By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
In 1973, a young and energetic choral director at Bowling Green State University took his 44 “puppies” on the road.
That’s said Jo Ascunce, what RD Mathey called the singers he assembled for a summer tour.
They traveled from Ohio through the west, including into Canada for six weeks, performing more than 40 concerts along the way, and seeing the sights.
Everyday they’d stop at McDonald’s, and each get $2 for lunch.
This was the first Summer Tour Choir, a mixed ensemble of voices, assembled by Mathey, who became a beloved and legendary choral conductor, every four years until his retirement in 2000.
He was inspired by his own touring experience as a student at Capital University in Columbus.
On Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Bowling Green Performing Arts Center, more than 140 veterans of those summer tours with a few others who’d performed in other Mathey-led ensembles, will present a reunion concert. The concert is free. It will also be streamed free over the BG City School’s YouTube site.
According to Joe Barton, one of the organizers who was on the 1993 tour, the choirs performed in churches, community centers, and a couple years in front of Mount Rushmore. Ascunce recalls singing at an Oakland Athletics game.
Ascunce said they stayed in homes along the way, often with families from a local Lutheran congregation.
To join, Barton said, singers had to audition for Mathey, participate in a one week of rehearsals, then hit the road in the bus for six weeks of music, sites, and comradeship.
People formed friendships that lasted a lifetime, and sometimes deeper relationships.
Janine Baughman, who is co-chairing the reunion, met her future husband, Randy “Beef” Baughman on the 1981 tour. They were not the only married couples who met during these summer travels.
Not surprising, she said, given all the time spent on the bus, sightseeing, and, of course, making music together.
“It was the most amazing summer in my life,” she said.
“RD made sure we saw the sites,” Ascunce said. That first tour included the Calgary Stampede.
While Baughman had traveled with her family, other choir members had never left Ohio. They visited Disneyland and the Grand Canyon. They drank Hurricanes in New Orleans. “It was magical, magical, magical.”
“It was life altering,” said Ascunce.
The choirs bonded as musicians as well, she said. They reached the point where they hardly needed a conductor. Mathey just raised his hand, and the music flowed.
Mathey first mentioned a 50th reunion two years ago, Baughman said.
Last summer she and Richard Schnipke, who was on both the 1989 and 1993 tours and is a successor of Mathey as conductor of the Men’s Chorus and Collegiate Chorale at BGSU, got to work to make it happen.
They recruited committee members from each tour, to reach out to those who toured with them.
Baughman said many of the former choristers remained active in music, singing in their church choirs or performing in community theater. Some like Schnipke have gone on to conduct at the collegiate level.
They selected music including songs sung by all the choirs, those include “Breath on Me Breath of God” and “A Mighty Fortress Is My God.”
They also included pieces sung by each choir.
The music was placed in a Dropbox file for them to access, and YouTube and audio files were provided so they could practice the music on their own.
They will gather for the first time Friday night for a run through of the program, and then rehearse all day on Saturday. There will also be socializing.
A final run through will be held on Sunday before the concert.
Mathey was involved in the preparations up until about a month ago when he was laid up with health problems.
He will not be able to conduct the reunion choir, nor sing his solo on “Amen.” Others will fill in.
Baughman said they hope he will be well enough to attend.
