Sweet Adelines International 75th Jubilee Commemorative Album

The Sweet Adelines in Sweden Maria Ovesson, Co-Founder of Telege Chorus and Rönninge Show Chorus In 1975, I sang in a church choir, as did a friend of mine — Inger Lindstrand.

We started talking about how fun it would be to have some music arrangements for female voices. Inger had lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa a few years before and had met a woman called Sally Eggleston and heard her chorus. She absolutely loved the harmony and she remembered having heard the name Sweet Adelines. But that was all she knew. This was, of course, before the Internet and Google, but I had a friend in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She obtained the address of Sweet Adelines headquarters in Tulsa. We wanted to buy some sheet music. At this point, we had no intention of starting a chorus! After a month, we received a big package containing all kinds of material: Steps Toward Chartering, an issue of The Pitch Pipe, order forms, and sheet music. We ordered the 1975 convention record, some sheet music and a folio with songs, gathered six more friends and started to learn The Voice Of Harmony, and when we later received the record we could finally hear the beautiful barbershop sound for the first time! We decided that Inger should be our musical leader and I should be in charge of the administration. The word spread to other choruses in Södertälje that we had started a small group of women singing barbershop, and soon we were 22 members and started our journey towards chartering as the Prospective Telege Chorus. We decided to go to the International convention in London in 1977 to find out more about the organization, and when Sweet Adelines invited us to sing in Royal Albert Hall and receive our charter, we of course accepted. Of the 22 charter members in Telege Chapter there are three of us still active in Sweet Adelines but now in Rönninge Show Chorus: Britt-Heléne Bonnedahl, Ulla Nyman, and myself. In Nordic Light Region #32, there are now (in 2020), more than 1,000 members in 19 choruses. We have three International Champion Quartets: Growing Girls (1989), Salt (2007), and two members of Swinglish Mix (2003). Within these quartets there are eight International Quartet Champions. SPOTLIGHT: INTERNATIONAL

Charter members of Telege Chapter, Södertälje, Sweden, 1977

Rönninge Show Chorus has been named International Champion Chorus three times. Britt-Heléne Bonnedahl (Rönninge Show Chorus), Anna Alvring (Rönninge Show Chorus), and Tindra Thor (Stockholm City Voices) have achieved the status of Master Director 700. When I think of the 45 years that have passed since our first letter, I smile at the memory of how we just wanted some sheet music.

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