Submitted photo The Stephen Foster Chorus, shown here at its 2019 “The Sounds of Christmas” concert, will disband after its December concert due to dwindling membership.

WARREN — The Stephen Foster Chorus will sing its last notes in December, 75 years after its debut.

Dwindling numbers are the reason for the decision, according to President Frank Bozek and Vice President Bob Kranyak. The chorus, which started in 1948 and once boasted more than 100 active members, can’t fill two quartets today.

“We’ve only got seven members,” Kranyak said. “We have one baritone and one tenor. If one of them wasn’t available, I had to turn down the gig. You have to have that four-part harmony. It was getting to where I was turning down the gig more than I was accepting the gig, but you have to do what you have to do.”

When they decided the Dec. 12 concert at Christ Episcopal Church in Warren would be the farewell performance, Bozek reached out to past chorus members, and six or seven chorus alumni also will sing that night. Even with those vocalists, Bozek said they still needed some singers to fill out certain sections, so he contacted the Akron Derbytown Chorus in hopes of persuading a couple vocalists to join the Warren chorus that night.

“Twenty-five, 26 guys all voted to join us,” Bozek said. “That emotionally just tore me apart. … The sound of all these extra voices is really going to bring everything full circle.”

Membership has been on the decline for years, and it’s a problem faced by barbershop choruses around the country. The Warren-based chorus picked up members from Youngstown and Salem when their choruses disbanded more than 15 years ago, Kranyak said. The Stephen Foster Chorus is the only remaining chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society in Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana, Ashtabula and Portage counties, according to its website.

“Young people look at it as old-fashioned music,” Kranyak said. “We can’t get young members. I’m one of the youngest at 67.”

“People look at it as, and I think it is, a dying art form,” Bozek said in a separate interview. “We just can’t develop an interest in younger people to come and take part and bring that energy.”

In the past, the Stephen Foster Chorus charged a nominal fee for its annual “The Sounds of Christmas” concert with proceeds benefiting such organizations as the Warren SCOPE Center, which provides rehearsal space to the chorus free of charge, and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center.

Because the nonprofit group is disbanding, admission will be free for the Dec. 12 concert, and any remaining funds will be disbursed to local charities.

Bozek joined the chorus after watching the chorus perform during Warren’s Opening Night celebration on New Year’s Eve in 2002.

“I turned to my daughter and said, ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if next year I’m up there,'” Bozek said. “That was the last year for Opening Night, but I performed on the show in April, and the rest is history. I have been blessed the chorus has had a lot of faith in me, and I’ve been president about 13 of those years. It’s a good group of guys, and I treasure the friendships I’ve made.”