Durango Barbershoppers
The Durango Narrowgauge Chorus, aka the Durango Barbershoppers, received LATC funding to host a night of music and fun!
They performed their Annual Show: "Let the Music Move You" at the FLC Community Concert Hall on September 9, 2023. The show included the Barbershoppers, Woman's Prerogative (a local women's chorus), the Cortez High School Choir, and Mischief (the 2022 Rocky Mountain District Champion barbershop quartet from Salt Lake City).
The hiring of Mischief to perform continues their long-standing tradition of bringing the highest level of barbershop quartet singing to Durango. The Durango Barbershoppers continue to promote harmony singing and enrich people’s lives through music, by providing Durango audiences examples of the highest level of expertise and performance of quartet harmony singing, which they otherwise would not have access to. Mischief represents the latest of a long line of top-rated quartets introduced to Durango area audiences.
LATC funding covered the costs of renting the FLC Concert Hall, bringing the Mischief quartet to town, sheet music, licensing and administrative costs, and allowing the event to be a free concert.
The Durango Narrowgauge Chorus, aka the Durango Barbershoppers, was founded in 1968 and is one of Durango's oldest music and arts organizations. They perform an annual concert in Durango every year between 1969 and 2019, a unique, long-standing local tradition restarting in 2023. They aim to educate and celebrate four-part close harmony singing in the barbershop style, and to sustain this music in the lives of local residents. This mission is achieved through singing at and with local school music groups, at private residences and businesses on Valentine’s Day, at nursing homes and various community events, on street corners and merchants downtown during the summer and on Noel Night, at the Christmas show at the Main Mall in late fall, and at the Annual Show in September. The LATC funds for the Annual Show allowed all other funds to fulfill their mission through the other activities throughout the year. Long-term contribution to the Durango music scene with this uniquely American art form has provided a diverse musical experience and enhanced the overall quality of local life through music.