The Grand Chorale will showcase their singing at “A Night at the Theater” at the Church of the Eternal Hills in Tabernash. Singers will perform popular songs from some of the audiences’ favorite movies, TV shows and musicals, including Broadway and Disney. The show begins at 7 p.m.

About the show

The group’s director, Jeffrey Shaw, said that the show will keep the crowd guessing.

“This is the first show we’ve ever done, where we’re not going to list the songs in the program,” Shaw explained. “We’re going to hopefully engage the audience by dropping hints as to what the song might be, and they guess the titles of the song and the show it came from. We hope to have a little fun with that.”

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He added that the group might give out treats or candy to the people who guess correctly. There are about 17 songs of all genres in the hour and a half program.

The audience will be entertained by songs throughout the ages, from 1914 through the 21st century. These include popular songs like “Let It Go” from “Frozen” as well as medleys from the 60s and 70s.

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This is the 33rd annual show the group has put on for local audiences.

About the Grand Chorale

The Grand Chorale includes 13 members in a mixed a cappella chorus, with a heritage in the barbershop music genre.

“The group started as men only, but in recent years recognized the fun and diversity women could bring. Today, we are about half and half and have added a lot of different kinds of music to our repertoire,” said member Traci Maddox.

The group formed with five members in 1988, thanks to leadership from Al Clark and Shaw. Since its inception, Shaw has worked as director.

“I had some already some fairly extensive a capella music singing experience as well as specifically barbershop,” he said, adding that he’s the last original member of the five who formed the group.

What is barbershop style?

“It’s four-part, men’s harmony,” Shaw said of the barbershop style. “From top to bottom (it’s) tenor, lead, baritone, bass.”

Although the exact history of barbershop is lost in time, it is a blend of European and African American styles, likely originating in the 19th or 20th centuries. The music experienced a resurgence in the 1930s, with the forming of the “Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America,” now known as the Barbershop Harmony Society

The Grand Chorale is currently a member of this society. The chorale has experimented with barbershop’s quartet style over the past three decades.

“The lead and the bass usually have the foundational notes of the chording — the tonic and the dominant — and then the tenor sings harmony above the lead,” Shaw explained of the quartet structure. “And then the baritone has to kind of fill in the chord.”

He explained that the baritone’s role is very unique, because this person uses their voice to go wherever they need for the chord structure.

“So it’s not very melodic sometimes, but to me, it’s by far the most fun part to sing, because you’re the one that makes a coloring of the chord and makes the chording really sound good,” he said.

This year is a little different, since Shaw himself isn’t part of a quartet in Grand Chorale’s line up of singers. This is the first time in the group’s 37-year history that he hasn’t been part of a quartet.

“We were interested in forming a barbershop chorus, where you can sing the same music in a chorale setting,” he explained of the group’s history with five members. “But we also have had many, many quartets associated with the Grand Chorale over the years.”

For the upcoming show “A Night at the Theater,” the Grand Chorale won’t have an established quartet, but they will create a pickup quartet.

“We’ve chosen four people out of the chorus to sing two songs that are rather difficult,” he said.

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Raising the bar for barbershop

Historically, barbershop music has always been sung by men. The Grand Chorale did start out as an all-male group, but have since diversified their voices with talented female singers.

About 10 years ago, the group could not find any men to sing tenor — the part that which harmonizes above the lead, using a higher pitch. At this time, there were quite a few women singers the group reached out to.

“There has been a Sweet Adeline’s Group in the county … we asked a couple of ladies that we knew if they would please help us out by singing barbershop tenor for us,” he said.

Women who sing soprano or alto can sing tenor, and altos can also sing barbershop lead and barbershop baritone.

“It’s a little bit low for their range, but they do a very good job of it,” said Shaw of the women who sing lead and baritone for the Grand Chorale.

In fact, they are the first group in the seven-state Rocky Mountain District of Barbershop Harmony Society to have ladies sing in their chorus. A couple years after several ladies joined the Grand Chorale, the Rocky Mountain District opened its entire organization to women.

“So now there’s men’s choruses, women’s choruses, mixed choruses,” he said. “Then Barbershop Harmony Society nationwide finally went the same direction, which is really great.”

In 2025, the Grand Chorale is about 50/50, with seven women and six men in the chorus.  

“That that has really opened the doors musically for us to do other kinds of music, in particular mixed choral music,” Shaw said.

Almost all of the new music that the singers are bringing on board is in this mixed style, which is made of the standard soprano, alto, tenor and bass. This style blends the higher pitch of women’s voices with men’s.

Out of the 17 songs the Grand Chorale will perform in Saturday’s upcoming show, 10 are in the mixed choral music style and seven are in barbershop style. This allows the audience to hear the wide range of styles the singers are skilled in.

Shaw added that the chorale is actively looking for talented singers who would like to join the group, specifically tenors, basses and altos.

“We’d love for men or women in any of those vocal parts, to come sing with us,” Shaw said; those interested can contact him at jshaw051@gmail.com or 303-829-7126.

Tickets for “A Night at the Theater” are $15, with students free. Tickets can be purchased at the door or by any member of the chorale prior to the show.

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