Short Autobiography of  

Dr. Joe Konzelman, 

Garden City Chapter President

I have been singing all my life. My parents kept our home musical and family gatherings centered around Dad or Mom on piano and Uncles and Aunts on string instruments while the rest of us sang.I always have equated singing with family warmth and love. Church Choirs were part of my evolution and my college glee club contributed to the formula, until I found my musical pinnacle in Barber Shop Harmony.

In college at St Peter's in Jersey City, New Jersey, I met three kindred souls, each of us in different sections of the Glee Club [which I joined only because we performed concerts at girls colleges]. The four of us determined that we did not need the other fifty men in order to produce four-part harmony; we sang the old songs and thought we were pretty good.

Our baritone informed us of a local group, which sang the old songs in four parts and met every week at a local bar. We decided to visit and impress them with our wonderful sound. Needless to say, we were warmly welcomed at the meeting of the Union City, NJ Chapter of SPEBSQSA.

Joe Pucio, a Chapter member who could sing all four parts, met us at the door. He insisted on teaching us a song: "Julie, My Own". He even contributed fifty cents for each of us guests as our weekly portion of the kitty which kept all attendees in beer for the entire evening in Cavalotti's Bar back room. As the meeting progressed, people were chosen at random to stand in front of the group and sing. They were not organized quartets but still sounded pretty good. Then.... we were asked to sing.

We tried our new song: "Julie" and received thunderous applause. What a thrill! Next on the program was a guest quartet from Jersey City and Livingston called The Hometown Quartet. After we lifted ourselves off the floor, we were told that our guest quartet was an International Medalist, finishing as high as number two in the world. What a sound! And we thought we were good! The Hometown Quartet invited each of us to sing with them, taught us some of their tags and baptized us into Barbershopping. That was in 1954.

Our quartet, The Alumni, sang together until we each finished graduate school in 1960 and went our separate ways. We found each other in 1997. The Tenor a physician in New Hampshire, the lead an economist in New Jersey, the baritone a professor of computer science in Louisiana and the bass a dentist in Georgia. We met in New Hampshire and immediately began to sing our old songs to our collective wives. It sounded so great to us that we decided that we should rehearse more often than every 37 years. So began the tradition to meet for a long weekend each year rotating the visits to the homes of each of us.

The Alumni will meet June 12, 2004 in New Jersey. To each of us that is the equivalent of Christmas, New Years and July Fourth combined. It is the Good Old Days and the Good New Days.

I  was President of the Montgomery County, Maryland Chapter in 1979- 1981. I also sang with the Chordsmen of San Antonio, Texas. When my quartet went to see the Music Man on Broadway in New York in 1958, we met at a bar across the street from the Majestic Theater and were joined by the Buffalo Bills. Bill Spangenberg excused himself from singing because he had a mild sore throat, so Scotty Ward asked me to sing bass with them for a few songs. Unfortunately, I did not get to replace Bill on stage. As Chapter President, in 1979 and 1980, I was instrumental in inviting guest quartets for our annual show and chose the Suntones one year and the Boston Common the next. Needless to say, I had a chance to sing bass with each during the respective afterglows.

I am thrilled to sing with the wonderful Garden City Chorus and exalted to be included in the 42nd Street Quartet because it keeps me warmed up for the annual meeting of The Alumni.

The other part of my life is being married to Susan for 27 years. Daughter Susan Anne, her husband Vito and grand daughters Emma and Ella live in Montreal. Professional: Professor of Oral Medicine, MCG School of Dentistry. Colonel, US Army [retired] and former Consultant to the Surgeon General. Former Director of Dental Services, Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Former Chairman, Department of Oral Medicine, Emory University. Barbershop singing: This is my 35th year as a member of SPEBSQSA, although I joined in 1954, I dropped membership during military tours in Korea and Vietnam.

Barbershop singing has added new meaning to my life and I think has made me a better person for my family, friends, students and patients. How can one be unpleasant with a song constantly in one's head.... in four part harmony? As the great philosopher said: "I sing therefore I am!

Joe