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About Us
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Our Director
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Our Assistant Director
Our Assistant Director
Matthew Crandall
Matthew Crandall first got involved in barbershop when he was in high school choir. Nagged for six months
until he finally caved in, he attended his first chapter meeting. Three weeks later, he sang on the
chapter show, and the following week he turned in his application for membership in the
Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America...and hasn't
looked back since.
He has traveled all over the United States, and has been involved in Barbershopping wherever he goes.
A quartet man at heart but a chorus man in practice, Matthew has sung in several quartets and a number
of choruses all over the Society, including Walnut Creek, CA, Northwest Chicago Metro, IL and Northbrook, IL
where he won four International Second Place chorus medals. He is also a former Frontline Chorus Director
and Assistant Director with the Evansville, IN chapter and former Assistant Director of the Chicago (IL) #1
Chapter, as well as a former Assistant Director of a Sweet Adelines chapter in Evansville, IN.
He is fond of telling people "Barbershop is more like an extended family than a hobby. What else can you do that
people will welcome a total stranger like long-lost family after only 10 minutes? It's also great to start as a young person,
because you get all kinds of advice-and at the same time you are expected to carry your part."
In the fall of 2004, he and his wife Deena (Who is an International First Place chorus medalist Sweet Adeline herself!)
moved to the Eugene area to be closer to family. That move led to his transferring his membership to the Cascade Chorus.
Not long after his transfer, he assumed a familiar position: that of Assistant Director. "I'm really blessed to be working
with a great chorus and a director who is solid in his musical approach."
In addition to directing off and on, in his twenty-plus years as a Barbershopper Matthew has served as a Chapter Historian,
Assistant Program Vice President, Music and Performance Vice President, and Chapter Secretary. He recently completed several
years of hard work and received his Director's Certification from the Barbershop Harmony Society in April, 2005.
He has also received a Bachelor of Barbershop Harmony from the Evergreen District, and is looking forward to many good years to
come with the Cascade Chorus.
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