Windsong Chorus plans 14th annual Barbershop Festival in Sterling

Windsong Chorus will bring its 14th annual Barbershop Festival back to Sterling on June 20, turning Christ United Methodist Church, 104 S. Fourth Street, into a daylong stop for close-harmony singing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For Logan County, the event is more than a concert date. It is a recurring gathering that keeps a familiar local arts tradition visible in the heart of downtown.

The chorus has deeper roots in Sterling than the festival alone suggests. Northeastern Junior College says Windsong received its Sweet Adelines charter in 1971, with Judy Kimball serving as the first president and Dr. Curt Kimball as the musical director when the group formed after the Kimballs moved to Sterling from Phoenix. More than 50 years later, the chorus still includes singers from Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, showing how a Sterling-based ensemble has grown into a regional group without losing its local center of gravity.

That continuity has been carried through several generations of leadership. Windsong has had four directors over time, Dr. Curt Kimball, Neala Carmichael, Susan Brown Gunnels and Annette Lambrecht. NJC says the chorus’s annual show remains a source of pride for members, who put in volunteer work that goes far beyond singing, including selling ads, building props, writing scripts and planning costumes. The group also began its first Christmas show with Centennial State Chorus in 1993, another sign of how long it has helped shape the local music calendar.

This year’s festival continues a pattern that already has some history in Sterling. Journal-Advocate listings show Windsong Chorus Barbershop Festival events in both 2015 and 2016, each held in Sterling and each described as free. The earlier festivals were aimed at young ladies age 12 and up and women of all ages, first at Sterling Middle School and then at Sterling High School, with a 1 p.m. performance both years. The venue may change, but the basic idea has stayed the same: bring barbershop harmony into a public space and invite the community to hear it close up.

Christ United Methodist Church adds another layer to that setting. The church says its history in Sterling dates to 1888, making the June 20 festival part of one of the city’s older institutional spaces. Together, the chorus, the church and the long-running festival point to the same local value, keeping homegrown arts alive through volunteers, singers and a steady summer tradition that still belongs to Sterling.