Sweet harmonies come to the Valley

PALMER — A cappella singing has come a long way in the last 50 years and so has the largest women’s a cappella organization in the world — Sweet Adelines International.

Eight of its 30,000 members are giving locals a tiny taste of the organization’s versatility at the Palmer Public Library this afternoon at 2 as part of the library’s hour-long Sunday music series.

Both barbershop quartets “Heartlight” and “Foreign Exchange” are part of the 80-member, award-winning Alaska Sound Celebration Chorus in Anchorage, but three of the singers in those quartets live right here in the Valley.

One of them, Elaine Albertson, happens to work at the library. The other two, mother and daughter Deb Zeller and Amanda Sanderlin, work at the Palmer Great Alaska Pizza Company, which is owned by Zeller’s husband, Lyle.

All of them have been involved in Sweet Adelines choruses and quartets for several years, with Zeller’s exposure to the four-part harmonies of barbershop going all the way back to the 1960s when her parents sang in a cappella choruses and quartets while she was growing up in Minnesota.

“I was only 8 when my mom and her two sisters sang in a quartet together,” said Zeller, now 55 and the lead of her fifth quartet Heartlight. “She had six kids and my dad said she needed to find something to do that didn’t involve changing diapers.”

Back then, Sweet Adelines groups typically wore long cotton dresses with high collars and didn’t move around much while singing. Today, that style is affectionately known as “singers on a stick.”

In just the past 20 years, Sweet Adelines choruses from San Diego to Sydney, Australia, have become increasingly flashier, more contemporary, more choreography-oriented and even acrobatic as they stage Broadway-worthy musical packages in their quests for shiny medals and international glory each year.

The world’s top Sweet Adelines quartets also vie for bejeweled crowns and the chance to bring in some nice extra income through paid gigs.

Some of those “queens of harmony” with the hard-earned coronets have even been able to make a decent living by becoming professional Sweet Adelines coaches for choruses and quartets all over the world. One of those queens, in fact, will be coaching Albertson and Zeller next weekend as they take their spots on the Alaska Sound Celebration risers at Wayland Baptist University in Anchorage.

Alaska Sound Celebration is preparing to compete on the international stage for the second time this October in Houston, Texas. The chorus won the right to represent Region 13 when it won first place against eight other choruses in Anchorage last April.

In October 2009 in Nashville, the chorus placed 18th out of 33 choruses and is hoping to climb closer to the Top 10 this year. But competitions aside, most Sweet Adelines join their choruses for the fellowship, personal growth, love of singing and distraction from life’s common stresses.

“I couldn’t imagine my life without this chorus,” said Albertson, who first joined Sweet Adelines in 1992 after a family tragedy drove her to seek the close harmonies that only barbershop could provide. “After the tragedy, I realized that in order to be whole again I had to be singing and harmonizing. I love the sound of it, but it’s more than the sound. It’s what it does for my psyche. It’s just part of my soul.”

Albertson sings bass in the chorus and in her quartet, Foreign Exchange. In barbershop, tenors sing the highest notes, while the baritone sings harmony in the same alto range as the lead. The lead typically sings the melody.

When Zeller and her daughter joined what was then the Top of the World Chorus in Anchorage six years ago, Zeller knew she’d continue to sing lead as she’d sung for years in other Sweet Adelines choruses. But she assumed Amanda would sing baritone because she has a strong voice in that range and liked to harmonize.

The chorus director, however, asked Amanda to sing tenor.

“That surprised me, but it really shouldn’t have because she has a beautiful tenor voice and the chorus needed another tenor,” Zeller said, adding that Amanda’s grandmother also was a tenor.

It also made it easier to fall into a quartet with her daughter since she already had a baritone in mind she wanted to sing with.

Hearthlight is Zeller and Sanderlin’s second quartet together and both groups managed to win the “Novice Quartet” award at their regional competitions. When they compete in April in Spokane, Wash., their goal will be to win Most Improved Quartet.

They said they feel blessed that everyone in their quartet loves to perform on stage, so none of them have problems with nerves. Some singers become so nervous during competitions, they have to take beta blockers to help calm themselves, they said.

Zeller said that while singing in a quartet with Amanda, 28, has brought them closer, it also has put a strain on their relationship at times.

“I have a hard time not being the mother,” Zeller said. “I have to remind myself that she has an equal voice in the group. Sometimes she has to look at me and tell me she’s not a child anymore.”

Sanderlin and her 5-year-old son live with Zeller in Houston. Sanderlin said her son already can sing in perfect pitch, so she imagines he’ll follow in their footsteps toward barbershop, too.

“I hope he does,” she said. “Then we can keep it going in the family.”

Two of Zeller’s sisters also were Sweet Adelines members in the Lower 48. She had planned on competing on the international stage with one of them in her Minneapolis chorus a few years ago in Honolulu, but shortly before that chorus left for Hawaii, Zeller’s sister lost her battle against breast cancer.

To honor her memory, however, Zeller went ahead and sang with her sister’s chorus on that stage.

“That was a really special experience for me,” Zeller had said afterward. “Of course, it was bittersweet, too.”

For Zeller, Sanderlin and Albertson, being a part of the chorus and their own quartets is something they hope other Valley women — and even teens — will consider.

They all agreed that for many, Sweet Adelines has done wonders for helping women realize their full potential.

“I have seen women who were very introverted and shy just come out of their shells and blossom like you wouldn’t believe,” Zeller said. “It’s really pretty amazing to see.”

For more information on Alaska Sound Celebration Chorus, which is gearing up for its annual 13-show Fur Rondy Melodrama in Anchorage, visit alaskasoundcelebration.org or call 566-3987.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.McKee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.