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Park City Treble Makers sing a string of spring shows

Park City Treble Makers, the all-female a cappella choir, has scheduled a string of spring concerts that will culminate with Spring Sing on June 2. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)
Tanzi Propst/Park Record

‘A Sing Spring’
4 p.m., Sunday, June 2
Park City Community Church, 4501 N. S.R. 224
Free, but donations will be accepted
facebook.com/parkcitytreblemakers

The Park City Treble Makers are ready to sing their celebration of spring.

The all-female a cappella choir has scheduled a string of performances in preparation for its Spring Sing, a concert on Sunday, June 2, at the Park City Community Church.

Earlier this week the Treble Makers performed at the Highland Cove assisted living center in Salt Lake, and the group is planning its annual Memorial Day performance at Park City Cemetery, said director Colleen Earnshaw.



“Each year we pick a senior home to sing,” Earnshaw said about the assisted living center performance. “One of our singers’ mother is a resident at Highland Cove, so they asked us to come perform there.”

The concert featured songs from the 1930s and 1940s, including “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” Earnshaw said.



“This concert came early on our schedule, and we perform songs that I feel need extra rehearsal time in front of an audience,” she said. “So performing at the senior homes was a good way to do that, because those audiences are much more forgiving.”

On Monday, May 27, the Park City Treble Makers will be part of the Memorial Day services at 9 a.m. at the Park City Cemetery.

Earnshaw always looks forward to the choir’s Memorial Day performance.

“Memorial Day is part of the Park City story,” she said. “We like being a part of things like that. It helps us feel like we’re providing a service to the community.”

The group will perform “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” and other, more reverent works, according to Earnshaw.

A couple of the reverent works include “Be Thou My Vision,’ a traditional Irish hymn, and Daniel Elder’s “Lullaby.”

“‘Lullaby’ is just a beautiful song,” Earnshaw said. “It can be sung to a child, but it’s also appropriate to sing for those who are at the end of their lives.”

Second soprano Renee Mox Hall said “Lullaby” is perfect for the Memorial Day concert.

“If you read the notes written by the composer, you will see that he did intend it for those who are approaching the twilight of their existence,” she said. “The song includes the lyrics, ‘Staving off the fear of darkness and solitude of night,’ so it can be used to comfort those who grieve over loss.”

In addition, Elder utilized some of the lyrics of “Taps” in the piece to make the piece more solemn, Earnshaw said.

Right after the performance at the cemetery, the Park City Treble Makers have been invited to sing at a ceremony that will honor the crew of an Army bomber that crashed into Iron Mountain on Nov. 17, 1941.

The Treble Makers learned about the plane crash last year during a historic lecture presented by the Park City Library.

“There is going to be another lecture this year, and were invited to sing at Squatters for a group for family members who will gather there,” Earnshaw said.

The June 2 concert will culminate the Park City Treble Makers’ spring season. It will feature 16 pieces that will include “For Good” from the Tony-winning musical “Wicked,” as well as a segment that pays homage to the 1960s, said Earnshaw.

“‘For Good’ is an extremely difficult song to perform,” she said. “When we worked on this past week, it wasn’t quite together, so we turned and faced each other to sing it. That was like magic. Everyone came in. They could hear it, but they could also feel it.”

Mox Hall said the 1960s segment will take advantage of the voice of Treble Makers member Katrina Kmak, who is known for displaying her singing and acting abilities in the annual “Park City Follies,” which recently concluded its 2019 run.

“She’s perfect for a solo that we have planned,” Mox Hall said. “And we are also pulling some other voices to go along with her.”

First soprano Kristen Brown said she enjoys singing with the Park City Treble Makers because of how the members all work together.

“It’s the creativity and the unity of trying to become one voice with my section,” she said. “When my section combines with the other sections, we all get the feeling that we are being enveloped by the other voices. You can’t help but feel this love and warmth for the people around you and the people that you sing for.”

The challenge there is maintaining pitch, Mox Hall said.

“As an a cappella group, we have to depend on one another to sing correctly and blend,” she said.

Brown said having others depending on her makes her want to sing her best.

“It gives you the motivation to work harder,” she said. “There was one rehearsal when the sopranos started to sing flatter and flatter, and the other singers came up to us and told us they couldn’t go any lower. So when we don’t pull our weight and do our part, we will drag the others down with us.”

Brown also enjoys the challenge of finding the right mindset to sing the songs.

“While you have to get the notes and the words right, you also have to think about the story and lyrics,” she said. “It has a lot to do with how you tell the story.”

When we don’t pull our weight and do our part, we will drag the others down with us.

Kristen Brown, first soprano

Mox Hall credits Earnshaw’s direction in connecting those dots, as well as finding music to challenge the singers.

“We’re fortunate to have Colleen as our director to provide a wider breadth of music to work with,” she said. “Sometimes she has to arrange the pieces to fit an a cappella choir.”

“There really isn’t that much a cappella music out there,” Earnshaw said. “Sure, there are groups like Pentatonix, but we’re not a beatbox group, so I will throw in some extra voicing and fill in some space to make it work.”

Admission to the concert is free, but donations to the Christian Center of Park City will be accepted, Earnshaw said.

“Every year look for different people or organizations who have helped make a difference in the community,” Earnshaw said.

Past recipients have included the Community for Children’s Justice, a nonprofit that supports the Summit County Children’s Justice Center, and Peace House, an anti-domestic violence nonprofit.

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