Fred Waring's PENNSYLVANIANS Return to the Historic Castle Inn!

After a thirty-three year absence, bandleader Fred Waring's PENNSYLVANIANS make their return to their original home in Delaware Water Gap's fully-refurbished, historic Castle Inn.

During the era of 1920s Jazz, Waring formed the dance band that made him king of popular music: Fred Waring AND THE PENNSYLVANIANS. Among Victor Records' best-selling bands from 1923 to 1932, the PENNSYLVANIANS were considered one of the premiere acts in radio. During WW II, Waring added a men's choral group to the ensemble and entertained at war bond rallies and training camps and composed and recorded dozens of patriotic songs. When the group enlisted female vocalists, "The Fred Waring Sound" was born. This stylized singing created widespread interest from radio-listening educators, as well as composers such as Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hammerstein!

The demand for Waring's arrangements was so great that in 1939 he formed The Shawnee Press music publishing company at Castle Inn. In 1947, The Fred Waring Choral Workshop moved into the same building and special youth workshops soon followed.

1949 brought the heyday of television. Each week until 1954, General Electric sponsored the award-winning The Fred Waring Show on CBS. When the 1960s and 70s saw a departure from traditional choral singing, Waring changed with the times. He introduced his YOUNG PENNSYLVANIANS who sang choral arrangements of contemporary songs. Enter Stanley Beard: the nineteen-year-old Gettysburg college student appointed as musical director. As the youngest person on tour, Beard directed the group's trademark, blended sound into their new age of music until Waring's death in 1984.

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