Durango Barbershoppers will join in this season’s holiday celebrations with a free Christmas concert at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Main Mall, 835 Main Ave.
The group, which has been a Durango staple since 1968, will be joined by Women’s Prerogative, a women’s harmony group; and students from Sunnyside Elementary School.
“This is kind of us getting back post-pandemic and reviving a long-term tradition for the Barbershoppers,” said Jeff Weaver, president of the Barbershoppers. “It’s really a family-focused event.”
Weaver, who has been with the group for 13 years, said there has been a holiday show for almost as long as the Barbershoppers has been around.
Tuesday’s show will feature the three groups performing all manner of Christmas carols, from traditional to a little less so.
“We’ll also do an audience singalong of Christmas carols, which is always fun,” Weaver said.
And if watching the Barbershoppers do their stuff gets you inspired, Weaver said the group is looking for new singers to join them.
Be a barbershopper!
Durango Barbershoppers is looking for a few good singers to join the group. Regular practices will begin after the first of the year at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 495 Florida Road.
For more information, call Jeff Weaver at 749-6082.
“One of our goals for 2023 is kind of rebuilding membership,” he said. “The pandemic had an impact on our members, as the pandemic had an impact on everything.”
He said the group currently has about 13 members, down from about 25 before the pandemic.
For those who are interested, Weaver said that after the first of the year, the Barbershoppers will return to weekly practices Tuesday nights at Christ the King Lutheran Church on Florida Road.
And while the group is a fun organization to join, there is a bigger mission as well, he said.
“The style of harmony that men’s barbershop represents is a purely American art form for the most part. It’s a historic art form that at the turn of the last century was highly popular and everyone knew barbershop style and it was a distinct and unique style,” Weaver said in a previous interview. “Preserving this music and getting it out to folks and allowing them to hear it and allowing them to hear it sung at the really highest professional levels is something we continue to try to do so that we don’t lose it.”
katie@durangoherald.com
