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 MIDWINTER CONVENTION | January 6-11, 2015
Twenty young choruses slated for New Orleans Festival
Seven new and thirteen returning choruses will raise the roof in New Orleans in January, when the Eighth Annual International Youth Chorus Festival opens at the Society's Midwinter Convention.
"This event has grown from a dream to a legitimate, world-class choral event," said Director of Outreach Joe Cerutti. "Choral directors have found that it catalyzes mild interest in ensemble singing into a compelling, exciting destination event that makes their entire men's vocal music program stronger." Event registrations and lodging expenses for nearly 500 young singers and their directors are underwritten by Harmony Foundation International. "This event is a clear and critical part of our efforts to support vocal music education," said CEO Marty Monson. "Thanks to HFI funding and special event donors, we can connect singers to an event where they are praised for their effort, immersed in barbershop culture, and get to meet their barbershop heroes face to face." 
Look behind the chorus names, and you'll see an interesting mix of groups sponsored by barbershop chapters and districts, ongoing high school barbershop programs, and wholly independent startups. - 52Eighty - RMD, Sound of the Rockies
- AZ Spirit - Greater Phoenix Chapter *
- Chandler HS Men's Choir - Chandler High School, Chandler Unified School District
- Cleveland Heights Barbershoppers - Cleveland Heights High School
- East Coast Sound - Montclair, NJ Chapter
- Foothills Sound - DIX, Powell High School, surrounding schools
- Frequency - RMD, Denver MountainAires, Denver Public Schools
- Georgia Spirit - DIX, Atlanta Metro and Greater Atlanta Chapters
- The Good Life Chorus - CSD, Lincoln Chapter *
- Harmony 2 Go - LOL, Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan, numerous high schools
- Melodic Morristown Men *
- Music City Youth Chorus - DIX, Music City Chorus *
- Ontario Youth A Cappella Chorus (O YA Chorus) - ONT
- Pacific Suns - La Jolla Chapter, San Diego Chapter
- The Recruits - CSD, St. Charles, MO Chapter
- Southern Gentlemen - Georgia Southern University *
- Sunshine District Youth Chorus - SUN *
- The Voice - PIO *
- The Young Guns - SWD
(* First-time entrant)
Admission to view the International Youth Chorus Festival is included in Midwinter Convention registrations. Sign up now at www.barbershopconvention.com/neworleans
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DEADLINE OCTOBER 31
Grants program supporting community music activities now accepting applications
Now three weeks into the first application window (closing October 31,) the results are encouraging. Webinars explaining the new grants process and the WizeHive application web site software have been viewed more than 800 times, indicating that there is widespread interest in the program. More exciting, more than 50 applications for grants have been initiated. This is great -- but there's capacity to fund many great ideas. The Society's bold new vision encourages a much wider variety of outreach activities -- not only youth outreach -- as well as funding innovative approaches to urgent Society priorities. The application process also ensures maximum impact per dollar spent, and makes it easier to acquire additional local funding. Talk with your chapter board now, and consider what you might do to make the music that's making a difference in people's lives. We've scheduled additional follow-up webinars to help support your ideas and application process. Wednesday, October 15, 7:00pm CDT Monday, October 20, noon (CDT) Get Off The Bench: Questions and Answers About Grant Applications Joe Cerutti leads an interactive discussion on the types of projects you might be considering, effective planning and evaluation of your programs, and reaching the finish line. Full details at www.barbershop.org/grants |
Grimmer joins BHS staff in outreach role 
Wayne Grimmer will be creating a new role on the Society staff, handling diversity, cultural integration and outreach activities for young singers in underserved and at-risk populations as an expansion of our Outreach team, reporting to Joe Cerutti.
This position will be wholly underwritten by a generous grant from Harmony Foundation International, and is a pioneering effort to transform the impact the Barbershop Harmony Society has in Nashville and beyond.
Wayne earned a Master's degree in Composition and Arranging from Five Towns College in his native New York, where he taught for several years as a music professor. Previously employed at Harmony Foundation International, Wayne is a busy arranger, coach, and lead of international semifinalist quartet 'Round Midnight.
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These five bookmarks make your smartphone a barberphone  Mobile barbershop is where it's at, baby, and that pocket can hold more than just a pitch pipe. Look up and bookmark these five sites (no apps required!), and you'll be ready to sing, share and debate barbershop with anyone you meet at the afterglow.
(If you're extra cool, extra geeky, or just can't wait, you can add these to your home screen or add to a folder on your Dock, so everything is right there right now. But that might be excessive. But not really.)
barbershoptags.com has more than 2700 little beauties ready to ring a dim stairwell a few steps ahead of securty. Read them right there on your phone, or follow the links to excellent tag apps Afterglow and Tag Master to add in learning tracks.
barbershopwiki.com means you'll never again lose a bar bet on how many medals, what years, and which personnel won what when.
youtube.com/barbershopharmony38 , our official YouTube Channel, makes it easy to show and share top barbershop performances with the uninitiated public. Don't just talk about Musical Island Boys, about the VM, about the Ambassadors of Harmony performing "Seventy-Six Trombones" -- show it!
twitter.com/barbershopnews brings a steady flow of breaking news and interesting links every day, without need for an app or an account. (Get those, too, if you like, for better sharing and exploring other barbershop feeds.)
www.facebook.com/barbershopharmonysociety is a social hub, home of chatter and links of interest. Again, it is open to the public without a Facebook account or app. |
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BUILDING BRIDGES IN CONVENTION CITY
Pittsburgh Youth Harmony Festival opens year of outreach in PGH
More than sixty young men and women took part in a Youth Harmony Festival this month staged by BHS and Sweet Adelines International members in the Pittsburgh area. International semifinalist The Con Men and Sidekicks of SAI led the singers through a fun day of harmony.
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DEPT.OF GAGS & MEMES
Top 10 lies all Barbershoppers tell
- One more tag, honey, then I swear I'm coming home
- Nah, the barbershop version is good, but the original was better
- Dynamics are great; I'd much rather sing this high tag softly
- Don't worry, this is an easy tag
- I usually nail that post
- Director: I promise, we're gonna run this song without stopping
- I totally called the top 5 right
- With the right lead/bass I could win international
- I really like the way your baritone sticks out
- It's just one night a week
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Welcome, new chapters!
Quartets and chapters have their own life cycles, forming, growing, maturing, fading, reviving, maintaining. We're pleased to report that yes, new chapters are being founded all the time. These chapters have received their charter in 2014:
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Thunder Bay, Ontario (ONT)
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Fayetteville, North Carolina Chapter (NSC)
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Black River Valley, New York (SLD)
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Rome, NY (SLD)
Keep your eyes peeled for members of these groups at district conventions, and give them a hearty "Hail, well met!"
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Win $200!
Last month, we released "Hooked On A Feeling," (with tracks,) the irresistible "ooga chaka" song featured in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy blockbuster space flick. This one's going to be big -- kids are going to eat it up. So we decided to have a little more fun with it, by launching a contest for you to show us your ooga chakas.
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Want to win $200 to the Harmony Marketplace? Get
"Hooked on a Feeling" and find out how!
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You can win $200!
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Buy the song (opt and the tracks).
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Learn the song.
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Sing the song in ANY ensemble.
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Record the song and post it as a link in the comments section to the video challenge.
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Share your video widely.
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Views are 1 point, YouTube Video "likes" are 1 point. Although shares help, it's the YouTube numbers that win the thing. So Tumblr, tweets, all that social media schtuff will help.
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Numbers are tallied up November 1.
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