Da Upper Yoopers’ Barbershop Chorus garners national attention for socially distant caroling events

MARQUETTE -- A local barbershop chorus has caught the attention of a newspaper on the other side of the country.

This is because the Da Upper Yoopers' Barbershop+ Chorus has been putting on Christmas "CARoling" events, where members of the group commence in a parking lot and sing together from their vehicles.

Led by musical director Pete Stephens-Brown, the socially distanced rehearsals are held via an FM radio broadcast system. Each participant is issued a microphone used to sing from their cars, and can tune to 107.1 FM to listen in on the broadcast and hear everyone in the parking lot singing together.

The concept is a unique idea in a pandemic-stricken world where live entertainment has often not been possible.

So much so, that journalist Richard Read of the Los Angeles Times dialed up Stephens-Brown, booked a flight to Marquette and rented a car just to see for himself.

"It was pretty random and fun and a little, well, a lot exciting," Stephens-Brown said of the experience. "It added a little more adrenaline to the process. The gentleman (Read) was wonderful, he asked all kinds of questions to our members, took a million pictures and a lot of video during the rehearsal, which was both intimidating and something I've been hoping for, for several weeks."

Stephens-Brown said it's always been difficult to get his own photos or video of the group, due to the fact he's preoccupied with leading it.

"We don't really want to have any of our members away from singing to take photos either," he said.

This isn't Read's first rodeo either. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he worked as a senior writer and foreign correspondent for The Oregonian for 33 years from 1981 to 1986 and 1989 to 2016. His work spans 60 countries and seven continents, covering some of the world's most dramatic events. He currently serves as the bureau chief at the L.A. Times' Seattle offices.

Stephens-Brown added that receiving some national attention is cool, but his ultimate hope is that more local folks will get involved.

"We're mostly hoping for more local attention with more people participating," he said. "If we can help spark the interest in music for other groups around the world, I'm all for it. But if we can get more people involved here, we can do a lot more.

"We have a lot more than Christmas caroling as well. We have songs for general friendship, warm and fuzzy feelings and so on. We have all kinds of things we have yet to start, we just need the people."

Rehearsals are generally held in the parking lot at the Marquette Hope Church, located at 111 E. Ridge St. Plans for the next event have yet to be announced.

Stephens-Brown said the public is welcome at the rehearsals, whether they want to participate or simply listen. All you need is a vehicle with an FM radio.

"A car radio works, an FM boombox works, pocket radios, headsets, any FM radio will work," he said.

For more information on the Da Upper Yoopers' Barbershop+ Chorus, visit its website at www.upperyoopers.org, call 906-361-8308 or email upperyoopers@ gmail.com. The group can also be found on Facebook at Upper Yoopers' Barbershop Chorus UYBC.

Ryan Spitza can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is rspitza@miningjournal.net.