By Daily Press staff
An area barbershop singer has forged a bond with St. Petersburg, Russia, Santa Monica’s sister city.
Santa Monica Oceanaire Bruce Schroffel has just returned from participating in the sixth International Choral Festival of Barbershop Harmony. The event is held each year in St. Petersburg, Russia.
“It wasn’t an ordinary tourist experience.” Schroffel said. “I was an ambassador of our country, I was an ambassador of barbershop music, and I represented Santa Monica in our beautiful sister city, St. Petersburg. It turned out to be it an experience of a lifetime.”
Schroffel, a long-time member of the Santa Monica Oceanaires Men’s Barbershop Chorus, joined the Brothers of Harmony Chorus of Easton, Penn., and female barbershoppers (Sweet Adelines) from the Verdugo Hills Showtime Chorus. Rounding out the delegation was “Gotcha,” the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2004 International Barbershop Champions. The week-long event included eight performances at many of St. Petersburg’s most famous venues. After singing at Tchaikovsky and Borodin’s gravesites, the group’s final performance was before a packed house of more than 2,000 Russians in the famed Grand Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. SMASHing pumpkins come to SM
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 15, 2005. Read the original PDF.