Official Publication of the Pioneer District May/June 2004 Volume 55, Number 3 The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. To Infinity and Beyond Gaylord draws By Joe Serwach competition as mike testers. record crowd Editor And it was only fitting that By Al Bonney Family stories continue to another Pioneer father and Pioneer Immediate dominate Pioneer District son combination would get Past President quartet contests. the most attention in 2004. Pioneer While Craig Pollard’s Though this year’s duo conventions have quartet Infinity was winning shared the same stage, they the reputation of the right to represent Pioneer each had their own quartets being fun to attend in July’s International going head to head. and professionally Quartet Championship, Craig Pollard, organized. his teenage son Wayne was himself the son of a great Judges, guests, stealing standing ovations Barbershopper, didn’t dignitaries and most with a high school quartet expected to have his own members all agree that finished 6t,h beating 15 son carry on the tradition with this assessment. quartets that shared the stage. until last fall when Wayne, The recently For more than a decade, a Farmington Hills High completed Pioneer quartet contests School student, joined a convention held in have been dominated by quartet in choir class with Gaylord April 23 – the Slamka family quartet, three classmates, forming 25 was no exception Power Play. Jack Slamka, Insignia. Craig noted that his to these rules. Now along with two sons and son dismissed Barbershop let me tell you . his nephew, became the as his “dad’s music’’ until first family quartet to win his classmates inadvertently the rest of the story. Photos by Paul Howe Anyone who Top: Infinity (with Craig Pollard second from left). Above: Barbershop’s most coveted heard an Infinity practice has been to Bush Insignia (with Craigʼs teenage son, Wayne, second from left). prize in a half century, tape, deciding they wanted to League in the past Infinity won the quartet contest. Insignia came in sixth in their rising from a 1989 District sing that kind of music too. 10 or 15 years is first contest, scoring higher than 15 other quartets. championship all the way While Infinity was familiar with the great Barbershop party held on the last to the 2003 International winning the Pioneer quartet Gaylord Harmonie Meisters. They weekend of September every year. Championship. championship in October are the hosts and organizers for this So these guys are good at organizing As gold medalists, Power 2003, Insignia was just wonderful quartet contest and they do things – we already know that. Let’s Play could not compete again forming. Insignia members a great job – if you haven’t been, it is a take a look at what this together but opened the 2004 Please see Quartets page 3. Please see GAYLORD page 5. Detroit-Oakland chorus champions By Joe Serwach picked up the district ability to turn changes Editor Chorus Champion trophy into opportunities from With April’s win, directing Wayne Chapter the moment they walked Steve Sutherland in 1976, 1979, 1982 and toward the stage has directed Pioneer 1985. until the moment they District’s chorus DOC impressed left. champion seven times, people from the very DOC had more men taking the Detroit- start. While some on stage than the second Oakland chapter to its Barbershoppers lamented and third ranked choruses latest championship. the lack of a curtain at had together. Only the Photos by Paul Howe Sutherland previously this year’s contest, the Windsor Chapter, which Detroit-Oakland won the Chorus Championship over Motor City Metro. directed DOC to the 49 DOC members on put 51 men on stage to men on stage than DOC. to build a crowd, attracting championship in 2001 stage displayed their honor Windsor’s 60th Just two days after their Please seeDOC page 3. and 1987 and previously professionalism and anniversary, had more win, DOC proved its ability 2 12 May/June 2004 Pioneer Troubadour Next copy Official publication of the Pioneer District, Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. deadline: Editor: Joe Serwach, 1274 Vernier Road, Grosse Pointe, MI 48236 313-881-0531 (R) 734-647-1844 (B) — E-mail: [email protected] June 15 http://www.harmonize.com/Pioneer/pio.htm Rates quoted are for scanner- ready copy or properly formatted electronic PRESIDENT EVENTS VP Bruce Smith John Szewc Jr files. 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[email protected] to your Chapter secretary and SPEBSQSA with Visit Pioneer District Web MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT VP your name, Brian Dunckel Chapter name, Chapter and member number, site: 5872 Green Road and your old and new addresses. Copies not www.harmonize.com/ Haslett, MI 48840-9783 deliverable at the time of mailing will not be Pioneer/pio.htm 517-339-3422 (R) 517-625-3143 (B) forwarded, [email protected] 3 Best singers make you feel the song By Joe Serwach song again. And again. matches their singing Editor And again. range or their life’s We all can learn And again. Until I experience, a song that a lot from Lansing’s absorbed that song. doesn’t really tell you Ken Gibson. It reminded me anything about who I recently listened of an early 1990s TV they are. to two mini-series on the life When Power Photo by Paul Howe of Ken’s of Frank Sinatra. As Play, a father, two Fermata Nowhere saw its score climb 110 points in six months. CDs and a young singer Sinatra sons and a nephew, QUARTETS: Infinity going to Louisville noticed a tries to sing “Stormy sang “Love at Home’’ Continued from Page 1. won six Pioneer quartet common Weather’’ and a vocal they were not just attended the District’s Hamony championships. thread instructor tells him he singing a song, they Happening weekend for more Infinity BariMike Woodruff offering can’t do the song well were telling us the than 50 high school students has won two championships an important lesson. because he simply story of their lives, March 12-13 and sang one song and Bass Scott Kitzmiller won Ken was part can’t relate to it, has who they are, why in the Lansing Chapter Show as his first with the quartet last of the legendary never experienced it, they are together. You part of that event. fall. Together they scored 1,768 1970s quartet, the felt it, known it. didn’t just hear the The boys were too young points or 73.7 percent in the Vagabonds and their Later in the film song. You shared it, to compete in this year’s spring competition. collected works were his beloved girl dumps felt it and knew it. college quartet contest (college Very close behind – just 21 just released on CD him and Sinatra, in When pre-Society contestants must be 17 or older) points and half a percentage point as his current mixed tears, runs back to his Barbershopper Ronald so decided to make a try for the shy -- was another perennial acapella group, instructor and sings Reagan became one big quartet contest.