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Harms on Indy continued... It was great to see our own Buzz Brown wearing the cowboy shirt while singing with The New Tradition. Buzz is now the proud owner of a bronze medal, and he deserves to be proud. It took a lot of dedication to carry that out. Like the chorus competition, the quartet contest was incredibly close. Vocal Spectrum came out on top, but it was really a tossup between them, Max Q, and O. C. Times. Boy, do those guys make harmonics! Sally and I attended the gold medal hour with Realtime, the 2005 international quartet champions. Those guys were delightful gentlemen. The lead is an Australian, the bass and baritone are brothers from Vancouver, and the tenor is from the U.S. The Australian married a woman whom he had met at the Buckeye Invitational and now he's living in Vancouver also. The father of the bass and baritone is Charlie Metzger of the current Senior Champs., Antique Gold. After the gold medal hour wound up, Sally and I headed for the master class presented by the Masters of Harmony, the 2005 chorus gold medalists. Their 160 or so members can sound like one guy. Interestingly, Mark Hale, their director, advocates placing the chorus in sections, rather than using the shotgun approach which seems to be Vocal Majority's method. Joining the Masters of Harmony sounded like quite an undertaking. They require the learning of two songs as well as presentation skills, with required recording with the chorus, and culminating in an interview and commitment made in writing to the music committee. Wow. Having once more gotten caught up in the swirl of things, we registered for the 2007 Denver convention. For those who've never been to an International contest, consider this one. It's also within reasonable driving distance, and you get to see mountains too. We'll be taking some extra time vacationing after the contest finishes. Already I'm looking forward to July 2007.
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international first-timer By John Roltgen This was my first International Convention after 35-plus years as a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society. This was my first for three main reasons: 1) It is always held the week of the Fourth of July, when there are so many wonderful things going on locally that I hate to leave, 2) I don't think competition requiring that level of commitment is what O. C. Cash had in mind when he formed the society, and 3) It was convenient this year since I have a daughter and her family living in Carmel (a suburb of Indianapolis). The most impressive things observed at the competition were the outstanding quality of the college quartets and the camaraderie shown (the crowd stood and applauded) when the British chorus returned to their seats in the arena after their performance. Midwest Vocal Express chorus was hands down winner in
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