With his resonant baritone and impressive beard, Bob Udell looks the part when he tells you that he’s here to talk about an all-male chorus.

Specifically, Udell wants to discuss the Foothills Male Chorus, a Hinton-based choir he’s taken the lead in organizing.

The group, which is made up of almost 30 men from the Yellowhead region, will be coming to Jasper for a concert at the United Church on Thursday, May 25.

While they tour the area, the choir is also on the lookout for new members, Udell said.

“We’d gladly take some more,” he said, recalling what happened when he first advertised for the new choir in churches around Hinton.

“We were blown away... more than 20 men showed up,” he said. “It’s very rare to get so many men interested in a choir.” 

At the same time, Udell and his wife Joan know there are more potential members out there.

“It beats me why some don’t want to come out,” Udell said. “We know at least 30 other men who could do it.”

This network of musical contacts stems from Udell’s long history of singing with choral groups. Having been interested in vocal music since a very young age, Udell estimates that he has been singing for nearly 60 years. During the 1960s, Udell was a member of the Jasper Glee Club, since disbanded, but found that his work commitments were too much to continue. Having recently retired, Udell went looking for opportunities and decided to found a new group.

While most of the current choristers can read music, the focus of the group is on the joy of getting together to make music.

“It’s more about getting together and singing and having fun,” said Udell, but lest anyone think that the Foothills Male Chorus is all about practice, he adds: “we do have a focus on performances.”

Their upcoming tour will provide the group with a chance to test their vocal registers and get ready for Udell’s plan: entering the group in choral festivals in Alberta and across Canada. 

“We still need to build a repertoire,” he said. “But we’re trying to get an opportunity to sing at the Men Making Music concert at the Winspear Centre in Edmonton.”

Tickets for the choir’s Jasper performance will be sold at the door, and are also available in advance at Tekarra Colour Lab.