Soon after joining Sweet Adelines International in 1974,
Carolyn Schmidt, with no previous experience, was asked by fellow quartet
members to ‘fix some chords’ in “I Write the Songs.”
“Now I arrange the songs!” says Schmidt, who this month was
advanced by Sweet Adelines International to the Master Music Arranger level, a
level which few in the organization ever achieve.
In the 67-year history of the 23,000-member women’s
barbershop singing organization, only eight Certified Music Arrangers have
reached the Master Music Arranger level, and only 5 of them are currently
active. The Sweet Adelines International
Board of Directors, its Education Direction Committee, and Arrangers
Coordinators all must agree on the advancement of a Certified Music Arranger.
“Carolyn is so deserving of the Master Music Arranger
advancement,” says Carol Schwartz, Director of Music Services, Sweet Adelines
International. “The designation recognizes not just quality arrangements, but
her service to the educational mission of Sweet Adelines International. Carolyn has always been eager to help educate
up-and-coming arrangers. She is a highly regarded mentor.”
Since advancing to the Certified Music Arranger level in
1990, Schmidt has served the organization as a coordinator for the
International Music Arrangers Program, as Arrangers Seminar faculty, on a team
identifying material suitable for Young Women in Harmony (YWIH) arrangements,
as Co-Chair of the International Arrangers Seminar, and as an arrangers mentor.
Sweet Adelines International choruses and quartets sing
popular music, a cappella style, arranged in four-part harmony. The organization is committed to the
advancement of the barbershop style of music, with its distinctive close harmonies,
singable melodies, and lyrical messages.
Schmidt has arranged over 125 songs. A random sample includes: “Come Fly With Me”
the swinging uptune made popular by Frank Sinatra; “In My Life” the touching
Beatles ballad; “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” the rollicking chick anthem made
popular by Cyndi Lauper; and “For Good” the powerful ballad from Broadway’s
“Wicked.”
Her arrangements are performed by Sweet Adelines
International choruses and quartets around the world, most often by Hickory
Tree Chorus, the Basking Ridge-based chapter of which she is also the Master
Director.
“My favorite arrangements tend to be the ones I’ve just
completed, and right now I really love ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’, the song
made popular by Whitney Houston, that I just finished for Hickory Tree Chorus’s
December 1 show,” says Carolyn.
“It was a creative challenge for me and I really enjoyed
listening to and learning from others’ treatment of similar songs. It’s taking
something that might look static on paper and transforming it into something
that becomes live and danceable when performed by a group of women, with no
accompaniment. It’s like spinning gold
from straw.”
Schmidt feels fortunate that she has a talented chorus
–Hickory Tree Chorus is Sweet Adelines International’s 2012 Harmony Classic 2nd
place mid-sized chorus –ready and able to bring her arrangements to life.
“Arranging can be kind of tedious, like a crossword puzzle,
trying to fit the notes and chords together. You believe it’s going to work,
but when you walk away from the piano it’s on paper, not living.” Schmidt’s
voice quickens as she continues, “Then you give it to the chorus! And then it’s
off the paper, and it’s alive! It’s like magic –POOF! You see the energy the
chorus brings to it and to an audience. That’s what’s really exciting!”
Schmidt is a life-long resident of the Gillette section of
Long Hill Township, where she lives with her husband and cats, and where she
gardens and arranges magic.
