TYLER DOHAR
A Barbershop Veteran
By Ryan Luchene | Spring 2019
Having been in music since he was just a little kid, Tyler Dohar, a seventh-year graduate student at BGSU, has always found a way to do what he loves while going through college and his future career endeavors.
Dohar first started singing in sixth grade, joining his school’s choir in the middle of the year. He didn’t realize his love for music until high school when he joined a production of “The Music Man.”
He played the character Winthrop. Once the first show was done, Dohar realized his passion for performing in the musical arts and vowed to continue his journey in college.
When college started, he joined the BGSU Men’s Chorus, with it being his first class every semester. He currently is working on his master’s degree in business administration and got his undergraduate degree as a bachelor’s in musical arts.
The MBA program is a part-time student program for people who work full-time. Dohar made the transition to the MBA program to continue participating in the chorus and joined chorale this semester, allowing him to stay committed to music.
“I’ve known Tyler for three years now, and he’s been singing with me for all three,” said Aaron Roos, the men’s chorus president and junior music education major. “He was actually one of the first people I sang with when I got to BGSU.
We sang tags after my first men’s chorus rehearsal.” Dohar didn’t find his love for barbershop singing until he came to BGSU. Tim Cloeter, a former men’s chorus director, was advertising barbershop quartet auditions for performances in the future. Dohar didn’t know what barbershop quartet was and auditioned on a whim.
When Dohar heard the quartets perform, he knew he had to join the group. “The first time I saw him perform in a barbershop quartet would have been the fall semester of 2016.
He had talked our then chorus director Cloeter into having his quartet do a ‘mini’ barbershop showcase to introduce the new members to barbershop and hopefully get a better turnout for the varsity quartet auditions,” said Troy LeFevre, men’s chorus vice president. “I’ll never forget his facial expressions and his interactions with his then tenor Luke Schmidt.”
When Dohar could audition during his junior year, he joined a quartet. It was in December 2014 when he and three good friends got together and auditioned as a pre-formed quartet. They made the cut. After that, they decided to compete in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s collegiate division and have performed there ever since. “A lot of friends and I that were freshmen as well got immersed in that style,” Dohar said. “We would watch it for hours on YouTube and just study it, and just understand what made it unique.”
The Tune Squad has won many awards during their time as a quartet. They placed fourth in their district competition last fall, and during an international competition in Orlando, they got sixth place out of 25 total competing quartets.
About 50 entrants tried to get their place in the competition. The Tune Squad is thrilled about how far they have come. “It’s an incredible feeling. You’ve got a lot of people who were in my position five years ago who look up to you,” Dohar said. “So that’s the cool part is that I get to see people who have been in my shoes now and help them along in their journey within, not only music in general, but in barbershop.”
In addition to the BHS, the quartet has also competed in district competitions in Columbus, Cleveland and one in Indianapolis. The group has also attended international competitions in Las Vegas two years ago and Orlando last year.
This year, they will compete in Salt Lake City for the third time. The event will be their final year of eligibility, as Dohar will be past the age limit of participating. While singing with the Men of Independence, an Ohio chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, Dohar met some big names in the Ohio barbershop community. Two of these big-name people are baritone Gary Lewis, an alumni of BGSU, and lead Tony DeRosa. The two perform in the quartet Max Q, a group that won the gold medal from the 2007 Barbershop Harmony Society
International Barbershop Quartet Contest. The Tune Squad is hoping to keep going on with Barbershop Harmony Society on the horizon. Dohar wants to continue in his involvement in barbershop music in the long run, as well, as he has joined other local quartets and choruses in the area.
These include Men of Independence in Independence, Ohio, which he only attends every once in a while, with it being a two-hour drive. Another is in Michigan that Dohar started with a couple of friends he met from other quartets during international competitions.
To Dohar, barbershop, and music in general, is still important to him and he still sees himself keeping it involved in his life. That way music can be something he can keep in his life as a love and passion without it being an everyday job.
