Weekend Offers First-Rate Harmony More Than A Thousand Men From The Northwest Will Compete In Barbershop Quartets And Choruses
Men from all over the Northwest are warming up to warble in four-part harmony Friday and Saturday at the Opera House. Fans of barbershop-style singing won’t want to miss these events. The annual district competition for barbershop quartets and choruses won’t be held again in Spokane until 1999.
Members of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBQSA to acquaintances) work hard throughout the year in preparation for the championships. Each of the 16 national districts will send its top chorus and quartet to Salt Lake City for the International Championships in July. This weekend’s winning chorus will get to go, but the quartets face another round of preliminaries in the spring.
The Evergreen district is the largest of the national divisions geographically, including Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, British Columbia and Alberta. There will be 18 choruses and 21 quartets from all over the district competing, adding up to a thousand or more men participating in the event.
This weekend’s event culminates in the Show of Champions on Saturday night. The top three choruses and top three quartets will perform, along with the winners from the previous year’s competition. Last year’s top chorus was Northwest Sound from Bellevue, Wash., and the best quartet was The Edge, hailing from New Westminster, British Columbia.
Men from all over have an eye on the prize, so it’s not over until it’s over, but there are rumors locally that Spokane’s Night Magic is looking strong for the quartet slot. Whatever happens, count on a lot of first-rate barbershop singing all weekend.
xxxx SWEET SOUNDS The Pages of Harmony Competition will be Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets are $10 to all events except the Show of Champions Saturday at 8 p.m., which is $12.