The GreenLine
An Official bulletin of Our Evergreen
District
“Preserving Our Past…
Preparing Our Future”
February, 2008
In
this issue…
Articles
BHS Director of Membership
Visits
Shows
& Events
The All-Northwest Barbershop Ballad Contest
Puyallup
Spring Fair Choir and Ensemble Competition
Printable Version
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
BHS
Membership Director Visits Evergreen
By Q. Gates
Charlie Davenport, the Barbershop Harmony
Society’s Director of Membership, visited the Evergreen District during the week
of January 14 - 18, attending inter-chapter meetings and holding listening
sessions with chapter leaders in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.
On
Thursday, January 17th, Charlie met with members representing six
Division I chapters including Abbotsford,
Bellingham, Chilliwack, Greater
Vancouver, Langley and Vancouver. He dined with the presidents and other
leaders from the six chapters, listening to their concerns and gathering
information about the issues likely to be raised by their members later that
evening.
Later,
more than seventy Division I members and several guests gathered at the Langley
Chapter’s meeting location to get reacquainted, sing together, hear Charlie’s
presentation, sing together, ask Charlie questions about the Society membership
initiatives, harmonize together, and of course… sing!
The
Langley Chapter’s First Capitol Chorus
entertained and the youthful quartet “TNBT” performed several of their
repertoire songs. The highlight of the
musical portion of the evening was the formation of a massed chorus of nearly
70 singers from the six chapters. Each
chapter’s Music Director got to choose and lead the group in a Polecat. After a break for coffee and goodies, Charlie
led an interactive discussion with the attendees about membership issues,
Society programs and the impact of the headquarters move to Nashville,
Tennessee.
The
“Evening with Charlie” was a wonderful way to get together, renew old
friendships, enjoy singing in a very large ensemble, and to have the
opportunity to get answers and provide feedback to a Society leader.
Division I chapter leaders meet with Charlie Davenport over dinner.
Nearly 70 singers from six chapters raise their voices in song.
Charlie Davenport discusses BHS membership and answers questions.
Attendees listen as
Charlie explains upcoming Society membership initiatives.
The host chapter's "First Capitol Chorus" entertains their guests.
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
HOLIDAY
HARMONY
By Victor Froese, President Chilliwack Harmony Chorus
The
front page of the December 28th Chilliwack
Progress boldly announced in a 3
by 6 column inch photo that the Chilliwack Harmony Chorus
(CHC) was leading all 240 students of
Chilliwack Central Elementary school in what is known as their annual “Santa
sing along”. The actual event occurred
the Friday before Christmas which was also the students last day of school in
2007.
While
this was not CHC’s first experience in working with elementary school students,
it was the most ambitious for a number of reasons. First, we had two requests for
Christmas-related events on the Friday before the holiday, and we are a relatively
small chorus with about 30 members.
Second, this was not a performance of the chorus for an audience, it was
a “sing along” with a fairly large group of students ranging from Kindergarten
to grade six. We decided to send a
quartet, HiQ, to the Rotary Christmas event (also a large event with an
attendance of about 350), and our director, Wally Faas, and the remaining
available members to the school.
How
did this request to lead a school in its annual “Santa sing along” come
about? The school had lost its music
teacher the previous year (not an uncommon problem in schools strapped for
funds) and the principal had contacted our VP Youth, Barry Birtch, to see if we
could help with this annual event and perhaps with an after-school program
still in the planning stages.
Through
a planning process with our district councilor, members of our chorus had
agreed to generously participate in community activities, and this fit in
perfectly along with numerous singouts at senior’s homes. The BOD felt that we should participate with
the resources we had.
The
mechanics of the carol sing required a good deal of attention and coordination
with the school. Well known music needed
to be selected and the school assisted in preparing the words to be projected
on a large screen (seen in the top left corner of the photo). Singing was to be in unison so we did not
need to be concerned with having all voice parts present. Our director has had considerable experience
with church group singing and is very comfortable in front of a large
group. As a result, the photo shows the
students completely engaged in the singing activities. Because this is an inner city school, and
there are many needy children, we decided to supply a Santa Claus who would
distribute oranges to the students at the end of the sing along.
In
the end it was a win-win undertaking.
Chorus members felt gratified in helping to continue the long-standing
tradition of the school to host an important annual singing event. And the school staff, administration, and
students consider us as “partners in learning” (the school district
motto). Principal Scott Wallace wrote:
“Your participation has encouraged the growth and personal success of our
children and their families.” With our
goal of “enriching our community through singing”, what more could we ask?
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
NW Vocal
Project
Hello
Evergreen! I'm so pleased to say that the Evergreen District was well
represented by Silver Chords, Chuck Landback with Antique Gold, and the
Northwest Vocal Project!
For
those who haven't been following the news, the Northwest Vocal Project is a new
young men's chorus that was started by three guys from the Northwest Sound
chorus in Bellevue. They had a vision of a youth chorus that could follow in
the footsteps of the Westminster chorus down in California that started with 14
guys, and this last July won the International Chorus contest.
Many
similar choruses are cropping up all over the Barbershop Harmony Society and to
help encourage these activities, the BHS hosted the first ever International
Youth Festival during the Seniors International contest at the Midwinter
convention in San Antonio. This festival was not scored like a typical
barbershop contest, but more like a regular choral festival.
The
first chorus out on stage was our very own Northwest Vocal Project (NVP) and
they threw down the gauntlet! Six youth choruses competed at the festival, and
the audience was thrilled by the incredible caliber of performance given by the
NVP. They had 21 young men on the risers and
delivered their set with great artistry and a really full and mature sound
despite an average age of 20 years old! They won first place in their plateau
(AAA - based on average age of the chorus) and third place overall, missing a
rating of "Superior" by one point (!) and missing first place in the
festival overall by only 12 points against a chorus of 45 men.
Keep
your eyes on these guys in the coming months... there are great things afoot in
the Evergreen District!
Adrian
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
The
Abbotsford Chapter Honors a Founder
By Q. Gates
Alan Wilhite, previous award-winning
editor of the EVG “Greenline,” was
honored by the members of the chapter he helped create in 2003. More than a dozen Canadian members of the Abbotsford “Voices of Harmony” crossed
the border on their usual chapter meeting night, January 16th… met
up with Bill Charleston, a U.S. chapter member and the visit’s organizer… and
shared their company and voices with Alan and his wife, Carolyn.
Alan,
who is fighting a progressive liver ailment, has had to curtail his many
barbershop activities to concentrate on managing his condition. He appears in the accompanying pictures (1, 2,
& 3) wearing a heavy coat and hat to
help him maintain his body temperature.
You
may send your best wishes to Alan at seventhchord@comcast.net
or to his home address at 3155 Sylvan Street, Bellingham, WA 98226-4360.
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
Singing for
Life
If
you could save one life, would you? Would you work to save many lives if you
could? Would you appreciate the added bonus of gaining greater recognition for barbershop
harmony and your chapter in the process?
If
the answers are “yes,” then please join other chapters throughout the Society
and the North American blood center community in staging Singing for Life.
Singing for Life is designed to be the
largest North American blood drive and donor recruitment project in history. It
is timed occur during a period when demand for blood strains supplies: May 10,
a day before Mother’s Day, a week before Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. and a
week following Canada’s Victoria Day.
With
our blood center partners, your chapter can both save lives and raise your
prominence within your community. But, it cannot succeed if there are not
enough participating chapters.
Chapters
participating in Singing for Life will host a well-publicized blood drive while
entertaining audiences with barbershop harmony and other musical styles... You
are strongly encouraged to have your chapter invite others groups to
participate as both donors and entertainers: community or church music ensembles,
school bands, choirs and orchestras.
Ask
your chapter president whether your chapter has registered. (Each president has
been sent a user name and password for the registration site: www.singforlife.org
)
The
life you help save could very well be that of a loved one or a fellow
Barbershopper. Is it worth some advance planning and cooperative action? You
decide.
Helpful
Links
Answers to frequently asked questions regarding Singing for Life
A
complete job description for your chapter’s Singing for Life program manager
Have
more questions? Contact info@barbershop.org
Meet
our blood center partners:
More
information and tools to come!
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
Standing Ovation Program
By
Bobby Huber, Chairman, Standing
Ovation Program
About the S.O.P. Program. What is it?? How does it
work? Who do I contact?
Well it is real easy and real simple and real
cheap. The STANDING OVATION PROGRAM EVALUATION goes like this: When you
get your APPROVAL DATE from the District Secretary, it will have a request for
you to contact me (BobbyHuber@comcast.net)
if you are interested in the process. A trained Evaluator will come to your
Show / Activity and all it costs your chapter (or Quartet) is the price of a
couple of tickets. The rest of the expenses are borne by the District. The
Evaluator will get in touch with your contact person and set up a time prior to
the activity (same day) to go over what needs to be understood as to what is to
be done by both parties. The Evaluator will give only encouragement and
positive feed-back on what he sees / hears on the activity and offer potential
improvements and evaluations on some "missed opportunities" that will
help in the next performances for the Chapter / Quartet.
The only responsibility of the Chapter /
Quartet is to fill out a form on the activities of the Evaluator and return it
to me. The Evaluator will either go over a form or write a separate wrap-up of
the activity and present it to whoever asked him to be at the activity. The
District does not get a copy, the Society does not get a copy, and the
Chairman (me) only gets a note from the Evaluator and the Chapter as to
when the activity took place and that an Evaluation was done. The report is
between the Chapter (or Quartet) and the Evaluator. How's that for simple??
And it is a GREAT tool for helping your Chapter (or
Quartet) get that elusive "STANDING OVATION" and help educate the
public on our art form and artistry in the A Cappella music genre. This is such
an easy and simple way to get good feed-back from an experienced Barbershopper
who sits in the audience and tells you what he knows will help you get even
better next time !! What a program - and FREE, too !!
Call me or E-mail me if your Chapter (or
Quartet) wants to take advantage of this marvelous program for improvement.
You just can't go wrong.
THANKS!!
Bobby Huber
425-337-0805
Contest and Judging NEWS - February 2008
By Mike Lanctot –
District Director C&J
www.evg.org web site has expanded C&J information for the members!
Does understanding the ins and
outs of the contest and judging program leave you scratching your head? We may
have a workable solution to this annual bout with confusion. A goal of the
District C&J program in 2008 is improvement of information and service to
the members on the District web site.
“We’ve expanded and will
continue to expand the capabilities of contests and judging on the Evergreen
District web site,” according to Mike Lanctot, District Director C&J. He
has added more information for quartets and choruses interested in competing in
2008, revised or deleted documents currently on the web site that is
out-of-date or is not currently being used, and now has a direct link to these
documents through the Convention tab on the web site.
Here are the topics shown the
evg.org web site (Communications>Documents>Contest Related>Documents):
- Combined District and Society Contest Rules
- 2008 Competitor’s Handbook for Quartets and
Choruses
- Quartet Registration Form
- Quartet Information Handbook
- Bank of
- Bank of
According to Lanctot, “We’ll
be adding more articles of interest to our competitors and judging community as
the year progresses.” We hope to have a web site section that’s informative and
will be a “go to” section that any member can use to answer those nagging
questions or provide a “one-stop
shopping” information center for the members.
Why not go to the www.evg.org web site and check out the new
additions?
QUARTETS & CHORUSES
NOW’S THE TIME TO DO THE FOLLOWING!
F Register your quartet or update your
quartet Information
F Enter your quartet or
chorus for a division contest
To compete, a quartet must be registered with the Society.
Now is the time to get this done before the contest cycle begins. A Quartet
Registration Form can be obtained from the www.barbershop.org
web site through the
If you’ve had a change in
your registered quartet personnel, now is the time to update that information
with the Society.
Don’t forget that each member
of your quartet must be Society members in good standing and a registered
quartet, with annual renewal in order, at the time of the competition.
vvvvvvvv
Enter your quartet or chorus
in your Division contest by going to the Society web page (www.barbershop.org) going to the Member’s
Only page. The deadline for entering a contest is 28 days prior to the Division
contest you want to enter. In general, you should compete in your home
division. A quartet or chorus that has a situation forcing them to compete
Out-of-Division will need to formally request a waiver from the District
Director of Contest and Judging 30 days prior to the start of the contest
cycle. One exception to published entry deadlines is if your quartet will be competing at Prelims,
the deadline for entry is 14 days prior to the contest.
NEW Competitor Handbook in the mail
One of three biggest lies is:
“It’s in the mail.” Well, in this case it’s “electronically” in the mail! A new
handbook is on its way to all chapter and quartet contacts. It will: outline
the contest rules for 2008, provide answers to Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ), and offer tips to make the contest process easier and more
understandable.
If you are interested in
getting a copy, it can be downloaded from the www.evg.org web site through the Contest
and Judging link under the ‘Conventions’ tab on the home page. This is especially
important if you’re a new quartet competitor.
Division Contests Information
The dates and locations of
the division contests/conventions are set. Go to www.evg.org
for links to registration information. However, some division registration
information may not be up and running quite yet. The contests are as follows:
Division Date
Location
Entry Deadline Contest Chairman/e-mail address
Division I April 4-5 Abbotsford, BC March 8, 2008 Wayne Sephton wayferles@shaw.ca
Division II April 4-5 Burien, WA March 8, 2008 Pete Gasparrelli peteg@nwlink.com
Division III May 31 Red Deer, AB May 3, 2008 Brian Eriandson pjia@telusplanet.net
Division IV/Prelims May 2-3 Portland, OR April 19, 2008 (Q’tet) Bob Cox robert.cox@ge.com
April 5, 2008 (Cho)
Division V May 30-31 Spokane, WA May 3, 2008 Rusty Kurth lrkurth@comcast.net
According to District Policy
all competitors must purchase an All-Events Ticket Package and all tickets
sales and registrations are final, but transferable. Early bird prices will be
in effect for each division contest. Get your registration completed by the
early-bird deadlines and entry by the entry deadline, which will vary from
convention to convention.
Quartets planning to compete at the Division IV contest and the Prelims contests should enter
both contests on the Society Contest Entry Form (CJ-20).
Applicant judges begin journey to certification
The future of judging in
Evergreen District is well in hand as three applicant judges begin the arduous
process leading to judge certification. The applicant judges are Tim Marron
(Singing) from the Pierce County Chapter and John Burri and Harry Buerer
(Music), both from the Portland Metro Chapter.
The applicant judges, if
accepted, will be invited to a judge’s applicant school next summer. If they
successfully complete the applicant school, they will be designated candidate
judges and spent about two years practicing at contests and honing their
coaching skills in preparation for the next category school in August of 2010.
We wish them well and appreciate their dedication to our hobby and the future
of the Society judging program.
CJ_ContestandJudgingNEWS/February08..pdf
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
Get Ready
For Another Explosion!
By Jamie Peterson
Your
Harmony Explosion Northwest staff is very excited to announce the opening of
registration for Harmony Explosion 2008, which will be held on the Pacific Lutheran
University campus July 17 to 19, 2008.
Male and female students age 12 - 21 may now go to http://www.harmonyexplosion.com
and register online. Just click the
"Registration" button to register online, and follow the
directions. While you're there, check
out the great things Adrian Leontovich has done with the web site. You can see pictures of last year's camp, a
history of the camp, staff bios, security measures, a tentative schedule, and a
whole lot more! This is a great chance
for students to experience 4-part and 8-part a cappella music with people their
own age who have common interests.
Once Again, Thank You From
The Kids!
To
the Bud Leabo Memorial Fund and Harmony Foundation; to the chapters, choruses
and members of the Evergreen District; and to Sweet Adelines International and
its' chapters; the students and staff of Harmony Explosion 2007 would like to
say THANK YOU! To see what the kids say
about the camp, please go to http://www.harmonyexplosion.com/kids.htm.
We Have New
Sponsors!
Harmony
Explosion Northwest will now be sponsored by the Tacoma, Seattle and Anacortes
Chapters of the Evergreen District. This
is purely an administrative change and will not affect the camp itself. We are very excited to be working with these
chapters, who have done so much for HX and for other youth programs over the
years.
On A Personal Note
Mollie
and I would just like to give our thanks to all of the staff, student staff,
and students, and to all of you who have contributed to the success of Harmony
Explosion Northwest over the years. We
are truly fortunate to have such great people supporting this project. We hope that you will continue to support us
as we travel down a path that has taken us far beyond our original vision and
goals.
Over
half of the 190 students who attended HX 2007 needed a full or partial
scholarship in order to attend camp. If
you would like to help support our scholarship fund, please send a donation
made out to Harmony Explosion Northwest to:
The
Brookman Memorial Fund
1308
7th Street
Snohomish,
WA 98290
Again,
thank you for your support.
Harmony
Explosion Northwest Staff
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
Historical
Notes
By Edwin P. Dierdorff, Jr., Evergreen
District Historian
Did
you know?
The
convention was held on the first weekend in November in
[In
1991], [t]here was good news from
The Model T Four, next to the Close Harmony Tradition (1987), Aliens, Golden Opportunity, Fatherly
Advice (1996), Overtime (2000) Antique Gold (2004), Silver Chords,
and Friendly Advice (2007), were one of the few senior quartets to be medalist in the
International Seniors Quartet contest.
Ed
Hartely and Ray Greaves, Evergreen Gold, 1998, pgs 23, 135, 175
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
Division 1
Contest and Convention
By Danny Tryon, Co-Chair Division 1 Convention
2008
Like
all well run Contest and Conventions, there is much more than just two songs!
This
spring the Division 1 Choruses and Quartets will be gathering in Abbotsford, BC
on April 4th and 5th at the Abbey Arts Centre, 2329
Crescent Way and will be hosted by the Langley Chapter.
Friday
night features the quartet contest starting at 7:30 and Saturday has the Chorus
Contest starting at 11:00 am. Then the Show of Champions will start Saturday
night 7:30, followed by an afterglow in the same building.
The
convention registration forms can be found on the Evergreen District web site
or the Langley Chapter web site at www.evg.org/firstcap .
The
Saturday evening show will feature the top three quartets and choruses as well
as The Gentlemen of Fortune doing part of their Pan
Pacific package. Headlining the Show will be the 2005 International Quartet
Champions REALTIME with new music and a new but well known lead!
There
will be lots of grass roots barbershop that will happen off the stage beginning
with “Forward Quartetting”. You’ll have to come and find out what it is but be
prepared to sing…
A new category called the VLQ contest will
allow small groups to sing and be adjudicated at the same time as the chorus
contest. They are in a category all by themselves and should have between 6 and
11 members who will enter the contest instead of a chorus from that chapter.
We
encourage all choruses and quartets from Division 1 to come and enjoy a great
weekend of fellowship, singing and great shows and support singing in our Division.
For
more information contact the Chairman, Wayne Sephton at wayferles@shaw.ca or dtryon@shaw.ca.
February, 2008 Volume 4,
Issue 2
The
Canby "Oregon Trail Pitchpipers" Barbershop Chorus proudly presents
Our 42nd Annual Show:
"Golden Tunes Of
Harmony"
Barbershop Harmony
2008
ONE DAY, TWO BIG SHOWS
February 9, 2008
Featuring:
The "Oregon Trail
Pitchpipers"
and
|
"HMMM!" |
"Cascade
Harmony Chorus" |
|
"Toon'z" |
"Antique
Gold" |
|
Tickets: |
Richard R. Brown |
Tickets: |
|
For ticket information contact: |
Nathan Mitts |
nathanmitts@juno.com |