The Heart of Florida Barbershop Chorus, one of 700 chapters of the Barbershop Harmony Society and one of The Villages’ lifestyle clubs, has been serenading the public since 2003 with the goal of celebrating the past and inspiring the future.
The all-male, a cappella, four-part close harmony performance group performed its show, “The History of Barbershop in Word and Song,” on Thursday at the Gloria Rowe Hayward Library, 215 Gloria Rowe Hayward Way, Sumterville.
David Bankard, of the Village of Fenney, said his lifelong passion for singing barbershop music started at an early age.
“Singing is one of those things where it just gives pure joy when you are able to ring chords with other folks. It’s synergy and it just gives me chills,” he said. “I started singing when I was roughly 12 years old, in sixth grade, so it’s been pretty much a long passion. I had a chorus teacher who just loved barbershop. In the class there were about 12 of us boys in a class of about 25. She decided that she was going to start arranging music for us to sing and that’s how it started.”
Bankard, a 42-year member of the Barbershop Harmony Society, joined the Heart of Florida Barbershop Chorus in 2018. When he’s not singing with the chorus, he serves as its manager. He said this was the third performance the chorus has done with the Sumter County Library System.
During the hourlong performance, the chorus explained the history of the American-born sound with roots in African-American traditions from the 1800s through song and narration for almost every decade.
Bankard and Mick Griffin, president of the Heart of Florida Barbershop Chorus, explained how barbershop music started and how it evolved to what it is today.
“The genre was born out of slaves who were on plantations,” Bankard said. “What would happen is somebody would come up with a melody of a song then somebody else would join in and do a little harmonization. Then, it kind of bled over into barbershops, because back in the early 1900s, that was where men met and went to gossip and talk about their lives.
“It just kept gaining steam until the Tin Pan Alley Quartet came into being. Then there were barbershop quartets everywhere,” he said. “Every corporation had their own barbershop quartet — TV stations had barbershop quartets, police stations had barbershop quartets. They were just prolific at that time.”
Along with serving as chorus manager, Bankard is the choir’s membership vice president. He served as president of the chorus for five years. He said the group performs for the public as a way for its members to practice their skills and connect with the community.
“Our chorus is the oldest median-age chorus in the state of Florida, with our median age being about 80,” he said. “So, we are celebrating the past every week when they rehearse. What we’re trying to do is get our brand out there, get our genre out there to the younger folks and help inspire the future. Not only to propagate our craft, but to also keep interest going here in The Villages.”
The Heart of Florida Barbershop Chorus will showcase how the music genre transcends generations during the Generations In Harmony showcase, hosted by the Central Florida Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing. Four quartets from across Florida — including High and Tight, Limitless, Smash Hit and Trilogy — will join The Villages-based chorus for the concert, which is set for 5 p.m. Sept. 12 at La Hacienda Recreation. Tickets are $25 for general admission and up to $45 for VIP seating.
Bankard said the concert is where members will showcase the future and hand it off to the younger generations.
“If we don’t start getting younger members, the chorus will just fade away,” he said. “We don’t want that to happen.”
Another way The Heart of Florida Barbershop Chorus connects with the community is by singing to residents at assisted living and memory care facilities as a community chorus service project. Bankard said the tradition was something he began during his time as president.
“It’s been amazing over the years the number of people who have been silent for maybe as much as a decade and all of a sudden, they just burst out in song when there’s something that their brain recognizes in a song that we happen to be singing,” he said. “Their caregivers are just as astonished as we are, because it’s just something to behold.”
During the Aug. 6 concert, 20 members of the chorus gathered on risers as their voices blended together to sing songs such as “I’m Sitting On Top Of The World,” “Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby,” and “God Bless America.” The audience of more than 30 people rewarded the effort with enthusiastic applause.
Griffin, of the Village of Tamarind Grove, said the community performances are the perfect way to showcase how barbershop music has transformed over the years.
“We like connecting with the community so they understand what a barbershop is and what it isn’t,” he said. “Most people have an outdated idea about barbershop, but it’s a harmonizing style that can be applied to any music. We have to continue to make it relevant.”
The Heart of Florida Barbershop Chorus holds its rehearsals from 5:45 to 8:30 p.m. every Thursday at Northlake Presbyterian Church, 375 Rolling Acres Road, Lady Lake. The group is always looking for more men to join. For more information about The Heart of Florida Barbershop Chorus, visit sing withhof.com.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
