Upscale Singers is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the 2024-25 season. You can join our celebration at our Christmas shows -- “’Tis the 20th Season!” – on Dec. 7 and 8 at our new home, the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center.
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The year is 2004, and a small classical choir in Carefree, Arizona, called the Desert Foothills Choral loses its director and decides to change directions and sing a Broadway-style repertoire.
Enter Margaret Watson as director, who brings in many of her golfing and singing friends from Desert Mountain Golf Club.
The Upscale Singers are born.
They rehearse at Desert Foothills Lutheran Church … where, by the way, they still are rehearsing! Thank you, Desert Hills Lutheran Church!
Here's a fond look back at the last two decades:
Spring 2004
For our inaugural concert, which is close to Mother’s Day, the group chooses an appropriate title: “Broadway Mama.” The show is filled with Broadway songs about moms and motherhood.
There are only 18 singers, and our venue, the Pavilion at Terravita Country Club, holds only 95 people. That means no room for costume changes. But, thanks to layered clothing, the group has some creative looks for different numbers.
December 2005
Upscale Singers performs the first of 18 consecutive Christmas concerts at Desert Hills Presbyterian Church. The local community turns out nicely for the concert. The choir also begins performing annually for Desert Mountain Golf Club’s Holiday Dinner, a tradition that lasted 12 years.
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Spring 2005
Upscale Singers starts a nine-year run on the outdoor patio of Cave Creek’s Satisfied Frog Restaurant (later called the Cave Creek Smokehouse and then the Silver Spur).
Performing there means bringing in sound, lighting and curtains, and the performers set up makeshift dressing rooms behind the stage in the dirt. As the years progressed, we treated ourselves to adding carpets to the dressing areas.
Our audiences love the intimate, casual dinner theater style, but it is a tremendous amount of work for the performers. Highlights include Vern Hansen’s wig flying into the audience while dancing in the Mamma Mia Medley, and a very pregnant Becca DeBusk singing as a nun in the “Sound of Music” medley. That boy she was carrying, Michael DeBusk, is now an Upscale Kid.
The Upscale Kids are created for a western-themed show, “How the West Was Fun.”
Spring 2007
Upscale Singers begins performing at Desert Mountain Golf Club in addition to the Satisfied Frog. The choir size stays between 22 and 26 members because of the small stages.
The elegance and beauty of the Cochise Clubhouse at Desert Mountain Golf Club is an irresistible draw for many audience members, but many still prefer the rustic setting of “The Frog.”
Pat Hoffman joins the Upscale Singers team and runs sound for every show since. “It’s a team sport,” Pat always says.
Great memories include trying to figure out who the singers are under the wigs and behind the sunglasses the “Hair” medley, and wondering how everyone would make the costume changes in time when the locker rooms are so far away.
Spring 2016
The choir performs the first of many dinner theater-style shows at St. Patrick Catholic Community. More than 200 people attend, and a happy partnership is born. Favorite memory: seeing the room fill with happy churchgoers delighted to have a readymade evening of dinner and entertainment for them.
Spring 2019
Upscale Singers begins a four-year run at the Holland Center in Scottsdale. The group transitions to theater-style seating, and a large platform stage and risers gives the group the opportunity to move around onstage. Thoughts of “choreography” are born. Favorite memories: “TV Time,” a medley of TV show theme songs. Each choir member dressed up as a specific character. Lurch and Morticia stole the show.
December 2019
Upscale Singers goes with a more casual “in-home” setting for the Christmas concert. The audience loves the intimacy of it. The choir also experiments with performing in southern Scottsdale at the Kerr Center. It’s a unique setting but proves to be too far for the Upscale audience to attend.
Spring 2020
Well, you know what happened. Covid hit. Upscale was ready to perform, but 10 days before the shows were to start, the governor closed things down. The show was “Broadway Bound,” and it wasn’t until spring 2022 that it could be performed.
December 2020
Upscale Singers manage to keep the group together by making lip-sync videos to songs previously recorded in the studio at Grand Canyon University and individually recorded audio. We kept our distance from each other and managed to have fun.
Spring 2021
Still not back onstage. The group makes more music videos to keep things going and to let the audience know we are still together.
Christmas 2021
We are back onstage, but just barely. Three days before the concert, our director comes down with Covid and an emergency director is found. Thank you, Ted Fazer! We owe you!
Spring 2023
The choir performs on the beautiful, huge stage at Desert Hills Presbyterian Church’s Fellowship Hall. More than 200 people attend each of the two performances. Our audience grows and fills the house.
December 2023
Our years of performing at the Desert Hills Presbyterian Church come to an end, but we step out in faith and pick the 420-seat Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center as our venue. An incredible push at advertising is made and pays off with almost filled houses for both performances.
The choir is now 40-plus strong with plenty of room onstage. Debi Thompson takes over with decorating the stage, and after the singers buy new costumes, we have a new look and location.
December 2024 and Spring 2025
Upscale Singers celebrates its 20th anniversary. Margaret Watson is still the director, only now she’s Margaret Miner. The choir is more than 45 members strong. Better than ever!
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Help us support young vocalists! Please mail donations to Upscale Singers, P.O. Box 86, Cave Creek, AZ 85327.
