The online bulletin by and for the members of the Akron, Ohio chapter of The Barbershop Harmony Society.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
A Very Merry Christmas from the Akron Derbytown Chorus
This is our Christmas Newsletter and we wanted to let you know of our upcoming event. That's right we have one more performance this year, and that will be at First Night.
When: Wed, December 31, 7:45pm – 9:30pm Where: 139 S. High St., Akron. Zion Lutheran Church. We'd love to see you there and welcome you with open chords. Now here is a special treat for you. From our family to yours.
Yes, Santa made a special appearance to help us with our song and that made it all the more magical.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
November 2014
Chords are ringing and hymns are humming here at the Akron Derbytown Chorus as we get prepared for the big holiday rush! Yes many are excited and are requesting performances around this time of year and we are preparing to bring the best barbershop quality we can. Upcoming events include:
Akron Children's Hospital Christmas Tree Festival (11/22 at 1pm)
Kettle Singing at Acme stores for the Salvation Army (12/6 from 8:30 am -1 pm)
First Night (more information next issue)
Elections have been completed for the board and congratulations to all those who have been elected and thank you to the men who served diligently while waiting for your replacements.
The Pick Up Quartet Contest had some great competitors and congratulations to our winners!
Charlie's Angels
All the President's Men
Honeycomb Quartet
Hasty Four
One Jim Short
All of the videos of the performances are on our Facebook Page feel free to visit and see what you've missed.
Here is the first Bulletin edition of the year. Sue and I had a good winter in Florida. Now, it's time to get back to our normal activities here in Ohio. For me, one of those is putting an edition of this publication online each month. So, here we go.
Since 2013 is a year-long celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of our Society, the Bulletin will feature articles and facts that are related to happenings between 1938 and the present, both inside and outside of the world of music. Since some of you who are reading this were around in 1938, I encourage you to share memories and events that I could share with the all of our readers. Just see me at rehearsal or send an email to the Bulletin address, which is derbytown08@gmail.com
On April 5 & 6 of this year, The Derbytown Chorus presented it's 66th annual show, "That's My Baby". Appreciative audiences on both nights were treated to a musical portrayal of the experiences of a first time father awaiting the birth of his first child while thinking back to his relationship with his own parents.
Featured quartets, Max Q and Main Street were outstanding and presented all of those in attendance with an example of the very best in barbershop harmony.
A big pat on the back to Mike Sitter, Rip Wilson and the entire show committee for organizing and producing this year's show. Congratulations also to all chorus members who sang in the show. It represents many hours of work for everyone and you should be proud of the final product. (I can say that without it sounding like self-praise since my stay in Florida made me an audience member and not a show participant)
As they used to say in the days of real baseball double-headers, "let's play two". On May 4th, the show was reprised at the beautiful Medina Performing Arts Center. Sue and I were in the audience for that one and I can say, for both of us, "Bravo!"
On Sunday, May 19th, Lock 4 entertained the crowd before the start of the game between the Akron Aeros and the Erie Seawolves. The quartet was in fine voice and even attracted a groupie in the form of Homer, one of the Aeros' mascots.
Akron
Chapter’s YIH program continues its mission to support vocal music
education and help perpetuate barbershop harmony by introducing the
art form to young people. Following up on Con Men quartet’s
enormously successful visit to area high schools in December, our YIH
team visited three more schools this winter.
On
February 13, the team made presentations to four of Sharon Risko’s
classes—two at Woodridge High School and two at the junior high
school. Students from 7th
through 12th
grades were captivated by consonant chords, and savored the fun songs
and tags they heard and
sang.
Four
days later the team traveled to Coventry High School for another
all-day affair. Choral director Julie Strebler afforded access to
all four of her choral classes. As with every school we have
visited, her students were delightful and delighted, proving again
that music appreciation bridges the generation gap.
Having
visited Richard Eder’s choir class at North High School last May,
the YIH team was pleased to be invited back on March 8. North is
Akron’s English-as-a-Second-Language high school. Despite their
varying levels of fluency with English, the students clearly enjoyed
our visit and the music to which we exposed them. Our videos of Ring
Masters and Musical Island Boys bore witness to the fact that
barbershop harmony can penetrate cultural, geographic and language
barriers.
As
reported here previously, while planning Con Men’s school visits,
we discovered a promising quartet had already formed at Kent
Roosevelt High School. In fact, Con Men treated the foursome, known
as Tetrad, to a wonderful coaching session during our visit to their
school. Tenor Gordon Wall, lead Luke Schmidt, baritone Clay Magilavy
and bass Matt Stiller continued their rapid progress in the ensuing
months. So great has been their development that the quartet opened
Akron’s 66th
annual show in April 5 and 6. They were a huge hit with our show
audiences, as well at the cast party and the afterglow.
The
following weekend, in their first-ever competition, Tetrad won the
Johnny Appleseed District high school quartet contest at Huntington,
West Virginia. Their victory earned them a free trip to Harmony Camp
this summer. As each of these young men will attend college in Ohio,
they plan to keep the quartet together as long as they can. The
future is bright for Tetrad as a quartet and as fine individuals.
Likewise,
we are optimistic about the future of the chapter’s YIH program.
The lines of communication with music educators have been established
or, in some cases, restored. In the past year, we have exposed
hundreds of students to barbershop harmony. We have identified
existing and potential local high school quartets. The program has
gained considerable momentum, which the chapter can use to fuel the
renaissance of barbershop singing by local students.
Since we have several months to look back at the year of our Society's founding, I will just give a few economic reference points now to set the stage.
