor and Lector at Holy Family Parish where she also sings soprano in the parish choir. She was a Girl Scout leader, softball coach and has worked on the Election Board. She and her husband, Ken, are cancer survivors and annually participate in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life programs.

She works as an Office Manager, a job she accepted when her employer agreed to allow her time for her Sweet Adelines commitments.

For more about the real women, singing real harmony, and having real fun with Hickory Tree Chorus visit hickorytreechorus.org

HTC Members Attend Regional Workshops - The Morris County Daily Record

Female barbershop singers converge in Parsippany

By MATT MANOCHIO • STAFF WRITER • September 14, 2009

PARSIPPANY — They took to the stage Sunday in the Parsippany Sheraton and belted out barbershop quartet-style singing. At times, they formed a kick line.

And not one of the performers was male.

These barbershoppers were members of area chapters of Sweet Adelines International, a worldwide organization of women singers dedicated to advancing the art of barbershop harmony singing.

Roughly 15 chorus chapters in the New York/New Jersey area, or Region 15, met at the hotel starting Friday for a weekend promoted with the slogan, "Real women. Real harmony. Real sound." About 200 people attended.

Women of all ages, many from Morris County, met to share stories, pass along tips and, most important, learn how to improve not just their singing, but performing chops.

"I love to sing. I sang all the way through school," Betty Clipman of Houston said before leading a workshop with the New Providence-based Hickory Tree Chorus.

She became a homemaker and "just missed the singing and the camaraderie of other women," she said. So she joined a local chapter of the Sweet Adelines and rose up the ranks to become an international board member. She flew in from Texas specifically to teach women how to improve their vocal and physical performances to better connect with audiences.

Lilas Schmidt and her daughter Carolyn Schmidt, both of Long Valley, and Carolyn's daughter Andrea Kahn, 23, of Brooklyn represented three generations of singing at Sunday's breakfast and workshop.

"I think it's really a great way for all of us to bond and a great creative outlet to relieve whatever stresses are going on in our lives," said Kahn, a Morris County native.

One of the Hickory Tree Chorus' newest members, Tina Petersen of Chatham Township, said joining has helped her battle against Lyme disease.

"I find the joy of singing with these women is wonderful medicine," she said. "It makes you feel good."

The local chapters compete against members within their region, and from there the winner goes on to an international competition. Scott Brannon, director of the Ridgewood-based Harmony Celebration Chorus, said his group won the regional contest and next year will compete in Seattle.

He said with the exception of the directors, all the singers are female.

Dana Dunlevy, a Hickory Tree Chorus member, said women who would like to join simply need to look up a chapter and attend a practice.

"They don't need formal musical training," said Dunlevy, of Florham Park. "If they can sing reasonably well, we can work with them."

Dunlevy said becoming proficient doesn't need to be an overnight process. She said sometimes it takes singers weeks to feel comfortable.

"We want them to be successful," Dunlevy said. "We want them to join."


Matt Manochio: 973-428-6627; mmanochi@gannett.com