REGINA GOLDEN HARVEST Barbershop Chorus

Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America

# Sharp Notes #

Publication of the Regina Golden Harvest Chorus

Golden Harvest Chorus meets most Monday Evenings, 7:30-10:00 at
Knox Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina, Saskatchewan
Guests always welcome!

February 2002

Chapter Logo

Over the past several months the chapter has been hosting a chapter logo contest with a number of the local high schools – and the winning entry is featured above.

The Sound Investment quartet attended Thom Collegiate’s Arts Night this past Thursday night to present Kathy Bily with an award and a cheque from the chapter.

Now that we have a logo we have lots of places to use it – you’ll see it on our monthly newsletter, on our website, on our letterhead, business cards, show flyers, tickets and programs, awards – perhaps on chorus t-shirts? golf shirts? jackets?

Singing Valentines

Another successful year of Singing Valentines – both for the chorus and for all the recipients. We had three quartets on the road from early in the morning until late into the evening delivering over 65 Singing Valentines. We sang, we gave out roses and cards and chocolates, we made people smile, cry, laugh, and blush… – and through all this, we entertained and introduced hundreds of onlookers to barbershopping in Regina.

Thanks to all those involved – Sound Investment (Doug Pederson, Dave Pearce, Mark Coulter and Peter Vanderstelt), The (extended) Chord Jesters (Ron Evans, Eric Neufeld, John Leitch, Gary Frietag, Gord Gardiner) and the Four Hoarsemen (Bill Quick, Jack Boan, Wayne Keys, Bruce Fish and chauffeur/navigator Elaine Fish).

Sing… For Life!

Annual Show

Time continues to rush by – and April 20^th is now only 8 regular practice nights away.

We have an excellent first draft of our script thanks to Bill Coulthard. Dave Pearce and Ron Evans have been working on finalizing this based upon our available repertoire. If you would like to help out with this, please give Dave or Ron a shout.

Show Chairman Gord Gardiner has the music committee busy. We met this past week at John Leitch’s house to work out details.

Dave Pearce is looking after advertising and promotion, John Leitch is our moneyman, Stuart Reiley is handling tickets, Bruce Fish is looking after layout and printing, and our show producer, Lynn Lowes, should be back from the sunny south any day now.

We’re taking chorus pictures tonight for our show flyers and show program – show flyers and tickets should be available within the week.

We have a full weekend scheduled. Our guest quartet, Counterpoint, will be arriving from British Columbia on Friday evening. There will be a get-together-and-meet-everybody gathering Friday night. Setup and dress rehearsals on Saturday, Show Saturday evening followed by an Afterglow at the Regina Inn on Saturday night; and Brunch at the Regina Inn on Sunday morning before the quartet flies back to BC on Sunday afternoon.

Which brings us back to music – we need each of you to work on your music during the week so that we can be totally off the paper and Ron can concentrate on polishing our presentation.

So… lots of hard work, lots of singing, lots of fun – and another great show in April.

Grand Forks, ND

The Red Carpet Division Contest will be May 18, 2002 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Only 750 km – a great barbershop opportunity in our own back yard. This is also the Victoria long weekend so there’s no need to head back home early Sunday morning.

Make sure you sign up on the commitment list if you will be attending so we can decide whether we will be attending as a chorus.

Executive Meeting

We had our second meeting of 2002 at the home of Dave and Jane Pearce with seven members in attendance – Dave, Wayne, Ron, John, Jack, Stuart and Bruce.

• February financial report submitted by John
• will arrange for a singout in March or early April – good opportunity to practice our show music in front of an audience
• show details discussed
• Dave and Ron working on script revisions
• Gord will be holding a show committee meeting on Tuesday
• flights confirmed for guest quartet – Counterpoint – arriving Friday evening and leaving Sunday afternoon
• will have a get-together Friday evening to meet the quartet
• will hold Sunday brunch earlier on Sunday to give quartet time to make their Sunday afternoon flight
• Sing-out Policy reviewed and approved – Dave will make minor revisions and publish

Next meeting will be March 24, 2002, 1:30pm at John Leitch’s.

Teach the Children to Sing!

Peculiar Things Happen on Valentine’s Day

"O, I cancelled it", were the words the quartet heard when they called at a home to deliver a Singing Valentine. "My husband got called to the hospital for his by-pass surgery, so there is no one to sing to", she explained. "Not a problem. The cancellation stands, but, if you don’t mind, since we’re here, we’ll sing to you".

A few days later, I called that home to see how everything had gone. I found that it was going well; he’d had the surgery and was recovering.

So, on behalf of the Golden Harvest Chorus, I sent a "get-well-card".

Our victim that morning, had told us that she sang with some grandmas, and that her husband, when he got through the next episode in his life, wanted to organize some singing granddads. I took advantage of that heads up, and filled the empty page of the card with some personal good wishes. Among other things I invited him to give us a look when he is feeling better. I enclosed one of our business cards that invite people to call someone (me) when he feels well enough to give us a try.

Another piece of information, probably more interesting to the Four Hoarsemen than anyone else, concerns the Singing Valentine we did at Access Communications. We were to sing to Gursh Madhur, but she was not in her office. The receptionist located her and had her paged. They called her out for something "really important". She came running up, breathlessly, to where we were, and seemed relieved when it was only us that they referred to as "important". She explained that she really couldn’t stay, and with the strains of "let me call you sweetheart" ringing throughout the foyer, she went back through the door she had come through just moments before.

On Friday night, at the conclusion of the Saskatchewan Healthcare Excellence Awards banquet and ceremony, I spoke briefly with her, and apologized for any inconvenience we had caused on Valentine’s Day. She was embarrassed because of how her behaviour must have looked, and explained the circumstances. She had to be present at a meeting at which the final details of the merger, which was announced the next day, of Access Communications with another big cable company were being discussed and agreed to, and she absolutely had to be there. She went on to say, also, that we were the reason for a really big fright. When they said it was "really important", she thought something must have happened to one of her kids! We had a good laugh over the whole incident. But, no wonder she was relieved when all she saw was four guys dressed in red jackets!

No doubt we’ll have more applications of Murphy’s Law, next year.

Jack Boan

Counterpoint

Late in 1994, a quartet called The Edge became SPEBSQSA's Evergreen District Champion. Mark and Tom Metzger were the baritone and bass in that quartet, and since a district champion quartet can never compete again at the Division/District contest cycle, the possibility of forming a new quartet, just for those contests, was realized.

Charlie Metzger had always wanted to sing with his two sons, and the sons likewise, so they approached good friend and long-time barbershopper Marty Lovick to sing tenor and fill in the foursome. Counterpoint rehearsed six times in 1995 (since The Edge was still busy performing on chapter shows), qualified at Division, and placed second to Extra Extra at their first District contest, held that year in Spokane.

The quartet continued to meet infrequently throughout the early months of 1996, but picked up the pace seven weeks before the District contest, with the goal in mind to win it. They began to rehearse weekly, focussing on vocal technique and precision. By October they had a small repertoire of six songs all in good shape, but placed second again at the District contest, behind the newly formed Critic's Choice.

Around that same time, Ed Dempsey (tenor of The Edge) decided to move with his family to New Zealand, and that left Mark and Tom available to focus on Counterpoint as their primary singing group. Weekly rehearsals began in earnest, now that Counterpoint would be able to compete in the higher level International contest cycle, where the World Champion is crowned each year.

The quartet worked hard to prepare for the Preliminary contest in the Spring of 1997, and managed to qualify for the International contest that July, to be held in Indianapolis. They made the trip to Indy, and were thrilled to place thirty-first!

With two second-place finishes at District and such an encouraging outcome at Indy, Counterpoint was one of the favourites to win the 1997 district contest, to be held again in Spokane that fall. 1997 was the first year of the "show package" trials, so Counterpoint prepared two songs for the semi-finals and a fifteen-minute finals set. When the contest was over, they were very proud to be crowned the 50th quartet champion of the Evergreen district.

Marty and Charlie were welcomed into the ranks of the Quartet Champions of the Evergreen District (Q.C.E.D.) at their annual January meeting. (Mark and Tom were already members.) Counterpoint appeared as new champs on the Q.C.E.D. show.

The quartet qualified for the International contest again in 1998, and placed 27th in Atlanta, a personal best for all the members.

In September, Counterpoint began recording their first CD at The Factory, a top quality studio in Vancouver. It was finished in early November, with sixteen tracks, including all of their best known numbers.

In July, Counterpoint competed at the International contest in Anaheim, CA, but dropped to 36th in the world. In examining the contest photo and video, they decided it had something to do with exhaustion. Next year, better coffee!!!

In October, Marty Lovick decided to step down from the tenor spot, in order to spend more time with his wife and family. Marty became number one advisor and coach to the quartet, and recommended Ken Habkirk as his replacement.

Ken Habkirk joined the quartet in November, and quickly learned the whole repertoire. Counterpoint began to learn a bunch of exciting new music, to prepare for upcoming shows.

In April, Counterpoint qualified to compete at International in Kansas City, along with Flipside.

The quartet placed top twenty in Kansas City for the first time!

Members-Only area at SPEBSQSA.ORG

The "Members Only" area of www.spebsqsa.org continues to grow. Did you know that you can update your address online? Find a quartet or find any other barbershopper in the society? All of this and more at www.spebsqsa.org/members.

Member Info

• View your member information
• View your member dues information
• Renew your membership online
• Update your member information (update your address, phone number, email address, …)
• Change your password
• Mailing List Subscribe / Unsubscribe

Chapter Info

• Edit Chapter Member Information
• Get a Chapter Roster
• List Chapter Officers
• View Chapter Member Dues Information
• View Suspended Members
• View other chapter member information
• Report Chapter Officers
• Chapter Leadership Reporting Form
• Register A Show

District Info

• Membership Summary
• Update District Officers
• List all chapter officers / District Directory Data
• District Quartet List
• Chapter Officer Email Finder

Society Info & Services

• Find another member
• Find a quartet
• Find a chapter
• Society Roster (PDF)
• Headquarters Email Distribution Lists (PDF)
• Submit a Society Board Report (Officers only)
• 2001 Leadership Forum Pictures

Clear Lake

And don’t forget to mark your calendar for the first weekend in June – this will be another great barbershop weekend in Clear Lake, Manitoba at the annual Mini-HEP.

Keep the Whole World Singing!

Coming Events

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication.
All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes.
Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor – Bruce Fish, 761-2503 / bfish@accesscomm.ca. Current and back issues of the Sharp Notes can be found on the Golden Harvest Chapter website at www.gpfn.sk.ca/culture/arts/gharvest.

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