About our director

Columbia River Chorus is proud to be under the direction of Darwin Scheel; he holds a special place in our musical family.  Darwin is celebrating more than 20 years as Director of our chorus, always impressing us with his ever-growing knowledge of the barbershop craft and bringing us new and valuable "tools" to rehearsal every week.  He consistently encourages us to learn and grow musically and we do our best to reward him with excellent harmony. 

Darwin has been surrounded by barbershop music his entire life with both of his parents participating in this musical style. 

Darwin joined his first chorus "Rose City Close Harmony Music Men" at the age of 14.  In his late teens, he directed his first male chorus, the "Mt. Hood Timberliners" of Gresham, OR and then a women’s chorus in Salem, OR, “Cherry City Chorus.”  In 1988, Darwin joined us as our director and has led the way to many achievements for us.   We consistently place highly in competition and have traveled and performed in Florida, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Austria, as well as various locations in the Pacific Northwest. 

Darwin has sung in several quartets during his musical career: Singing Lead in "Four Cryin' Out Loud," 1988 Evergreen District Champions, and singing Tenor in "The Dean's List", 2006 Evergreen District Evergreen District Champions.  Both quartets were also Forest Grove Ballad Town Champions. 

Darwin Scheel is known as the "Tag Master" or "Tag Meister" in the world of Barbershop.

Ask Darwin to teach a Tag!