Successful Contest Experience

I am pleased to report that the Hunterdon Harmonizers met their expectation participating in the Barbershop contest last week. We achieved our best District contest score in a number of years. We are ranked, based on this contest, among the top 15% of chapters in the District that runs from Washington DC north to include New York City and from Long Island west to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania.

I am proud of our guys with this record. Especially in view of our goals, which do not include a hard focus on contest. We are a fun chapter that is more interested in the fellowship among our members, and taking our time to prepare for and entertain our various audiences.

Now it is time to get ready for our Holiday Show that will take place the first Saturday in December, and our other holiday performances. Call 908-806-NOTE to get further information, or to get tickets at the pre-show reduced price.

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.

Craft Fair Sept 18 & 19 Free Performance

The Harmonizers are getting ready for the Craft Fair they sponsor on Main Street in Flemington, which this year will be held all day Saturday and Sunday this weekend, September 18^th and 19^th all day.

We will be performing an hour long show each afternoon at 1:00. Come out and enjoy the performance. If you are a man interested in singing, join one of our small groups for a few minutes after the show to test your voice, and to show us what you can do. Our guys would love to sing with you.

The street will be lined with craft people all day. See what they have to offer to tempt you to get a very early start on your holiday shopping, or to get something for yourself.

Don’t forget to reserve the first Saturday in December to go to our annual show. Tickets will be available Saturday and Sunday from our ticket chairman. Get your tickets early this year. More information about the show is available on our web site at NJHarmonizers.org.

Hunterdon Harmonizers Annual Patriots Baseball Game

The Hunterdon Harmonizers finished the month of August with one of their annual fun activities. They gathered together yesterday with friends from a number of other barbershop chapters to perform a show for the early arrivals of the crowd of more than 5,000 fans at the Somerset Patriots baseball game in the TD Stadium in Bridgewater New Jersey. The stands were packed with children and their parents interested in the Star Wars theme of the night.

Rusty Williams of the Harmonizers organized the event. He invited the leadership and singers of all of the chapter in the Northern Division of the MidAtlantic District. Participating, in addition to the Hunterdon Harmonizers, www.NJHarmonizerrs.org were singers from the local chapter, The SomerTones of Somerville New Jersey, www.somertones.org, the Morris Music Men of Morris County in New Jersey www.morrismusicmen.org the High Point Harmonizers of Sussex New Jersey, and singers from the Jerseyaires of Rahway, New Jersey. www.Jerseyaires.org.

Music had been provided in advance for the 20 minute show to be performed. The singers gathered outside of the stadium to practice their show set. All of the singers came prepared and opened the show with a rendition of Coney Island Baby.

The music directors of each of the chapters took turns directing a song with all of the singers joining in. As the crowd entered the stadium they heard the performance of this barbershop group projected over the stadium sound system. As the audience grew the applause level increased. It was obvious that the performance was appreciated.

The staff from the patriots ball team filmed the singers, projecting their video on the large scoreboard so that everyone in the stadium could see the close-up faces of the various singers.

At the conclusion of the show the group paused for the introduction of the ballplayers of both teams, the introduction of the game officials, and a representative of the sponsor for the night throwing out the first pitch. Star Wars characters were introduced. Following that pause the barbershop group sang the National Anthem which concluded with thunderous applause from the appreciative audience.

The singers and their guests took their seats in the stands and watched the Somerset Patriots defeat the Camden Riversharks 5-2 before 5,043 fans. Representatives of the participating chapters took turns staffing a table in the food court area that was used to promote barbershop, and the participating chapters in particular.

The next major Harmonizer event is the annual Craft Fair on the Main Street in Flemington on Saturday and Sunday September 18 and 19^th. The craft fair will feature a full free show performed by the Harmonizers chorus and quartets at 1:00 pm on each of the two afternoons.

Greg set up a “Magic Cube”

I had to miss our Heath Village performance on Sunday July 25^th. The heat brought the performance inside this year. By all reports the show was well performed and the audience loved the singing and performance.

So now it is time to get ready for the activities scheduled for the rest of the 2010 year.

Yesterday we began to take a serious look at our contest songs to be performed in October on the 1^st through 3^rd as part of the Lancaster PA District Convention and contest. We are pleased to be among the about twenty percent of the one hundred chapters in the district who qualified in Division contest in May that leads us to the final big event in October.

So Tuesday our Program VP, Greg, set up a “Magic Cube”. Sixteen men are placed so that any line of four singers constitute a quartet of all four parts, including a diagonal line. The group starts singing a song as a group. Our music director, Don, then calls one or another line, or quartet, that take over singing the song. One group after another continues to the end of the song. A second group of men then take the place of a singer with the same voice part as their own and the process starts again. A great exercise that tests our command, as individuals, of these songs and our ability to sing our part on our own. Just one of the fun things we do every week.

A table is covered with signup sheets on which our singers can indicate their participation in the many events that are part of our fun.

Our annual Harmonizer Family picnic for our singers, their families, and their guests will be at the Deer Path Park from noon until 6:00 PM Sunday August 22^nd. We all bring a covered dish and the host committee provides hamburgers and hot dogs and Soda. This year the bass section of our chorus has challenged the other voice part sections for a face off on the volley ball court. That will be interesting. I am going to have to miss that fun while away for family vacation. I think the leads can win that contest.

There is a sheet for our singing for the crowd at the Somerset Patriots on Tuesday August 31. We will be joined by singers from other chapters, including the Morristown, Somerville, and Rahway groups when we perform a show before the game and when we sing the National Anthem.

There was a sheet for our Craft Fair performances on September 18^th and 19^th, Saturday and Sunday. We will be performing a free show about 1:00 on the old court house steps on each of these days. Some of our quartets will be performing though out the town during the fair.

Of course there is also a sign up sheet for the October 1 through 3^rd contest.

And, although there is no sign up sheet, because these are regular meeting and rehearsal nights, there are scheduled coaching sessions for our singers next Tuesday, August 10^th, and again on September 14^th.

To say we are busy having fun is an understatement.

Looking further ahead there is a sheet for our December 4 Holiday show and one for another show – this one to be performed at the Hunterdon County library on Wednesday December 15^th.

Now is the time for men who love to sing to come out and visit us any Tuesday at 8:00 in Flemington in the church at the corner of Main and Maple Streets. We love having guests and give men who want to an opportunity to sing with us.

We say we can take a singer from the shower to the stage in six weeks. Come out and challenge us to do so with you, or ladies with your man. Check our web site at NJHarmonizers.org and call 908-806-NOTE for more details on any of these events.

The Joy of Performing

I do not think there is any better, or happier, activity for the Hunterdon Harmonizers than performing for the local crowds in and around Hunterdon County. This past Thursday evening we had one of those opportunities when we performed for the crowd at the County sponsored series of Music Under the Stars in Deer Path Park. We were one of the free series of concerts that include the Hunterdon Symphony and a number of traveling musical groups from out of the area.

The County Park system does a good job of setting up the venue and providing the sound system so that all we have to do is bring our risers and perform for the enthusiastic audience. People tend to gather about an hour before the performance to set up their seats in a good location, and often to picnic with their families while waiting for the program to start.

Although it had rained a little earlier in the day the skies had largely cleared by the time of our performance. Although it was not as hot out as a day or two earlier, it was hot. One gets the sense of standing on the risers in a reflector oven as the sun sets shining in our faces.

The guys arrived early to warm up their voices. We practiced the start of several of our songs and talked about a few changes in the script for the show. We started almost exactly at 7:00, the published starting time.

We opened with The Star Spangled Banner from our Inspirational and Patriotic recording, followed by Applause, and then Happy Together. Five of our quartets, interspersed throughout the program, including Life Renewed, Chordhouse Steps, Voice Odyssey, ReMix, and Untamed, all participated.

We featured one of out new songs, the Armed Forces Medley, during which members of the audience who had served in the various branches of our military stood to be recognized as we sang the song representing and honoring their branch of service. We displayed the flags of each service as we sang about that particular service.

God Bless the USA, You Raise Me Up, When I Lift Up My Head, and God Bless America concluded our program. With the last song the audience was invited to join us in singing God Bless America. Many people had the fun of singing that important song with us.

We all agreed that we enjoy singing for the County series as we have for a number of years. We already look forward to next year.

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.