The Men in BAC
In this column we spotlight the talents, contributions, and background of the men in the Manhattan Chapter of The Barbershop Harmony Society and the Big Apple Chorus. This month we feature one of the chorus' newer members; a man who embodies the Big Apple's work ethic and its unique, diverse and passionate spirit. This month's featured BACman is Gabe Butler:
Picture, as one may easily, a starched and stodgy, stereotypical, bean-counting, bespectacled Federal bank-examiner; Gabe Butler (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Big Apple Baritone Barbershopper) with his warmth and ebullience will certainly turn your preconception around! Gabe says that coming to BAC rehearsals is "like an oasis away from my maddening work". But Gabe's not just amiable when we see him on Mondays; the guy seems to genuinely like people and sees his work in terms of his ability to work with different people! It's not surprising that he loves to sing, show off and entertain.
Gabe came to the Big Apple Chorus 5 years ago. From the time he first jumped onto the risers he's been a generous and enthusiastic team player. Not that he was new to barbershop harmony when he first came to the BAC though.
When he graduated in the mid 1970's, he sang with Fordham's glee club, where he was first introduced to Barbershop harmony and quarteting. Not long after joining the glee club he sang bass with a Fordham quartet called "The Ramblers".
(There must have been something in the water then at Fordham. It so happens that at about the same time, several other members of the Big Apple Chorus ,including our director Joe Hunter, arranger Roger Payne, and baritone section leader Brian Horwath, were also recent Fordham graduates.)
Gabe admits his motives for joining his collegiate quartet were not as pure as Fordham's Jesuit founders may have wished. " Well, it was for the girls and the beer. The guys would buy us beer and the girls seem to like to listen to us sing." Of course, that was then. Now he's lucky to have a wonderfully supportive and encouraging wife, Luz, and a grown daughter willing to tolerate his Baritone part-singing.
Gabe's is a Bronx tale. He was born, raised and resides in the hometown of The Bombers. Naturally, therefore, he has an athletic and a competitive streak. During and after college he was a competitive marathon runner. A knee injury forced him to cut back on this aggressive activity and brought him back to our physically less strenuous, but no less competitive pursuit.
Since joining the BAC he's been active in more than just the chorus. He's been in a couple of novice quartets (MIDTOWNERS and OFF BROADWAY) and participated in several quartet competitions. But he was particularly moved in his singing experience when he participated in a VLQ (very large quartet) that sang around lower NYC for the appreciative company of rescue workers and police following the events of September 11th 2001.
Perhaps the greatest evidence of Gabe's selfless commitment to the chorus has been by serving as the Lincoln Center ticket chairman for the last two years. The detailed and highly accountable task of monitoring the funds, allocating and distributing 1000 tickets and roughly $30,000 (a ticket at a time -- 20 to 30 hours a week for a couple of months) is not what a fellow comes to the Big Apple Chorus for. But Gabe serves his chorus diligently and honorably for what he feels he receives from the Chapter in return.
Some of what Gabe thrives on, he captures when he says, "This chorus has a mix of such tremendously talented gentlemen in it! I mean talent with a capital "T" and gentlemen with a capital "G". Guests and visitors to our rehearsals who are just passing through have no idea what giants this chorus has."
What else keeps you coming back, I asked him? He pauses and he smiles, "those magic pockets of music when everything is so beautiful and right."
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| Steve Adams | Dan George | Gabe Butler | Glynn Fluitt | Jim and Michael Steiner |
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| Scott Brannon | Gary Ford | Brad Verebay | Vinny Haynes | Frank Hendricks | The Patricias |
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| Bob Kovach | Joe Husstege | Gordon Harrison | Roger Payne | Dick White |
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| John Gouveia | Pat Kelly |