The last of the Collegiate Quartet Preliminary Contests is over, and we’re excited to announce that 29 collegiate quartets qualified for the International CBQC – which will be taking place on Tuesday, June 29 at 6:00pm in Philadelphia! Read the rest of this entry »
Here it is folks! Congratulations to ALL quartets! Read the rest of this entry »
Chapters are constantly sending me clips and links from news coverage they get, mostly from their local newspapers, and sometimes in local and even national magazines. (The above is a recent clip from NEA Today, the magazine of the National Education Association. They got our membership numbers off by about 6,000, but we and Al appreciate the plug!)
Here’s the deal: What these chapters are doing is awesome, and it turns out they’re only sending us a fraction of what’s out there. But I have no idea what to do with most of these clips or how to share them. We already put some of the best on the front page and news section of barbershop.org and also in Livewire. Is that enough? Read the rest of this entry »
We would like you all to think over a suggested change to our competition schedule, for choruses only. We’re in the early “what if?” stage right now, but the Society is investigating the possibility of switching our international chorus competition to a two-year rotation.
Currently, we allow approximately the 28 best Society choruses from each fall district contest (district champs and wild-cards), in addition to a few international affiliates, to compete at the next international contest, which takes place 8-9 months later. We want to gauge reaction to the idea of a system in which (approximately) the 56 best Society choruses would compete on alternating years (an equal top-down mix of still roughly 28 per year). They would also qualify roughly 20 months before the international contest, to give them more time to financially and artistically prepare.
This PDF is a hypothetical example of how a two-year cycle switch could be implemented.
This Excel spreadsheet shows an example configuration based on 2009 scores. (Please note that the spreadsheet opens to a tab that shows the final results. There are two other tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet that show how those results were generated.)
Sweet Adelines International has used a two-year rotation since the early 1970s. Initially, they experienced alternating “strong” and “weak” years, but the “second tier” competitors raised their competitive level, and soon all years were strong years. As seen in the above hypotheticals, were the Society to implement a two-year rotation, we would avoid the “weak year” challenge from the outset. Read the rest of this entry »
Yea, I know, who cares? Right?
BUT…As a competitor, judge, and staff guy, I get around to many contests each year in several different districts and I always find it interesting how varying barbershop audiences can be with the way they welcome the competitors to the stage. Read the rest of this entry »
The long anticipated release of the 2009 Anaheim Convention DVDs has finally arrived … TWO DAYS prior to our original projected shipping date!
Your HQ staff plus several of our wonderful volunteers worked together to get these out the door to you as quickly as possible. And I mean quick! The DVDs arrived to Harmony Hall from the duplicator this morning at 9:15 a.m., and as I write this at about 11 a.m. they are all out the door and in mail streams!
If you haven’t ordered your’s yet, there is still time to do so and receive it in time for Christmas. But you must act fast. Visit the Harmony Marketplace online to learn about what shipping options are available for the quickest delivery. Or call 800-876-7464 and order yours today!
Here we are six weeks away from the Midwinter Convention in Tampa, Fla. (January 28-31, 2010) and we’re headed towards what looks to be our largest attended Midwinter ever. As of this morning we are sitting at 1210 registrations! Last year at this time we were at 893 registrations and by the time everything was said and done we had 1291 folks in Pasadena. Where will Tampa finish? Come on and find out!
As you can imagine, we here at HQ are very excited about this. I am especially excited because quite simply, more barbershoppers in the same place at the same time=FUN. Even now, however, the convention is still somewhat of a “best kept secret” in the Society. Read the rest of this entry »
You told us loud and clear in surveys that the convention schedule must change. You wanted fewer overlapping events, fewer awards and more singing, and events that ended early enough that you could get an hour or two of tagging in before bed and still get a decent night’s rest. Take a look at the Philly convention schedule and you’ll see some exciting changes that will give you more breathing room–more time to convene at barbershop’s international showcase.
But you didn’t want us to drop any of the events that have always packed our week. To give you that more open schedule you want (and not by inviting fewer competitors) we went back to hosting our first major event on Tuesday evening. (As an added bonus, it also helps keep the registration costs as low as possible–we actually reduced it from 2009!)
Here are some highlights from the schedule: Read the rest of this entry »
It’s not unusual in the world of meetings and conventions that a convention city reserved for one organization’s convention might find themselves in a situation where a different organization with exciting opportunities wants to hold their convention over the same dates. In some cases it’s workable but in other cases it is not. We found the latter to be the case for the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2011 Midwinter Convention in Tucson, AZ. Read the rest of this entry »
27 of the world’s best seniors quartets come together in Tampa, FL on January 29, 2010 to compete for the coveted gold medal. Come to the Midwinter Convention cheer them on! Read the rest of this entry »
26 Society choruses and two affiliate choruses will compete in the 2010 International Chorus Competition in Philly. Order of Appearance: Read the rest of this entry »
I have been musing about the variety of music we hear on the International stage and how much of it is, well, not so good. I don’t mean it’s not performed well – of course it’s performed well, these are the best practitioners of our style in the world! I mean it’s not all the very best music. Seems that, in an effort to do something unique, many of our competitors find some obscure song no one’s done before and, after it’s arranged to the hilt, they sing it for us.
This put me in mind of an experience I had ‘way back in school. I was opining (I tend to do that) about how contemporary music – 20th C. stuff – just didn’t hold up against the “classics”. Didn’t have the musical depth and value of the earlier stuff. A musicologist professor of mine said, “Well, you must remember that you’re hearing almost all the music that’s being written now and the music you hear from earlier centuries is only the best of the best. Time has winnowed out the stuff of lesser quality.” When you think of it, that’s true about all music of all times. I have a 40s channel on my Sirius radio. All 40s all the time. And lots of it is pretty bad stuff. Once in a while a “classic” will pop up, but for every “I Thought About You”, there’s several lesser tunes that have faded from the scene. Same is true of the 50s hits I hear at Wendy’s or whatever. Just the best stuff survived.
So, consider that we’re pretty much hearing everything anyone wants to sing on the contest stage each year. And that the “good old songs” that we remember as great (Thank you, Old School) represent a small fraction of all the songs that were sung on the contest stage in the 50s, or 60s, or 70s, or…
Just a thought. Might help with your bloodpressure next July. I know it will with mine.
The Society just released the Ambassadors of Harmony’s performance of “76 Trombones” to our YouTube site, youtube.com/barbershopharmony38. We were able to work out an agreement with the copyright holder to make this happen legally. AND…we also worked with AOH to make that happen. (Thank you AOH!!!)
It is our intent to upload more performances, starting with some Public Domain songs, but we want your feedback on what else you think absolutely MUST be up there.
And oh by the way, please be realistic. “Every song from every performer” would cost a fortune. 
So what do you think?
We are beginning to plan all of the small details (schedule, classes, etc.) for next year’s convention. Each year we take into account survey responses from those of you that came to the most recent convention to help us better prepare for future conventions, but we’d like to have an open dialogue here where we can share ideas with each other. Here are a few questions to get you started: Read the rest of this entry »
We are “going green” and not providing hard copy surveys but we always want your feedback on how we can make the convention a better experience for you. Read the rest of this entry »
We are beginning the process of deciding content for this year’s DVD(s) and we want your input. Please keep in mind there are MANY variables that we must also take into consideration (mostly due to copyright and licensing), but tell us what you want and we’ll do our best to give you a product you’ll enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »
From a field of 70 quartets a record breaking 28 Collegiate Quartets have qualified and will represent their schools, districts and/or affiliate organizations at the International Collegiate Quartet Contest this summer in Anaheim, CA! Congratulations to all competitors! This year showed the largest participation in the number of quartets since the inception of this contest back in 1992. Read the rest of this entry »
It is going to be a barn burner of a quartet contest as 52 quartets from around the world come together to compete for the coveted quartet gold medal. Plan ahead to cheer on your favorite quartets. Here is the order of appearance: Read the rest of this entry »
So far registration numbers are ABOVE last year at this time but we can always use more help in getting the word out. Please tell your chorus mates, local music teachers, friends in the Sweet Adelines and Harmony Incorporated organizations, or pretty much anyone that you meet that Harmony University is THE place to be July 26-August 2 this summer. Let’s work together to make this year’s event the most fun and exciting HU yet!
If you haven’t registered or decided on your final schedule yet here are few class titles you should consider. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a cool idea from the Rocky Mountain District.
Has anyone else tried this? Have you participated in this? Inquiring minds want to know!
Each year the International Convention offers classes/seminars for all attendees. While these are always well attended we do want to make sure what we offer is what interests you. Please take the time to complete this short poll about what classes would interest you and we’ll do our best to make them happen.
What type of classes/seminars would you like to see offered in Anaheim?
Total Voters: 50
Loading ...The Dapper Dans barbershop quartet has been performing at Disneyland in Anaheim, California since 1959. That makes this year their 50th Anniversary in show business. To help commemorate this milestone and because the Dans have touched so many lives for so many years, the Barbershop Harmony Society will be presenting the Dans with a Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday night July 4, in front of a packed house at Anaheim’s Honda Center. Read the rest of this entry »
Many people got their first whiff of barbershop harmony watching the Buffalo Bills sing in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. Now, a new generation will have the opportunity to see barbershop on the solver screen once again, as the award-winning documentary“American Harmony” comes to theaters across North America this spring. Read the rest of this entry »
I was judging at an LOL divisional contest a couple of weeks ago and was fortunate to both score as well as evaluate a chorus that had not competed in about ten years. These guys were excited to be there for a number of reasons: Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll be seeing all of you if you come to Anaheim for our summer convention. Right now it’s not looking so good, as we see the effects of the economic downturn and experience a definite drop in the number of paid registrations. Read the rest of this entry »
