Illini Statesmen

Update (11/17/10): RMD’s “Four Keeps” has scratched, and the next highest RMD quartet competitor “After School” will assume their spot. 27 of the world’s best seniors quartets come together in Las Vegas on January 28, 2011 to compete for the coveted gold medal.  Who are you rooting for? 1. CHECKMATE (ONT) 2. X-Men (NED) 3. [...]

Hooray! We’ve spent the past several months scanning and digitally archiving every edition of The Harmonizer dating back to the very first issue of the November 1941 publication (then-named Re-Chordings). We felt it was important not only to digitally preserve this incredibly valuable body of recorded history of our Society, but offer it up as [...]

Thanks to everyone who participated in the caption contest. We had some great entries. Some of them have multiple winners, and Ann McAlexander, a Society Associate from Fishers, Ind., read the rules closely enough to realize that the funniest caption wouldn’t necessarily be the best one. She won 3 out of 10! Below are the [...]

By now, you may have seen the 2-year proposal article in the July-Aug 2010 issue of The Harmonizer concerning the proposal to change the International Chorus Contest to a two-year rotation. If you haven’t read up on the plan, everything is at www.barbershop.org/2year. Perhaps you’ve even taken the poll, where you had a chance to leave anonymous comments. Here’s [...]

Excerpt from The Harmonizer, March 1950, page 6: by Society President, O.H. King Cole “This year a very heavy toll is being exacted from the Society in the way of suspended charters. The mortality rate in Chapters is practically four times as high as it has ever been in the past, and we can charge [...]

It used to be that a 92.3% score was knocking at the door of a gold medal. In this year’s record-setting contest, that was good enough for 4th place for Sound of the Rockies, who presented an amazing military set. Director Darin Drown didn’t get the color of medal he wanted from his troops, but [...]

While their set was good enough for eighth place, we have to say that Midwest Vocal Express delivered the finest musical presentation of Olympic male synchronized swimming that the city of Philadelphia has ever seen performed in the barbershop style. At minimum, it was the best in recent memory. Above is the star of the winning [...]

Background for the above photo: When Lunch Break was announced as mic tester for the finals, many folks immediately thought of 2003. In Montreal, yucksters Freestyle decided that no scores meant no rules — many hoped that Lunch Break would deliver an equally wild ride. The audience was not disappointed. Lunch Break failed to show [...]

Here’s world-famous speed painter Greg Pappas, an extraordinary performing artist who with nothing but a blank canvas and black paint, can create a masterpiece in minutes — all while painting upside-down! He created several masterpieces during contest intermissions, and rarely could the audience guess what he was painting until the art was almost ready to [...]

Here’s 2010 Silver Medalist Old School in the opening round of competition. There are five gold medals in this quartet — and that’s just on the left side! Turns out the veteran power-chorders were in first place after two rounds, but they couldn’t overcome eventual champion Storm Front‘s crazy antics–and Presentation scores–in the final round. [...]

Here’s the Big Orange Chorus of Jacksonville, Fla. hoisting their ample director, Tony DeRosa, near the end of their set. Tony is quite humorous and self-effacing as the Society’s biggest on-stage ham (in more ways than one), a role where he also shines as director of Tampa’s Sweet Adelines Chorus Toast of Tampa and as [...]

Here’s third-place medalist Ringmasters (the young, skinny vocal dynamos from Sweden) in Philly. Beat that caption, PLEASE! The best one gets published in The Harmonizer! To read the rules, click here to go to the initial post. Have at it!

Here’s the director of The Alliance, Dave Calland, getting CPR during the choruses 6th-place “Geriatric set.” Freebie information if it helps you write a clever caption: Dave is also lead of 5th-place medalist quartet The Allies and president of the Johnny Appleseed District. (Maybe Philly was too much for his heart?) Beat that caption, PLEASE! [...]

Here’s Storm Front yucking it up during their finals “Jukebox Saturday Night” set. Beat that caption, PLEASE! The best one gets published in The Harmonizer! To read the rules, click here to go to the initial post. Have at it!

Want your name and your work in the convention issue of The Harmonizer? Just write something better than my below boring caption for the above photo: “Voices in Harmony performs “Cruella De Vil” in Philadelphia. The Bay Area, Calif. Chapter chorus, directed by Dr. Greg Lyne, took 7th place.” Top that! (PLEASE!) We’ll be adding one [...]