In case you didn't know, our Youth In Harmony Chairman, Mike Sitter, was very busy last month spreading the knowledge and love of barbershop to area high school students. This issue of The Bulletin chronicles the events of Thursday, December 13. I was privileged to attend the visit to Firestone High School and took the videos that are included here.
Con
Men quartet wows
area high school singers
area high school singers
By Mike Sitter, Youth in Harmony
Chairman
Current International third-place
collegiate bronze medalist and reigning District quartet champion Con
Men provided an enormous boost to the Akron Chapter’s Youth in
Harmony program. The quartet visited Green, Firestone and Kent
Roosevelt high schools on December 13 with Tom Gentry and your
reporter.
Con Men’s tenor David Strasser, lead
Matthew Hopper, baritone Russell Watterson and bass Brent Suver met
as freshman at Capital University in Bexley, Ohio. The quartet
members belong to the Greater Central Ohio Chapter and sing with its
award winning Alliance chorus. These four talented young men
represent barbershop beautifully, and they relate so well with the
high school singers. We were privileged and grateful to be able to
feature them on our school visits.
The visits helped to cement relations
with some of the area’s finest choral programs, and promoted the
chapter’s 2013 annual show on April 5-6. Con Men treated choral
and musical theatre students to first-rate singing, promoted Singing
Buckeyes Harmony Camp, taught tags and mingled gracefully with the
young performers. The YIH team encouraged the formation of high
school quartets and offered to support them with sheet music,
learning tracks and coaching. One of the chapter’s YIH goals is to
spawn student quartets who can compete in district contests and
perform on chapter shows.
The road show began at Green High
School, where choral director Alaina Starr and musical theatre
teacher Scott Bantum welcomed the team. Ms. Starr was familiar with
the Akron Chapter, as Keyed Up quartet had visited one of her classes
a few years ago. About 45 of Green’s choral and drama students
spent an hour and a half listening to, and singing for and with Con
Men. A lively question and answer session followed. Then the
students entertained the barbershoppers with a stirring performance
of Without Love from the musical Hairspray.
After the structured presentation, the
air was thick with energy and musicality as students, teachers and
guests mingled over refreshments. Some of the male students
expressed interest in attending Harmony Camp and in forming a
quartet. One of the leads in the school’s production of Hairspray
regaled the assemblage with a soulful rendition of Mary Had a
Baby.
The next stop on the tour was Firestone
High School, Akron’s magnet school for the performing arts.
Waiting were approximately 70 of Sally Schneider’s male choral
students and half a dozen young men from Barbara Bellamy’s choral
class at Kenmore High School. Your editor was also there to cover
the event and to shoot photos and videos for this bulletin.
After singing a couple of songs and
touting Harmony Camp, Con Men taught the young men the Impossible
Dream tag. The students’ performance of the tag was so
good that it prompted the presenters to ask for an encore
performance. Ms. Schneider then showed her chops by carrying the
lead part to the Bonnie Jean tag with Con Men. The Q & A
session included several questions about the academic and musical
lives of the quartet’s members. Con Men seized this opportunity to
encourage the students to continue singing throughout their lives
regardless what careers they pursue.
What followed was an excellent
rendition by Ms. Schneider’s class of the barbershop chart of
Jingle Bells and of a beautiful arrangement of White
Christmas. Con Men then earned a standing ovation with Taking
a Chance on Love to close the session. Ms. Schneider asked Con
Men to linger a few minutes to work with her women’s choir, who
were polishing a jazz chart of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.
The quartet readily obliged and, predictably, earned new fans.
Kent Roosevelt High School was the
final stop of the day. Choral director Corey Fowler hosted as Con
Men performed for nearly a hundred choral students in the school’s
auditorium. One of the highlights occurred when Con Men called the
school’s own barbershop quartet, Tetrad, on stage and taught them
the In Lillie’s Eyes tag. After singing the tag once
through with Con Men, Tetrad sang it without assistance and nailed
it, much to the delight of their peers.
The day climaxed with a lengthy private
coaching session as Con Men worked with Tetrad on Darkness on the
Delta and Roll, Jordan, Roll. Tetrad plans to
compete in the Johnny Appleseed District high school quartet contest
in the spring. Judging by their performance and their responsiveness
to coaching, they should do very well at contest. If they continue
to progress, there is a good chance they will be invited to perform
on our annual show in April. Wouldn’t that be a treat for our
audience
Thanks, Mike, for all you do.
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