Southern Tier Tuesdays: The Southerntiersmen Chorus awarded $2,000 grant

(WBNG) -- The Southerntiersmen Chorus is this week’s winner of a $2,000 grant from Upstate Shredding through Southern Tier Tuesdays.

The Southerntiersmen Chorus is a men’s four-part acapella singing organization that sings in barbershop style. Vice President/Marketing & Public Relations Stephen Foulk said the Chorus has focused on three main goals this year.

“Our chorus sings music in the barbershop style based on the barbershop quartets and we’ve been emphasizing three things so far this year,” Foulk said. “One is to sing as much as possible in public, so the public can see what music sounds like in the barbershop style. We’ve also made major support for CHOW (Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse), we have a CHOW concert just about a month ago which was very successful and we also offer support to other choral groups and there’s at least four that we’ve offered financial support for and in some cases singing with them.”

President Gil Durham said the partnership between the chorus and CHOW began because of one of the chorus members.

“One of our members approached a fellow named Ed Blaine who was in charge of CHOW at the time and suggested that we create this choruses for CHOW,” Durham said. “That was in 2004 so this is the 17th year and it’s been very successful.”

Durham said over the years the chorus has contributed over $35,000 to CHOW.

The Southerntiersmen Chorus currently has 45 members and they rehearse every Tuesday.

The chorus is also the local affiliate of The Barbershop Harmony Society. The Barbershop Harmony Society is the largest singing group in the nation with 22,000 members and over 80,000 affiliates worldwide.

“The Barbershop Harmony Society was founded in 1938 and our chorus was created in 1943 we were 29th chorus in the world and the 3rd chorus created in New York State,” Durham said.

Foulk said this grant money will help The Southerntiersmen Chorus continue to provide substantial support for CHOW and other choral groups in the Southern Tier.

To get in contact with The Southerntiersmen Chorus you can do so here.

Southern Tier Tuesdays is a philanthropic endeavor of Adam Weitsman, owner of Upstate Shredding, and his daughter, Clover. For more information or to nominate a Southern Tier non-profit go to southerntiertuesdays.com.