Choir of THE WORLD! – Westminster Chorus tops all at Llangollen!
Posted by Lorin May | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on July 13, 2009, 11:54 AM
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Justin Miller, what have you done? A week after he competed in the collegiate contest in Anaheim, Justin and 35 members of Westminster Chorus took on a bunch of much older directors with much longer resumes and were the overall winners of prestigious Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod 2009. About 4,000 singers and dancers from 50 nations competed. Watch the announcement of their win here and see their winning set here. The festival message board is here.
A huge feather in the hat of our 2007 international champion, and a grand slam for barbershop harmony worldwide. They were consistently introduced as a barbershop chorus (and the winners of the festival’s ”Barbershop Choruses” competition, but they performed impressive classical pieces as well. After winning the “barbershop chorus” and “folk song choirs” competitions earlier in the week, Westminster took a close second place in the “male choir” competition. Then in the final competition, they performed two the same numbers that had gotten them second place and this time beat all others to win the Pavarotti trophy.
The visit to Wales came at great expense to these young chorus members. Chorus members will greatly appreciate your support in the form of donations. Please help out the best you can to support these wonderful ambassadors of barbershop harmony!
Catch the Westminster Chorus as they defend their international title against the never-been-better Vocal Majority Chorus next summer in Philadelphia!
Wow! “Congratulations” doesn’t seem to be sufficient. Proud to be an American! How refreshing to see a competition that was about the singing unlike ours which, in my opinion, have evolved into a clown costume, prop laden, dance routine of a vaudeville nature. Let’s take a cue from Llangollen and get back to the singing as the reason for being. Westminster, bless you boys!
Westminster Chorus at the music festival and the winners of the Choir of the World was for me the best singing I have ever heard . All the guys worked so hard each as individuals , but also in team mode .
Every word was clear , the vowels , the diction, the end of phrases what a fantastic and wonderful sound .
Richard Curtis our Musical Director pays attention to all those things and it is hard work to get a clear crystal sound like the Westminster Chorus as a bench mark for choruses such as ours Harmony Lincs (12th At 2010 UK Convention ) we could never ever achieve that high standard without a huge injection of young voices . but there are young guys here in the uk The National Youth Chorus who could give it a real go with the right backing and director . It was great to see in Wales that you won without all the fancy cloths and dance moves , it was just about singing at the very highest level , I just loved the sound you guys make , and as an ex military man all my days I had to let the tears of pure joy flow . A very talented , clean , bunch of guys who came over here to the UK and Wales as Ambassadors of your country and barbershop and went away with our hearts .FANTASTIC!
George,
Funny you should say that: there’s a post on the CoW messageboard voicing someone’s displeasure with the outcome, because they felt that the focus on singing had been abandoned in favor of rewarding movement and flashy dancing.
One man’s treasure, as they say…
This is a great boost to public exposure for the barbershop genre. I’d like to see AIC involved in The Great American Sing-off. http://www.myspace.com/thesingoff
Standing still, in tuxedos, not responding to the music at all, no matter how beautiful, is not entertaining.
It never will be.
Entertainment is what it is, and always will be about.
If you aren’t entertained by watching people enjoy their music as they present it, then you are among a minority that does not, thankfully, influence the progression of entertianment. Apparently the judges don’t think much of it either.
Thankfully, you have an option. Turn off the video, close your eyes, and just listen. It won’t change what the rest of us, the vast majority, obviously prefer.
Congrats to Westminster on winning this award!! It’s about time that people pay more attention to the sound rather than the “look” of a chorus. The level of skill required to exeute these pieces, especially the Eric Whitiacre piece they opened with, is at a level that 99.9% of the BHS members could not achieve….this level is where the society needs to move to in order to get the youth involved. Listen to all the college groups and choruses (Brigham Young, Concordia just as two examples)….you want to bring talent into the society, the BHS needs to realize what the talent is listening to. Listen to the CD’s that gold medal quartets are releasing now….not a whole lot of barbershop anymore. And not surprising, those cd’s outsell ALL pure barbershop cd’s.
Too much of barbershop is focused on a “performace”, akin to what Steve is entertained by. By far, I was more entertained and musically satisfied by this performance than ALL of the 2009 convention (with the exception of VM and Ambassadors). Personally, I believe it takes an exceptional level of musicality to truly appreciate the sound that Westminster produces. I can only hope that the BHS realizes this and starts loosing the “rules” on compositions. Barbershop arrangements…other than the tags….are too predictable.
Can you have it both ways. In insisting on a better product, we are loosing Joe Barbershopper, the average singer who joins and sings to experiene joy and instant gratification – who does not want to “work” and compete to be No. #1.
I believe Barbershop harmony is a healing modality and would rather it helped Joe Barbershopper with good health and stress reduction. Don’t get me wrong, I thrill to Westminister, to the Ambassadors of Harmony, to the V.M. – but I truly love the fact that Joe Barbershopper can experience the “high” that comes from generally tuning a barbershop chord.
Never lose sight of this If we strive for chordal perfection, we will have a 10,000 man BHS and some other group wil be formed to allow 100,000 Joe Barbershoppers to sing together reasonably well – for the health of it..