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Music Director Changes Rhythms

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By ELAINE MARKOWITZ Tribune correspondent

Published: February 16, 2008

Updated: 02/14/2008 05:11 pm

SUN CITY CENTER - Chuck Wirick dedicates his time to making music.

A lifelong musician with degrees in history, music and Christian education in his native Michigan, Wirick has become a musical man-about-town.

He directs the Men's Chorus of Sun City Center and the Kings Point Chorus, is president of the Pelican Players, longtime theater group, and serves as musical director of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Ruskin.

Wirick, 64, came of age in the 1960s, a decade of change.

"My goal is to help people understand that we have to change with the times," he said one recent afternoon as he prepared to rehearse with the Kings Point Chorus.

"Ten years ago, WWII music was the most popular genre," he said. "My memories are of Elvis Presley and the Beatles."

Change is coming slowly to venues in Ruskin and Sun City Center.

"We're aware down here that we have to move forward in time," he said.

At St. John the Divine, where he has been musical director for 18 years, Wirick recently incorporated a special Sunday service at 9 a.m. with a more contemporary feel.

"It isn't the usual hymnity that Protestants have always sung," he said. "The old traditional service at church doesn't always appeal to young people."

He is striving to make changes in Sun City Center as well.

In the men's chorus, most of the members appear to prefer the classical repertoire.

"The earlier formulas still apply here," he said.

He has introduced more modern music to the mixed Kings Point Chorus. That afternoon, about 60 people, mostly women, sang portions of "Farewell, My Friend," an old American Indian blessing.

"Big endings are wonderful, but soft ones are better," Wirick exhorted the singers. "A nice, soft ending now."

The singers appeared comfortable with modern selections. Included in their repertoire are "Somewhere Out There," from "An American Tale," the animated film produced by Steven Spielberg, "My Heart Will Go On," from the movie "Titanic," and "All I Ask of You," from "Phantom of the Opera."

"You get a real sense of where you need to go by seeing which concerts people attend," he said.

Wirick, who has lived in Sun City Center for about 10 years and before that in Apollo Beach, said an awareness of changes in the population has compelled him to rethink his approach to music.

"Demographics are changing," he said. "People are moving in now to Sun City Center who are younger than I am."

"We accept change, but slowly," said Paul Hunt, 79, the president of the Kings Point Chorus. "I think people in Sun City Center are more receptive to change than we give them credit for."

In moving ahead, Wirick faces some practical challenges, one of which entails the tools of the trade - sheets of music.

"Choral libraries have old music," he said. "To update our repertoire we have to buy new music."

With more than a 100 people in the Kings Point Chorus, that purchase is costly.

"To buy a piece of music costs from $2 to $2.50 a copy," he said.

For that reason, this chorus, the largest in the area, charges for its performances.
Wirick is promoting change in the theater as well. The Pelican Players is holding auditions for an April performance of "Sex After Sixty?"

"We're breaking out with this musical," Wirick said. "We've never done one before."

The show needs nine players of different ages who will be drawn from Sun City Center and neighboring communities. The music is original, he said, but with the feel of the '60s and '70s.

Hunt, who also serves on the board of the Pelican Players, said he is comfortable staging this modern play. "It is entertaining without being risque," he said.

"We're going to have to live younger and move out of our cocoon," Wirick said. "In order to get people in the house from the younger generation we will have to use this type of music."

The theater group is familiar with the tastes of the young. Twenty-six students from the South Shore are recipients of scholarships awarded by the Pelican Players.

"We are tied into the entire community," Wirick said, "and we've carved that role for ourselves through education."

The world beyond Sun City Center is part and parcel of Wirick's overall concept of change.

"We have to move out of these walls and connect to the larger community," he said.

For information on musical events, call Wirick at (813) 892-9243.

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

PELICAN PLAYERS' FOLLIES: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 29, and 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. March 1, Borini Theater formerly the Kings Point Theater, 1900 Clubhouse Drive, Sun City Center; $11

MEN'S CHORUS OF SUN CITY CENTER: 7:30 p.m. March 14 at 7:30 p.m., St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 1239 W. Del Webb Blvd., Sun City Center; $8

PELICAN PLAYERS' "SEX AFTER SIXTY?": 7:30 p.m. April 16, and 1 and 7:30 p.m. April 17, Borini Theater, 1900 Clubhouse Drive, Sun City Center; $11

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