Sweet Adelines bring past to life

BREWER – Do you remember poodle skirts, juke boxes and hanging out at the “sweet shop”?

The Heart of Maine Chapter of the Sweet Adelines will take music lovers back to the good old days during the chorus’ concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22, at the Brewer Auditorium.

The concert will feature music from the 1940s and 1950s, with singers performing in quartets and ensembles.

Renaissance, a group of women singers from the University of Maine, will take part in the concert as special guests.

The Sweet Adelines will be under the direction of Mary Anne McFadden.

McFadden has been involved in musical performance since she was a second-grader and “discovered” by the nuns who were her teachers.

But when she attended a Sweet Adelines rehearsal in 1976 in San Francisco, she found her true musical home. In later years, she was a member of the Pacific Empire Chorus of 130 members, with whom she competed internationally several times. The group always placed in the top 12.

In her spare time, McFadden raised four children, and taught high school English classes and English as a second language at the college level. She also recorded several CDs with Anima Schola, a liturgical music group in Connecticut.

The Sweet Adelines, McFadden said, are “the icing on the cake of life in Maine.”

Concert tickets are $7, free to children under 12. Tickets are available from Sweet Adeline chorus members or at Knapp’s Music Store in Bangor, and at the door the day of the concert. Refreshments will be served. Proceeds from the concert will benefit Spruce Run.