Water colors

Local couple conducts dazzling fountain shows

Karl Rabe/Poughkeepsie Journal Bob and Ellen Chase sit in front of their City of Poughkeepsie home. The couple conducts fountain shows around the world.

Courtesy photo/Magic Waters Magic Waters provided a backdrop for a performance of the Mid Hudson Ballet Company.

Courtesy photo/Magic Waters Six formations for the Canada Blooms flower show in Toronto.

Courtesy photo/Magic Waters Display for the Benihana Room at the Las Vegas Hilton.

"We consider ourselves artists, classical artists, interpreting music with water and lights," Ellen said.

The Chases established their City of Poughkeepsie-based business, Musical Waters, in 1984, nine years after they were married. Ellen Chase is a native of the City of Poughkeepsie and taught at Hyde Park Elementary school. Bob Chase is from Boston, Mass., where he was a championship roller skater.

In 1947, Bob Chase joined an international skating troupe. Later he became the company's stage manager, and managed its ready-made musical water fountain display system, modifying its design to make it more lightweight and portable. The skating troupe closed in 1956, but the company kept its musical water fountain business, which Bob Chase worked with for 27 years.

When the Chases began their business, they designed their own portable fountains, for which Bob Chase built custom components, including six 5-foot sections of pipe that can be arranged in 16 different formations, more than 200 hand-tooled jets, 12 custom light boxes, 144 bulbs and 12 specially modified high-powered pumps. The fountains use 2,000 gallons of recirculated water that dance in differing heights, intensities and colors in time with either recorded or live music, including standard, classical, Broadway and other songs.

During performances, Bob and Ellen Chase operate the fountains live by a two-sided console, timing the fountains' changing formations to the music's rhythms by ear and memory.

"We have played live with the Boston Pops orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler and Keith Lockhart without knowing what they were going to play," Bob said.

"We can, basically, after a few bars, pick up the rhythm ... that's our artistry," Ellen said.

The Chases run the business and on-site workers help them set up and dismantle their system. Although the couple now are quite selective about which shows they do, at the height of their career, they traveled around the country and Canada, working 10 to 12 performances a year. They've played with Liberace on Tour, the Boston Pops in Nantucket, Mass., and various staged shows. They've worked at the San Mateo Expo and Flower show in California, Disney theme parks in California and Florida and at numerous fairs, charity events, casinos, theme and water parks and schools. "There's no other couple that does what we do," Ellen Chase said. "We love it."

The Chases' business is highly specialized, Lori Rubinstein, executive director of the Entertainment Services & Technology Association, said. The international trade group has 466 members, including manufacturers, suppliers and professionals involved in creating, installing and running the lights, sounds, scenery and special effects for staged productions.

Crews put in long hours

She said people often train for stage work on the job and work in collaboration with others. Crews work days, evenings and late into the night, setting up equipment, running it during shows, then disassembling and packing up their gear. Still, it's a dynamic endeavor that appeals to many.

"They like being involved in and putting on a production for an audience," Rubinstein said. While staging and production services are needed for a broad range of venues, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the business suffered, Rubinstein said.

"This is an industry that relies on people willing to congregate, whether it's to go to a rock concert or a theater or a church -- whatever it might be -- it relies on people being willing to come together. And of course people were unwilling to do that for a long time after 9/11," she said.

As president and CEO of Signet Staging in LaGrange, David Hendrickson and his teams put together corporate productions for audiences of 50 to 18,000. Like the Chases, he travels extensively and works hard, finding himself on the road about 180 days a year and putting in 12 to 18 hours a day during an event. Even so, he finds the work uniquely satisfying.

"We've done things all over the world," Hendrickson said. "It's very exciting."

Local performing arts teachers Estelle and Alfonso were Musical Waters' first clients.

"We met Bob Chase when he played the fountains for the Mid Hudson Ballet Company, when the company was introduced to the public by Eleanor Roosevelt," Estelle said.

Later, Musical Waters put on a show for Estelle and Alfonso's school spring concert at Poughkeepsie High School, and then, at their Christmas show at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center.

"We had a full-house of over 2,000 children -- and the children literally screamed with excitement as the fountains changed formation," Estelle said. "And the people backstage actually had tears in their eyes from the children's reaction. It was quite something."

Karen Shan can be reached at biznews@poughkeepsiejournal.com

Profile

Musical Waters

Address: 60 Parkwood Blvd., Poughkeepsie.

Established: 1984.

Owners: Bob and Ellen Chase.

Web site: http://www.musicalwaters.com/