'Twas St. Croix Crossing in Costa Mesa!
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CHORD-INATOR FEBRUARY 2018 OFFICIAL BULLETIN OF THE MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, CHAPTER **** A CHAPTER WITH AN ENVIABLE PAST - AN UNBOUNDED FUTURE **** 10,000 LAKES DIVISION - LAND O’LAKES DISTRICT FEBRUARY 2018- VOL.74- NO. 2 ‘twas St. croix crossing in costa mesa! Poise … Polish … Perseverance The Scene: The Segerstrom Center for the Arts Con- ballad, the boys elected to go with two ballads, Smilin’ cert Hall in Costa Mesa, California. The Event: The Bar- Through and Auld Land Syne … and did they perform! bershop Harmony Society’s 2018 International Seniors The audience responded with a rousing ovation, many Quartet Contest. The standing to do so. Time: Late morning Four more quartets of Saturday, January and then the intermi- 20. The third quartet nable waiting and to perform, Easy finally the an- Street, had led off nouncements, 5th with A Chocolate Place, Spotlight, 4th Sundae On a Satur- Place, Renaissance, day Night, conclud- 3rd-Place, Unfin- ing with Always, ished Business, 2nd- both beautifully ren- place, Easy Street … dered in classic Bar- bershop style. Obvi- [Sidebar: Earlier ously the contest bar that morning Judy had then been set at a and I had attended lofty height. the Gold Medal Hour with Main St. Croix Crossing Street where Tony had drawn the 21st Four most happy fellas, St. Croix Crossing, from left: Tenor Randy Lieble, Lead Dan Heike, Bass Jared Hoke, and Baritone Steve Hardy. Staff Photo DeRosa reminisced slot (out of 25) and about some of his had to cool their pipes for three hours or so before taking quartet’s experiences including awaiting the results of the the stage. We LOLers in the audience, I felt sure, were all 2017 International Quartet Contest. They had placed third apprehensive and a little anxious, a few having attended in the 2016 contest and were hoping to at least win 3rd- one or more of the past contests in which SCC had won Place again. So, when 3rd-place was announced sans Main four previous medals (two 2nd, a 4th, and a 5th). Street, Tony thought, “Oh, Oh, 6th-Place.” And then when But rookies no longer—now seasoned veterans—they at 2nd-Place was announced, and still no Main Street, he was last took the stage and were taken aback by the enthusias- almost sure it would be 6th-Place, but the Barbershop tic reaction of the audience. (They had been surprised gods prevailed and Main Street garnered the gold. Need- earlier by the numbers of total strangers at the airports less to say, my fears about St. Croix Crossing finishing and at the hotels and other venues who had approached without a medal were, happily, groundless.] them with kind words of encouragement.) Thus, all’s well that ends well. St. Croix Crossing arrived Eschewing the time-worn format of one up-tune and one home with the gold—along with loads of flashing smiles! CHORD-INATOR 2 FEBRUARY 2018 2017 MIDWINTER Costa Mesa, California January 17-20 The Saturday night Grand Finale, 700 voices singing Battle Hymn of the Republic accompanied by the Great Organ. The Hurricane of Harmony Chorus from Gaither High School in Tampa, Florida, directed by Debbie Cleveland, two-time Sweet Adeline Queen of Harmo- ny. Her chorus won a Superior rating and the Audience Appreciation Award, and she, the Music Educator of the Year Award. The Grandview High School Supermen Chorus from Aurora, Colorado, directed by Darin Drown, who also directed The Superwomen (Page 3) from the same school. Both choruses were rated Superior, the highest score possible. Director Drown is, not surprisingly, a long-time Barbershopper. Prairie Chords from Saskatchewan High Schools and Universities (LOL Dist.), directed by Justin La CHORD-INATOR 3 FEBRUARY 2018 , Main Street on stage Saturday night. Main Street … up close and personal at Saturday’s Gold Medal Hour with Main Street: Mike McGee - baritone, Myron Whittlesey - bass, Tony DeRosa - lead, and Roger Ross - tenor. They concluded the hour performing Clay Hine’s Smile, ar- ranged specially for Main Street, and assuring the gold medals. To hear it without amplification from a dozen feet away was priceless. THANK YOU, MAIN STREET! All photos 2017 silver medalists Signature from left: Will Rodriguez, Pages Daniel Cochrane, Matt Clancy, and Dan Walz. (Lead Daniel 1-4 has a magnificent voice and a range to match.) by Staff Vintage Mix in concert at our Afterglow. From left: Julia, Kelsey, Ian, and Anika (The Shoppach Quads.) Well now, what do we do with this thing? The Commodore contingent in Santa Rosa at their Saturday night Afterglow: Back row from the left Your editor, Hardin Olson, Dan Cole, Lance and Janet Johnson, Randy and Stephanie Klopfleisch, Bill and Marsha Shaw. Front row: Sheila Cole, Judy Olson, LOL District President Dan True, and Paul Swanson. Harmony Foundation CEO Perry White and his wife Da- Two, among many, of the outstanding Midwinter performances, involved Tim Society CEO Marty lene. Perry spoke at the Satur- Waurick, one when he gave the Keynote address on Thursday, and the other when he Monson at Satur- day Town Hall. performed with his quartet, the 2006 Int’l Champions, Vocal Spectrum on Saturday. day’s Town Hall. Tim’s Barbershop odyssey with what he has endured, is nothing less than amazing. The Grandview High School Superwomen Chorus from Aurora, Colorado with Director Darin Drown CHORD-INATOR 4 FEBRUARY 2018 The St. Louis Park Middle School Chorus from St. Louis Park, Minnesota, under the direction of Douglas Carnes. Although not an official representative of the Land O’Lakes District, the chorus, through the efforts of parents and friends, was able to raise the funds necessary to get the kids to California (and back). Doug Carnes, who also serves as the artistic director of the Great Northern Union (Barbershop) Chorus, also put out the call to Twin City- area Barbershop chapters who responded generously to the request. The 50 or so guys and gals pictured were having a memorable time that they won’t soon forget and hopefully some of the Barbershop (a cappella?) seeds sewn on that stage will take root. cal challenges, incorporating over a Raising the Bar Pitch Pipe Perfect! half-dozen chapter quartets and By Paul Wigley, Director small ensembles to settle the score … the 2018 annual show and determine which chorus will be The past few weeks I have come Pitch Pipe Perfect champions. home from chorus By Blake Wanger, President (& thes- Tuesday evenings pian) The show committee has been hard at work behind the scenes and the feeling absolutely Preparations for this year’s annual fantastic! We have script is nearing its final form. Our show are in full swing members are mastering their music been working on and the excitement is style, musicality, nu- and marketing materials are being building! The show, distributed. For a number of reasons ance, contrast within titled Pitch Pipe Per- songs, in addition to this is going to be an extremely en- fect, will be the Com- tertaining and exciting show. vocal production and modores’ homage to technique. These are popular, reality- The Songs: Over the course of the Paul Wigley the elements that singing competitions show, the Commodores will be per- Tuesday night rehearsals are designed like Sing Off, The forming a wide range of musical to enhance! To those of you in at- Voice and American sources including old crooner clas- tendance, it is obvious that a lot of Blake Wanger Idol, as well as the sics, rock’n roll, country, Disney, work has been done to get new music popular Pitch Perfect movie series. Broadway, movies, spirituals, Bar- learned, and to get old music tidied up During the show the Commodores bershop classics and more. The … outside of Tuesday night. The ex- will perform in not one, but two cho- show includes songs by Queen, El- tra work is letting me, as a director, ruses, competing in a series of musi- Go to Perfect, Page 5, Column 3 get to the essence of music-making. Hence, my feelings of elation after production accordingly. We do the things we are working on in re- these evenings. NOT sing The Way Y ou Look To- hearsals—not just pounding notes. night with the same style that we For those of you that have been pre- It has also been noted during rehears- sing Country Roads. It doesn’t take sent, thank you for your terrific als that there is a much more con- a genius to figure that out! work. For those of you that have sistent vocal quality developing This ability to tweak style of vocal had conflicts, we get it. But Tues- among Commodore singers. That day nights are providing some re- consistence in vocal technique has timbre is another reason I’m so ex- cited about the upcoming annual warding musical moments already. also manifested itself in more con- The joy of being a member of the sistent, in-tune singing. Also, having show. The Show Committee (led by Matt Richards) has done a mar- Minneapolis Commodores is shar- the ability to adjust vocal color and ing those musical moments with a vocal timbre allows us to create music velous job of giving us music with a lot of variety. We have the vocal community that simply wants one that is interesting. I’ve always been thing—to make great music togeth- frustrated by choral groups that seem ability to clearly define that variety in a musical way, which really er. I thank you all for the great to think they have their sound … yet work you’re doing. everything they sing sounds the same! pumps me up! Music has different styles and themes, These adjustments, phrasing differ- It’s going to be a great show and it’s and singers need to adjust their vocal ences, and vocal technique shifts are great to be a Commodore! CHORD-INATOR 5 FEBRUARY 2018 his family would appreciate your Perfect from Page 4 SUNSHINE thoughts and prayers.