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THE HISTORY OF THE
PENN
STATE
SINGING LIONS (a.k.a. The
Penn
State
Pop Choir)
Contributed by Pete Kiefer, former
director of the Penn State Singing Lions and current group advisor
The Singing Lions started life as the Penn State
Pop Choir in 1980.
Bill Noyes, Associate Professor of Music with the
concurrence of the then director of the
School
of
Music
, Maureen Carr, started the group to add a new dimension to the choral ensembles
at the school of music.
He followed the heritage of Fred Waring and the
Pennsylvanians, Mr. Noyes was a frequent attendee of the Waring Workshops, later
was the University liaison with the Waring organization when Waring brought his
summer workshops to
Penn
State
also in 1980.
The group basically did a spring show at the
University and eventually broadened its activities by performing for
commonwealth campuses. In 1983 and 1984 they did two-day tours within the state
of
Pennsylvania
.
When Mr. Noyes retired in 1985, Peter Kiefer,
former member of the Fred Waring organization who was coming to
Penn
State
with the Waring collection, was asked to take over the group. The name was
changed to the Penn State Singing Lions. Under
Mr. Kiefer’s direction the group expanded its activities. The ensemble
consisting of 18-22 singers, a three or four piece accompaniment group and a
technical crew performed 30-50 times during a academic year.
There were two full shows for the University campus: a fall/Christmas
Show and a Spring Show.
The remainder of the performances were for Penn
State Alumni chapters, high schools, conferences and conventions, football pep
rallys and tailgates, in and around
Pennsylvania
. Each Spring Break the Singing
Lions would make a major 10 day tour to the mid-west, northeast, southern or
middle Atlantic parts of the country.
From the beginning the Pop Choir/Singing Lions
was an accredited academic course, one credit, (Music 85), under the
College
of
Art
and Architecture,
School
of
Music
. There were regularly scheduled rehearsals twice a week for 75 minutes and a
3-4 hour rehearsal on Sunday.
The repertory of the Singing Lions consisted of
20th century American popular music including Broadway, jazz and
swing, folk, country-western, inspirational and, of course, Penn State songs.
The shows which could run as long a 90 minutes, are staged and
choreographed with risers, costumes and a full sound system.
In 1999 when Mr. Kiefer stepped down as director,
the director of the
School
of
Music
asked the group to leave the school and become a student-run organization for
reasons unknown. Mr. Matt Doebler, former accompanist and student assistant
director, became the group’s music director. This was in addition to his
duties and a staff accompanist and instructor with the
School
of
Theatre
. The group continued to maintain
most of its activities.
In 2002, Mr. Doebler resigned in order to fully
comply with his duties with the
School
of
Theatre
and complete his degree on time. The
group then continued, using student directors and the occasional advice of Mr.
Kiefer.
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