New Holiday Music

We have come to the time of year when we begin to prepare for our annual Holiday Show.

We still have the 9-11 events where we will sing. We still have to get ready for our own Flemington Main Street Craft Fair where we will perform on each Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. We still have to do some more work to get ready for the fall contest. But one of the most fun things we get to do is to put on a Holiday Show.

In the picture some of our music leaders introduce a new song that will feature dancers and children and grandchildren of our singers. We project the new sheet music while a quartet introduces the song. Then the quartet leads their section through the song. The guys leave with the sheet music and a learning recording for practice at home or in their cars.

The show itself will help raise funds for the Hunterdon Medical Center, our local hospital. One more community service project for our Barbershop Chapter.

We Sing at the Ball Game

Beautiful weather greeted us and our friends from three other area barbershop chapters when we gathered to perform a show before the Patriots ball game in Bridgewater this evening. Included in the show package was out rendition of America the Beautiful, part of which I captured in video.

Of course we also sang the Star Spangled Banner before the game began.

Back to Work and Fun

Following our performances at the Red Mill in Clinton and at Deer Path Park in Readington Township I got off for a little vacation with my family. That meant I missed participating in the performance at Heath Village. I understand that it went very well and the folks were well entertained.

We will next be singing at a Patriots Ball Game on Wednesday August 24th before the game. The Hunterdon Harmonizers were the first group of our kind to sing in the ball park.

Then, three days later, we will be at the Warren County Renaissance Faire in Harmony, NJ on Saturday August 27 at about 2:00.

We are getting ready for these fun opportunities as well as our 9-11 performances. We will perform again, as we have twice before, at the Richard Cudina Memorial in the Lebanon Township park.

We are well underway in our preparation. Last Tuesday we had a coaching session with one of our favorite coaches. We all always enjoy working with Stephanie (see photos)

Of course our show committee of Ron, Carmen, and Don, with others helping, are getting us ready for our Craft Fair performance on Main Street in Flemington on Saturday and Sunday September 17 & 18 at 1:00 in the afternoon.

Not to forget preparation for District Contest in Lancaster on October 1st this year.

This all works up to our annual Holiday show that is now confirmed for Saturday December 3 at Hunterdon Central High School on Route 31 in Flemington. Busy !

Performances at Deer Path & at Red Mill

The Harmonizers performed at Deer Path two nights ago. Usually we are unaccompanied. But Thursday we were accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightening. A brave audience sat under umbrellas for at least part of the show although much of it could be sung out in the open after the worst of the storm passed. From my place on the risers I could see water drip on our director from time to time from the front of the shell we perform in at the park.

While waiting for the storm to pass we watched the speakers blow over, our LOVE letters blow over, our banner take a dive, and our audience run for cover. But the show must go on — and it did.

Today we performed at the Red Mill in Clinton for a Medieval event. Of course our contest package of Knight School Medley and Heroes of Chivalry fit right in. We added The DRAGON Sleeps Tonight to complete the theme. The show was of only forty minutes which is short for us. I stayed after and heard all sorts of good comments. I even watched a little Medieval fighting.

I especially thank our guys who put in the time to do two shows so close in succession.

Something Different Tuesday This Week May 17

Because the church where we usually meet and rehearse needs to use their full facility, because of an event they are holding, the Harmonizers had to find another place to gather for the evening.

Where better to spend an evening singing our new songs, and preparing to sing on Memorial Day in Flemington, than in an ice cream parlor on South Main Street in Flemington. What could be more American that ice cream and barbershop singing and harmony? Nothing !

Guests are welcome to come out and enjoy the singing, participate if you wish men, and enjoy ice cream too. See you there at 8:00

Getting to Contest Time

Contest for the Harmonizers is just a week away. And that means that our send off, open house, guest night is just a couple of days away. Yes, Tuesday night the Hunterdon Harmonizers will be having a final get together before going off to Morristown to participate in the Northern Division Barbershop singing and performing contest. Join us at 9:00 (an hour later than our usual rehearsal time) for a free performance by our chorus and some of our quartets. It is free and there are refreshments too!

As always you can find out more by calling 908-806-NOTE or visiting our web site at www.NJHarmonizers.org.

Today we had a final rehearsal before the contest. Vida was there to drill performance. Sandy was there to make sure all were fitted out with the great costumes she has gathered or made for us. And all of the section leaders of our music team were there to run us through final preparation.

And of course Don, with very few small changes, drilled our singing to get it up to what he and our coaches know we can do. Do come out Tuesday to see what we are up to. And with the contest behind us at the end of the month it is a great time for men who always wanted to do a little singing to come out and give it a try.

The video is just three minutes of clips of what we were doing this morning.

Coaching & Dressing for Contest

Just a couple of more times to get together before we go off to the Northern Division singing contest of the Barbershop Harmony Society Mid Atlantic District. Close by this year as we will only be going to Morristown.

This past Tuesday we were coached by Stephanie, Vita worked with the back row, and Sandy continues in the process of getting the guys dressed for their part in the performance.

You can come see the results of all of this work by coming to our open house, guest night, send off that will take place in the back of the church (our usual place to gather) on Tuesday April 26 at 9:00 in the evening. The Harmonizers will gather to make final preparations to entertain you and get their party set up at their usual time of 8:00. The show, featuring their competing quartets and the chorus will perform at 9:00.

Love to see you there.

Fun and Learning

We have fun celebrating the monthly birthdays of our members. A new idea our President for this year has started. Here he is with with the monthly cake lined up with the birthday boys in the chapter for February.

We also send time learning some of the technical background of and reasons for what we do. How do we make our vowel sounds consistent? How do we handle the sounds that are not vowels? If we are on the third of a chord do we sing differently than if we are on the root or the fifth?

Yes all of that helps us sing better as we work our way of the scale of achievement as a group of singers. Last Tuesday George conducted the lesson for us all.

Last Chance to Order a Singing Valentine

If you want to order a Singing Valentine to be delivered by a Harmonizer quartet dressed in red and white, you are running out of time. Call 908-806-NOTE now.

The guys are ready. George has taught the leads how to lead a quartet.

Valentines are an exciting and fun experience for our singers. It goes beyond that to the person you send one too. I have been part of a quartet in years past. The surprise is wonderful on the face of your loved one. The excitement of the friends who are there is beyond what you hope for when you get the idea to order.

We sing in restaurants, in offices, in private homes, at parties, and about anywhere you can think of. I remember singing to a guy in a truck garage, another guy behind the counter of a deli, to a women teacher in her class room with all the kids cheering and her fellow teachers looking. One year we sang to a women taking care of horses in their stall on a farm.

Call now to get in on the fun.

Harmonizers Starting their New Year

On Tuesday January 4, 2011 the Harmonizers start a new year. Come out and visit at 8:00 at the church at the corner of Main Street and Maple Street in Flemington. Enter from Maple.

We will be getting ready for our Singing Valentine program. This year we will limit our assignments to 100. That is the first 100 people to order the exciting experience for their loved one will be served. After that it is wait for next year to have four men in red and white tux uniforms appear at an appointed time, sing two love songs, deliver a red rose and a personalized card from you. We go to schools, offices, restaurants, almost any place in Hunterdon County and neighboring counties. At a cost beginning at $50 you can not send a more romantic experience to someone important to you. Call 908-806 NOTE (6683) for details and to arrange for your exciting Valentine gift.

Tuesday the 4^th we will also be introducing a new song for the guys to sing in our shows and various appearances this year. If you want to become part of the Harmonizers a good time to visit and consider joining is when a new song is being introduced. Hope to see you there.

Our Next Big Show

Tuesday night, not long ago, the Harmonizers had the first read through of the script for the December 4, 2010 Holiday show.

Each year we entertain our fans with an original fun show that ends with Holiday music. In the photo, the cast reads the script for the chapter members.

In addition to the songs to go with the script we are beginning to introduce the Holiday music for the last third of the show.

Besides the Harmonizer members we expect to have a chorus from each of two regional high schools in the area perform on the show. It is an honor for the high schools that are selected because being selected recognizes the strong music program of the schools participating.

Tickets for the Holiday show can be obtained from any Harmonizer, or by calling their telephone number 908-806-NOTE (6683), or from their web site njharmonizers.org. Ticket prices are all General Admission at $15 advanced sales or $20 at the door. Students 6-17 are $10, kids 5 and under, accompanied by an adult, are free. A group discount of 10% is available for 10 or more tickets bought at one time.

Less than one week before contest

The Harmonizers have qualified for the District Contest again this year. It is less than a week before contest. In fact by this time next week the contest will be over. Most of us will be in the Lancaster Convention Center in Lancaster PA Friday in time for the quartet contest in the evening. Two of our quartets, Re-Mix and Untamed, will be singing Friday night. Saturday the chorus contest begins at 9:00 AM. We expect to sing at 9:50 if all is on time.

Even with the contest just around the corner, our show committee has been working on our Annual Show. The photos were taken after our performance at the Craft Fair last week. The guys are out about town giving our local business people an opportunity to participate in our show program as advertisers. If they have missed you, let us know at 908-806-NOTE and, someone will call on you.

Tickets are also now available. Call the same number to get early tickets at a price lower than buying at the door. The show, Holly Days & Jolly Knights will be at Hunterdon Central High School at 84 Route 31 in Flemington. Shows are at 2:00 and 7:00 PM on Saturday, December 4, 2010. The advance ticket price is just $15 (at the door $20) and students $10 in advance. Kids five and under, with an adult, are free. We expect a very fun show.

A most exciting few days. . . .

Probably the most exciting, and most intense, few days every year in the life of the Barbershop Harmony Society are during the annual International Convention. The 72^nd, held practically in our back yard this year was during the days of June 28^th through July 4^th in Philadelphia. The Hunterdon Harmonizers had about 30 members in attendance.

We have not made it a priority to attempt to qualify to sing in the international chorus contest since we did so in 1997. To do so takes an incredible amount of work and dedication on the part of our singers, to the exclusion of the shows and local performances that we enjoy so much. Every year or so we ask our singers what they consider to be our top goal or goals. Singing in contest usually comes in third or fourth. The year it comes in first we will have to change our priorities.

For those of our singers who are driven to sing on the big stage there are opportunities for them. Four of our members have become members of three different highly competitive chapters, as well as remaining a member of our chapter, and these guys did get to sing in Philadelphia. One sang with the chorus which sang first to test the sound system, two sang with the Big Apple in New York City, and one sang with the Chorus of the Chesapeake from Maryland (he is getting his doctorate degree at Johns Hopkins).

I personally enjoyed the freedom to attend chorus and quartet contests, socialize with friends from all over the country, and attend open rehearsals of some of the great choruses that did compete. Our group from Hunterdon got together for dinner together. We also sat together in several clusters during contests and shows, depending on when ticket orders went in.

The activities of the week started with a college quartet contest. I had to miss that because I could not get there until late during the first day and the college contest was over when I got there. I would like to have heard the group from Cornell that finished in the middle of the very large group. My specific interest was partly because I went to law school at Cornell, and partly because one of the Cornell singers went to Hunterdon Central High School.

My first evening in Philadelphia was spent at the rehearsal of the Westminster Chorus from California. This group of young men, most all of them less than thirty years old, had been the surprise winner three years earlier in Denver. Now they were one of the favorites. I enjoyed watching their display of energy, hearing their quality singing, and everything about their performance during those couple of hours of intense rehearsal. I have also enjoyed several opportunities to talk to their very pleasant members and leaders. They represent all of what barbershop fellowship is about. You may have seen them on the second season of the TV show America's Got Talent in 2007, where they were passed to go to the second round by all three judges, but were eliminated at the first cut of the second round. By the way they won the contest again this year. You can learn more about them at: http://www.westminsterchorus.org/westminsterchorus/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=29

The Hunterdon Harmonizers got together for dinner. We attended much of the quartet contest. We attended all of the chorus contest together. And we sang all over the convention venues with old and with new friends in quartets and small groups.

Most of our guys also got to watch our VP of Membership live up to his pledge that if we added a net ten new members in the year since the Patriots ball game of a year ago he would publicly shave his head. His brother did the honors of actually shaving his head, in public in the Harmony Market Place, while many of our chorus sang our rendition of The Impossible Dream to the assembled crowd. Linda, our prize winning editor of our chapter bulletin took photos that will soon be appearing in our publication In Tune. I include a couple of her pictures here.

The Hunterdon Harmonizers look forward to carrying the inspiration of the performing at the International Convention to our own stage when we perform this coming Thursday at Deer Path Park, next to the YMCA just off of Route 31, as part of the Concert Under the Stars series put on by the Hunterdon Park System. It is a free concert that starts at 7:00 in the evening. Most people bring a picnic supper with their family an hour earlier.

See you there. The weather prediction for this year is for a clear day.

An Educational Opportunity

Although the Hunterdon harmonizers are best known for the fun they offer their singers, the great sound of their four-part harmony, and the entertaining performances they provide to their audiences, there is a great deal more to the organization.

To hear them sing you would not know that more than half of the singers do not read music. That does not mean that they do not want to learn all they can to improve and support their singing. A regular part of the harmonizer activity is an educational component.

The group is blessed with excellent, experienced, music leadership. The music vice president has many years of singing, both in barbershop chapters and in church choirs. The music director has been singing from the time he was in college and has sung in a renowned barbershop quartet. He is best known for his exciting and entertaining shows. But the depth of his music knowledge, and his leadership of the group as a musician, are invaluable in producing the results the audience hears.

The music leadership has among its members three assistant directors. Two of them having been front-line directors. It is this music leadership that contributes mightily to the wonderful close harmony sound produced by the group.

One of the assistant directors, George, teaches a course we refer to as “Barbershop 101”, or as some call it “Barbershop For Dummies”. The course itself is really not for dummies, but is for singers who want to learn the theory of barbershop Harmony, and want to learn to read music. The pictures here were taken a couple of weeks ago during the course George has been teaching every week for six weeks. The course is repeated from time to time.

It is the dedication of experienced, as well as new singers, reaching for the educational opportunities offered, that make the Harmonizers what they are. The educational opportunity provided by this program is taken advantage of by all levels of singers. Guests of the chapter are invited to join the group as well so they gain an understanding of what they may become part of if they join the chorus.

Additionally, every other year the chorus takes its singers to a weekend of coaching and educational experience at the society provided Harmony College East. Our members look forward to this opportunity because of the exposure to some of the leading music educators in the country involved in the barbershop style of singing.

Anyone who is interested in getting the benefit of these educational opportunities is invited to be a guest of the harmonizers at their regular Tuesday night meetings and rehearsals. Additional information can be obtained by calling 908-806-NOTE, or by visiting the website at NJHarmonizers.org.