Choo Choo Chorus is in harmony for ‘Christmas in Chattanooga’

The Choo Choo Chorus, the local chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, will present a musical version of “Christmas in Chattanooga” in a Saturday, Dec. 17, concert at Girls Preparatory School.

For this show, the ranks of the core chorus swell with short-timers to become the Chattanooga Community Christmas Chorus. The men will be joined by the Scenic City Chorus, the female contingent of barbershop singers from Sweet Adelines.

Spokesman Chet Tschetter describes it as “a super show which will certainly get everyone into the Christmas spirit.”

The concert will include sacred and secular Christmas music, both “old traditional favorites and a few great songs not so well known,” Tschetter says.

“Onstage we will have 50 rich male voices, plus the Scenic City Chorus and their 50 beautiful women’s voices for a real musical Christmas treat,” he says.

Of special importance, Tschetter notes, is that the show is a fundraiser for the chorus’ chosen charity, the Walter E. Boehm Birth Defects Center. Since 2009, he says, the Choo Choo Chorus has donated more than $35,000 to the center, located at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital at Erlanger. The center was founded in 1963 to address the medical, financial and psycho-social needs of children born with birth defects, particularly hydrocephalus and spina bifida.

Tschetter says the Christmas show is an important part of the chorus’ community involvement, which includes an end-of-summer show and Singing Valentines.

“Also, over the past years we have donated our singing talents in support of Veterans Day and Memorial Day ceremonies at the Chattanooga National Cemetery, to the Special Olympics, Junior ROTC and we sing the national anthem to open a number of local sporting events,” he says.

In 2015, according to Tschetter, the nonprofit chorus sang for some 25 local organizations, reaching thousands of listeners.