By Marley Seaman
By day, Walters, a Baldwin resident for 15 years, is the Long Island Regional Service Manager for Liberty Mutual. By night, she is the Bob Knight of barbershop, directing the Greater Nassau Chorus of Sweet Adelines International with great passion and pride. The musical group rehearses every Tuesday, usually in Baldwin and performs around New York and in international competitions.
"We've been competing on the International level since 1991," Walters says. "We have to sing in a particular style to compete."
Very particular. Often associated with male quartets, the barbershop style relies on nets of intricate harmony, and a touch of choreography.
In competition, choruses are held to exacting standards. They must sound pure, starting and completing their phrases as one and properly articulating their vowels. Walters calls their aim a "wall of sound" that is "arranged so it sounds like a full orchestration." The arrangements and song choices must be proper, and the moves perfect. Unifying this group, which includes roughly 80 women aged 18 to 80, is no small task. And the job is all hers.
As director, Walters has "the final say on everything the chorus does." She guides the group during performances and makes decisions about marketing and the group's repertoire, which includes show tunes, standards and patriotic songs. She is an active leader who doesn't raise her voice or belittle her singers, but she always demands better from the chorus.
During rehearsal, Walters names several of the 31 Sweet Adelines groups that will sing against Greater Nassau in October's International Competition, to be held in New Orleans.
"What do you think they're doing?" she asks.
"Working!" comes the reply.
So the Greater Nassau women must give their all for these three hours on Tuesday night, and in solo practice sessions during the week, if they want to sing their best. They will compete in the large chorus category against groups from around North America, Europe, and as far away as Australia and Japan. The group twice finished in the top ten in its category.
Walters has been around barbershop music for longer than she can remember. Her father sang in the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing In America. (Now called the Barbershop Harmony Society, this is the male counterpart to the Sweet Adelines.) She joined the Greater Nassau Chorus in 1977 as a baritone, but soon found her energies going into areas beyond singing.
"I just fell into it," she says. "Most directors just fall into it."
She spent 1983 singing in Nassau and directing another chorus in Freehold, New Jersey. The following year, she took the reigns as Greater Nassau's director, and has held that job ever since. Her 21 years as director span half of the group's history. While she no longer sings with the group, her expressiveness and intensity shape its course and add life to its performances. And she takes music far beyond the audience.
As a member of the Sweet Adelines International Faculty and as Music Education Coordinator for Region 15, which includes Long Island, Manhattan, and parts of New Jersey and Duchess County, Walters has taught thousands of people to sing barbershop. She also instructs directors. On June 27, she attended a Director Education Coordinator Meeting at the Sweet Adelines International headquarters in Tulsa, Okla. Her dedication to the music and her endless energy have earned Walters a reputation within the Sweet Adelines organization.
"I've been in the Sweet Adelines organization for about 10 years now," says Torie Kramer, a lead (melody) singer who has been with the Greater Nassau Chorus for three years. "I can say that Harriette's always been an icon for myself and other choruses in the region. She has an uncanny gift for hearing the right barbershop sound."
Walters digs deep to find that right sound, sometimes stopping the group in mid-performance to change the articulation of particular words.
"What we just did was nice, but not good enough," she tells them after they finish Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." "I obviously want to take this differently than you, and since I'm the director, I win."
She says it with a smile, and the singers understand what she wants to hear and how much she wants to hear it.
"For the most part I'm always happy," Walters says. But, she adds, "I'm never satisfied. I always want more."
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