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photo ridgewoodorpheusclub.org
RIDGEWOOD NJ— The Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus opens its new season Sept. 7 and is looking for men who like to sing.
On October 11, 1909, eight men met at the Ridgewood home of Frank R. Pawley do discuss a men’s singing club. A week later, 10 men gathered in the village library, a room in the First National Bank Building. The group paid 75 cents per night to use the room and began singing together, with Dewitt Clinton, Jr., as director. The Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus was born.
Others joined the club and by December, it was agreed that a concert would be presented in February at the Library, but the actual decision was left to the director, and the first Performance was in May. The opener in that concert was the rousing “Winter Song.”
Club membership quickly rose from the 18 who sang the first concert to 35. The members met weekly on Wednesdays from October to May, and in 1913, the club gave it’s first performance of “Pilgram’s Chorus” frim Wagner’s Tannhäuser.
Variety in repertoire was common in Orpheus Club concerts. A program might include “The Boog-a-Boo,” a ragtime number, “Pld Black Joe,” the Stephen Foster song, comedy numbers like “But They Didn’t,” and classics, sometimes sung in French or German.
Ten years after its founding, the Orpheus Club was making guest appearances around New Jersey, and traveled as far as Brookly to sing at a fundraiser for the rebuilding of the Baptist Temple, which had suffered a fire.
As the years continued , the Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus remained a significant part of New Jersey’s cultural life. When the Kasschau Memorial Band shell was dedicated in Ridgewood, the club sang at the inauguration.
In 1962, Richard Lane signed on as pianist for the club, beginning a distinguished career that would continue for 42 years until his death in 2004. A brilliant composer and teacher, Lane wrote 20 numbers for the Club and today’s concerts always feature at least one of Richard’s compositions.
Today, the Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus includes about 50 singers from New York and New Jersey and generally makes eight to 10 appearances annually including four formal concerts. The Club has sung “Alto Rhapsody” (Brahms) with the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra as well as “The Testament of Freedom” (Thompson) and “Hymn to the Nations” (Verdi) with the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea. The men of Orpheus have joined with the Ridgewood Choral to sing “Song of Democracy” (Hanson) and appeared with the Ridgewood Concert Band to sing the music of Aaron Copland and Richard Wagner.
In the Spring of 2005, the Chorus made its Lincoln Center debut, performing at the Lincoln Center Library with the Palisades Virtuosi chamber ensemble. Additional performances in recent years have included concerts at the Kasschau Memorial Band shell in Ridgewood, singing in Ridgewood’s Independence Day parade, area churches, and in November 2009, a presentation of Beethoven’s Fantasia for Piano, Chorus, and Orhcestra, Op. 80 (the Choral Fantasy) with the Ridgewood Choral, the Ridgewood High School Chamber Choir, and the Eastern Christian High School Chorus.
Richard Lane’s composition declares: “We are men who like to sing. We are the men of Orpheus.” For more than 100 years.
The Orpheus Club rehearses on Wednesday evenings at 8 PM in The Georgian Room at The Cupola Senior Residence, West 100 Ridgewood Avenue, Paramus, NJ .
For anyone interested in joining the Club for the Winter 2010 Season, we will begin our spring rehearsal schedule on Wednesday, September 8th. We have openings in all sections.
For more information about the Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus, call Greg Farrell at 201-652-2873, or visit the website at ridgewoodorpheusclub.org.
