Bob Aldrich

Interview with Andrew Welch, SFS Music Director Emeritus

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MEMORABLE CHORAL SINGING NOT WITH SFS:

I grew up in Chicago, in the Hyde Park neighborhood near U of C. I’ve lived in DC since 1978, after graduating law school in 1977. I practiced law for 25 years and have worked for the FCC since 2012. 

My original family wasn’t especially musical, but my Dad had a good voice and loved G&S. I’ve always found great joy in listening and singing along to music. I have a decent ear, can pick out tunes on the piano, and understand basic musical theory - chords, intervals, key changes, etc. 

My taste in music was initially formed from listening to my 8-years-older sister’s folk music records. Her favorites, and therefore mine at the time, were the Kingston Trio, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Ian and Sylvia. I didn’t get into rock and roll until age 14. Since then, while I enjoy many other musical genres, rock is mostly what I listen to.

I had very limited choral experience before SFS. My family wasn’t religious, so I never sang in church. I sang in my high school choir for a couple of years, but my most inspiring choir experience was in 6th grade, a year when my family lived in Edinburgh, Scotland. The choir director at school taught us to breathe with our diaphragms, open our throats, and other basic techniques. I recall him saying that the sound of our voices should be “smooth, round, and bright, like a silver metal rod” coming out of one’s mouth.

I never sang in a choir after 10th grade, and for the rest of her life my mother would occasionally bring this up - “Bob, you have such a nice voice. Why did you stop singing?” I don’t really know the answer to that question, nor do I know why, 48 years later, when this outfit was getting started, and I heard about it through my wife’s book group, I was ready to return to choral . . . but here I am. Sadly, this came too late for my Mom to appreciate it, but it’s been an entirely wonderful experience.