IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Weekly Music Men Notes

Weekly Music Men Notes
3-1-2010

Winner of the Barbershopper
of the Year Award 2009
Dick Klobuchar

WHO ARE THE ROCHESTER MUSIC MEN BARBERSHOP CHORUS?

The Rochester Music Men barbershop chorus is the name of the Rochester, MN chapter of the
Barbershop Harmony Society, the largest all-male singing society in the world.

Our members come from diverse occupational backgrounds, and although few are professionally
trained musicians, our common bond is a sincere and unabashed love of the four-part harmony
style known as barbershop.

DO I NEED A TRAINED VOICE?

Our barbershop chorus is for any man who enjoys singing, and has the desire to learn new things
to improve on his singing. We teach many techniques on how to improve your singing, harmonizing,
listening and even improve your music reading skills. We have talented members who regularly
work with the chorus as well as bringing in specialized barbershop Coaches to work with the
Chorus.

BARBERSHOPPER OF THE YEAR

Winner of the 2009 Barbershopper Of The Year Award: Dick Klobuchar

(Shown on the left side of the picture with previous winner Todd Mueller)

The Barbershopper Of The Year (BOTY) award is the highest award given to a chapter member, as chosen by previous BOTY recipients.

Qualifications needed to win this award.

Breadth of involvement in chapter activities

Sustained contributions to the chapter

Value to the chapter of activities performed

Unselfish devotion to the welfare of the chapter; a good ambassador to the hobby

Dick has held a number of offices on the board, most recently as Music Vice President. He has been an active member in quarteting, having competed at the District Level. His dedication to preserve the barbershop quartet is seen through his unconditional love of volunteering for fill-in quartet parts when needed, his drive for excellence in the quartets he has sung in, and the involvement of quartet promotion and exposure to the public such as performing in countless Singing Valentines quartets.

Behind the scenes he has been instrumental in using his writing skills to create our show program scripts. He uses his music skills to rewrite tags and other portions of some of the music we sing, that we might sound even better. He maintains our music library, ensuring we all have legal music in our hands. He spends countless hours keeping our files up to date.

He consistently arrives an hour before chapter meetings to open the building and set up chairs. Recently due to shoulder replacement, he has been forced to let the rest of the members do the “grunt work” even though it drives him nuts that he has to sit aside and watch.