EYBS Blog
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.
The East York Barbershoppers would like to wish everyone a fun, safe Halloween. Unfortunately the only thing in our repertoire even close to a Halloween song is "haunting ballad" or two, but if you are in the mood for Halloween themed barbershop then check out this classic from 1995 International Quartet Champs Marquis, The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SffMiQXmzjw
Heading into this weekend's Ontario District Chorus Contest in Belleville, East York was looking forward to establishing another new level of performance. All our hard work (and fantastic coaching from the likes of Jordan Travis and Mike Slamka) was rewarded by a great reaction from the audience, and in the marks posted by the judges. Our score of 841 points marked the 4th consecutive year of improved contest results, broke the 70% barrier (at 70.1%), and resulted in a 4th place finish and two trophies (Plateau 3 Award and the Chorus Encouragement Award).
Barbershoppers around the globe know Mike Slamka as one of the finest lead singers in the society, having earned two International Quartet Gold Medals (with Power Play in 2003 and Crossroads in 2009). Now East Yorkers are also fortunate to know him as a world class coach, thanks to our full day session with him at Harmony Hall on Saturday. And what a great day it was!
The East York Barbershoppers held a Guest Night tonight, and we were thrilled with the results! 10 guests showed up to learn more about this great hobby and our chapter, and they were an enthusiastic group. Our VP Chapter Development (Barry Tripp) had everything running like clockwork, and our Music Director (Pat Hannon) and Vocal Coach (Ron Whiteside) ran the chorus and guests through a great program of vocal coaching and barbershop craft. We appreciate all our guests taking the time out of their busy schedules to spend the evening with us, and we hope to see them all back out next Tuesday!
The East York Barbershoppers spent most of the day today in a Coaching Session with Jordan Travis, and we couldn't be more pleased with the results! Jordan is a great guy and fantastic coach, and he had the chorus performing at a whole new level. Thanks Jordan!