Fort Worth philanthropist Don Klick has been singing for 65 years. For whatever reason, he says, he’s always had a knack for barbershop music.
“No instruments,” Klick said. “It’s just a fun way to experience music.”
He also loves giving back and helping to support younger generations in their future endeavors. With a book of barbershop sheet music, Klick offered scholarships worth $1,500 to students who could best sing like they’re out of a 1950s barbershop.
“It’s always been important to me,” Klick said. “This is our future.”
On Father’s Day, Klick invited student quartets to Alliance Methodist Church on Park Vista Boulevard in Fort Worth to perform. He wanted to merge his two current interests: barbershop music and philanthropy.
He and his choirmates had only three days’ notice, but 18-year-old Benjamin Hedden sang The Token’s “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” to a tune of what Klick called, “just fantastic.”
A few days after harmonizing “wimoweh” and “awimbawe” underneath the well-known lyrics of “in the jungle, the mighty jungle,” Hedden said he was honored to receive the money.
Hedden and his choirmates, Hunter Friederichsin, Kalina Dela Cruz and Maddox Carr, are members of a Fort Worth homeschool choir.
“So, [Kalina] discovered it and she reached out to me and two others and we got together [on Sunday] and drilled on it,” Hedden said. Dela Cruz found out about the opportunity from her grandmother, who had received an email from Klick.
Once they arrived, they sang first and realized then that they were the only quartet performing.
“It’s amazing that [Don’s] still giving out this money,” Hedden said. The $1,500 will go toward his commercial music degree from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.
He hopes to work in the industry as a music producer and plans to produce a variety of music spanning from classical to hip-hop. He credits the home school choir for instilling in him a love of music and a knowledge beyond his years.
Director of the choir, Richard Carr, teaches his 290 students a barbershop quartet song every year. Like Klick, Carr has always loved the sound of barbershop music, and he believes it to be an easier, more fun way for students to learn reading sheet music.
Hedden agrees – and he says it helps him see music in a new light.
“It gives a lot of perspective into the different parts. Everyone hears the main part, but then especially being in the harmony, it almost gives a feeling of being in the music,” Hedden said. “It’s like you’re inside of it.”
While Hedden will study at Union University in the fall, Friederichsin will attend Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, Dela Cruz will study at Texas Baptist College, and Maddox, Richard Carr’s daughter, at Hardin-Simmons in Abilene.
The $1,500 will go toward furthering the four’s career in the music industry. Carr says the scholarship is huge for the students – he knows the value of music education.
“It just envelops your life,” Carr said. “It gives you so much meaning in life when you learn music, and I mean, really changes your life.”
As Klick said he knows this as well, he plans to offer this exact scholarship next year. He hopes for better planning on his part, so that more students are able to show up.
Matthew Sgroi is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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