Cranberry Men’s Chorus to play ‘Soundtrack of Your Life’ for annual fall concert in Gibsonia
The Cranberry Men’s Chorus is putting an a cappella twist on classic songs from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s for its annual fall show, “The Soundtrack of Your Life,” at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, at Pine-Richland High School in Gibsonia.
The 90-minute show will feature a selection of hits from The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, The Eagles, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and John Denver, among others.
“It really sort of captures the soundtrack of many of our lives, especially those of us in our 60s and 70s and 80s,” said chorus director Ron Brooks. “’The Soundtrack of Your Life’ is exactly that. It’s songs that were on the radio when you were growing up.”
The name for the show was inspired by a conversation he had with someone who attended a Men’s Chorus show held at the Butler Global Methodist Church last year.
“After (the show), someone said, ‘You just sang the soundtrack of my life,’” Brooks said. “And that just stuck with me whenever they said that. It was songs that they grew up with and songs that they remembered.”
The chorus consists of 40 members, all male, with ages ranging from their 20s to their 80s. The chorus offers opportunities for interested singers to apply through its website and potentially go through the audition process.
For at least one of those members, the chorus has been an important creative outlet.
“We recently had a young man in his 20s who was completely blind and he joined the chorus,” Brooks said. “He found us online and he passed his audition, and he’ll be singing in the show, which is a really cool thing. He sang in high school and in college and musicals, and he was looking for an outlet where he could sing again.”
Although the chorus does play between 15 and 20 shows throughout the year, the annual “fall show” is the most important one on the schedule, and the only one for which it charges admission.
Earlier this year, the chorus also performed at the Cranberry Marriott for a 10-year anniversary show for Honor Flight Pittsburgh, an organization which honors local veterans with special trips to Washington, D.C.
“Honor Flight is where they take veterans and fly them to Washington D.C. and let them see all the monuments dedicated to their service,” Brooks said. “They just had a big 10-year anniversary for Honor Flight, and they had a reunion in the Marriott in Cranberry. We actually were asked to perform there. There were about 450 people there.”
The men’s chorus also performs a series of shows at churches across Butler County each holiday season.
“For the holidays we have about seven shows we put on at different churches,” Brooks said. “We take a small stipend for performing, and they raise money for the church however they see fit.”
Tickets for the fall show are $20 each, and can be purchased through the chorus’ website.
