EYBS Blog
We had a very successful Ontario District Fall Conference with East York members in 4 quartets and 41 performers on the risers for the chorus competition.
I am publishing a personal Blog by one of our Guests, Dan Hoddinott. Thanks Dan!
http://blog.danhoddinott.ca/?p=169#more-169
What’s the good of celebrating a 65th anniversary if you can’t share it with people. Of course, we’re having our Anniversary Show on May 23rd (and thanks to everyone who bought tickets, we’re sold out). We’ve also appeared in the May editions of The Wholenote and the Bluffs Monitor.
Monday, April 27 - Walking down the hall in the Unitarian Church basement was a bit of a flashback. I had begun singing again - five years ago, with this group and my sister. At first it was just a lark, singing show tunes with a great bunch of people for the joy of singing, but with their encouragement, I rediscovered how much it meant to me. And now, here I am singing with the EYBS, enjoying the camaraderie and learning more about technique and performance. Well, as they say, the proof is in the pudding.
Just a quick reminder that the East York Barbershoppers are holding our annual Live Auction & Sale this coming Friday, May 1 at Harmony Hall (2 Gower Street, East York). The Pre-Sale (fruit & veggies, household goods) kicks off at 7:00PM, and the Live Auction at 8:00PM sharp. We have lots of items available for auction across a wide variety of categories, and of course our fabulous Auctioneer, Matt Penstone, always makes sure our guests have tons of fun.To catch YouTube clips about some of the great items we have available in just two of our many categories, please click on the following:Sports & Outdoors: https://youtu.be/F6dbkQdK4VoTheatre & The Arts: https://youtu.be/UAnHjZ5c2asHope to see you on Friday!
In 1977, the Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society established the Harmonize for Speech Fund (“H4S”) to raise funds to help Canadians suffering from communication disorders. H4S’s motto is “We Sing That They Shall Speak”, and Ontario Barbershoppers take great pride in everything that H4S has accomplished in support of this goal. H4S has raised over $5M since its inception, and with an overhead of only 3% per year almost all of these funds have been put to great use helping those who so desperately need our help. George Shields (Founding Member and Director Emeritus of EYBS) was the first Chairman of H4S, and has led the organization in that capacity ever since. East York is also a strong financial supporter of H4S. In 2014, through a combination of individual member donations, corporate donations solicited by our members, and fundraising efforts by the chorus and our chapter quartets and octets, East York raised $13,000 for H4S. This brings the total raised by East York since inception to just shy of $478,000! East Yorkers are proud to join other Ontario barbershoppers and chapters in supporting this worthy charity, and look forward to more of the same in 2015!
What a great Holiday Party we had last night. It was wonderful seeing so many new faces, and a few we haven't seen in a while. Big Thanks to Basses Unlimited, Family Ties and Sound Byte for singing for us, and to our resident Quartets TNQ and Replacement Parts. We brought an end to 2014 by recognizing a few individuals who made an impact on our success throughout the year. Steve Fast won the Commuter Award for travelling from Hamilton each week, while still finding time to post recordings of rehearsals on the website. Jesse Cohoon was instrumental in organizing our involvement at the Sing! Festival, and is our Master Liaison. And a very special Unsung Hero Award went to Janet Heise for being one of our biggest supporters. Janet has been at every event, performance, and competition East York has been involved in and we greatly thank her. Finally, our Barbershopper of the Year was Geoff Shields for the countless hours of organization and communication put in to our new website, www.eybs.ca. Geoff really went above and beyond this year in a number of areas and a great deal of our success is thanks to him.
Barry Tripp (left), Greg Shields (middle left) and George Shields (right) make a special presentation on behalf of EYBS to Gordon Lightfoot (middle right) at Massey Hall on Nov. 26, 2014.
Everyone knows Gordon Lightfoot as a huge recording star, and a Canadian Legend, but most don't know him as a Barbershop Harmony Quartet Singer? George Shields, Director Emertus of EYBS certainly does, as he has known Gord for over 60 years. Gordon attended much of the 2013 International Barbershop Convention held in Toronto, so 50 East Yorkers and friends attended the first of Gordon's four shows at Massey Hall. George went searching through his legendary archives and was able to find the original program from a Quartet Contest held 60 years ago (Nov. 1954) at Massey Hall, in which one of the competing quartets was the Teen-Timers (featuring none other than Gordon Lightfoot on Baritone)! George also found some photos of the quartet and a letter from Gordon (15 yrs old) regarding his Massey Hall performance opportunity, and with the help of Barry Tripp got everything framed up together to present to Gordon at his afterglow on behalf of EYBS.
The East York Barbershoppers are always looking to attract new prospective members out to our practices, and make sure they enjoy the experience so much that they keep coming back! That is certainly a focus of every Tuesday night practice, but periodically we ramp up the effort and schedule a night specifically geared towards new guests. And that is just what we are doing with our upcoming Guest Night & Open House on Tuesday, November 18. So if you are a guy who loves to sing, or know somebody that fits that bill, be sure to click on the Guest Night Event link below for more details.
Barbershop is catching on with young people all across the world, and that is certainly true here in Ontario. The O Ya Chorus are a fantastic group of young barbershoppers from across the province (all under the age of 30), including one East York Barbershopper (Brendan Espin), who for the last five years have achieved great success at the BHS International Youth Festivals. They are currently gearing up for #6 in New Orleans in January, and in preparation for that are holding a fundraising show on Nov. 22, 2014 at the Global Kingdom Ministries Hall in Scarborough. For tickets just Click Here.