Verdugo Hills Chorus

About Us

Verdugo Hills Chorus is a membership organization of women who love to sing in "barbershop style": a cappella four-part harmony! We meet regularly in San Gabriel, CA, to practice, perform, socialize, and have fun. Currently, we have about 50 members of all ages, from all walks of life. We are a chapter of Sweet Adelines International, a non-profit organization of approximately 23,000 members in choruses and quartets worldwide.

Learn more here!

Bragging Rights

We are far from perfect, but we're often pretty darn good! In March 2024, Verdugo Hills Chorus won our Region 11 chorus competition. Indeed we have won our regional competition many times in the 70 year history of Verdugo Hills Chorus. Our status as 2024 regional champions has earned us the right to compete in the Sweet Adelines International Chorus Competition in October 2025. We are working hard to be the best we can be on that International stage.

Come Sing With Us!

If you love to sing, Verdugo Hills Chorus is the right place for you! We are always looking to diversify and grow our membership and so we'd be happy to incorporate your joy of singing into our sound. Our song-learning methods work with all skill levels and experience. And maybe we'll help you become an even better singer than you already are. Come and check us out. We typically meet on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 10 pm at the Elks Lodge in San Gabriel. We'd love to have you visit. And we'd love to have you join!

Learn more here!

Verdugo Hills Chorus Makes a Splash at Summer Sizzler!

Because we're headed to the Sweet Adelines International Chorus Competition this fall, Verdugo Hills Chorus was delighted to receive some public coaching from one of our favorite divas, Nikki Blackmer! We always learn so much from the great coaches that we're privileged to work with. We spent the rest of our Summer Sizzler catching up with our friends in Region 11, helping out Voices United Chorus--our hosts--with whatever we could, oh, and SINGING at the Saturday evening Winners' Circle show!

And our EXCELLENT all-novice quartet, 4's Company, came in second place in the weekend's Novice Quartet Contest! We are so proud of them.

VHC Walks the PanCan Purple Stride!

Verdugo Hills Chorus has a funny, kind, generous, and talented tenor named Janice Kueppers. Unfortunately, Janice has been battling pancreatic cancer for the past several years. In support of and in honor of Janice, Verdugo Hills Chorus has been taking part in the PanCan Purple Stride for the past several years. Our team, Harmony Heals, in collaboration with many of Janice's family members, colleagues, and friends, has raised more than $105,000 over the course of these years to support research into cures for pancreatic cancer.

On April 26th, a very rainy Saturday morning, many members of the Verdugo Hills Chorus gathered on the Santa Monica pier for PanCan 2025. Our soggy but smiling walkers had a lot of fun AND helped raise $25,670 this year! Feel free to check out our team page here—and maybe add to our total?!

Check out all the fun images from the day here.

VHC Hosts the A Cappella Scholarship Festival!

On Saturday, April 12th, Verdugo Hills Chorus was privileged to host the 19th annual A Cappella Scholarship Festival! The festival brings together talented high school choral groups from all over Southern California. Each of the twelve groups that passed their auditions this year competed in the festival and received scholarship awards in cash, supporting their school's vocal music education. The cash scholarship awards are made possible by a generous grant from the John C. Hench Foundation, which has championed vocal music education through every Verdugo Hills Chorus festival since 2005.

Learn more here!

*Verdugo Hills Chorus Hosts the 2025 Regional Convention & Competition***

As the 2024 Region 11 Chorus Champions, Verdugo Hills Chorus served as host chorus for the 2025 Regional Convention & Competition. The event was a first-in-the-nation joint competition with our friends in Region 21. So, we were joint hosts with Scottsdale Chorus, the Region 21 chorus champions. It was a dizzyingly busy and fun weekend for all of us! Bobbette Gantz and Connie Chang served as our Assisting Chorus Chairs and expertly wrangled all of us into accomplishing all of the bazillion tasks that needed to be done to make the weekend a success!

Oh! And we SANG too! Although we did not officially compete this year, we did sing for evaluation and sang our outgoing champions package as an acknowledgement of our gratitude to Region 11 for their support.

See a selection of our photos from that amazing weekend here!

Celebrating 13 Years with Tammy Ragsdale!

On Saturday, January 18, we celebrated 13 exciting years with our fabulous director, Tammy Ragsdale. Despite a rocky start to the year with wildfires and high winds causing disruptions, we still managed to carve out some time during our weekend retreat to acknowledge and honor all the ways we have grown and learned as a chorus under Tammy’s direction.

Tammy has taught us so much more than just how to sing. She has taught us how to be a unit, to support one another, and to cheer each other onward. And Tammy excels at picking just the right coaches to help impel us forward in our quest to become better singers. We learn so much from them, and from what Tammy learns from them; she is always willing and eager to learn new techniques so we can all improve as a chorus.

Thank you, Tammy, for 13 wonderful years, and may we continue to learn, sing, and love together for many more!

Learn more about our Master Director here.