Romance is in tune this season as a local men’s choral society plans to serenade better halves on Valentine’s Day.
The Wilkes-Barre Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society will deliver surprise singing valentines by quartet from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 14. For $50, patrons send a long-stem rose, box of candy, personalized card and a cappella love songs to their significant others.
Chorus co-director Phillip Brown, of Shavertown, said the Barbershop Harmony Society is an international organization and the largest all-male singing society in the world.
Brown has served the Wilkes-Barre chapter for 60 years, and he said current members range in age from 15 to 89.
In addition to meeting weekly to rehearse, the Wyoming Valley Barbershop Harmony Chorus puts on three major shows each year, one in the spring and two during the Christmas season.
Quartets and larger choruses will entertain at businesses, senior centers, hospitals and anywhere else someone is in need of music and cheer. The society is also available to deliver birthday greetings in the form of song throughout the year.
“This is what we usually do for Valentine’s Day,” Brown said of the singing valentines. “The quartets dress up in tuxedos and wear red.”
Three quartets will perform a variety of classic love songs, Brown said.
“We’ll be singing ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart,’ ‘Story of the Rose (Heart of My Heart),’ ‘Honey Little Lize’ and other songs that say love, love, love,” Brown said.
Brown said there was a time when membership in the society allowed for four to five quartets to cover Valentine’s Day duties but, an average holiday, lately, entails about 40 deliveries of singing valentines in an area that covers Scranton to Hunlock Creek and Harveys Lake to Bear Creek.
“The element of surprise is tremendous,” Brown said. “It looks like sometimes the gal is going to faint. We’ve sung at Geisinger and waited for a nurse to come out of the operating room. When she came out in her scrubs, we hit her with the songs, and we nearly had to hold her up.”
Brown said quartets and larger groups have performed for all ages of people.
“The beauty is you can sing for a little girl or boy in the hospital, or you can go to a nursing home and sing for a 104-year-old lady like we did last year at Riverside Manor,” Brown said.
On Valentine’s Day deliveries don’t target a specific gender.
“We have sung to almost as many men as we have women,” Brown said.
During regular Monday night rehearsals the Barbershop Harmony Chorus practices a variety of songs, like film-related music for its upcoming spring concert titled Lights, Camera, Action. But, Brown said, members never allow themselves to be out-of-practice on any of their regular material.
“We practice (the love songs) all year round … because you never know when you’ll be called for a birthday, anniversary or other special occasion,” Brown said.
Patrons who want to deliver an extra special singing valentine can spend $100 to include a bouquet of a dozen roses with the harmonious greeting.
