The historic Singing Men of Ohio have been around Athens for almost four decades.
They began in 1989, when Ira T. Zook created SMO in the wake of the former Ohio University Glee Club. Zook served as director of SMO for 11 years, until his death in 2000.
Aiden Wickham, a junior studying communications and vice president of SMO, explained how the ensemble’s traditions honor Zook.
“Everything kind of revolves around him,” Wickham said. “There's a song we do, it's called ‘The Quest Unending.’ It was commissioned for us, but now it's done all over the world, and I believe has been in a couple movies, but it's based on his name. So we do that at the end of every concert.”
The group goes on a tour every spring where it performs outside of Athens. Ben Christiansen, a senior studying communications and president of SMO, shared how the annual tour works.
“We take stops at high schools and sing for them,” Christiansen said. “We'll do a big concert, like we did a concert in a church in Chicago. So it's a lot of fun because we get to spend a lot of time together and just do a lot of random stuff that we wouldn't get to do in Athens.”
When it is not performing, the group values brotherhood and tries to create time when members can have fun together. SMO keeps a tight-knit relationship between all members.
“It's really neat, because on the surface level, it's kind of silly, we're a men's choir, right?” Wickham said. “But I have met people that I know will be in my wedding, and I've met people that have been constant while college is changing so much.”
Christiansen also expressed his appreciation for the environment SMO creates.
“We really try and spend as much time together outside of class as we can,” Christiansen said. “We’ll do movie nights or game nights, or a PowerPoint night. We try to do as many different things as possible, other than just sing. The music is what brings us together, but the community is what keeps us around.”
For some people, the choir is something that helps take their mind off school stressors. Max Marmash, a sophomore studying theater, said SMO helps keep him motivated.
“It's helped me a lot with mental health,” Marmash said. “It helps keep me motivated for my other classes, it gives me time away from stress from other classes.”
SMO also performs at and sponsors service projects, and supports fellow members’ outside activities. They collaborated with another OU choir, Bella Voce, to help Hocking, Athens, Perry Community Action’s Sunset Shelter Project by raising funds to help turn the Athens Sunset Motel into a safe, temporary shelter.
“We were able to donate a fair amount of money to them, just to help broaden the Athens community,” Christiansen said. “We also have a lot of members that are involved in other organizations that we like to just go out and support if we can.”
Alumni connections are important and run deep for SMO. The group values its past members, with traditions like the SMO wall, where members sign their names.
Wickham said SMO is “great for networking,” and the wall shows how many people are willing to support members.
“You can see who you can rely on after graduation,” Wickham said.
Wickham explained how former OU School of Music teacher and accompanist Harolyn Brient has a tattoo of “the super SMO,” which is the Superman logo with the letters SMO inside. Wickham said her husband was in the SMO, and she played piano for them for many years.
“SMO means the world to her,” Wickham said. “She is very proud of (the tattoo) and she loves it. She's beloved by everyone, including all of our alumni. She's seen them all grow up and stuff, so that's kind of neat.”
The group welcomes anyone to take a voice test to see where they fit into the choir.
“Anyone's welcome to join,” Wickham said. “We have guys, girls and everything in between. It's really, really neat.”
As the semester comes to a close, SMO is having a final concert April 20 at 6 p.m., in the Athens First United Methodist Church, located on 2 S. College St.
