For Straight No Chaser member Walter Chase, singing at Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown, is almost like bringing his career full circle.

The a cappella group's 35-show "SNC Live" fall tour began in October in Burlington, Vt. and concludes with two shows, 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 23, in Allentown, with stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlantic City, and Westbury, N.Y.

The only better way he could think of to really complete his circle of success would be to perform at the State Theatre for the Performing Arts, Easton, or even perhaps in the Easton Area High School (EAHS) auditorium, Chase jokes.

Chase, an alumnus of EAHS, says his interest in singing and performing began there.

"I was in marching band and did just about every choir there was at Easton," Chase says, adding that he also performed in a show at the Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, Muhlenberg College.

Chase, a Forks Township native who still has family in the Lehigh Valley, got his start in music early on. Often, his older sister's hobbies became his hobbies by default, Chase says, and as a result, he found himself singing in a choir in elementary school. One teacher especially turned Chase's simple pleasure into a viable career option.

Edward Milisits, now retired choral director at Easton Area High School, became one voice among those of many teachers who had a hand in influencing Chase to pursue music after high school.

"Because of him, he's the reason why I wanted to become a music education major and went on to do what I did," Chase explains.

After graduating from EAHS in 1995, Chase, then known as Walter Shilanskas, studied music education and minored in business at Indiana University, where he became involved one of the larger campus choirs, the Singing Hoosiers.

With 20 members, most of them male, Chase said the Singing Hoosiers was mostly a traditional college choral group. It was in this group that he met the other guys that would become Straight No Chaser, including Jerome Collins, another Lehigh Valley native and an Allen High School graduate.

Chase says that he and the other nine who comprise Straight No Chaser originally deviated from the Singing Hoosiers because, as young college gentlemen, they wanted to sing for girls around campus.

"The 10 of us were looking for an outlet to sing stuff a little more 'our style' just fun music that we enjoyed singing more," Chase explains.

And thus, Straight No Chaser was born. As some graduated, other students took their places, and it wasn't until most of the original members had begun establishing themselves in the professional world as businessmen in finance and other such "nine-to-five" jobs, as Chase puts it, that the group's popularity would swell into what it is today.

It began again in 2007 when a video on YouTube of the group singing their version of "Twelve Days of Christmas" suddenly went viral after being online for about one year. Chase says the video was from a show the group had done in 1998.

From there, a representative from Atlantic City Records got in contact with the members of the group, looking to sign them and on New Year's Day 2008, the group got back together.

Since then, Straight No Chaser has put out three albums, toured nationwide headlining concerts, and recorded songs with other famous singers like Barry Manilow. The group expects to release its fourth CD next year.

Although Straight No Chaser sang its first Lehigh Valley concert Aug. 11, 2011, at Musikfest, Chase says, "We've been circling around the Lehigh Valley for a long time and now performing at Symphony Hall is going to be absolutely special."

This homecoming will be especially meaningful for Chase. He will be dedicating the Allentown concerts to his father, Walter Shilanskas, Sr., who passed away in August from a long-fought battle against cancer.

"My dad was a huge fan of the group. It'll be emotional for myself and the guys who were all close to him."