Staying together
The only score these champs track is how
much fun they’re having

For a group that was formed almost entirely by accident, Downstate Express is having a long, successful run! But in our 23 years together, our best success has not been winning our district championship, our multiple appearances on the international stage or even winning the 2004 International Seniors Quartet Championship. We still count our biggest success as the fact that we’re still intact and still having the time of our lives singing together.

Lucky coincidence turns into a decades-long gig
In March of 1981, we were just four casual friends who usually only saw each other at district events. Ed, Bruce, Warren Hettinga and Gary, were at a division contest singing at the back of a room—just four guys ringing chords for a few minutes while we waited for the quartets and judges to get out of the evaluation sessions so that the afterglow could start in earnest.
The crowd was antsy for somebody—anybody—to sing, and that’s when someone approached the four of us and asked us to get on stage. Frankly, it was only coincidence that the four of us were together, but we decided to give it a shot. Warren wanted to sing bari, so we chose the other three parts and picked out three songs that we thought we could get through and went up on stage. We felt pretty good about how we sounded for four guys with literally minutes of experience singing together, but we left it at that. Bruce was still singing in the Roadrunners, so it wasn’t like we were thinking of forming a new quartet.
By the Land O’ Lakes District fall convention the next October, Bruce had dropped out of the Roadrunners, and we were all thinking back to our experience at the division contest. We started to explore the possibility of forming a quartet. One drawback was that we all lived in different cities, and it was about 150 miles between Warren and Bruce, with Ed and Gary in between. We got together a few times in November and December and registered as a quartet in January of 1982. About seven weeks later, with a three-song repertoire, we entered the division contest and won. Now we had to get serious and get ready for the district contest in October.

Thriving under a mentor
The next—and probably one of the best—decisions we ever made was to drive to Minneapolis and meet with Richard Dick, who became our coach and mentor. He had a wealth of knowledge and experience and had coached many quartets. He relentlessly drilled us on vowels, attacks and releases and wouldn’t let us slide over the little things. We had set a goal to win the district championship in two years. We all agree that Richard is the reason we instead won the first time out.
Richard coached us for many years and was truly the fifth man and best friend of Downstate Express. The next three years we represented LOL at the international quartet contest and placed as high as 22nd. Then, after an 11-year layoff from competing, we entered the 1996 international prelim contest and qualified to represent LOL in Salt Lake City.
Warren dropped out in 1997 and eventually ended up in Las Vegas. We were lucky to have Richard “Trep” Treptow available to sing with us. Trep has been a great asset to Downstate Express. When Trep joined, he had three weeks to learn 16 songs for our next show. He made two mistakes in the 16 songs, and we have never let him forget it.

Contest results do not equal growth and enjoyment
How is it that Downstate has lasted so long? Maybe a bit of quartet philosophy will help. Most quartets peak at some point, reaching a natural barrier such as time, jobs, or possibly the talent of individual members. Unfortunately, for too many quartets, their peak is measured solely by their contest rankings. What does a quartet do when it bumps up against one of those limits and can’t reach its competition goals? Many simply break up when one or more members feels the barrier is not his doing, and he wants to keep “progressing.” But, what is “progress”?
For Downstate Express, the measuring stick for the quartet was simply: Are we enjoying (1) being together as friends, (2) singing together as a quartet, and (3) entertaining audiences together, OR is there another quartet opportunity where we would receive more enjoyment than from the four of us in the Downstate Express? If there’s not, why break up a good thing?
In terms of competition, Downstate Express probably peaked several years ago, but we are yet to peak in the very important areas of our hobby: enjoying our friendship, the joy of singing together, and the positive feedback we receive from our show audiences.
It may be a fact that strictly competition quartets don’t last as long as quartets who measure their success in broader terms. Downstate won its district contest more than 20 years ago and a few years later we stopped competing in international preliminaries. But we kept singing simply because it’s fun to do. That alone is a very good reason.
If you are in a competing quartet, ask yourself what would happen if you eliminated competition as a factor in your quartet experience. Ask:
• Are we having a good time together?
• Are we making good music?
• Do audiences like us?
If the answer is yes to all three, then what is to be gained by breaking up? For Downstate Express, even if we had come in dead last in Biloxi, we’d be singing and entertaining and enjoying our time together, doing what we love to do. N


Ed Wirtz, tenor, joined the Society at age 13 after the Four Teens sang at his New Ulm, Minn., high school in 1951. A former chorus director, with two district quartet championships, Ed has been a member of the Mankato Riverblenders since 1973. He is retired from working in international engineering sales. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Wabasha, Minn.

Bruce Odell, lead, has been quartetting in the Society continuously since he joined in 1964—in only three quartets. He lives in Winona, Minn., with his wife, Karen, and is a member of the Winona Area Barbershop Chorus, for which he is a former director. He has 20 Man of Note awards and has served as a clinician, faculty member for many Land O’ Lakes schools and programs, and as coach for many choruses and quartets.

Richard “Trep” Treptow, bari, has three district quartet championships to his credit and sang with the international champion, Happiness Emporium. Richard is the Society’s current Presentation category specialist. He lives in Indianapolis, Ind., where he is a financial advisor to state and local governments.

Gary Rogness, bass, has been a Barbershopper since 1975. Gary lives with his wife, Ginger, in Rochester, Minn., where he is an electrical component technician. They have three children: Ryan, Laura and David. He’s held numerous chapter officer positions and was recipient of the Chapter Barbershopper of the Year. He has 11 Man of Note awards.